Dr Ula: Your heart isn’t a ticking time bomb—until it is.

Let’s talk about your heart. The one beating about 100,000 times today to keep you alive. The one we tend to ignore until it starts whispering—or screaming—for help.

 The good news? You have more control than you think.

The slowest sudden death

Here’s the cruel irony of heart disease. The first symptom… is often final one. One in three heart attacks presents with sudden death.

But it wasn’t sudden. Not really.

The groundwork for that attack was probably laid decades earlier—back in your 20s or 30s—when micro damage starts forming in your arteries walls. When cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure, and stress started drifting just a little too high.

By the time you feel symptoms, the damage is often well advanced.

The truth? Everyone develops some level of cardiovascular disease if they live long enough.Not everyone dies of it. But half of us do.

Men, women, and menopause

Cardiovascular disease doesn’t discriminate—but it does play favourites.

• 50% of men experience their first heart attack before 65.

• For 30% of women, it’s the same.

• After menopause, risk skyrockets for women—up to 5x higher.

Why? Periods are protective. Then oestrogen drops. Blood vessels stiffen. Fat redistributes. Inflammation rises. The protective shield fades—and the silent decline speeds up. So if you're a woman in your 40s or 50s, this is your window. Not to worry, but to act.

This isn’t just about cholesterol

Yes, cholesterol matters. But it’s not the whole story.

Cardiovascular disease is a multi-system, slow-burning fire. It’s about inflammation. Insulin resistance. Sleep quality. Visceral fat. Stress. Genetics. And how they all interact over time.

That’s why statins aren’t a silver bullet (medication often used to lower cholesterol levels in the blood). And why a five-minute blood pressure check doesn’t tell you nearly enough.

Dr. Peter Attia says it straight

In his book Outlive, Dr. Peter Attia calls heart disease the biggest, most beatable killer in modern medicine. But beating it requires one thing: Proactivity.

He’s not talking about vague wellness goals. He means tracking biomarkers over decades. Mapping trends. Spotting risk before it becomes crisis.

This is personal medicine at its best: Root cause. Data-driven. Personalised. Preventive.

So what can you actually do?

A lot. Here’s where our doctors and medically-led health coaches start at Autonomy:

1. Know your numbers and what they really mean - Go beyond the basic cholesterol check you get from your GP. Get a full cardiometabolic picture including:

• ApoB: The real cholesterol number that matters. It counts the particles doing the damage.

• Fasting insulin: The early warning signal. High levels mean your body’s already in damage control mode.

• hs-CRP: Your internal fire alarm. Tracks silent inflammation before it sparks disaster.

• Lp(a): The stealth gene-driven risk your doctor hasn’t measured. It’s a wild card worth knowing.

• CAC score: The hard truth, in calcium. This scan shows whether plaque’s already claiming territory in your arteries.

2. Train your heart - Aerobic fitness is the most powerful heart drug available. Just 150 minutes of moderate activity a week can cut your risk by 30-40%.

3. Cut the sugar, not the fat - It’s not saturated fat alone that’s driving the crisis—it’s ultra-processed food and added sugar causing metabolic dysfunction. Fix the diet. Lower the glucose spikes. Protect the vessels.

4. Sleep like it’s life or death - Because it is. Poor sleep raises blood pressure, wrecks metabolism, and fuels inflammation.If you’re short-changing your sleep, you’re ageing your arteries—fast.

5. Learn to manage stress like a pro athlete - Long-term stress drives cortisol. Excess cortisol drives inflammation and insulin resistance. Breathe. Move. Connect. Reflect. Practice putting the brakes on your nervous system to rest, heal and repair.

6. Get curious about your risk - Family history? Autoimmune disease? Elevated Lp(a)? These are red flags. Don’t ignore them—understand them. You probably already knew a lot of this. And let's be honest, doing it is not easy - unless you have the right health strategy, right doctor and right coach in your corner.

This is the moment

You can’t change your genetics. But you can change how your genes express themselves.

You can’t undo your 20s. But you can take charge of your 40s, 50s, and beyond.

At Autonomy, we see it every day: clients stepping off the conveyor belt toward chronic disease—and charting a new course. It starts with awareness. Then action. Then optimal health outcomes you didn’t think were possible—until now.

Your ticker doesn’t have to be a time bomb.

But it could be, if you don’t take care of it. Let’s not wait for the ambulance sirens. Let’s get ahead of it and build a fence at the top of that cliff. We believe you are capable of extraordinary health changes.

Book your Discovery Consultation today, and let’s get started. 

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