VAP® Lipid Panel Featured on 'The Suzanne Show' with Suzanne Somers

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --(Business Wire)--

Celebrity talk show host Suzanne Somers said it's important to know more about your cholesterol, including LDL particle size, and that the future of advanced medicine lies in Atherotech Diagnostic Lab's patented and comprehensive test, the VAP^® Lipid Panel.

"Large fluffy are good, and small are not good," the host of The Suzanne Show said of LDL particles in her December 19 season finale episode discussing life-saving blood tests used to predict heart disease and stroke risk. Because the basic lipid panel misses residual cardiovascular risks, health care providers are turning to the preventive power of the VAP (Vertical Auto Profile) Lipid Panel.

Somers interviewed Steven Joyal, M.D., chief medical officer at Life Extension^®, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based foundation dedicated to the extension of the healthy human lifespan. Joyal told Somers that the VAP Lipid Panel identifies people at risk who would otherwise not be alerted to their cardiovascular disease if they had a conventional cholesterol test. (Watch the episode, "The Future of Advanced Medicine," at www.atherotech.com/suzanneshow.)

The VAP Lipid Panel - available nationwide through Atherotech - gives patients and doctors a more comprehensive picture of heart disease and diabetes risk than the basic lipid panel. Rather than estimating risk, VAP technology - a gld standard in lipidology practices - directly measures LDL and reports more than 22 cholesterol subclasses. The basic lipid panel only reports four values and misses 60 percent of those people at risk. Another benefit of the VAP Lipid Panel is that patients do not need to fast prior to their exam.

"Life Extension recognizes Atherotech's VAP Lipid Panel as having potential life-saving value for determining cholesterol particle size, and not simply cholesterol levels. Testing for cholesterol particle size allows Life Extension members to identify their risk for heart attack and stroke in a manner otherwise not possible with conventional testing for cholesterol level," said Joyal, who wrote about VAP technology in his book, What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Diabetes (Warner Books, 2008).

Heart disease is the most costly and deadly medical condition affecting the U.S. Half of all people who have a cardiovascular event have "normal" cholesterol based on the basic lipid panel. More than 7.5 million VAP Lipid Panels have been administered in America. For a better understanding of potential cholesterol dangers, patients are encouraged to ask their health care provider for a comprehensive lipid profile, such as the VAP Lipid Panel.

In its inaugural season, The Suzanne Show airs on Lifetime Television and Lifetime Real Women network, reaching nearly 30 million households. For more information, visit www.suzannetv.com, or follow The Suzanne Show on Facebook (News - Alert) at www.facebook.com/suzanneshow.

For information on the VAP Lipid Panel and Atherotech Diagnostics Lab, visit www.atherotech.com or call 877.901.8510. Atherotech is on Twitter (News - Alert) at www.twitter.com/atherotech, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/atherotech, and broadcasting at www.youtube.com/user/vapatherotech.

About Atherotech Diagnostics Lab & the VAP Lipid Panel

Atherotech Diagnostics Lab is a leading clinical reference laboratory specializing in cardiometabolic testing and disease management solutions. Atherotech's proprietary and comprehensive VAP^® Lipid Panel enables clinicians to accurately stratify a patient's cardiovascular risk and deliver personalized treatment strategies to improve health outcomes. The Vertical Auto Profile (VAP) technology reveals residual cardiometabolic risk as recommended in the NCEP ATP (News - Alert) III, ADA/ACC Joint Consensus and AACE guidelines. The VAP Lipid Panel utilizes direct measurement to identify cholesterol, triglyceride and genetic lipid disorders. The company's dedication to affordable, comprehensive disease management solutions includes Our Healthy Heart^TM, a patient consultation program and expert lipid management education service to health care providers. For more information, please visit www.Atherotech.com or call 1-866-VAP-TEST.