A father of five suddenly died while he was on a jog after suffering what medics initially thought was a ‘catastrophic one-off’ heart attack.
47-year-old Ben Beale was preparing for a charity boxing fight when he suddenly dropped dead.
Just a week before his death, he had been medically cleared and tests showed he had a low chance of having a heart attack.
But Professor Jason Kovacic, executive director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney, said the father had an elevated rate of cholesterol lipoprotein (a) – also known as Lp(a).
He said that this form of cholesterol increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes in younger people.
It is believed that up to one-fifth of the people may have a mild elevation of the little-known Lp(a) but he said many doctors and ordinary people were not aware of Lp(a), which he described as ‘second bad cholesterol.’
High levels of LDL cholesterol, also called bad cholesterol, are usually related to a person’s lifestyle and increase the chances of stroke and heart disease.
But levels of Lp(a) are thought to mostly be genetic and even those who try to maintain a healthy lifestyle can still have high levels.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald, Professor Kovacic said: “We have long wondered why healthy people with low cholesterol levels and seemingly no other major risk factors like smoking or diabetes can suffer heart attacks.”
The cardiologist said the resulting autopsy showed he had “extensive cholesterol and fat in the walls of his arteries.”
“That’s what we see in people that have genetically higher levels of Lp(a) … they just have rapid progression of a lot of cholesterol and fat laid out in the walls of their arteries, and they just have a heart attack early on before the thing’s even had an opportunity to harden [into calcium].”
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