ROYAL OAK, Mich. – Rob Huffmaster looks like the picture of good health. He eats right, and he exercises regularly.
“I’ve always been four or five days a week, a lot of running, a lot of biking, high-intensity interval training workouts,” said Huffmaster.
But the 39-year-old father of two has a strong family history of high cholesterol.
“In my 20s, it started going, it started increasing, and it really, like every year just got like a little higher, little higher,” said Huffmaster.
His primary care doctor prescribed a statin, but he was looking for more.
“A lot of the doctors would just say, ‘You don’t have to worry about it, you’re a young guy.’ And so for me, I wanted to have a larger conversation about that,” explained Huffmaster.
He found that focus at the Preventive Cardiology Clinic at Corewell Health Beaumont in Royal Oak. The clinic is housed within the William Beaumont University Hospital Max & Debra Ernst Heart Center.
“The goal of the Preventive Cardiology Clinic is to get the heart disease before the heart disease gets you,” said Dr. Akhil Gulati, an interventional and prevention cardiologist at Corewell.
“Traditionally, cardiology has been thought of as treating heart attacks and arrhythmias. We’re trying to focus on preventive care before you actually get the heart disease in the first place,” explained Gulati.
That starts with addressing risk factors.
“Smoking, being overweight, high blood pressure, but also cholesterol and metabolic disease,” said Gulati. “Medications are a part of the solution sometimes, but a lot, it’s just working on those lifestyle factors at an earlier age, but in an aggressive way, in a prescribed way, that can actually make meaningful difference.”
They also want to see people who may not realize they’re at risk
“People who have peripheral artery disease, there are women that have perimenopausal issues, men that have erectile dysfunction at a younger age. Why is this happening? It may be a vascular problem,” said Gulati.
Preventive cardiology has many tools that can help evaluate a patient’s risk -- including lab tests, advanced imaging, and genetic testing.
Family history can offer critical clues.
“If everyone in your family gets heart attacks at 55, what can we do at age 40 to prevent that from happening?” said Gulati.
Prevention starts with knowing you have those risk factors as soon as possible.
“Going to your primary doctor just to get a regular checkup is one of the most valuable things that you can get,” explained Gulati. “And it might lead you to saying, ‘Hey, do we need to do more and investigate this?’ And what more can we do to prevent disease in you?”
Huffmaster now has a full understanding of his risks and what he can do to lower them. He’s grateful to have a plan of action.
“I unfortunately have a really close friend who had a family member pass away in his mid-30s from a heart attack, and that hit really hard. He had young kids just like I do,” said Huffmaster. “So, for me, I want to be as proactive as possible in running tests that I need to run at the times I need them to make sure I can keep myself healthy as long as possible.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by his doctor.
“I don’t want to keep seeing young people have these heart attacks,” said Gulati. “The fact that now we have ways to get rid of that risk earlier and prevent stuff from happening is exciting, and I’m excited that the world’s kind of catching up to that.”
The Preventive Cardiology Clinic is considered a cardiologist visit for insurance purposes. Some patients will need a referral, but many are able to self-refer.
For more information, contact the clinic at 248-551-4400.