Health experts are urging doctors to provide more testing for a new marker of ‘bad’ cholesterol that can cause unexpected heart attacks in younger people.

Lipoprotein is the hardening and narrowing of the arteries in the heart and is one of the major drivers of heart disease.

Chang Cardiac Research Institute Executive Director, Professor Jason Kovacic, says we need to introduce more consistent testing for this type of cholesterol.

“There is no question that LPA is independently causal of heart attacks – but the good news is LPA is very genetically driven so we don’t need to test for it every year,” Professor Kovacic told 6PR Mornings.

Press PLAY to hear more on Lipoprotein

Sarah Beale lost her husband, Ben Beale who was 47-years-old, to a one-off catastrophic heart attack while he was out jogging in Perth in 2017.

“He was perfectly fit, had a calcium score of 0, he was prior tested with an ECG and showed a low chance of suffering a heart attack in the near future – we were completely blindsided,” Ms Beale told Gary Adshead.

Press PLAY to hear more of Sarah’s experience with Lipoprotein