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What is C Reactive Protein (CRP)?
Has your doctor been talking about your C-Reactive Protein (CRP) lately? CRP can help your doctor determine whether there is an inflammation (although it cannot tell you where it is) and may also help evaluate your risk for heart attack.
CRP is a protein produced in your liver when there is an inflammation in your body. Normal range is typically 0-1.0 mg/dL, although different labs may use other values. Vigorous exercise, hormone replacement therapy, pregnancy, and obesity may also cause increases of CRP
This can be a valuable test because it detects inflammation sooner that the standard Sedimentation Rate (ESR) test. Since Insulin Resistance is a pro-inflammatory disease, knowing your CRP numbers can be an important element in your health care.
This article first appeard in the XChanges Newsletter; Vol. 2 No. 2, March/April 2004
C-Reactive Protein vs. Cholesterol to Predict Heart Disease
After following 28,000 women for eight years, researchers from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that C-reactive protein (CRP) levels may be an even better predictor of heat attack or stroke risk than cholesterol or blood pressure.
Women with high CRP but low cholesterol levels were at higher risk for heart attacks and strokes than those who had high cholesterol and low CRP.
Nader Rifai, PhD, co-researcher, believes that since CRP and LDL cholesterol levels are independent predictors of heart disease that the two blood tests can be used together to better identify those at risk.
The New England Journal of Medicine, Nov. 14, 2002, Paul Rider, M.D., Director, Nader Rifai, PhD.
This article first appeared in the XChanges Newsletter; Vol. 2 No. 3, May/June 2004
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