#316 - What Should You Actually Do About High Cholesterol? | Dr. Seth Martin & Mike Haney

<p>Heart disease is the leading cause of death, but it’s also one of the most preventable. Decades of research have established a strong causal role for LDL and other ApoB-containing particles in atherosclerosis, and we now have multiple proven ways to lower them. The harder question is how to turn that evidence into a decision for an individual person.</p><p>Mike Haney talks with Johns Hopkins cardiologist Dr. Seth Martin, a co-author of the new 2026 dyslipidemia guidelines, about what the latest evidence says we should actually measure and act on. The throughline is pragmatic: lower exposure to atherogenic particles earlier and for longer, use additional tests when they can change a decision, and distinguish interesting new measurements from ones that have actually been shown to improve outcomes.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Free course: Improve your metabolic health</strong></p><p>Get our free email course on how glucose, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and measurement can help you build habits that support better energy and long-term health: <a href="https://www.levels.com/partner/multimedia?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=link&utm_content=wnl&partner=Martin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">⁠https://levels.link/wnl</a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>What We Cover:</strong></p><ul><li>Why the evidence that LDL and ApoB-containing particles cause atherosclerosis is so strong</li><li>What “lower for longer” means and how the new LDL and ApoB goals change with cardiovascular risk</li><li>When ApoB adds useful information beyond a standard lipid panel</li><li>Why the guidelines recommend against routine LDL particle-size testing</li><li>How PREVENT risk scores and coronary calcium scans can help decide when treatment makes sense</li><li>What decades of statin research tell us about benefits, muscle symptoms, and diabetes risk</li><li>How much lifestyle changes typically move cholesterol, and when non-statin drugs enter the picture</li><li>Why common heart-health supplements don’t have the evidence behind proven lipid-lowering therapies</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>🎙️ About the Guest:</strong></p><p>Dr. Seth Martin is a professor of medicine and preventive cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, where he directs the Advanced Lipid Disorders Program and Digital Health and AI Lab at the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. He is a co-developer of the widely used Martin-Hopkins LDL cholesterol equation and served on the writing committee for the 20