The Vulnerability of Being Human: What Sudden Death Taught Me About Hidden Cardiovascular Risk

What’s Inside This Episode?

• Why sudden death in “healthy” people feels different and what it reveals
• The silent progression of cardiovascular disease over decades
• Why standard cholesterol panels miss critical risk markers
• What lipoprotein(a) is and why most doctors never test for it
• How inflammation, insulin resistance, and endothelial dysfunction quietly accumulate
• Dr. Ritamarie’s personal experience lowering elevated Lp(a)
• Why genetics influence risk but do not dictate destiny
• The difference between helplessness and awareness
• What practitioners should be screening for now, not later
• A powerful question to ask yourself about hidden risk

Resources and Links:

• Download the transcript here
• Download our FREE Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Guide
• Join the Next-Level Health Practitioner Facebook group here for free resources and community support
• Visit INEMethod.com for advanced health practitioner training and tools to elevate your clinical skills and grow your practice by getting life-changing results.
• Check out other podcast episodes here

 

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Transcript

 

Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo 

The vulnerability of being human. What sudden death taught me. This episode feels different than my usual. A few days ago, I found out that a colleague of mine, someone in the natural health world, someone I respected and loved, died suddenly. She lived alone. When she didn't show up for meetings, her assistant called the police department for a health check, and she was found dead and alone.

 

The suspected cause was cardiovascular, a stroke, a heart attack, no one knows for sure. When I first heard the news, I felt the sadness you'd expect. What surprised me was something I felt deeply and still do, it's vulnerability.

 

She didn't live recklessly. She didn't ignore her health. She was somebody who taught natural healing, someone who worked in this space, someone who by all appearances was doing everything right. And it forced me to sit with a question that I suspect many of us carry silently. If someone like that can die suddenly. what does that mean for the rest of us? What does that mean for me? 

 

Today, I want to talk about the vulnerability of being human and what this moment has taught me. If this had been a family member who smoked and drank and ate fast food every day, I would be grieving, of course. I would be sad, but I wouldn't be shocked. This felt different somehow. She was an acupuncturist. She taught people about natural healing. She supported people recovering from cancer, and she believed in nutrition and lifestyle medicine.

 

I don't know every detail about her personal habits, but I suspect she wasn't living recklessly. And that's what makes this so unsettling, because it brings up a question that many of us, including me, carry, quietly. If someone who appears healthy can die suddenly, am I really safe? This is a part we don't talk about enough. We can eat clean, we can exercise, we can meditate. We can run businesses dedicated to health and still we're all human. 

 

Health is dynamic. Risk accumulates quietly. And cardiovascular disease in particular is often silent for decades. Plaque builds up without symptoms, clotting risk increases without warning. Insulin resistance progresses long before the glucose becomes abnormal.

 

We don't feel endothelial dysfunction, and many people assume that if their cholesterol panel looks quote unquote “normal,” they're fine. But standard panels don't tell us the whole story. And they don't often include fasting insulin, highly sensitive CRP, homocysteine, C-peptide, advanced lipid markers, and imaging like CIMT or CAC. And almost never lipoprotein little a. Lipoprotein(a). Lp(a) is largely genetically influenced, and it increases clotting risk.

 

It accelerates plaque formation. It carries oxidized phospholipids. Its apo(a) structure resembles plasminogen, which interferes with fibrinolysis, the breakdown of clots. So that increases clotting risk. You can look fit, you can eat beautifully, you can have decent LDL, and you can still have elevated Lp(a). Most doctors don't test for it. 

 

Mine was over 120 a year ago. That's not a small elevation. It should be 75 or lower. I'd already been doing the right things for years. I didn't panic. I measured, I adjusted. I focused on inflammation, on endothelial health, on insulin sensitivity, and on oxidative stress, and I tested. I had my carotid arteries measured, the CIMT. I had my calcium score of my coronary arteries, and I took action. And those things looked good.

 

I relaxed a little bit, and on my last check, my lipoprotein(a) dropped to 66. That drop matters. That's not a small one. And what it says is two things to me, that genetics do influence risk, yes, but they don't dictate destiny.

 

We can only take action if we measure, and we know what action to take. So when my mother died suddenly from a heart attack at age 56, no one had warned her that she was at risk. She had had arthritis and gallbladder issues and skin cancers that were removed and chronic inflammation. Nobody connected those dots to that she had cardiovascular risk until we lost her. And that loss shaped my life's work.

 

This recent loss brought that vulnerability back to the surface. It's not exactly fear, but it's clarity. It's a difference between saying something like, “I can't control anything, so I try,” and saying, “I'm going to measure what matters, and I'm going to respond to the best of my ability.” Vulnerability isn't helplessness, it's awareness. It's staying awake. 

 

So what does this mean for you as practitioners? Well, don't assume health, because somebody looks healthy. Screen early, look for metabolic dysfunction, measure lipoprotein(a), assess inflammation with inflammatory markers, track the trends not just snapshots, and consider imaging when appropriate, like CIMT and coronary artery calcium score. 

 

Cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death, and it often is preventable when we detect it early. And that's our job as practitioners.

 

So what does this mean for you and your personal health? Well, know your numbers. Don't wait for symptoms, because that's often too late. Address insulin resistance diligently. Support endothelial health, lower inflammation, reduce your clotting risk. Your health is measurable. 

 

I'm still grieving. I'm still processing, but this didn't make me want to give up on prevention. It made me want to recommit to doing everything I can. Protecting your heart, my heart, physically and metaphorically, requires awareness. 

 

We're not invincible, but neither are we powerless. We started today with something deeply human, the reality that life is indeed fragile and that even those who care about their health are not immune to biology. And that vulnerability is not a flaw, it's a part of being alive. 

 

What we explored today wasn't about fear. It wasn't about assuming the worst. It was about awareness. It was about recognizing that cardiovascular risk is often silent. That markers like lipoprotein(a), inflammation, inflammatory markers like CRP and homocysteine, that insulin resistance and endothelial dysfunction don't announce themselves generally. Doing everything right is not the same as measuring what matters.

 

This conversation is not about managing disease. It's about protecting capacity. It's about preserving resilience. It's about staying aware and awake to the systems that quietly shape our future health. We can't control everything. We're non-invincible. And pretending that we're safe, because we do the right things is not the same as being informed.

 

What this experience reminded me of is this, health isn't about perfection, it's about awareness. It's about measuring what matters. It's about responding to what we learn. It's about staying awake. Hidden cardiovascular risk does not announce itself. Lipoprotein(a) does not cause symptoms. Endothelial dysfunction, sadly, is silent. And insulin resistance progresses quietly.

 

When we look, when we test, when we pay attention, we can shift the trajectory. It's not about fear. It's about taking responsibility and ownership, and it's the work of reinventing healthcare. Not waiting for a crisis, not assuming we're fine, but choosing to look, choosing to measure, choosing to act, before the body is forced to go from a whisper to a shout. Understanding the systems that govern resilience and longevity and vitality is important. 

 

So if this episode resonated with you, I invite you to sit with one question. Where might there be a hidden risk quietly influencing your trajectory, your clients and patients trajectory? 

 

And thank you so much for being part of this movement. Thank you for staying curious. Thank you for choosing awareness over assumption. Thank you just for being here.

 

And until next time, shine on.