Clinic aims to limit heart attack, strokes
Clinic’s focus boosting metabolic health for those with risk factors.
A clinic aiming to prevent some of the top causes of death in the U.S. has opened in Kettering.
The South Dayton Acute Care Consultants Lipid Clinic focuses on improving metabolic health in patients with and without cardiovascular diseases.
Lipids are linked to causes of stroke and heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the country, according to medical data.
The facility at 33 W. Rahn Road specializes in treating patients who have a personal or family history of heart disease or stroke, high cholesterol or triglycerides not responding to standard therapy and elevated cholesterol due to genetic causes.
It also caters to those who have other factors that put them at risk and those who want to avoid risk factors, said Dr. Richard Saxen, who specializes in clinical lipidology and opened the clinic.
Other risk factors include diabetes and high blood pressure, said Saxen, a 43-year-old former U.S. Air Force physician.
“What we’re learning about those factors is there’s metabolic changes … changes in the body that happen even years or decades before those diseases become clinically apparent,” he said.
“So even in people who don’t have any known or obvious signs of disease, I think once you scratch through the surface a little bit you see that there’s kind of the embers of those diseases developing,” Saxen added.
While heart disease was the leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2019, stroke was fifth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dyslipidemia is characterized by abnormal cholesterol and triglyceride levels, according to the Mayo Clinic website. Symptoms most often become apparent as people reach their
50s and 60s, Saxen said.
“But I think that even years and decades before that if someone looks hard enough they can find the clues that the process is already under way,” he said. “You may not have had a heart attack in your 30s, but the stage is set.”
Saxen said “there are things that can be done to impact someone’s risk wherever they fall on the spectrum. And I think that my job and our clinic’s job is to take a look at each person and figure out where on the spectrum of risk they are and figure out how to move them away from risks.”
The clinic is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday. Appointments can be made by calling 937-433-8990.