About Kevin Woolley

The all-clear that was wrong

In 2023 I set out to investigate my own risk of heart disease. It ran on both sides of my family, and I was entering my forties, the decade when it often takes hold silently. I wanted to find it early, while I could still stop it.

On paper I was the last person who needed to worry. I exercise every day, I do not smoke, and I do not drink. My total cholesterol had run between 140 and 150 my whole adult life, with an LDL around 75. Every conventional measure placed me at low risk.

My reading had taught me that the conventional measures miss people. So I made a list of tests to ask for, the kind I had never heard a doctor mention. The list included ApoB, Lp(a), and a coronary artery calcium scan.

My cardiologist ran a thorough workup and found nothing wrong. He ordered a stress test, an EKG, an ultrasound of my heart, and full lipids. The results were excellent. My VO2 max was 70, very high for my age, my heart rate fell 30 beats in the first minute after exercise, and my ApoB came back around 60, well within normal. My Lp(a) was borderline but not alarming. He cleared me and saw no reason for concern.

I asked for the calcium scan anyway. Insurance would not cover it, so I paid for it myself. The scan found plaque in my coronary arteries, mild but unmistakable. I had heart disease. The clean bill of health had been wrong, not through any failure of my doctor, but because the one test that could see the disease was not part of the standard playbook.

Going deeper

Mild early disease in someone with my family history was not something I wanted to watch and wait on. I found one of the best lipid specialists I could, an MD-PhD at a major research university, and I started treatment. A statin brought my LDL and ApoB down into the 40s.

I wanted to push further. A calcium scan shows calcified plaque, but it stays blind to the softer, uncalcified plaque that often matters most. So I asked for a CT angiogram, and it found disease in a second artery. My diagnosis had quietly changed from a single mild finding to early multi-vessel disease.

I also asked to start a PCSK9 inhibitor, a newer injectable that lowers cholesterol far below what a statin alone can reach. Insurance would not cover the drug, which cost about $600 a month out of pocket, and I decided the cost was worth it. The inhibitor drove my LDL and ApoB into the low 20s. We added colchicine to address inflammation, though my inflammatory markers were already low.

A second opinion refined the plan. Another cardiologist put me back on a low dose of statin alongside the PCSK9 inhibitor, a change I had already been weighing. I also moved to a whole-food, plant-based diet. Four months later, my LDL was 13 and my ApoB was 18, about as low as those numbers go.

The genetic answer

One question remained. My cholesterol had never been high, so where had the disease come from? When I first asked about genetic testing, the evidence was not there yet and my specialist declined. At a later visit, with new research in hand, he agreed. The test showed a polygenic risk score for coronary disease at twice the normal level, and it was elevated for nothing else. The family history I had been chasing finally had a name.

What changed, and what didn’t

The disease was there the whole time, and only my information changed. In under two years I moved from a passive all-clear to an early, precise diagnosis and the most aggressive treatment available. My cardiovascular risk fell to a fraction of what it had been. I believe the change bought me a decade or two of healthy life.

The lever at every fork was the same. I asked for the next test, whether ApoB, Lp(a), the calcium scan, the CT angiogram, the PCSK9 inhibitor, or the genetic panel. Each one I had to request, sometimes pay for, and sometimes wait for the evidence to catch up to my question. The whole process required no medical degree. The task simply required knowing what to ask, and finding the will to ask it of excellent doctors who had already told me I was fine. My own cardiologist later agreed that the guidelines would not have caught my disease.

Why this is your story too

My case is not exceptional, and its ordinariness is the point. I had no special access and no clinical training. I had information and the resolve to act on it, and you can have both.

The same system that nearly missed my disease will treat you by its defaults unless you engage it differently. Most patients never engage it differently, because no one ever shows them how. BlueRipple Health exists to show you how. My goal is to move you from a passive recipient of whatever care you are offered to an active, informed advocate for your own health, from undiagnosed to optimally treated. BlueRipple Health begins with heart disease, and you can read why we made that choice.

A note on background

I will offer a brief word on my background, for readers who want it. I am a technology executive, consultant, and entrepreneur, and I have spent most of my career helping lead the international expansion of technology companies overseas. I earned an MBA from Columbia Business School and a master’s degree in finance. Industry analysis has run through my whole career as a constant theme.

My credibility on your heart does not rest on my resume. My credibility rests instead on the evidence and the method, both of which you can check for yourself. My background simply explains the habit of mind I brought to this work. I take a complex system apart until I understand what actually drives it.