[填空题]Lowering the Risk of Heart Disease
Like millions of other Americans, I come from a family with a history of heart disease. My father had his first three heart attacks when he was only thirty-one. (46) I grew up with heart disease. It was there, but I didn’t take it seriously.
When I was thirty-one, my blood cholesterol (胆固醇) level was measured for the first time. It was 311 mg/dl, the doctor told me — an extremely high level that put me at a very high risk of heart disease, especially with my family history. He sent me to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be screened for participation in a clinical trial. (47) At NIH, physicians explained the degree of risk associated with my blood cholesterol level and the nature of the experiment. This test involves putting a tube through a leg artery (动脉) up to the heart. (48) Learning about the risks of the experiment as well as the risk associated with my raised blood cholesterol level