“I should get a cardio work up but I’m pretty sure my health insurance wouldn’t feel that’s indicated.”
You can get a lot of health information through self-ordered testing. Get a CIMT (carotid intima media test) to determine if you have vascular risk, especially unstable plaque. Get a comprehensive blood test (such as through Life Extension) and be sure to include VAP or NMR lipids, inflammatory markers such as HsCRP and Lp-PLA2(PLAC2), fasting sugar plus HbA1c.
Don’t wait for insurance. Take some responsibility for your own health.
I have a doctors order for a VAP which I requested. My ldl was at the warning level under the old standard but fine under the new AHA standards. Still my doc is concerned. Reason I ordered a VAP is that I read statins do not lower LDL-B levels. So if I have a VAP, I have a baseline for LDL-A and LDL-B. If I decide on a statin, I can measure its true effectiveness.