Troponin

My car (and yours) has idiot lights that are supposed to fire up, warning you before the car explodes. Wouldn’t it be cool if our bodies did that, too? Turns out, they do – if you are having a heart attack an odd enzyme named troponin shows up in your blood. It doesn’t get in the blood any other time except for heart damage. (Well OK – it also lights up if you are stung by an Egyptian scorpion, but that isn’t likely to happen to most of us) When an ER doc sees troponin in your blood, you are quickly whisked away for a heart procedure. Scary for sure, but pretty cool. I think my blood also lights up when I am low on cheesecake, but there isn’t a blood test for that yet. A shame, truly.