← Return to 58 year old healthy, active female with high coronary artery calcium

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@gloaming

I would place my money on two betting surfaces, genetics and inflammation. Your doctor may have read your last blood assay and saw a high spike in CRP )C-Reactive Protein), or in other markers for inflammation. Inflammation inside of blood vessels is deleterious over time and it is the inflamed surfaces below which the calcium finds its way as a form of scarring. The calcium isn't deposited on the inner endothelium. It's found in what is called the 'lumen', a layer below the endothelium.

High calcium scores should be treated as diagnostic, but also as prognostic. However, they are still only a snapshot of what is extant, or what was at the time of imaging. It really isn't a very strong predictor of eventual cardiac death, ischemia, or even of further deposition. But to ignore it would be a fool's game...it indicates that something is permitting the deposition, and we don't want the deposition to continue if at all controllable. And that is where statins come in. They inhibit inflammation some, and they stabilize the deposition of calcium so that it stays put...doesn't travel. Statins also inhibit the body's ability to synthesize its own co-enzyme Q10, so the wisdom for two or three decades now is that the patient should supplement with ubiquinol (best) or ubiquinone (if that is what one can purchase and/or is most affordable).

You should always run these ideas past your physician to ensure you can do this safely. He/she may be aware of another 'part' of you that makes this impractical or even dangerous.

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Replies to "I would place my money on two betting surfaces, genetics and inflammation. Your doctor may have..."

I looked at my most recent lab work, and it appears that CRP wasn't tested. Is that something that I should ask for on future labs?