High Coronary Calcium Score: How do others feel emotionally?

@keithl56 , I've been reading all these post about high calcium and that your
Dr.said red meat you can eat fats ? My triple by pass is now 23 yrs old at the time I had 85%,90%anda95% blockages ,my cardiologist told me to get of off red meat because of fat,for 23 yrs I have,vt ate red meat 2yrs ago had chemical stress test passed with flying colors so I am puzzled about all this talk .Dr.put me on Crestor for which was needed for cholesterol but I've always been proactive in my lifestyle ,eating correct foods and exercise.

Everything in moderation, new research shows that sugar is the real culprit, in heart disease. You need to limit your red meat and eat chicken and cold water fish..more often, but certainly don't deprive yourself of a hamburger or a steak once in a while. But like I said everything in moderation. Sorry I'm not familiar with CAC score?

Hi - I found your post doing a Google search and our profiles are very similar. You posted back in 2016 so I wonder what you're up to now and how you're doing.

Hello @nyartist, I see that you just joined Connect and I'd like to welcome you! Connect is a great way to find support and encouragement for your concerns regarding your health. We are not medical professionals, but just patients like yourself.

As a suggestion, if you are posting to a specific Member's post use their username as it is on their post (like I did with yours, @nyartist) and then that Member will get a notification that you posted to them.

I wish you well and look forward to future posts. If you have any other questions, let me know.

Teresa

I've been an athlete all my life and have been exercising vigorously for over 55 years (I'm 74) my HDL has been very good, I always surpassed the benchmarks for my age in all the stress tests I've taken over the years, my diet is healthy and I have no other risk factors and am asymptomatic. So imagine my surprise and shock to find a calcium score of 2300! My cardiologist put me on 20 mg Lipitor and baby aspirin a week ago and I have been in touch with a reputable herbalist (the same herbalist my wife has used since her ovarian cancer diagnosis 4 years ago - and she's doing absolutely great). I'm going to start on his program of supplements to go along with the statin and aspirin. I've read conflicting facts. For example one states that anyone with a score of over 1000 has a 25% chance of having a major cardiac event within a year. I've also read that because the calcium has most likely been developing over many many years the score might not be a true indication of risk. What I would love to know and will ask my doc when I see her next week is how do we know how much blockage I have? They say stress tests results will show blockages if the blockages are over 70%. The score might not necessarily reflect the severity of narrowing. Maybe I oughta stop reading about all this and just get to the gym!

hi @botexas We are so similar. I've been kicking butt on stress tests for years; backpacked all over the western US, 100 mile ride, boxing and sure as heck don't look my age. But the dang calcium score has put the fear of God in me. Just got back from the gym and the interesting thing is that since I got that score last week I've been going MORE to the gym and working out harder. My doc seems to think that my lifetime of physical exercise has protected me.

@ nyartist Not sure who you are addressing in this post, but it might be me as in 2016 I went to Mayo in Minn, to have a parathyroidectomy. I had had a very hi Ca score for years and no one ever said anything about it until I moved into a retirement community, and then the Dr here mentioned it, but said not to go anything about it as at my age then 80 it was too risky. I asked around to find out what the risks were, and one person said I could lose m voice. Also I saw on the internet, that recommended finding a surgeon that does at least 3 a week successfully. So without further ado, I flew out to Mayo and was matched with a surgeon there. When I asked her how many she had done, I forget whether it was 45,000, or 4,500, but she said that is all she does, 3 days a week.

After a week of testing, the surgery was done one day and the next day I flew back to PA. And yes, I can still talk, though maybe there were some people that were disappointed.!!!!!!!!!!! @ gailfaith

Hi @nyartist and welcome to Connect.
You'll notice that I moved your message to this existing discussion about high calcium scores. I did this so that you can meet others who have managed similar issues and may be able answer some of your questions about risk and blockage, or at least share their experiences and help you prepare questions for your upcoming appointment with your doctor. I'm tagging @degarden_girl @botexas @luckyg @keithl56 and @thankful to invite them back to this discussion.

NYArtist, it sounds like you've already started a list of great questions for your doctor. I'm not surprised that you've found conflicting facts about calcium scores related to risk. Risk is so multi-factorial. Only a physician consult will by able to measure the risk level specific to you. I suspect that your level of physical fitness and diet will play well in your favor. I might recommend that you let the herbalists know about the medications you're taking and the cardiologist about regimen the herbalist recommends. It's important that each knows what the other prescribesso that they can work together and be aware of possible drug, supplement and diet interactions. A pharmacist is also a great member of your team to help monitor treatment combinations. Will you be seeing the herbalist before you meet with the cardiologist?

My first Calcium score was in 2004 at the age of 47 and it was high, 702. I opted to just watch what I eat and stay active and took the test again this year 2018 and my score is now 1740. I do well on echo stress tests, and have borderline cholesterol numbers and high triglicerides. My doctors both cardio and generalists want to put me on statin drugs. I am resisting because I see tenuous benefits at best from the statin studies I have read. Most of those studies seem to include baby aspirins which tends to confuse the studies. I do take a baby aspirin a day. The other reasons is the side effects of statins are high, when I've tried them I had muscle pains. My other reasons for is that I've seen two elderly relatives on high dosage of statins and they both subsequently developed type 2 diabetes. I've tried to do a lot of research on the topic of high calcium scores and the only thing I found that might be of interest to this population is K2 vitamin, the claim is that it takes calcium from the arteries back to the blood stream and to the bones where it belongs. I am very skeptical, so I brought it up to my cardiologist and he had heard of it and recommended I get on it. So now I am on K2 vitamins and baby aspirin. I might get on the statins if I can find compelling research on their benefits. I would be interested in any article references on statins impact on calcium score and of survival benefits of statins for people with high calcium score.
Thanks and best of health to all with high calcium scores...

@zino our numbers are not all that different. My cardiologist, when she saw my 2000+ score put me on 20 mg of Lipitor and a baby aspirin. I was ok with that until I spoke to the herbalist working with my wife who has ovarian cancer. She's been doing all the medical things prescribed by Memorial Sloan Kettering but he has her on an extensive program of herbs. Of course it's impossible to know if it's his herbs keeping her so healthy or just other factors. But as long as she's cancer free now we're sticking with his program. Well after talking to him and reading more research I decided to try what he was subscribing to me; anthocyanins, Cardio 5, CoQ10, Omega fish oils, Ultra K and Magnesium buffered chelate. He says Magnesium with the anthocyanins maintains elasticity in the arteries and keeps the from being brittle and developing clots. Omega 3 have some blood thinning effect and Cardio 5 works on multiple levels for vascular health, resting heart rate. He is stating that this kind of regimen can actually reduce the level of plaque in the arteries and there apparently is scientific evidence to support that.
Just read a study in Science Daily that is among the most encouraging things I have come across https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180419141523.htm They talk about doing a chemical adjustment to the CoQ10 and seeing arteries return to a healthier state. It's a must read. Anyway, I didn't like the idea of the baby aspirin being that some of the herbs I'm taking also have blood thinning properties. Eventually I believe I will no longer need the Lipitor. Medical doctors can't possibly know about all the developments in herb treatments. They just don't have the time or maybe even the motivation to study things outside their specialty. But before I started taking any of these supplements and researched the heck out of them.