High Coronary Calcium Score: How do others feel emotionally?

dont worry ...ask your doctor whether you should check your parathyroids...usually when u feel fine than that is the best that you can achieve... technically you dont even need any medication...if you still feel worried than get an echo test...that relieves one of some stress too

parathyroidism and probably not taking vitamin D3 are generally the cause...however calcium has to come from somewhere...so take milk and other calcium products in moderation

also take vitamin D3 which makes bones absorb calcium...necessary as u grow older

HI @ihaq1, I see that you have recently joined Mayo Clinic Connect. Connect is an online community where people (patients and family caregivers) can share health experiences and ask each other questions and offer support. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Members should get the advice of their physician or other qualified health provider with any questions they may have regarding their health.

With that in mind, we ask that members do not tell other members what they should or must do. Please review the Community Guidelines (https://connect.mayoclinic.org/page/about-connect/tab/community-guidelines/) The first guideline states:

1. Be careful about giving out medical advice
- Sharing your own experience is fine, but don't tell other members what they should do.

Hey Bluesdoc. I have read that your CAC score will naturally increase average of 20% per year. So perhaps those treatments were responsible for your zero increase?

It’s been a year for you, anything new? I had a CAC score in March of 725. Sent me for a nuclear stress test. Passed easily. No symptoms, play high level tennis, did the scan out of curiosity. Good cholesterol. Now on a statin, baby aspirin. Changed my diet to Mediterranean in March, now scanning the web for answers. How can I feel this good, work out with zero symptoms?

Now taking aged Garlic, Vit K2, fish oil, magnesium. My daughter, a nurse and nutrition nerd, says forget all the supplements, let your liver rest, and just be strict with the Mediterranean non inflammatory diet and relax. I am 65.

I have a CAC of 979 from almost 2 years ago, I'm now 64 feel good and have no symptoms. There is probably more chance of liver stress/damage from the statins than from the suppliments you mentioned. You can't go wrong with anti inflammatory diet, exercise, relaxation and good sleep.

I'm not going to keep checking it. It's so high, and calcification isn't generally something that goes away in any tissue, I'm just resigned to it. But I'm guessing that it's not intimal, ie, it does NOT represent atheroma load. I, like you, have normal treadmill and perfusion studies. My horrendous allergy to contrast dye makes an elective angio out of the question. But we could have 60% lesions with no substantial flow deficit, so we'd seem fine WITH coronary artery disease. If that's the case, our best shot at dodging the reaper is to prevent further atheroma formation with exactly what we're doing. I'm not sure more exercise will prevent anything as I've been an exerciser - runner/strength, etc - all my adult life, and here we are. In my case, and you can't really use this for any sort of comparison, I have extremely high antibody levels to two species of Bartonella, a nasty bug that attacks endothelium (part of my Lyme plague). Inflammation there might very well be the stimulus for calcification. That whole facet of my medical story is not for here.... but, I'm working on it. Onward~~~~~~~>>. jon

btw, pcs - statins rarely do liver damage and when detected by regular lab monitoring, can often be mitigated by dose or type of statin change. In my case, I DID get liver and muscle injury from lipitor but NOT from Livalo. Details...... As always, choose your genes wisely and try not to age...... 🥴

One other question........all this hype about vitamin K2/MK7 dissolving calcified plaque........any thoughts on vitamin K2/MK7 might destabilize the calcified plaque and make it more susceptible to a clot?

Well, that's the party line re: Vit K - that it mobilizes Ca from vasculature to bone. In my study cohort n=1, I took very large quantities of K (Life Extension stuff) and after a few years, CAC still went up. Oh well..... The other thing to bear in mind is that statins stabilize plaque surface, reducing risk of rupture, by a mechanism independent of calcification. That's all I've got.... jon

Thanks for your input. Just trying to determine what supplements are worth wasting money, time, and liver metabolism on. I’ll probably stick with the tried and true.............Cabernet Sauvignon!