Connect
← Return to My dr wants me to get a calcium score study, should I?
Discussion
My dr wants me to get a calcium score study, should I?
Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Jul 22 8:38am | Replies (40)Comment receiving replies
I have 9 brothers. My grandfather died of a heart attack at 40. My dad at 70. 7 of the 9 brothers have stents. My mother died of Aortic Stenosis as did my sister. I have been taking statins since I am 40. Yes they affect my muscles. 2 years ago they added a 2nd Zetia which brings down the LDL. I see an Endocrinologist at Mayo Clinic Rochester. My son at 50 had a heart attack. He was a professional hockey player my two younger sons have bad cholesterol were college athletes and were told it’s genetics. Think the A1 Protein. Eating healthy helps but your best bet is to take the statins. Good luck
Replies to "I have 9 brothers. My grandfather died of a heart attack at 40. My dad at..."
Connect
hey there @grands08 - actually, "no." Statins only do a type of thing. It may do nothing to reduce the arterial build-up in your heart arteries if one has inherited CAD (coronary artery disease). My dad took statins for 25 years. It lowered it cholesterol (blood serum cholesterol numbers) but did zero from stopping the plaque damage in his arteries - even with daily exercise and eating right! (we come from a "produce" family). He had his first widowmaker heart attack at 58. He continued to have a triple (58), quadruple (72) and then triple bypass surgery at 80. He had to go for MANY stints in between! But his cholesterol was GREAT! Like you, we, apparently come from a family with heart disease. I took the LPa test and yes, I've got it. However, there are a VARIETY of mitigating factors in all of this.
I can't take statins. They put me on many years ago. I had side effects. I did ask to receive the LEVQIO injections twice a year. So far nothing has reduced my LPa score. Its (88). But this thread is about the calcium score which is CRITICAL! Mine is quite good. That allows me to take a deep breath and be thankful. There are a variety of good books now explaining how lipids deposit in the arteries. I am lucky to have been made aware that cholesterol deposits were a critical component in university nutritional chemistry classes in 1978. I have watched all these years to be careful. The science is different now as the industry is identifying BETTER the process of the body laying down plaque and what, if anything the science can do about it.
IF one values their life - and living that life with some kind of "quality of life" issues managed than one will want to have whatever tests are being made available to them. I have to PUSH for all of it in todays climate. It is a kaleidoscope of lipid types, and their numbers which must come to bear. The pictures 2 years ago showed I have one artery one third blocked and 3 others clear. (I am 68.) I brought my cholesterol numbers seriously down this year by increasing eating fish. that was the most impactful! But IF one's body is going to fabricate plaque deposits, we can do little by correct eating. We are going to need to increase exercise and look for medicines which help break down the body's building of plaque in a hereditary situation. Make sense?