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Any people in their 40s with very high CAC scores?
I’m a 47 year old woman, and in January I had a calcium scan with a score of 538.
I had started a statin last year and somewhat randomly asked for the CAC scan at my 6 month follow up visit just to see what my score was, since I had learned of CAC scoring just a few weeks before.
Needless to say, the score was shocking to me and my PCP. I do have some risk factors, so I didn’t necessarily expect a 0. Most of my adult life I have been fit and healthy, but I gave birth at age 40 and struggled after that to lose the weight. In that time, my cholesterol crept up and so did my blood pressure. I have been active in that time, since I have a young kid, but the extra weight and some other postpartum issues made exercise more difficult for much of that time. I have returned to exercise and getting more fit in the last couple of years, but my body is not even close to the shape it was in before I got pregnant. But this score is nearly unheard of for a woman my age, which of course worries me a lot.
I have seen a cardiologist (a physician assistant) and I have a CCTA, nuclear stress test, and echocardiogram scheduled over the next month or so. I also started Wegovy. I will meet with the MD after those tests are complete and then they will discuss any medication changes, procedures, etc. Their take is that the CAC is a screening test, and I have been flagged by the test for follow-up. Once they have a better idea of what is going on, then they can address it. This makes me feel better in some ways, but I also worry that more tests will bring more bad news.
In terms of my question: I’m less interested in suggestions of what to do medically, since I feel like my cardiologist’s office is taking the right steps. But I guess I wanted to know if there are others out there in their 40s who are dealing with this. As a parent of a young child, this is especially stressful. I would love to hear from others about how to cope with this news. I feel like I’m the only person this young to have this kind of score, which is scary and lonely.
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@nagoh I'm so sorry to hear you are having these kinds of thoughts. I have them, too. It's so hard. And I think you are right - it's the sudden and unexpected transition from healthy to sick that is hard to adjust to. To help make myself feel a bit better about exercising alone, I put some baby aspirin in my jogging fanny pack just in case and I wear an Apple Watch with settings to call for help if I fall during a workout. But I suspect that all of this is probably unnecessary and I'm not sure if it's actually helpful or not to give these thoughts any credibility by "preparing" in this way. Even with CAD, our overall risk of having a heart attack in the short run is probably actually quite low - it's just higher than the risk of other people and will go up if not managed well.
Another way to put this: even a 5% risk of a MACE in 10 years - which is likely a significant overestimate in your case (check https://mesa-nhlbi.org/researchers/tools/mesa-score-risk-calculator to see) - is still a 95% chance of no MACE in 10 years. And if you ask google to calculate your yearly risk at this rate, it comes out at about .512% a year - which is a nearly 99.5% chance nothing happens each year. I hope that gives you some peace of mind. These are the things I tell myself when I worry!
In terms of practical matters - You might want to ask for an Lp(a) test from your PCP, since that might explain why your CAC is high for your age. This was the case for me. If your Lp(a) is high, you should potentially receive more aggressive treatment for your other cholesterol numbers as it's a significant independent risk factor. (My cardiologist wants my LDL-C under 55 because of my high Lp(a), not my CAC score.) Likewise, assuming drugs are approved to treat Lp(a) in the next few years, this way you know you should get on them when they become available.
Also, one more thing to keep in mind that is often overlooked since so many people diagnosed with CAD are men or older women - my cardiologist told me to stop taking the birth control pill and to only take transdermal hormones (patches and creams) for perimenopause. This has been the piece that has actually been hardest to sort out since I have had a lot more perimenopausal symptoms since going off the pill. You should bring these things up with your PCP and gynecologist as you move through your 40s. It's a drag!
Good luck with all this. I hope you hang in there and manage to thrive despite it!
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1 ReactionTake Lipitor, eat healthy and exercise and you’ll be fine. I had a high cac score in the 600
Range and I got a heart cath done and I had no blockage.
Anyone taking Prolia?
I just started taking it and was wondering if anyone ever heard of Prolia shots putting the calcium you take into your arteries?