@alaskat

Hello,

When I met with my cardiologist, I went over my diet the last 10 years (rarely any red meat, mostly pork, chicken and fish, a fair amount of vegetables, and my vices of sweet tea and chocolate 🙂 I mentioned I had been a vegetarian the past 6 months). I also told him that I work out doing sandbag training 3-4 times a week and walk around our neighborhood roughly 5x a week (a mile loop).

He didn't mention any specific changes except increasing my rosuvastatin from 10mg (recommended by my primary physician) to 20mg and check back in 6 months. He also suggested taking a daily baby aspirin, but after reading about the possible side effects, I chose not to follow that advice. My decision was based on risk and the fact the both my nuclear stress test and echo cardiogram came back normal (i.e. no indication of blood flow problems). I'm not telling anyone to follow my lead. This is definitely an individual choice. Having said that, I have started carrying four chewable baby aspirin (the equivalent of one adult strength aspirin) with me just in case (just to have them handy should I start feeling chest pain. I do realize it may hit so suddenly that I wouldn't have time to take them, but in case I do, they're there with me). Chewable aspirin has been shown to get into your blood stream a few minutes faster than the non-chewable form. Here I'm referring to the orange baby aspirin many of us grew up with.

The main side effects of daily aspirin are (taken from the Mayo Clinic website, but can be found elsewhere as well):

Stroke caused by a burst blood vessel. While daily aspirin can help prevent a clot-related stroke, it may increase the risk of a bleeding stroke. A bleeding stroke also is called a hemorrhagic stroke.

Gastrointestinal bleeding. Daily aspirin use increases the risk of developing a stomach ulcer. If you already have a bleeding ulcer or gastrointestinal bleeding, taking aspirin may cause more bleeding. The bleeding may be life-threatening.

Allergic reaction. If you're allergic to aspirin, taking any dose of aspirin can trigger a serious allergic reaction.

Here's a breakdown of my CAC score (2534 overall):

Left main artery - 36
Left anterior descending - 665
Left circumflex - 194
Right coronary artery - 1639

Like you (I'm 61), I'm completely asymptomatic. Here are my numbers (first column are my numbers from March 2023 ,and the second column is after 6 weeks of 20mg Crestor/Rosuvastatin. Pretty remarkable changes:

Tot. cholesterol 221 137
Trig. 69 48
HDL 83 78
VLDL 12 11
LDL Chol 126 48