I have a very high calcium score. What next?

Posted by dpframing @dpframing, Aug 24, 2018

Just joined the site and I'm looking to share with others who have had a high calcium score. I found out today that mine is 2996 and I am scared by this. I am 61 and I am totally asymptomatic. Now I feel like a walking time bomb. I am thinking of requesting an angiogram to see if there's any narrowing anywhere and if it can be corrected with a stent. After a second heart doctor told me that the plaque buildup might be uniform over the course of years with no big problem areas, I am encouraged. But the score still freaks me out, specifically my LAD at 1333. I don't smoke or drink but I have to lose 40 lbs.

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@tylindy

Yes, that is the correct link and it uses existing heart disease (positive Ca score) as one of the risk elements. Making the right changes in lifestyle can push risk way down. I spoke to my doctor yesterday at length and he was very supportive, wants me to stop worrying and that my risk of a cardiac event are very low considering my meds, diet, weight loss and working out daily. My mom started statin treatment at 40. I should've done the same, but just didn't know. What is done is done, all I can do is limit new plaque burden and enjoy life. It is hard to get it out of your mind completely, in fact, my doctor said he somewhat regretted having me take the test as the burden maybe outweighs the value of the information. I had plenty of risk factors already that were motivating me to change prior to the test results. There is a good argument to made for not putting this burden on asymptomatic patients. This article resonated with me, "The Case Against Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring for Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment" Mandrola et al 2019 Am Fam Physician.

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An interesting article, but I kept hearing, "You don't need to know what is going on, we'll let you know what to do."

Probably an unfair assessment on my part ...

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@tylindy

Yes, that is the correct link and it uses existing heart disease (positive Ca score) as one of the risk elements. Making the right changes in lifestyle can push risk way down. I spoke to my doctor yesterday at length and he was very supportive, wants me to stop worrying and that my risk of a cardiac event are very low considering my meds, diet, weight loss and working out daily. My mom started statin treatment at 40. I should've done the same, but just didn't know. What is done is done, all I can do is limit new plaque burden and enjoy life. It is hard to get it out of your mind completely, in fact, my doctor said he somewhat regretted having me take the test as the burden maybe outweighs the value of the information. I had plenty of risk factors already that were motivating me to change prior to the test results. There is a good argument to made for not putting this burden on asymptomatic patients. This article resonated with me, "The Case Against Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring for Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment" Mandrola et al 2019 Am Fam Physician.

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Crestor and zetia

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i have calcium score of 3600, 76 year old male, passed stress test,in decent shape. what
is next?

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@cianci

i have calcium score of 3600, 76 year old male, passed stress test,in decent shape. what
is next?

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Statin, regular exercise, plant based diet (or Mediterranean), good sleep and stress management, keep blood pressure and inflammation in check and quit smoking, moderate alcohol use.

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@christianzane

Statin, regular exercise, plant based diet (or Mediterranean), good sleep and stress management, keep blood pressure and inflammation in check and quit smoking, moderate alcohol use.

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Thank you. I am doing most of that, except eat a lot of fish, some chicken, and once in a while red meat, no dairy or cheese. Also take a baby aspirin, although had to get off statin twice because of muscle aches, will go back on at 5mg rosuvastatin. While on statin cholesterol went from 214 to 161.

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@cianci

Thank you. I am doing most of that, except eat a lot of fish, some chicken, and once in a while red meat, no dairy or cheese. Also take a baby aspirin, although had to get off statin twice because of muscle aches, will go back on at 5mg rosuvastatin. While on statin cholesterol went from 214 to 161.

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When I went on Crestor 10mg I had muscle cramps in my legs for about 8 weeks, my doctor told me to try to deal with it and ignore it and take a wait and see approach and eventually it went away, if it's tolerable try to wait it out a few months and see if it goes away.

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@christianzane

When I went on Crestor 10mg I had muscle cramps in my legs for about 8 weeks, my doctor told me to try to deal with it and ignore it and take a wait and see approach and eventually it went away, if it's tolerable try to wait it out a few months and see if it goes away.

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I am going back on 5mg generic crestor after 3 weeks off. Originally started in January with 20mg.
I have also started taking COQ10, which is supposed to offset the muscle enzyme that statin takes out.
Thsnks for your input

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I guess I've been lucky not having any problems being on 20mg of Crestor. You might ask your doctor about doing alternate day dosing (ADD). Some people find relief from that. I've read a few articles that stated your cholesterol levels take many weeks to go back to where they were before starting a statin, so doing ADD "shouldn't" have much impact in your cholesterol levels (but of course, check with your doc). And articles I've read stated that there's not a significant difference in cholesterol levels between groups doing ADD and groups doing EDD (every day dose). Might be worth discussing with your doc.

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@hikerguy62

I guess I've been lucky not having any problems being on 20mg of Crestor. You might ask your doctor about doing alternate day dosing (ADD). Some people find relief from that. I've read a few articles that stated your cholesterol levels take many weeks to go back to where they were before starting a statin, so doing ADD "shouldn't" have much impact in your cholesterol levels (but of course, check with your doc). And articles I've read stated that there's not a significant difference in cholesterol levels between groups doing ADD and groups doing EDD (every day dose). Might be worth discussing with your doc.

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Thanks. Had heard of that idea, didn't see test that its effects were similar to edd

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Here are a few articles that talk about ADD vs. EDD. They're not large studies, so I'm not sure if the results would be the same if thousands of people were studied, but worth a read:
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3371460/
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https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/journal-scans/2013/04/19/16/08/alternate-day-dosing-with-statins
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This URL is related to Crestor/Rosuvastatin only:
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2691915/

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