High Coronary Calcium Score: How do others feel emotionally?

jjohn10,

You're on a statin? When did you begin taking? Remember, statins calcify cholesterol deposits, so most folks see an increase of calcium after beginning statin therapy.

Also, my understanding is that calcium will increase - normally- about 15% per year. Even with aggressive changes in diet and exercise, your CAC score will increase. I've seen no one report a decrease in CAC scores - ever.

Any links on those studies which show correlation between statins and raised CAC? I had 770 and work out and eat well. Sister-in-law smokes, overweight, and doesn't eat well - she scored zero. I hear she is on statin (which I'm not sure I believe). I've been on statins for 20 years.

Hi @jjohn10

Interesting...most people who I know who received a Stent...due to symptoms such as SOB, usually get relief and more energy after the stent placement. May I ask your age? Could be just age related.

61 year old male. After stent i did cardio rehab and then resumed normal activity afterwords, some hiking and biking and after a couple months started to get weakness and wasnt able to hike and bike. Just slow walks.

Started on crestor june 2019 due to high calcium score then. I was a runnet most of my life and i hear runners tend to get high calcium scores

jjohn,

I have several friends with stents - none associated with actual heart attack, but rather on noting discomfort of some sort, usually during exertion.

They all reported feeling far better following the stent.

Hi All

I took the plunge and decided to have my Lipoprotein (a) test....via Quest. It came back as < 10nmol/L, so that was good news for me. Rest of the blood work came back as LDL 31, Total cholesterol of 85, HDL 40...which is up from 32 6 months ago. Triglycerides of 67. I had a fear of looking at the LPA test....knowing their is not too much that can change that number.

Hi Everyone

I noticed many posters talk about the MESA scoring system, but nobody brings up the ASTROCharm system which takes into account the MESA data along with other variables such as CAC, HDL, TC, BP, Race, CRP, Diabetes, family history etc. As it sounds---this was created for astronauts to see their risk. The papers I have seen indicate MESA often over predicted risk---thus they came up with this calculator. To be transparent--it was developed based on a younger population starting in the 40's vs. much of the MESA data which had participants older. My score is 4.2% 10 year risk.
https://astrocharm.org/
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.118.033505

Same here. Athlete in school then adult softball 6 months out of year through my 30s. Running in late 40s. 100s of 5K &10K races and Portland & Chicago Marathon. On statins for last 18 years even though my Cholesterol has never been in a bad range. Was stunned when my CAC score came in at 2,000 after having a PVC during minor surgery and sent to Cardiologist. Have mild AFIB. Sleep Apnea part of the culprit according to Cardi. All the test, Stress—Carotid & Aorta ultrasounds—Arteriorgram. Cardi says heart muscle has no damage. 40% blockage where Circumflex artery meets LAD (he said he’d leave that alone for now. Feel good, working on weight loss - 20lbs so far 40lbs to go. In Planet Fitness 3 times per week, treadmill and resistance training. Cardi says the Statin calcified a lot of plaque to my veins and that was a good thing that my Internal Med Doc did 18 years ago. IDK

4,

With that much calcium, how was the 40% blockage determined ... did you have cath? (Referring to difficulty of good CT with calcium reflections.)