High Coronary Calcium Score: How do others feel emotionally?

Thanks! It wasn't very hard because to me I didn't really have a choice. I wish it didn't take a high score to finally get my health under control. Im 45 and weighed 237 2 months ago and now weigh 218. I feel a lot better and don't have any plans on slowing down on my healthy journey, I just fear that its too late and I waited too long. I feel like Im just waiting out a heart attack or a stroke with the score I have

@achilles50, congrats on taking charge and making healthy lifestyle choices for your heart's sake. I bet you're experiencing benefits beyond a healthy heart. Was it hard to make the changes? What benefits keep you on track?

Im in the same boat, just got my calcium score of 384 a few months ago. My cardio had me get a stress test done and it was excellent. He upped and my to 40 from 20 and told me to see him again in a year. Im relatively healthy but started working out more and eating a lot healthier. Im cutting out saturated and trans fats from my diet, and weight loss is a secondary thought to heart health. I wish you well.

Guillian-Barre Syndrome can have difficult-to-manage long-term effects. You are right, coordination of care is crucial with multiple issues and the current division of medical care into silos. Louise Aronson, MD, has written a full-length book, Elderhood, that addressed this issue as she discusses ageism in our society. Coordinating our own care can become a full-time job, but being advocates for ourselves is necessary to solve many medical issues. I have personally learned a lot about atherosclerosis in managing my own. It feels empowering to know that I have done the best I can to modify what is in my control--diet,exercise, medication--to stay well. Stress management is something I'm still working on, with some success.

Btw a little more technicolor. I started my adventure at the medical center in Houston after having a respiratory viral infection in August of 2013. (In retrospect now reminds me of covid) and it was the worst virus of my life. I had no cormobid conditions and was only taking pravastatin for moderately high cholesterol total 224. On September 4th I went in to Walgreens and received my flu and shingles vaccinations. In two to three weeks I developed ataxia, unstable blood pressure and pulse, hypothermia, pseudohypoxia, CFS, hypothyroidism,spacisity,hyperflexia,tremor ...etc. Many more details to mention. I had consults with cardiology,neuroontology, neurology, movement disorders neurology..etc I underwent twelve weeks of physical therapy focused on learning to walk again. I finally determined what I needed to do to develop new neural pathways and added my therapy to the"standard of care". At the medical center I asked for a very experienced Internist to be assigned to coordinate my care with my specialist's and subspecialists. I was told by the largest medical complex in the world if I required that level of care I would have to go to either the Cleveland clinic or Mayo. The physicians in Houston apparently operate in silos and are not utilizing team medicine or coordinated care. It was at this moment I decided I would take on the complex technical role of coordining my care. I really didn't want the stress and learning required dealing with my own internal medical issues. My neurologist thought my condition most likely had a genetic makeup. I set off on educating myself in genetic engineering which I now feel confident in discussing the various detailed aspects of this developing subject. I took my genetic information discoveries to my various physicians and the overwhelming comments were this is not clinical but rather research and could tell by the light in a deer's eyes look I was not connecting.

I could go on and on about my medical center adventures. My current understanding of my condition (self diagnosed) is after having my URVI and stimulating my immune system with the vaccinations I developed Gillian's barre syndrome that consequently adversely effected my cerebral vermis and pungie cells as well as potential brainstem in involvement.

I have not set up the appointment yet as I am debating whether to get it done in Port Arthur 35 miles or Houston 130 miles. I am leaning towards PA due to covid but the radiologists are not as experienced. I will post my results once received.

Roberta

I have not been following this thread but then I read your post above and boys does that open my eyes! I have had high cholesterol all my adult life, very high. But every time I tried statins I had horrible leg pains etc. so refused to take them. In 2018 I had a calcium score done and it was zero, much to my surprise. Then in 2019 I was diagnosed with diastolic dysfunction started seeing a new cardiologist who put me on Pravastatin and Zetia. I do not seem to have the symptoms I have had in the past from taking statins so I thought OK, this is great I will lower my cholesterol and not have a lot of bad side effects. After reading your post I researched this information about statins increasing arterial calcium and boy are you right! Talk about deep dark secrets! And then I found an article that said people with a zero calcium score are found to not benefit at all from taking statins. I’m stopping today! I hate all of this stuff. Thank you so much for posting that obscure bit of information and I’ll bet there are plenty of other people out there that are unaware of this fact

Hello @robertaholmes and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. Your message is a good one to advise other members to be very present and aware of their care and treatment plans. It sounds as though you have done considerable research that has kept you on top of both your level of health as well as what your lab results mean.

I see you mention that you have ordered a complete parathyroid and renal ultrasound and laboratory work up. When is that appointment?

This looks like a old discussion but will reply and add my details and comments. I am a 67 yo f and recently had a ct ld calcium scan after I noticed a cartoid artery blockage on ultrasound. My scan result was 1852. I then ordered a NMR to evaluate the makeup of my LDL and just like I suspected my small dense LDL was over a 1000. I had been taking 40 mg of pravastatin for over 20 years. This was shocking to me as my LDL Total was always in the 70's as was my HDL with my triglycerides almost always under 100. This was a enigma. I consulted with my cardiologist and endocrinologist about this and inquired as what would be a good treatment plan. The cardiologist told me that they don't normally test for particle size and do calcium scans as if they find something there is no FDA approved treatment. Here I had been going along fat dum and happy thinking all my cholesterol testing done over the past 20+ years indicated that I had 1/2 the risk of a Mace and now to find out it exceeded 10x+ the
risk. The medical "standard of care" is a broken model. If I had not taken it on my own to grab my own care by the horns I would not know I was a walking time bomb. Addionally it is a little known secret buried deep in the bowls of the medical literature that statins INCREASE arterial calcium.

I now fear this calcium is also effecting my renal system as my eGFR has been falling and Creatine has been increasing. I have now scheduled a complete parathyroid and renal ultrasound and laboratory work up. To see if my suspicions are again correct.

PLEASE DON'T LET YOUR CARE BE ON AUTOPILOT.

To reinforce the medical "standard of care" model is severely broken I argued in great detail why stopping the PSA test was such a hairbrained idea. They eventually brought it back and told the medical school profs a big I told you so. You have to realize the standard of care model is nothing more than a crude attempt at a cost versus benefit and utilizes a VERY BROAD basket of individuals with no understanding of the fact we're unique!

Sincerely

Roberta Holmes

I have tried all the vitamins with no results. You may need megadoses of V-K to see results but wasn't willing to go that far. Most likely will try next the biophosphates. BTW there are very few true experts on this phenomenon in the world.

Try researching NIH.gov (National Health Institute). They have several studies showing that Vitamin K2 MK-7 helps reduce cardiac calcification.