High Coronary Calcium Score: How do others feel emotionally?

CAC 662 back in July/August (don't remember) but on statin now. Lots of OTC supp's including both kinds of K2. Starting back on BP meds as of today... been off for 20 years (65 now). I guess age and genetics are unavoidable. 🙂

I was in the 99th percentile, so you beat me by 1%!!

Excellent advice. Stress makes everything worse, and life is too short to begin with.

Speaking of beating the odds, my CAC Report literally said that I had more more plaque burden than any other male in my age group. (100th percentile) I should play my CAC score in the lottery after beating those odds. 😀

A CT scan shows a great deal of calcification in both my carotid arteries.
Have high blood pressure, and family history of heart attacks and strokes.
I wish to point out another tool in the Arsenal and that is natto a massive source of vitamin k2, which has been scientifically looked at and prevents calcification of the arteries by increasing gla matrix protein stripping excess ca+ ions from artery walls. There's a few scientific papers on k2 which show it works to decalcify the arteries of patients with kidney disease.
After reading all the literature on k2, I bought a electric pressure cooker with a yogurt setting, the instant pot duo, and ordered 7 bags of natto bacteria from Ali express which will last year's for under 20 dollars. I now make a weekly batch of natto beans effortlessly for pennies. Look up instant pot natto on youtube. My blood pressure has dropped since, but I am also exercising and have went from 230 to 190lbs at 6ft tall over the past year. You only need to eat a tablespoon a day to get 1000 mcg of vitamin k2.

Thanks to both of you for your posts! I found out in February I had a cac of 2200. I was 259 pounds at 53 years of age. Now 10 mo later down to 200. Passed the nuclear stress test and connected with a Bale-Doneen physicisn in Illinois. Am on 2.5 mg Crestor every other day and also on ramipril 2.5 mg daily. He did some genetic testing and found out I need to stay away from gluten. So eating a lot of vegetables and salmon! Thanks again for your posts it’s nice to remember that I am not in this alone.

Good story, skypigg! We can all relate. And this underscores the reality (imho) that there is NOT a linear relationship between CAC score and obstructive plaque. If that were the case, we'd all be 6' under by now. Tangentially, I saw my cardiologist last week and he told me about a patient referred to him for cath because a patient had overwhelming anxiety about his CAC score of 275. He did the cath and the vessels were squeaky clean. He also said that they, cardiologists, tend to see problems with coronary disease in the </= 500 CAC range, but not so much above that range. Also, as another aside, I asked him how often they see STEMI (full tilt heart attack) in patients on statins with high CAC score. He said that regardless, they hardly ever see STEMIs when patients are on statins. At the local large hospital this past year, there were ~ 250 heart attacks. The number of those ON statins could be counted on one hand. We need to chill, guys. We do what we can, take our statins, do what we can to reduce systemic inflammation - another deep and wide subject - and get on with our lives without adding to the burden of this existence by fueling anxiety. As another fish in the sea with a CAC over 2500, despite having tried to live a health freak life, it is what it is. I had a nice cookie after my spaghetti dinner. My wife makes killer sauce and I enjoyed every bite.

Hello everyone, first time poster here with a similar tale. First I want to take a moment and thank everyone on this thread for helping me get through this past few stressful weeks. Reading your experiences was extremely educational and emotionally helpful to me.

In 2007, at age 41 (I'm 53 now) I had a cardio cath done because I had some strange throat sensations and elevated troponin levels. The cath showed only minor calcification. My cardiologist at the time called them bumps n grooves. They were not sure how to diagnose me, but I was put on 10 MG of atorvastatin and aspirin therapy.

I have also been diagnosed (at age 14) with Mitral Valve Prolapse. As a result, I see a cardiologist bi-yearly for EKG, and Echocardiogram. Over the years, the murmur associated with my MVP has gotten really hard to hear, and I only have mild regurgitation.

In October, at my regular cardiologist appointment, I mentioned that I had a family history of atherosclerosis, and that my father and his father and his father have all had heart attacks. My father is still alive, but had double bypass. She said that since I had a negative EKG stress test in April of 2017 with no symptoms, there was no need for additional testing. She said that I could get a cardiac CT scan to see what my calcification score was. If it was abnormal, then she would do additional testing.

A month later, I had the test, and my score was 2744. Needless to say, I was stunned by the news. The first thing I did was try to educate myself by looking on the web for high calcification scores. I found this thread, and was intrigued/encouraged by the posters who said that their high scores were due to calcium within the walls of their coronary arteries. I kind of clung to that hope, but was soon deflated.

My cardiologist ordered a nuclear treadmill test which I did a week later. I felt fine as I am in reasonably good shape. They called me the next day and said that it was abnormal, and that I had restricted blood flow in the right side. This news obliterated me, and I fell into a kind of depressed state. I simply could not understand how I went from bumps n grooves to at least 70% blockage in 12 years.

I had a cardio cath on the day after Christmas, and to just about everyone's surprise, my coronary arteries showed mild plaque (two spots that were 20-30%), but nothing that they needed to treat with stents. So, they increased my statin to 40, and I am going to try and eat better and take some supplements like fish oil.

The whole experience was pretty traumatizing, but it had a happy ending, and I at least have peace of mind. The cardiologist that did the procedure said that the calcium that was picked up on the CT scan was within the walls of my arteries. He also said that false positives happen all the time on nuclear stress tests. Something about the diaphragm interfering. The fact that I had two false positives is stunning to me, and I still cant believe it happened.

I guess life goes on. 🙂

I'm taking 200mg of ubiquinol. Not super high, but high enough for statin balance.

Bluest of You mention taking high-dose CoQ10 along with statins. What do you consider high dose?

Tim1028 that is an amazing difference; like they were doing the test on two different people. Please let us know if you figure out why there was such a great discrepancy between the two tests.