High Coronary Calcium Score: How do others feel emotionally?

Hi Everyone, Trying to take a proactive approach to my health after my brothers passing a month and a half ago at age 50, he smoked all his life and did not take care of himself, so I asked my doc about things I could do now he told me about this scan, it was only $75 so I did it got my results and now I am freaking out my score came back Total 831, Left Main 0, LAD 297, Left circumflex 346, RCA 188, Other 0, so my doc said I need to see a Cardiologist asap, I am in pretty good health active workout I am 51 years old, I started combing the net for answers, found this site, reading some of your post seeing other peoples scores and ages has me feeling a little better at least knowing I am not the only one out here, this is scary I am 6'3" 285 so not a small guy, my biggest question is what does all this mean, what can I do, and do any of the doctors from Mayo ever chime in? With advice or whatever, I dont know supposed to see the Cardiologist Thursday, if I make it, and one more thing has anyone ever stabilized or lower there score???

Thank you for the post, muscleriot. I am taking the same dose of K2 from the same manufacturer as did the people who participated in the Rotterdam study. I do understand the importance of calcification in fixing plaque, but the bottom line is the reduced death rate for participants in the study. I am hoping that the hot plaque diminishes somehow, as I reduce the calcium in my arteries. Does anyone know if the amount of uncalcified (if that is a proper term) hot plaque diminishes in time with very low cholesterol?

The rotterdam study and various ckd studies all show that k2 prevents calcification andreduces heart attack events. I would not take mega does of it with mega doses of d3 though. The calcification is like scar tissue, it cannot kill, only exposed soft plaque clots and kills.

Kanaaz Pereira, thank you VERY much for your quality reply to my concerns. It is certainly comforting to have others like yourself helping people stay healthy. Clearly, I have more reading and thinking to do. Regarding chelation and the TACT study, I do see flawed, but apparently good results for those with diabetes. Those results, if accurate may indicate hope for me, as I have been borderline diabetic for quite some time (possibly a side effect of years of statin therapy). To continue increasing my CAC score as time goes by will not end well for me and I am hoping to find some way to reverse it. Exercise and diet may slow it down. Vitamin K2 may or may not help. Catheterization indicates that the lumens in my coronary arteries are clear, so bypass surgery in order to avoid sudden death does not seem to be an option (please let me know if I am wrong about that).

I want to thank Bluesdoc for his willingness to share results of his chelation experience. I, like him, am hoping to reverse my high CAC score. My further hope would be that this reversal, in turn, would reduce the danger of a sudden CVA or an MI.

I live in South Florida, but maybe it would be helpful for me to see someone in the Mayo Clinic who could help through medication and/or surgical intervention. I am under the care of a well trained cardiologist, but she may not have access to many of the tools that Mayo has to offer. Does anyone have thoughts on that possibility?

OK.. so a Calcium score of 2316 and then I wrote kind of a goodbye note to my wife not intending her to see it. Anyway, just got back from hiking in the mountains of Crested Butte in Colorado where the mountains are steep and the trails are rugged. I just came from sea level in NYC to upwards of 11,000 feet and my heart was beating like a madman. Yet I did the hikes with no symptoms. So what the heck are we gonna do - wait for that piece of plaque to break off and kill us? Hell with that nonsense. These high scores indicate that plaque was building up over many many years not the fresh or loose plaque that will tend to be unstable. I've doubled the number of days I go to the gym and doubled the intensity of the workouts I do. That feels great. But I have no idea if something is lurking in the background waiting to bring me down to earth. But I'm gonna continue what I've been doing - and have even stopped the baby aspirin. What's with cardiologists? as soon as you get some kind of score or indication their answer is always: statin and baby aspirin. I started a regimen of holistic or herbal things and will continue doing that. Fact is the cardio docs only know what they know. They have ZERO idea of anything else that could be of help because they just don't study anything else. I will continue to see my cardio doc and continue on this regimen and for sure continue to work my butt off in the gym. For a while all I could think of is this one thing I read: 'if your score is over 1000 you have a 25% chance of having an event in the next year'. To that I say Screw You. That;s no way to live this precious life wondering about that.

Kanaaz Pereira, thank you VERY much for your quality reply to my concerns. It is certainly comforting to have others like yourself helping people stay healthy. Clearly, I have more reading and thinking to do. Regarding chelation and the TACT study, I do see flawed, but apparently good results for those with diabetes. Those results, if accurate may indicate hope for me, as I have been borderline diabetic for quite some time (possibly a side effect of years of statin therapy). To continue increasing my CAC score as time goes by will not end well for me and I am hoping to find some way to reverse it. Exercise and diet may slow it down. Vitamin K2 may or may not help. Catheterization indicates that the lumens in my coronary arteries are clear, so bypass surgery in order to avoid sudden death does not seem to be an option (please let me know if I am wrong about that).

I want to thank Bluesdoc for his willingness to share results of his chelation experience. I, like him, am hoping to reverse my high CAC score. My further hope would be that this reversal, in turn, would reduce the danger of a sudden CVA or an MI.

I live in South Florida, but maybe it would be helpful for me to see someone in the Mayo Clinic who could help through medication and/or surgical intervention. I am under the care of a well trained cardiologist, but she may not have access to many of the tools that Mayo has to offer. Does anyone have thoughts on that possibility?