High Coronary Calcium Score: How do others feel emotionally?

Posted by mcphee @mcphee, Dec 14, 2016

I have a calcium score of 1,950 which is extremely high which means I am at a very high risk for a cardiac event,heart attack,stroke or sudden death.

I take a statin and baby aspirin. I have never been sick, have excellent cholesterol, low blood pressure and I am not overweight. I have no other health problems and I have never been sick. But I feel like a walking time bomb which has caused me a lot of stress. I am 70 yrs old.

I wonder how others with this condition feel emotionally?

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@pcspetpro

I received a 979 CAC Score, passed a stress test but talked my cardiologist into getting me a CT Angiogram. The Angiogram revealed 4 mild 4 moderate and 1 severe blockage (Mid LAD). The severe blockage was not picked up by a stress test.

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Pscpetpro--How did they miss the severe blockage on the stress test? Did you get a stent?

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I received a 979 CAC Score, passed a stress test but talked my cardiologist into getting me a CT Angiogram. The Angiogram revealed 4 mild 4 moderate and 1 severe blockage (Mid LAD). The severe blockage was not picked up by a stress test.

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Limogreg--The cardiologist visit will help to answer many of your questions about your status and recommended treatment. The best things you can do are to lower your modifiable risk factors like diet, exercise, etc. and take a medication to lower your LDL cholesterol if needed. My experience was that I saw a cardiologist after getting a CAC score of 1560 about six months ago. The cardiologist did a stress/echo test, which I passed, indicating that I do not have any blockages > 70%. I already exercise according to American Heart Association guidelines for heart health, but changed my diet to meet the AHA guidelines. The cardiologist put me on a moderate dose statin. Take care and keep us posted about your progress.

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@limogreg

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???

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Hi Limogreg. Welcome to the club that no one wants to join. You'll make it to Thursday. Your cardiologist may recommend a cardiac catheterization in order to get a better look at what's going on inside your arteries. If he seems to be not too curious about what's going on in there, then look for another cardiologist the very same day. You may need nothing, a stent, or bypass surgery. Choose a good place for the catheterization because, you may end up having surgery there. Good luck. With some good care, you may have many, many years left.

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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???

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Thankful, I am using 180 mcg of MenaQ7 K2 MK-7 one time per day. I will be getting my blood tests back in a couple of days, but my LDL should be very low. Good luck to you, Thankful.

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@mark430

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?

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@mark430- Mark, what is the dose of K2 and the manufacturer you purchase it from? Don't have an answer for you on the uncalcified hot plaque diminishes, but I'm not sure I mentioned this in my earlier post that my cardiologist at Mayo in Scottsdale, AZ. really likes to go after the LDL more than anything and mine was 82 at the time and he put me on 20 ml. of Rosuvastatin (generic for Crestor) and 6 months later all my numbers were even better especially my LDL was at 65. In the past I had always been on 40 ml of the other statins, but he felt lets start here. He was very happy as was I with the results! Jim @thankful

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@muscleriot

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.

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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?

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@mark430

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?

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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.

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@nyartist

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.

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Important to know that it's not the calification which kills, its the hot plaque. As long as you have removed sources of inflammation; insulin resistance, stress, infection, etc....and dropped weight, you don't have to be in the unaware high cac score group. I would buy a defibrillator and keep it handy though just in case

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