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 wonder how others with this condition feel emotionally?
I am 70 yrs old.
Liked by sgarelick
HI @ihaq1, I see that you have recently joined Mayo Clinic Connect. Connect is an online community where people (patients and family caregivers) can share health experiences and ask each other questions and offer support. It is not a a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Members should get the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding your health.
With that in mind, we ask that members do not tell other members what they should or must do. Please review the Community Guidelines (https://connect.mayoclinic.org/page/about-connect/tab/community-guidelines/) The first guideline states:
1. Be careful about giving out medical advice
– Sharing your own experience is fine, but don't tell other members what they should do.
Hey Bluesdoc. I have read that your CAC score will naturally increase average of 20% per year. So perhaps those treatments were responsible for your zero increase?
It’s been a year for you, anything new? I had a CAC score in March of 725. Sent me for a nuclear stress test. Passed easily. No symptoms, play high level tennis, did the scan out of curiosity. Good cholesterol. Now on a statin, baby aspirin. Changed my diet to Mediterranean in March, now scanning the web for answers. How can I feel this good, work out with zero symptoms?
Now taking aged Garlic, Vit K2, fish oil, magnesium. My daughter, a nurse and nutrition nerd, says forget all the supplements, let your liver rest, and just be strict with the Mediterranean non inflammatory diet and relax. I am 65.
I'm not going to keep checking it. It's so high, and calcification isn't generally something that goes away in any tissue, I'm just resigned to it. But I'm guessing that it's not intimal, ie, it does NOT represent atheroma load. I, like you, have normal treadmill and perfusion studies. My horrendous allergy to contrast dye makes an elective angio out of the question. But we could have 60% lesions with no substantial flow deficit, so we'd seem fine WITH coronary artery disease. If that's the case, our best shot at dodging the reaper is to prevent further atheroma formation with exactly what we're doing. I'm not sure more exercise will prevent anything as I've been an exerciser – runner/strength, etc – all my adult life, and here we are. In my case, and you can't really use this for any sort of comparison, I have extremely high antibody levels to two species of Bartonella, a nasty bug that attacks endothelium (part of my Lyme plague). Inflammation there might very well be the stimulus for calcification. That whole facet of my medical story is not for here…. but, I'm working on it. Onward~~~~~~~>>. jon
btw, pcs – statins rarely do liver damage and when detected by regular lab monitoring, can often be mitigated by dose or type of statin change. In my case, I DID get liver and muscle injury from lipitor but NOT from Livalo. Details…… As always, choose your genes wisely and try not to age…… 🥴
Liked by thankful
Well, that's the party line re: Vit K – that it mobilizes Ca from vasculature to bone. In my study cohort n=1, I took very large quantities of K (Life Extension stuff) and after a few years, CAC still went up. Oh well….. The other thing to bear in mind is that statins stabilize plaque surface, reducing risk of rupture, by a mechanism independent of calcification. That's all I've got…. jon
I just came across a study reported in the Journal of the Endocrinology Society date May 15, 2020 indicating that they have found a difference between lipophilic and hydrophilic statins. Someone more knowledgeable (meaning anyone with any training) please confirm, but my take is that the lipophilic statins, more so than the hydrophilic statins, are related to decreased abiiity to metabolize glucose and increased aortic calcification.
One thing is for sure, medial layer calcification is not well understood. I have seen three cardiologist about my high CAC score, and you would be surprised at how different their treatment recommendations were. One wanted to do the test again in two years, but another said to never take the test again. One wanted me on 20MG of Lipitor, the other two wanted me on 80 (I switch to 80). I am seeing a lipid specialist now, and will see him every six months. He said that I was an outlier at 54 years old with a CAC score of over 2700. Alot of people recommend to trust your doctor, but it's difficult to do that when I know they don't really know what my condition means or how it will manifest itself later. The best advice so far is to somehow just keep living, and be not be so worried about something I seemingly can't control. I am not an avid exerciser, but I try and walk as often as I can. I also lost alot of weight, and my blood pressure has been way better than it was. So.. I guess I press on.
@ihaq1
get your parathyroids checked…it can be done with an ultrasound