Living with high calcium score

question of balance,

Do you have first hand knowledge to substantiate your claim regarding how our military's personnel are treated? It seems an odd comment related to medication sourcing.

dnward,

I have found no indication, anywhere, nor any report by anyone, that one's calcium score can decrease.

I had many of same questions. I was hit with 750 or something, now I forgot since more relaxed. I had nuclear and ultrasound scans of heart and ultra of neck and abdomen. All came out normal. Taking Lipitor 20mg for 22 years and they upped me to 40mg. Think I want to go back down to 20mg.
During covid and stress I gained 40 lbs and shed 30 of that. Back to exercising (runner for 50 years) but very slow miles.
My brother needed a stent 20 years ago and I told him he was purple in the face playing racquetball. One day he went for a run and could barely breath. They stress tested him and rushed him for a stent.
So my anecdote marker is ability to breath. It was a good shock for me as I lost the weight but now I'm back to normal routine and seeking to lose another 10.
Cardiologists want you to get LDL below 50 and maybe with medication but I have problems with medications - I cannot buy brand name Lipitor as only the generic is covered. I make sure my drugs are not from India or China. You have to ask EVERY time so they check the big bottle. Mine are made in Canada but when you read about these generic firms, it's a horror. Don't believe me then read report by Bloomberg/Businessweek or better yet, the military is concerned about the quality of generics. You'll hear more about this 10 years down the road as to 'how can they let this happen'? I'm sure anyone wealthy is NOT taking generics. I'll cut to the chase - generic manufacturers must include the primary ingrediant - but that is it. Buffers and fillers they can use anything they like (yes, China and India had carcinogenic materials). Problem is many Americans hate the FDA so it's grossly underfunded and they can barely test what's in the USA, let alone facilities globally. Like we're planning to make computer chips hear, for national security, ALL generic drugs should be made here with substantial oversight. That will never happen because pharma is outsourcing more of their brand labels to other countries.
Look, the military doesn't have a great record caring for our soldiers, so when they are concerned about generics, perhaps we all should.

So the good news is I'm not freaking out about my calcium score as two cardiologists told me they have seen much higher numbers (2,000+) and not concerned. Statins harden the plaque which is good. I've heard, but would love studies to be conducted, that statins cause the calcium test to increase.

My wife had/has hyperparathyroidism and her calcium score was high. Doctors should automatically have your parathyroid checked in that case. Our calcium is between @9-11. She had a tumor and it was removed by a really good doctor in Tampa, 12 years ago. He does 12 surgeries a day and she has been symptom free since. Other doctors do this once a year and mess it up.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-19/us-military-at-risk-from-reliance-on-cheap-foreign-drugs-senators-say
https://ca.style.yahoo.com/news/us-military-worried-generic-pills-173203560.html

Not sure there are any guarantees on that.. but it surely cannot hurt.

My cardiologist., after my blood work 2 years ago said.. this is great.. I feel you can stop and maybe improve you CAC with the changes you’ve made.. time will tell..but keep moving foreward and living as healthy as you can.

My understanding is following a healthy diet ie mediterrian diet , exercise with cardio 150 min per week , take stains and any other prescribed diet and you can stop the progression of the calcium .
Thoughts ?

Cardiologist said this doesn’t cause this . It just can cause high blood levels of calcium but not Calcium in arteries
?

If you have high calcium levels get your parathyroids glands checked.

Thank you so much for that

Angiogram has risk including blood clot.
Following is a response I found here from a cardiologist.
“ I am a cardiologist and got my calcium score just casually as I was giving a seminar on it to local drs some four years ago. It came 746! No symptoms, no risk factors, marathoner. Got stress nuclear tested. Just on statins/ aspirin. As an interventional cardiologist myself, I see most patients of heart attack have soft non calcified lesions. Moreover statins tend to increase the calcium score. So you know that it’s not as simple!
I don’t think it needs to be ever repeated. Just avoid over thinking and over treatment. “

I hope this will give a piece of mind.

Thank you for that .

Many have said why wouldn’t they do an angiogram . It’s a diagnostic peace of mind