When i was 55 had my 1st and only screening. My score was 1200. He immediately put me on Lipitor and stress test.
I refused the lipitor. At 20 minutes they stopped the stress test and said," you have the 2nd highest test in Henry Ford health system" . Follow up with cardio Dr said "you are fit"
I questioned the Cardio Dr that's conflicting with calcium score off the chart. Dr writes a report to BCBS for angiography. BCBS denies. So I'm in "insurance purgatory". Guess they would pay for open heart instead !!!!
You say....just take the lipitor idiot! But I don't want the slow death of cancer taking lipitor for next 30 years. Would rather die lights out before hiding the ground. Plus wife will have some cash ,instead of paying OOP health bills not covered by BCBS, for here to have fun and be a " cougar ".
In closing BCBS will not pay for Calcium score past 6 years. Have been running 5ks ranging consistently past 4 years mid 19's to 20flat past 2 years which would be normal " slow down" 59-61 hear old.
Would be disappointed if LR crowd didn't respond its Hillary's fault ;)
the real question is why doctors have known this for at least 100 years but not done a damn thing about it!
What's a plumber do when he finds out the pipes are gunked up? He cleans out the gunk. Doctors can't do it. They are stumped. No idea what to do, other than put scratchy stents in there to hold it open with the gunk still in there.
Because people rarely get a coronary angiogram to measure their calcium score unless their doctor suspects it might be related to whatever health issues you're experiencing or you're a previous heart attack patient. It's not a routine part of a yearly exam.
Having another exam done does NOT answer the REAL QUESTION… Another picture or image doesn’t clean or clear up the cardiac vessels.
When i was 55 had my 1st and only screening. My score was 1200. He immediately put me on Lipitor and stress test.
I refused the lipitor. At 20 minutes they stopped the stress test and said," you have the 2nd highest test in Henry Ford health system" . Follow up with cardio Dr said "you are fit"
I questioned the Cardio Dr that's conflicting with calcium score off the chart. Dr writes a report to BCBS for angiography. BCBS denies. So I'm in "insurance purgatory". Guess they would pay for open heart instead !!!!
You say....just take the lipitor idiot! But I don't want the slow death of cancer taking lipitor for next 30 years. Would rather die lights out before hiding the ground. Plus wife will have some cash ,instead of paying OOP health bills not covered by BCBS, for here to have fun and be a " cougar ".
In closing BCBS will not pay for Calcium score past 6 years. Have been running 5ks ranging consistently past 4 years mid 19's to 20flat past 2 years which would be normal " slow down" 59-61 hear old.
Would be disappointed if LR crowd didn't respond its Hillary's fault ;)
Take it easy.
New theories reject the idea of high cholesterol being the problem. High LDL, or rather, it's impacts on arterial plaques, is a symptom of the underlying problem. New models suggest that inflammation caused by insulin resistance is the main thing that should be treated. The underlying inflammatory response caused by excess glucose in the blood (outside of the actual blood cells), is what causes the gradual buildup of plaque and subsequent calcification.
If your cells become less responsive to insulin then glucose just builds up in the blood. That causes issues in the liver as it has to handle a larger load of glucose than it's accustomed to. Some gets stored as fat (contributing to fatty liver), some gets transported in lipoproteins, of which LDL is one. So you'll have higher LDL as a result. The higher LDL more easily sticks to the area of accumulating inflammation in the arterial lining.
If you don't have high inflammation in your arterial lining, there is less risk of the LDL being able to have an impact.
Essentially, the new models suggest we do things that temper our body's insulin response, such as reducing added sugars of course. And increasing periods between eating helps tone down insulin a lot. Because every time you eat, insulin secretion is stimulated. Although the amount secreted is trivial when eating fat, slightly greater when consuming protein and finally is highest when consuming carbs.
Because people rarely get a coronary angiogram to measure their calcium score unless their doctor suspects it might be related to whatever health issues you're experiencing or you're a previous heart attack patient. It's not a routine part of a yearly exam.
Having another exam done does NOT answer the REAL QUESTION… Another picture or image doesn’t clean or clear up the cardiac vessels.
Of course it doesn't. But if your score is trending in the wrong direction. You can slow the progression. That's the important takeaway for getting scored. Similar to how you check your BP and if it's trending in the wrong direction, you can get medication or make lifestyle changes that will prevent the high BP from causing a serious cardiovascular event.
Statins can importantly help stabilize arterial plaques and in extremely rare cases, reverse the build-up. But stabilization is an essential so that your existing plaques do not grow or rupture.
this is why I say they are stumped! Find a way to get the plague out without it breaking and causing a clot.
There are really tiny tools now that could maybe suck the plague and calcium out of the artery wall bit by bit, without damaging it enough to clot.
They are allowed to test this stuff on animals, for example a cow. The cow will be eaten anyway, so see if you can clean its arteries with advanced tech.
The tissue underlying the plaque is thrombogenic. It doesn't matter how you remove the plaque. Doing so would expose the lumen of the vessel, which would cause clotting.
But if you're sure you can make the procedure you propose work, you're certainly free to have a crack at it. You'll get very rich if you succeed. So go for it if you want.
I"m not talking about removing everything above that layer. Only about getting the plague and calcium out, without destroying the normal tissue. Someone said the plague is part of the arterial wall, so it should be extracted, like Saruman from King Theoden, leaving the rest of the upper tissue intact.
This could happen on a microscopic level, or with appropriate chemicals
The tissue underlying the plaque is thrombogenic. It doesn't matter how you remove the plaque. Doing so would expose the lumen of the vessel, which would cause clotting.
But if you're sure you can make the procedure you propose work, you're certainly free to have a crack at it. You'll get very rich if you succeed. So go for it if you want.
I"m not talking about removing everything above that layer. Only about getting the plague and calcium out, without destroying the normal tissue. Someone said the plague is part of the arterial wall, so it should be extracted, like Saruman from King Theoden, leaving the rest of the upper tissue intact.
This could happen on a microscopic level, or with appropriate chemicals
The body is a lot more complicated than you think and highly responsive to attempts at change.
Appropriate chemicals? Like what? You'd need to have a proposal for some in mind before bringing that up instead of talking like those kinds of chemicals exist. Anything that goes into your body has the potential to be metabolized by the liver.
If you take a chemical orally, the liver is the first stage after absorption in the gut where it gets processed. So you'd have problems to solve with such a chemical that include:
1) How do I design this chemical in such a way that it can be absorbed through the walls of the GI-tract so that it can be processed by the liver. And this has to be done safely. And it has to be done in a way that doesn't mess up calcium significantly in the body overall.
2) Plaque is made of a multitude of substances that together are called plaque. It's not just one compound. You probably don't want something passing through your cells that is strong enough to "melt away" components that form the plaques that are also metabolized in other parts of the body.
You'd want an actual person with a steady hand doing any removal and not rely on chemicals.
The tissue underlying the plaque is thrombogenic. It doesn't matter how you remove the plaque. Doing so would expose the lumen of the vessel, which would cause clotting.
But if you're sure you can make the procedure you propose work, you're certainly free to have a crack at it. You'll get very rich if you succeed. So go for it if you want.
I"m not talking about removing everything above that layer. Only about getting the plague and calcium out, without destroying the normal tissue. Someone said the plague is part of the arterial wall, so it should be extracted, like Saruman from King Theoden, leaving the rest of the upper tissue intact.
This could happen on a microscopic level, or with appropriate chemicals
Like I said, if you're really convinced that you can remove a diseased tissue without exposing the tissue that it is directly adhered to, you are welcome to do so and become fabulously rich. Good luck!
The preferred treatment for disorders is, in order of least to most invasive when it regards to an over-abundance of something in the body, whether it be cholesterol or insulin or some other chemicals in the body:
1) Prevention (diet and lifestyle)
2) Progression reduction and stabilization(diet, lifestyle or drugs that reduce the body's ability to produce as much as the out-of-control substance. i.e. statins reduce the liver's cholesterol production)
3) Non-surgical, minimally invasive procedures like stenting, catheter etc
4) Surgery (bariatric surgery in the case of diabetics, CABG in the case of people with hardened arteries)
I strongly recommend watching Ninja Nerd youtube channel. I know a lot and am not a medical student. Even though the channel is intended for medical students to learn material for exams, if you're genuinely interested in the material it's probably the best channel for any layman to learn more about medicine. It's presented an enjoyable easy to follow format but you can't be a complete idiot to follow along.
Many thanks for responding! I did read a few years ago about the inflammation scenario. But not a lot was published then.
I didn't know about the high sugar scenario you described. I am a sugar freak ! Pop, candy bars ice cream.
If I cut all this sugar out then my cholesterol will improve? Where can I get more info?
Again thanks !
There are guidelines for "added sugars". Those are the ones that can probably be eliminated entirely without no ill effect other than your initial withdrawal symptoms since we're addicted to them. But natural sugars are usually safe for someone with normal healthy sugar metabolism in the body. By natural here, I mean sugar as found in nature, unprocessed, such as in whole fruit.