Not to brag, but

(Robin) #1

Finally got my first Cardiac Calcium Scan results. I have a whopping Agatston score of 32. Whew. I didn’t realize I was worried until the letter came. I do wish I had one pre-keto. But since I’ve only been on keto for 4.5 months, I doubt it could make a significant difference. Whatever, I am quite relieved and plan to celebrate with some chicken thighs fried in bacon grease and butter. And what the heck, heavy whipping cream in my coffee. Wheeeee!

(UsedToBeT2D) #2

What are the metrics for this score?

(Robin) #3

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(Robin) #4

It cracks me up that the “danger zone” recommendation is aspirin. My husbands score is 359. My ex-husband’s score is 1335! He is getting ready for his next scan after 1 year of strict keto and ALL the supplements.

(Joey) #5

@robintemplin Congrats! It’s good to know what’s going on inside :+1:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #6

Apparently, the value of the score is not as important as the trend. If the score is stable or declining, the cardiovascular risk is minimal; if it is increasing (not likely if someone is eating ketogenically), look out! However, if your calcification score is over 100, your physician is going to want to put you on a statin, so be prepared to fight.

Arterial calcification can be reversed, but the process is slow and requires plenty of vitamins A and K, as I understand it. Eating in a way that maximises those vitamins is very helpful.

(UsedToBeT2D) #7

A pill (aspirin) is always the solution.

(Robin) #8

I’m going to wait for my sixth month on keto, then do a cholesterol check, plus the other stuff (I always have to look it up). Then, I am going to take my statin and drop it like it’s hot. Wait another 6 months and check again.

(Bacon for the Win) #9

congratulations! I had my CAC done this week and scored a strong 0. Very excited for us both!

(Joey) #10

If I recall the research on this, in addition to Vit K, Vit D is also a key component - as they work together with calcium in a three-way biochemical mechanism to bind the calcium in the tissue where it belongs. I.e., in the bones, not in the coronary arteries.

Will dredge up peer-reviewed papers if needed, but that’s my recollection on the fly.

My wife and I take a K2 and D3 daily and during the warm weather strive to get 15-20 minutes of healthy sunshine daily.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #11

I might have meant D instead of A, but I don’t remember at the moment. Perhaps all three are helpful?

If you have links to papers, that you can easily find and post, that would be great. I had a lot of links and also texts of studies on my hard drive at one time, until a firmware update to my desktop computer locked me out of Windows, and I had to re-format my hard drive and reinstall Windows. :scream: I’m still rebuilding my references.

Moral: always do your backups! (yeah, yeah, yeah!)

(Joey) #12

Perhaps the most plain language, carefully-footnoted coverage of this topic may be found in Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue’s “Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox.” Many peer-reviewed citations are found throughout.

And @PaulL you are correct, as usual, that along with D and K, Vit A is also part of the triumvirate… together they put calcium in its proper place.

(Bob M) #13

Statins actually cause more calcification. They address this by saying “but it’s more stable calcification”.

I wouldn’t be too concerned about your cholesterol values, other than maybe trigs (lower is better) and HDL (higher is better). These, I believe, are just markers of good/bad diets, though.

It can take a while to get things “right”. I think my “pattern” started in B (as in “bad”) and went to A, but it took some time.

(Robin) #14

Holy cow! I have heard of such mythical creatures such as yourself! I assumed one would have to be a baby still being breast-fed! Just being 66 made me expect much worse.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #15

Many people have no calcification of the arteries. It causes consternation to physicians who want to put them on a statin, because of their cholesterol level.

(Bacon for the Win) #16

I do that too. Welcome to the Unicorn Club.

I’m not too far behind you. My mother died from a massive MI, no one saw it coming. Her cholesterol was “fine”. My PCP and the cards she consulted with fought against me having this test, even tho the PCP was the one who told me she could order it. I had mentioned doing it at an outside facility and she volunteered that I could have it done in house. Then fought me about it.

My SIL’s score was in the 1200s. Would like to see what my husband’s score is since heart disease runs in his family. But he doesn’t always make good choices, so I would not expect his to be as low as mine.

(Bob M) #17

I also got a zero, but I’m a “young” lad at 56. That was after about 5.5 years low carb/keto, with intermittent and longer-term (longest 5.5 days) fasting. I guess “saturated fat” might not be that bad after all. And I’m still overweight, so maybe being overweight isn’t bad?

(Troy) #18

What exactly is the " aspirin therapy " ? Plan
:thinking:
Interesting

(Robin) #19

Exactly. Hmmmm…

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #20

There is a notion that taking a tablet of aspirin a day will help (men, at least) keep the blood thin and avoid a heart attack. Whether this has been demonstrated or was someone’s educated hypothesis, I don’t know. How relevant it is when we eat a diet that doesn’t glycate our haemoglobin, I don’t know either.