I had an Agatson calcium score of 4335 last year but was still reasonably fit. But October last year I was not feeling great and my cardio advised an angiogram, the kind where they go in at the wrist. During this procedure I was told coronary artery was almost blocked in two places. The next morning they went in again and placed 4 stents, in one of the spots the balloon had to be inflated to 22 atm to crack it open.
I hoped to get fitter after this but I am less fit now compared to last year unfortunately.
I am on Prasugrel anticlotting, Amlodipine, Isosorbidemononitraat, and now they want me to take Perendopril as well. But my blood pressure is 115/63 and I have headaches and feel dizzy and tired. I was on Rephata gave that a break and I would prefer to quit everything but the prasugrel. The only thing my cardiologist does is check my cholesterol , my ldl and hdl are both quite high.
I have started doing everything Malcolm Kendrick advices in his book The Clot Thickens_ The Enduring Mystery of Heart Disease :
• Vitamin D – in the winter
• Vitamin C
• Potassium
• Magnesium
• L-arginine/citrulline
If you already have diagnosed heart disease
• Chondroitin sulphate
• Thiamine B1
• Co-enzyme Q-10
And I take K2
I am 70 yo and open to advice!
Very High Calcium Score
Wow! I just read through the thread to refresh my memory. Your calcium score took a huge jump from the first time you posted. Do you have any thoughts about why that may have happened? Do the doctors have any thoughts?
Please keep us updated about how your new protocol works.
My calcium score has only been measured one time and that was already 4 years ago.
Here in the Netherlands they are not going to test it again, waste of time and money…
The only thing my cardiologists are interested in is lowering my cholesterol as much as possible and having me take all kinds of medicine to lower my blood pressure, but my BP is 115/63 taking only Amlodipine and that is enough to make me dizzy!
I have headaches and severe tinitus, making it difficult quitting alcohol.
Did any of you read Malcolm Kendrick’s book The Clot Thickens_ The Enduring Mystery of Heart Disease ?
I am reading it right now for the second time and I recommend it!
I have read it, but it has been a while. I should probably read through it again. My brother, who is 57, and a lifelong smoker and alcoholic, recently had two small strokes. He also has a clogged carotid artery, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a very high CAC score. The years of drinking and smoking have taken their toll.
He was in the throes of tying to quit alcohol when he had the strokes. Alcohol withdrawal can be deadly if not done under medical supervision, which he was not. If you decide you want to quit drinking alcohol, please do it under medical supervision. I believe if he had gone to the hospital when I asked him to, he possibly could have avoided the second stroke.
I suppose I got my stents just in time!
I quit smoking 35 years ago and I quit alcohol 6 days ago.
I love to have a drink to relax but find it hard to stop after one or two drinks.
I had a bad day yesterday but I am much better today fortunately.
But would love to have a glass of wine now!
My husband and I got CAC tests in 2021 - mine were all 0, but he had 114 in one artery. A year later he ended up in the ER with his blood pressure that was high and wasn’t being lowered with meds. They did the heart cath test and found blockage and inserted 2 stents.
He was on no meds before that and on several now, but no statins.
I am 67 and still do not take any meds knock on wood
Sometimes I think it’s the habit that makes it harder to give up than the addiction. Good luck with not drinking. I wish my brother had gotten medical assistance to help with his withdrawal.
I am not telling you to stop medications, but 5 years ago I was getting HBP, and rather than go on any meds, I was determined to figure things out on my own.
I started with 10,000 IUs in the winter because I get virtually no sun that time of year.
the citrulline is much more important than the arginine, because most of the arginine is removed by the liver. I occassionally take over 2 gr of citrulline, but at least 1/2 gr nightly.
make sure it is MK-7 form as this has more residual to reach out to the capillaries. I take at least 100 mcg/day, but since you have active CVD, I personally would take more.
I also take Ubiquinol - quite important form of CoQ10 if you are on a statin(I am not, but take it anyway)
Something else I started taking 1 year ago - astaxanthin and SOD - and this year my oxLDL dropped 20 pts down to 47. I feel this is a very important marker for CVD. oxLDL in the artery wall is basically what starts CVD.
Try to eat high SOLUBLE fiber foods with your proteins. These feed the gut microbiota which make short chain fats with them. What is not used by the colonocytes gets aborbed into the blood where it feeds your endothelial cells, which “relax” when burning SCFAs rather than blood sugar. I believe this is a main benefit of preventing the LDL from lodging in the endothelial cells and starting heart disease.
For me these foods include berries, asparagus, cruciferous vegetables - at a minimum. These still allow me to obtain ketosis.
Last Oct I had a carotid artery sonogram -> found no plaque, which 90% of people my age(63) have. My blood pressure off keto is usually in the 110s/70s, and often is lower when I do keto. Never any heart/BP meds in my life. My wife had to stop her BP meds last time she did keto, because her pressure was going too low.