Prato, Re: your calcium score:
My PCP became a little concerned about
a recent increase(actually a few months after mt RP) in my Total and LDL cholesterol, especially the pretty high LDL and slightly low HDL. Even though, over the years all of this goes up and down for me. And even though I have zero symptoms, even under the frequent stress test of hiking up steep hills with a pack, and even though I have no family history at all of heart disease, and my blood pressure was pretty low, in the normal range for a 20 year old, and my triglycerides were actually on the low side, he still wanted the test just because the LDL had jumped up.
So before he tried to talk me into statins, he wanted to "quantify my risk" with a calcium scoring. He said most doctors would have me on statins already, but he wanted that extra test first. I was hesitant to have it, because like a PSA one thing often leads to another and sometimes you wonder if the cure is worse than the disease. And just like a PSA rise does not tell you if you're on your way to death by PC, I feel the same about
cholesterol testing. But prescribing statins for high cholesterol readings has to be the most popular thing most docs are involved with. And I have talked to so many people who have bad SEs, especially muscle pain from statins. And something tells me that if a drug causes muscle pain, that just can't be a good thing for over all health, and that it might be worse than slightly high cholesterol numbers. I'm sure there are opposite opinions on that subject, but that is just me.
But in the end, I broke down and agreed to the calcium scoring. My score was zero. I think that is about
as good as any one could score on that one test. So I was temporarily off the hook for the statins, but Doc said if my numbers don't come down he may try and talk me into the statins later.
Besides, if I am actually going to need to do something about
my cholesterol, I know how to do it without drugs. Once by doing Atkins or similar low carb/sugar eating approaches for 6 months, I not only dropped 42 lbs(kept most of it off for 10+ years), at the same time my heart burn/reflux disappeared, my BP came down from 140 to 150/90 and rising steadily to about
102/60(never really came back up to the higher levels even when I regained much of the weight) and though my total Cholesterol went up a small amount from 190 to 200, my HDL went from about
25 up to 50+, and my LDL dropped dramatically(can't remember exact figures) and my triglycerides dropped from well over 200 to 39. Dropping me into the labs lowest cardiac risk rating. If that wasn't enough, I had a friend with cholesterol problems and reflux and high BP who decided to try the same approach after observing a couple of months of my success. He had pretty much identical results. So if I get worried bout my cholesterol, I will take that dietary approach again and see how it goes before I will opt for a drug and possible SEs. So far, at age 66, I am still on zero prescript
ion drugs unless I fill my rehab drugs, which I have not done recently.
Prato, I hope the doc interprets your test as not being worth intervention. Are you already on statins? If not, I can't imagine them not putting you on them. Good luck Bro!
EDIT: I just looked back at the OP, and I see you are not on statins. It will be interesting to see if they want to change that even though you have a 136 TC. Which is quite low. What is interesting to me: I often am skeptical about
the entire cholesterol risk and drugs to treat thingy, call me crazy. But now look at your case: if you can have a very low cholesterol reading, and yet have a calcium scoring of almost 1000, then how much good information is that uber low TC reading actually giving you? Or in my case, my recently increased TC was slightly high (220?) and my LDL was definitely high (maybe 140-50?), and yet my Calcium score was
zero? It does make me wonder about
the usefulness of cholesterol numbers, at least unless they are astronomical. Or maybe it is the calcium scoring that is not useful information?
I think I actually have a point from all of this: don't let any of these #'s get you too worked up!
Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 6/17/2015 9:00:28 PM (GMT-6)