Pratoman said...
Thanks Tim.
The problem is that what I have, a high Plaque burden is not really reversible. It means I have a lot of calcium embedded in my arteries.
This puts me at something like 20-30% risk of heart attack in the next 5 years. The best I could hope for is to stop the progression, and to do so I would have to practically live a celibate life as far as stress and diet go.
My next task is to dined a good cardiologist on a par with my prostate surgeon, because I'm getting some mixed signals from the two cardiologists I've seen locally. The problem is that surprisingly, the resources to find that guy are not that apparent, unlike the resources for finding a great PC surgeon.
The heart disease section of this forum is not at all active.
Well if there is nothing to be done about
it, I think you would be better off not knowing about
it. Now this has replaced PC and PSAs for your worry source. Of course, you had some symptoms so it is hard to avoid not knowing even if you did not want to. Plus, I have to think something can be done about
it, at least to some worthwhile degree.
As we both know, we aint getting out alive. Average lifespan is maybe 78-80. That gives me 12-14 years on average. And as we also know the vast majority of us are going to die of something other than PC. Heck, probably even the majority of those of us diagnosed with PC are going to die of something else. But either way, something is going to get us.
You talk about
living a celibate lifestyle to have much hope, but I personally find that pretty debatable. You may have gathered that I am a bit of an alternative type guy, and I won't be going into any of that here as you have not asked for it plus it would start strong responses from all the folks who are from the "if the MD/pharm authorities don't recommend it it is quackery" school of thought. But do you ever wonder how on earth you could have a quite low cholesterol combined with a 900+ calcium score? While someone like me can eat high fat diets(though at least sometimes also low carb), have a much higher cholesterol than you do, am a bit overweight, and yet have a zero calcium score and no prescript
ion meds(but plenty of supplements over the years) and can run up a steep hill off trail with a 20+lb pack and still never get any symptoms so far? That sort of thing does always make me wonder and it makes me wonder whenever I hear conventional medical wisdom. See, if you had not had these symptoms leading to the calcium test, you might have thought you were as good as it could get heart wise what with that cholesterol score. Why? because docs want to get any one with even a moderate cholesterol score(but still a lot higher than your low one) onto statin meds, so they can get us down close to your level. It is hard these days to find a doc who doesn't want their patients on statins to hopefully get a total number well below 200, and an LDL lower than 90. But aren't your numbers nice and low? Well then how is it you can be worried about
the calcium in your arteries? It would seem that if both of those things are important for heart health based on statistics of who does well, that they could not be contradictory to each other.
My point is, don't get to down over what some doctor says to you. A lot of it depends on which doctor you ask, and even if they all say the same thing, conventional wisdom is not always wise and is often disproved in the future. For some entertainment, look up Ignaz Semmelweis, the guy that first suggested that physicians should wash their hands after doing autopsies before they did pelvic exams on women in labor. Just read about
how that went over with all of his fellow physicians! That was definitely totally against what all other well respected doctors KNEW was correct! By your own #s, you have a 70% chance of NOT dying from an MI/stroke in the next 5 years. Plus, I suspect there is indeed something you can do to improve matters, and it probably won't require a life the equiv of celibacy in all areas of life. But you will need to research that on your own, as any recommendations from me would probably lead to lynch mob action!
Personally, I figure there is a high chance of hemorrhagic stroke/ruptured aneurism/cerebral hemorrhage taking me out before(what I think is) my time. Why? Strong family history, despite my uber low calcium scoring and fairly low BP and zero cardio-symptoms. Family history can be hard to escape. But I don't know any more to do about
it so I don't spend much time thinking about
it. I have to go from something anyway. So cheer up my PC brother, who knows maybe pancreatic cancer or car wreck or jealous husband will kill you before either PC or heart disease!
/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_SemmelweisSomebody said...
Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis[Note 1] (born Semmelweis Ignác Fülöp; 1 July 1818 – 13 August 1865) was a Hungarian physician of German extraction now known as an early pioneer of antiseptic procedures. Described as the "savior of mothers", Semmelweis discovered that the incidence of puerperal fever (also known as "childbed fever") could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics. Puerperal fever was common in mid-19th-century hospitals and often fatal, with mortality at 10%–35%. Semmelweis proposed the practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847 while working in Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of midwives' wards. He published a book of his findings in Etiology, Concept and Prophylaxis of Childbed Fever.
Despite various publications of results where hand washing reduced mortality to below 1%, Semmelweis's observations conflicted with the established scientific and medical opinions of the time and his ideas were rejected by the medical community. Some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and Semmelweis could offer no acceptable scientific explanation for his findings. Semmelweis's practice earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory and Joseph Lister, acting on the French microbiologist's research, practiced and operated, using hygienic methods, with great success. In 1865, Semmelweis was committed to an asylum, where he died at age 47 of pyaemia, after being beaten by the guards, only 14 days after he was committed.............Semmelweis, upon arriving from the Habsburg Vienna in 1850, likely was not warmly welcomed in Pest.
On May 20, 1851. Semmelweis took the relatively insignificant, unpaid, honorary head-physician position of the obstetric ward of Pest's small Szent Rókus Hospital. He held that position for six years, until June 1857.[6]:107[8]:68 Childbed fever was rampant at the clinic; at a visit in 1850, just after returning to Pest, Semmelweis found one fresh corpse, another patient in severe agony, and four others seriously ill with the disease. After taking over in 1851, Semmelweis virtually eliminated the disease. During 1851–1855, only eight patients died from childbed fever out of 933 births (0.85%).[6]:106–108
Despite the impressive results, Semmelweis's ideas were not accepted by the other obstetricians in Budapest. The professor of obstetrics at the University of Pest, Ede Flórián Birly, never adopted Semmelweis's methods. He continued to believe that puerperal fever was due to uncleanliness of the bowel.[6]:24* Therefore, extensive purging was the preferred treatment.
Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 6/23/2015 9:57:10 PM (GMT-6)