Anyone get a high CAC score and go for significant lifestyle changes

[alarmguy]

My father died on the hardening of the arteries....atherosclerosis.....

There is some research that leads to a conclusion that lemon juice considerably opens up the arteries and helps the body naturally clean itself out.

We can only abuse our bodies for so long............I hope you get it on the right track fella

Just one thing to keep in mind even if you don’t abuse, your body Hi Lipo A is unstoppable and uncorrectable. It’s generic no matter how perfect you eat or maintain your weight.
Obviously, doing everything you can to be the ultimate picture of health will at least help some

 

[ripcord]

On your fasting glucose level. What was the green range?

As you could see by mine, it goes up to 99 and one other one for some reason 106

But any quick Internet search says normal glucose is up to 100 so I don’t know why Pablo’s is normal range is up to 140.
I’m just trying to understand.

Here it is right here. 100 is the number yet Pablo’s test is showing 140 as normal. So I don’t know why and why are my high test number did the green range go up to 106 when my previous tests were all 99 as normal
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/21952-fasting-blood-sugar

I didn't go back and look at all of Pablo's posts, but I do know there are are different glucose tests. For a fasting glucose test, you want to be below 100. There is a different glucose test called a glucose tolerance test where they have you drink a test beverage with 70 grams of glucose in it and after 2 hours, your glucose should be under 140. I bet that's what you were looking at. I think they only give the tolerance test if other markers like the A1C indicates diabetes mellitus.

 

[Pablo]

It says right on the pasted image:

 

[alarmguy]

It says right on the pasted image:

View attachment 311371

Good to know, glucose random, was never in my world. Now that you mentioned it, I went back and expanded the image you posted. And I see it.
However, it was never on any of mine, so I never even thought to look at it.
Oops, look for it.

 

[Pablo]

Good to know, glucose random, was never in my world. Now that you mentioned it, I went back and expanded the image you posted. And I see it.
However, it was never on any of mine, so I never even thought to look at it.
Oops, look for it.

By random (which isn't truly "random") they mean any time, any time after eating. Vs. Fasting which is vague as well. How long ?

 

[alarmguy]

By random (which isn't truly "random") they mean any time, any time after eating. Vs. Fasting which is vague as well. How long ?

10 to 12 hours
I don’t disagree as far as vague I just never heard of the other method

 

[AZjeff]

I may also have to give up Diet Birch Beer soda!! Or at least cut back significantly.

@Donald, if there's any truth to your reluctance to give up diet soda you aren't ready to double down yet.

I switched from Diet Pepsi to Bubly sparkling water for a couple of months and finally said enough and stopped that and drink water and 1 cup of coffee in the morning.

It's hard enough to give up foods you like to get on the health train, it's harder to try to eat things you don't like because they're healthy or less unhealthy.

@Pablo, if I gave up your kryptonite list I'd look like POW.

 

[Donald]

According to the December issue of the Cleveland Clinic's December 2025 Heart Advisor issue.
A high CAC (Coronary CT Calcium Scoring) means you have "Atherosclerosis" Plaque and that takes "a long time to calcify", it grows slowly, "so their presence suggests an individual has had CAD for a long time."

Anyway it is a very interesting article Im always interested in learning about this stuff because this is a part of me too. AS I have CAD.
According to what I am reading, it is this old hard calcified plaque that is the danger. The test does not pick up the soft plaque still forming.

It suggests anyone diagnosed with CAD should already be on a statin and the test is pointless in that case.
Of course talk with your doctor. There is a whole paragraph on who should skip the test. Those already on a statin, those experiencing symptoms of CAD or heart attack, those who already have been diagnosed, and those taking a high intensity statin.

Pretty much the test is valuable for healthy people who have never been diagnosed with CAD and have no symptoms. Because if they find calcified deposits they will most likely start statin therapy.

This is all on Page 3 of the Dec 2025 Heart Advisor issue from the Cleveland clinic. Which also suggests to talk to your physician about this subject. What I posted is my interpretation of what I am reading.

So calcified plaque while not great will almost never cause a heart attack or stroke. It's the soft plaque that will. Detecting soft plaque is not easy. Except in cartoid artery. Then a CIMT test can pick it up.

New scientific research is saying you cannot go by LDL number. The numbers that are more important are VLDL or small LDL or triglycerides/HDL.

Large LDL cannot pass through the inner artery wall. Only small LDL.

And I keep on reading on the topic.

And watch out of a hospital or imaging center that offers a CAC for $50. It's a loss leader. They hope you will have a high score so they can sell you more tests or procedures.

 

[Donald]

@Donald, if there's any truth to your reluctance to give up diet soda you aren't ready to double down yet.

I switched from Diet Pepsi to Bubly sparkling water for a couple of months and finally said enough and stopped that and drink water and 1 cup of coffee in the morning.

It's hard enough to give up foods you like to get on the health train, it's harder to try to eat things you don't like because they're healthy or less unhealthy.

@Pablo, if I gave up your kryptonite list I'd look like POW.

I am on day four of almost no carbs. But eating normally fruits, vegetables and meat/poultry/fish.

My blood sugar is 108 before anything to eat. I assume liver is making glucose. Maybe pulling it from fatty liver.

I realize diet soda has to go. That will come when I work on gur health.

 

[alarmguy]

So calcified plaque while not great will almost never cause a heart attack or stroke. It's the soft plaque that will. Detecting soft plaque is not easy. Except in cartoid artery. Then a CIMT test can pick it up.

New scientific research is saying you cannot go by LDL number. The numbers that are more important are VLDL or small LDL or triglycerides/HDL.

Large LDL cannot pass through the inner artery wall. Only small LDL.

And I keep on reading on the topic.

And watch out of a hospital or imaging center that offers a CAC for $50. It's a loss leader. They hope you will have a high score so they can sell you more tests or procedures.

Not sure if you are following my posts. The gold standard for finding both hard and soft plaque is a Cardiac Angiogram. I was lucky and thankful to have a cardiologist be able to get it approved for me. I know all about this from the people on the male side of the family. I am the ONLY one so far who has not needed a quad heart bypass. I know all the procedures and why when I was having issues. mostly PVC related they managed because of my family history to get it done for me. I made it well known I wanted one.

SO they performed an invasive coronary angiography (ICA), It involves snaking a slender tube (catheter) through a leg or arm artery up to the heart and injecting a special dye visible on an x-ray. It shows both hard and soft. Actually it's the method used when a blockage is found during the procedure to place a stent and open the vein or artery.

I never had a CAC.
AS far as LDL ... getting it as low as possible (mine was always low) to help as much as possible for the uncontrollable Hi Lipo A (the other bad Cholestrol. All my lipids are stellar, always have been. Results Posted in here many times, however I have plaque "all over the place" according to the cardiologist who did my invasive angiogram. With that said, nothing to be done because the levels are at 20%. As an example, a stress test because of chest pain results will only show that if you have blockages of roughly 70% or more.

SO by keeping my lipids textbook perfect my whole life kept me out of the diabetes and heart by passes of family members. One of them used to make fun of the way I eat. However I have that "plaque all over the place" (exact words he told my wife)
I can only assume because of the bad Lipo A numbers I have. Soon there will be a drug for it, right now, nothing can be done except keep the numbers low.

I enjoy our conversations I can see you are informed on a lot of this stuff too.

I was going to look for my "films" but found this YouTube much easier. I'll never forget it, it was so cool, I was semi awake, they actually talk to you while they do it. I remember seeing large panel of displays in the room and I remember this image exactly when they were injecting the dye. It was creepy in the sense I was "not all there"
AN 8 second video of what happens once they thread the catheter up to your heart and inject the die. They did mine starting my groin area.



This is fascinating video of the above and during that procedure they find a blockage and open it up. I didnt need one but I encourage anyone if your doctor feels you should, do it. It's actually amazing, you wont feel a thing but you will sort of know what is going on.
If there is an issue, dont ignore it, the sooner they open up any blockages you will stop killing heart muscle.

 

[Donald]

Not sure if you are following my posts. The gold standard for finding both hard and soft plaque is a Cardiac Angiogram. I was lucky and thankful to have a cardiologist be able to get it approved for me. I know all about this from the people on the male side of the family. I am the ONLY one so far who has not needed a quad heart bypass. I know all the procedures and why when I was having issues. mostly PVC related they managed because of my family history to get it done for me. I made it well known I wanted one.

SO they performed an invasive coronary angiography (ICA), It involves snaking a slender tube (catheter) through a leg or arm artery up to the heart and injecting a special dye visible on an x-ray. It shows both hard and soft. Actually it's the method used when a blockage is found during the procedure to place a stent and open the vein or artery.

I never had a CAC.
AS far as LDL ... getting it as low as possible (mine was always low) to help as much as possible for the uncontrollable Hi Lipo A (the other bad Cholestrol. All my lipids are stellar, always have been. Results Posted in here many times, however I have plaque "all over the place" according to the cardiologist who did my invasive angiogram. With that said, nothing to be done because the levels are at 20%. As an example, a stress test because of chest pain results will only show that if you have blockages of roughly 70% or more.

SO by keeping my lipids textbook perfect my whole life kept me out of the diabetes and heart by passes of family members. One of them used to make fun of the way I eat. However I have that "plaque all over the place" (exact words he told my wife)
I can only assume because of the bad Lipo A numbers I have. Soon there will be a drug for it, right now, nothing can be done except keep the numbers low.

I enjoy our conversations I can see you are informed on a lot of this stuff too.

I was going to look for my "films" but found this YouTube much easier. I'll never forget it, it was so cool, I was semi awake, they actually talk to you while they do it. I remember seeing large panel of displays in the room and I remember this image exactly when they were injecting the dye. It was creepy in the sense I was "not all there"
AN 8 second video of what happens once they thread the catheter up to your heart and inject the die. They did mine starting my groin area.



This is fascinating video of the above and during that procedure they find a blockage and open it up. I didnt need one but I encourage anyone if your doctor feels you should, do it. It's actually amazing, you wont feel a thing but you will sort of know what is going on.
If there is an issue, dont ignore it, the sooner they open up any blockages you will stop killing heart muscle.

My wife visited her mother for a week so I binged Metabolic Classroom on YouTube. I started with #40. Dr Bikman says it's not well understood why Lipids flow through the inner artery wall. And his testing reveals not much happens unless there is oxidation, typically from Omega 6 or seed oil. He suggests to stay away from seed oils and use fruit oils like olive and avacodo. In addition they always find bacteria infection in the plaque. LDL deals with infections in the body and some with very low LDL have major issues with infections like septis. He feels it's possible the Lipid flow through the inner artery wall to deal with an infection vs the Lipids flow through the artery wall for unknown reason and causes an infection.

Was just reading about CAR T that could treat inflammation in arteries.

I have watched a few videos from Dr William Davis MD who seems to know what he is talking about.

I too have high Lp(a) and waiting for upcoming drugs to treat it.

So I read a lot and get 15 or 20 min a year to talk to my cardiologist.

Dr Ben Bikman two pieces of advice

Eat well to stay healthy, exercise to stay fit.

Avoid bags & boxes with barcodes. Go for unrefined carbs, don't drink your fruits & vegetables, don't fear the fat. Quality protein. Very hard to get all the needed amino acids from plant protein. Easy with meat.

 

[alarmguy]

My wife visited her mother for a week so I binged Metabolic Classroom on YouTube. I started with #40. Dr Bikman says it's not well understood why Lipids flow through the inner artery wall. And his testing reveals not much happens unless there is oxidation, typically from Omega 6 or seed oil. He suggests to stay away from seed oils and use fruit oils like olive and avacodo. In addition they always find bacteria infection in the plaque. LDL deals with infections in the body and some with very low LDL have major issues with infections like septis. He feels it's possible the Lipid flow through the inner artery wall to deal with an infection vs the Lipids flow through the artery wall for unknown reason and causes an infection.

Was just reading about CAR T that could treat inflammation in arteries.

I have watched a few videos from Dr William Davis MD who seems to know what he is talking about.

I too have high Lp(a) and waiting for upcoming drugs to treat it.

So I read a lot and get 15 or 20 min a year to talk to my cardiologist.

Dr Ben Bikman two pieces of advice

Eat well to stay healthy, exercise to stay fit.

Avoid bags & boxes with barcodes. Go for unrefined carbs, don't drink your fruits & vegetables, don't fear the fat. Quality protein. Very hard to get all the needed amino acids from plant protein. Easy with meat.

OMG... well we are on the same page about food and inflammation, seed oils, sugar. The American diet is crap, the food in our supermarkets mostly poison and we "infected" the rest of the world with this junk too.

There is a cool app called YUKA available on Android and Apple, it installs on your iPhone or Android. Its built in scanner scans the barcode of any food product you choose. instantly rates the food and lists the ingredients. the bad stuff marked in Red and you can expand to read about why.

Example. I dont eat a lot of bread, we freeze it. On occasion as a treat I will make an awesome sandwich of Tuna or Chicken/Turkey. So when in Costco last week I wanted to pick up one of their two packs. Of what I thought was ok to eat bread got a not so great mark of Ok rating of 60 out of 100. It gives the reason why - bad was texturizers or something. SO I continued scanning.
First time I saw a 100% rating I think on any product. Daves Organic Whole Grain and Seed bread.
Just a tiny example. The amount of garbage we eat is insane, INSANE.

Yeah, I meet with my Cardiologist once a year too. It's why a year ago he suggested going up from a 5mg statin to a 10 mg statin because he had the good sense to do a Lipo A blood test that year. My Blood lipids are textbook perfect to the low end however My Lipo A is way to high, nothing can be done about it as you know, so go for ultra low everything else is the thinking in some medical circles. Im one of those and one who takes things to an extreme and a goal. Its what motivates me and we all have that something in us for motivation when is comes to doing the best for ourselves. A sibling of mine thinks for some reason I am not "living" life to the fullest because I dont eat the junk that they do. Yet he had a quad bypass, has a multi purpose device in his chest that communicates through the cell network on his heart. I just dont get it.

 

[ripcord]

I don't think the blame for junk food sits totally on the USA. The rest of the world was able to figure out junk food on their own, just fine.

 

[burbguy82]

I am on day four of almost no carbs. But eating normally fruits, vegetables and meat/poultry/fish.

My blood sugar is 108 before anything to eat. I assume liver is making glucose. Maybe pulling it from fatty liver.

I realize diet soda has to go. That will come when I work on gur health.

The omission of carbs will force your body to eat its own fat............I suggest 1 apple per day max, no more fruit.

try BPC-157 and zinc carnosine for gut health....both in pill form...

https://swisschems.is/product/bpc-157-30000-mcg-60capsules-0-5mg-capsule/

BPC-157 is peptide, recommended to me from a friend, sports trainer, for gut health and overall systematic repair. I have been taking it with great results for the past couple months.

Zinc Carnosine can be has from amazon.

 

[Donald]

The omission of carbs will force your body to eat its own fat............I suggest 1 apple per day max, no more fruit.

try BPC-157 and zinc carnosine for gut health....both in pill form...

https://swisschems.is/product/bpc-157-30000-mcg-60capsules-0-5mg-capsule/

BPC-157 is peptide, recommended to me from a friend, sports trainer, for gut health and overall systematic repair. I have been taking it with great results for the past couple months.

Zinc Carnosine can be has from amazon.

I am told that the body is eager to burn visceral fat.

I bought (yet another) book on gut health by Dr William Davis MD and he talks about making up a SILO yougart . Even though it's not really yougart. His book tells where to source the probiotics to make the SILO yougart. He explains the issue with SILO is microbes that should be in your colon get up into small intestine. That seems to be connected to coronary artery disease. But you should watch his YouTube video where he explains it better than I can.

Next thing on my list is to read all the books I have bought on health.

If I was rich I would hire someone to read all these health books and net it out for me. I probably have 6 months of 8 hours a day of reading to do.

 

[Donald]

I was watching a YT video from Dr William.Davis on Lp(a).

Very interesting. The men who have it tend to be long distance runners, skinny, smart and math oriented. And their blood work looks like they are obese.

I have Lp(a) and have a BS in Math. Not really skinny. Not long distance runner. But very smart. (Ha).

He suggests Omega 3 with 6000 of combined EPA/DHA.

You cannot fix the Lp(a) but can change it from a small particle to a large particle where is will matter much less.

 

[AZjeff]

Eat well to stay healthy, exercise to stay fit.

Most important sentence in this thread. Sounds so easy, difficult to do. Healthy and fit are different but connected conditions.

It shouldn't be so hard and more expensive to eat clean food and most people can do something to get some cardio benefit but just don't.

 

[repairman54]

I saw my cath live when I had my second set of stents put in. Got semi conscience on the slab during the procedure. I was able to look up at the screen and watch the dye pumping through.
I could feel something in my chest, no pain just a feeling of something in there, nurse talked to me and I answered, then I was out again.

 

[alarmguy]

I saw my cath live when I had my second set of stents put in. Got semi conscience on the slab during the procedure. I was able to look up at the screen and watch the dye pumping through.
I could feel something in my chest, no pain just a feeling of something in there, nurse talked to me and I answered, then I was out again.

Yeah, isn’t that cool?
I was kind of in and out, and I look up the screens and it was almost eerie, the screen is black except you see the veins around your heart, but you don’t see your heart lit up with dye. It was like a dream and you’re already in a dreamy state.

You just see the veins moving with the beating of the heart but no heart. Like a 3-D image with nothing surrounding the radioactive lit up veins, but dark black all except for them, and moving in and out with the beat of your heart

I love all this stuff as long as it doesn’t cause too much pain and the angiogram was painless.

I didn’t need stents. Good wishes to you. Hope you’re still doing well.

 

[repairman54]

That was 20 years ago. Thanks, still doing good and passing all those echo's all these years later.