I have some atheroma

[marsaday]

I have had a CT angiogram recently and i have a narrowing of the right coronary artery at the beginning.

In the left CA there was the appearance of a possible lesion in the mid left anterior descending but they thought this was artifactual and so not related to me (does this mean it was a screen fault).

Any idea what this means relative to men aged late 40's. Is it normal to have some narrowing at least ?

It has been recommended i take an aspirin and a statin a day, but i am against the statin as i am a thyroid patient and i have read statins are not so good for us.

My cholesterol was good at my last check, 4 with a 1.4 HDL.

I did well on the treadmill test and the echocardiogram was fine, all normal function.

They are recommending i go for a stress echo test.

I haven't seen the consultant about the results but was given a copy of their findings today when i went to see the GP.

I am fit and active, late 40's, don't smoke, only drink a little wine per week on saturday. My weight is the same today as i was aged in the 20's. I have a under active thyroid and this does cause me issues and apparently this can mean i am more likely to get some form of heart disease i think.

I would be interested in understanding where i fit in the world of heart disease.

[marsaday]

Can anyone give me any feedback on this subject please ?

[Braydo in reply to marsaday]

Hi

I am the sameas you, found ou5 yesterday ihave a narrowing of 1 artery. Just started on aspirin, nitrates and a statin. I think if you are unsure to speak to your cardiologist or gp. You do have a choice. If your notkeen to have a statin then you will needto look at your diet. Statins not only reduce your cholesterol levels but also gives some protection against heart attacks. I am not overlykeen on statins, i did try to change my diet but as you get older your cholesterol goes higher as well. I inlymanaged to reduce is slightly but not enough so don,t have a choice. I take diliatezem as well and these have interactions with statins but i have faithin my cardiologist who knows what he isdoing to keep me alife longer. You hav3 to weigh up the odds at the end of the day. Is your thyroid problem going to kill you.

[marsaday in reply to Braydo]

Oh thanks for the reply. Glad someone is in the same boat.

I haven't seen the cardio yet, just had an appointment with the GP about my achy joints (possibly thyroid related). She just filled me in on what the cardio had written to the surgery. So i have a copy of the letter, but no more info. I need to have a stress test now so i will not see the cardio until end of May. So i was a little in the dark about this issue and have been reading since.

Could you give me some more info on what the cardio said. I would like to know how serious this is in the scheme of heart issues. I am thinking most people have some narrowing of an artery when they get to late 40's. From the letter i don't think it is super serious, but they want to do this stress test to see how the heart behaves under duress and then hopefully i will get the all ok. You see i play sport and for me to not play would be life changing.

I was thinking about taking an aspirin as i am aware it is the one thing to do to prolong a life (according to a tech billionaire doing research into this area). So that is done and not an issue.

The statin i will wait and speak to the cardio about. We need good cholesterol levels to make our steroid hormones and mine was good, so i cant see why i would need to reduce it further.

The thyroid problem is most definitely the thing which will kill me. It is a super serious condition usually over looked by the medical world as being an inconvenience. It sits at the centre of the metabolism and so is responsible for loads of things going wrong with the body, including heart deaths. Low T3 levels are a big factor in heart attack.

Thyroid shunts cholesterol to be made into the steroid hormones so if we are low in thyroid we often have high cholesterol. High cholesterol used to be a low thyroid indicator in the older days (prior to 1970's). So the statin issue is a big think.

Have a read of Dr malcolm mackendricks blog or book about the great cholesterol con:

drmalcolmkendrick.org

When i see the cardio i will be chatting about the statin issue and whether he is aware of the problem. My cardio has a tube channel and he has explained about statins in one of his videos and i think he is enlightened about them. He does say IF you have some blockages then you should be on them. So i may defer to him after speaking.

[Sususulio in reply to marsaday]

Great that you have an enlightened cardiologist, I also have thyroid problems and balancing co-existing and sometimes volatile medical conditions isn’t easy. We know our bodies and need to make the informed choices that we are comfortable with. I’d be reluctant to offer any advice as such but would encourage you not to attribute symptoms to always being thyroid. With hindsight I think I did that and also allowed GP’s to tell me so when it probably was linked to the start of my own cardiac problems.Of course you’re right blood pressure, cholesterol can all be indicative of thyroid problems. You just have to be informed to advocate for yourself but there are lots of contradictions with medication and from professionals a very casual approach to ‘thyroid’ problems, we have to be our own champions.

Given that you list aspirin as a possible medication you might also want to consider the impact of PPI which is regularly prescribed alongside - you probably already know but for info:

pharmacytimes.com/publicati...