Hi everyone, not sure who might see this. I saw number of posts echoing being shocked and sadden from heart attacks, scan/test results. I am mid 50s and have generally a healthy life style (gym, cycling, badminton etc) and not overweight (some even call me thin). Usual annual blood tests combining other risk scores never pointed to CAD problem. I do however have a long history of slightly elevated cholesterol mid 5s (mainly triglycerides mid 2-3) which no matter what I do, stubborn from going down. I was told that how I am made so don't worry. On the other hand, I am slightly anaemic too which makes it hard on diet choices. Well...
I had a very very minor ache (not even pain) on my chest few weeks ago, and decided to get a CTA scan. To my shock horror, my RCA is 25% blocked, LAD is 50-60% blocked and LCX 70-99% blocked.
I am now needing to consider to get stent or not, or to manage it through aggressive medicine therapy and life style change (which I can do). However I learnt stenting could cause more problems (faster blockage after clearing needing further re-stenting) and aspirin issues etc. It feels like a life sentence in getting a stent and it will be stenting/aspirin forever.
My challenge is, like many others, I do not have angina nor any usual CAD related syndromes. If I did not get a scan, I would never have known.
I hope to share and get some advice from here, anyone who has similar experience. It's really hard to come to terms with this.
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carehearty
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I agree with your thoughts I am doing the same I advise same to you . Try to handle via controlling diet and excercise . Reduce processed food and oil to near zero . Check next year
Tks for sharing. Curious to know how much blockage do you have? I saw a cardiologist and he told me to do an angiogram to confirm. I may need to do that.
I have 5 arteries 90 to 100% blocked yet no symptom ..did angiogram . Angioplasty was not possible so only option is 5 x bypass which I am postponing by following wfpb no oil , once a week egg and salman + medication...going good so far ...suggest not to go for angiogram if you do not have symptom
I have never smoked, drink moderately, eat a Mediterranean diet and exercise daily. My cholesterol always hovered around 6.5 but because of my healthy lifestyle was never prescribed statins. 5 months ago I had a heart attack and have a 70% blocked artery which is in too awkward a place to stent so I had no choice but to be managed with medication. To go from 0 tablets to 9 a day was as big a shock as the H.A! If I'd been a fat smoker I would have been prescribed tablets and probably not have had a H.A! I'm not qualified to offer any advice but although I still hate the tablets I am extremely grateful to have them because my heart-healthy lifestyle was obviously not enough to prevent a H.A.
Hi there, thanks for sharing, sounds very similar to me except I havent yet had a heart attack, but am concerned with my 70-99% blockage. How are you getting on with the drug treatment, presumably you are on a strong statin now? Best of luck to you and all of us.
I follow a true Med. diet so minimum sugar and healthy fats. There is no evidence to show that blockages can be reduced unfortunately. I've had quite a few side effects from the meds. Fatigue is the worse but I've learned to push through it .Other side effects are more of a nuisance: cold hands and feet; occasional short attack of vertigo; runny nose. I'm on the strongest statin at the highest dose but it's certainly worked. I'm hoping it will be reduced in the future. Because I've had a H.A. I'll always be on aspirin and probably statins. I had bad angina after my H.A. so I would be wary about stopping my anti-anginals. In retrospect I wish I'd have been prescribed a statin to reduce my cholesterol and it might have prevented my H.A. Best wishes with your decision making-it isn't easy.
I’m sure I’ll provoke a storm of response but the positive benefits completely outweighs small risks. Yes you have to take high statins and an anti platelet drug but I was off the aspirin in a month and will be (if things go right!) off the anti platelet drugs after a year. What does your cardiologist advise?
Because I did a CTA scan which the doc said is not absolute. He advise me to do a angiogram. Nevertheless, looks like Statin for life from now on. What dosage of statin were you on? And how come you managed to come off them, that's good to know.
I am still concerned with stent and would prefer to manage mine with strong drugs. Just wondering?
I’m off the aspirin not the statin. I have no problems with the statins. I think they are s good drug. I’ve been on a low dose for a long time and my cholesterol was under control. Good diet and fit. Many people on this site are confounded because their fitness levels and lifestyle made them think thay would never have a heart problem. However a major factor is genetic. My father had a heart attack at 55 but lived another 20 years. We all make our own decisions but for me a mix of drugs and if necessary medical intervention is the path I’m on. 5 months on I’m back in the gym and feeling good.
Don’t worryCarehearty my husband has had 3 heart attacks he had a bypass nearly20 yrs ago and since then 7 stents! The doc who has since sadlydied said the bypass wouldn’t extend his life! He is 80 next year and doing well so please don’t worry 😃
wow Pinnochio, well done you two, very brave of your husband. I am not so at the moment :(. Curiously, how frequently were the 7 stents, are they at the same places? Was he managing well with his medication?
Try taking sugar in all its forms out your diet. As you have found out it is possible to be clogged up and slim. Try having a look at the whole food diet, or the reasons for following a keto diet. The key to the whole process is the relationship between your cholesterol levels. your sugar levels and your insulin levels - which are difficult to check.
An interesting book to read is 'Eat rich live long' by Cummins and Gerber MD which goes into the science in some depth, particularly the need to obtain low insulin levels. The low fat high carb is often held out to be a Mediterranean diet. it is not. The people around the med eat fish, lots of/ root salad veg and lots of olive oil , not much milk, dairy or butter, and fresh bread . The diet was essentially a poor mans diet with very little red meat and the odd rabbit or chicken.
Your body needs fat to absorb vitamins and nutrients. It cannot handle large volumes of carbs, which it turns into sugar which it fails to burn, and then tries to store as fat wherever it can get it in. It latches onto red blood cells and makes your blood sticky. Have a look at Dr Deakins research for more information.
Thanks for advise. I will and can be quite disciplined so yes, thanks for the inputs on diet options. My doctor on the other hand simply put that I must go on statins for life due to my genetic makeup. I am curious however, together with statins and maybe aspirin, with a very healthy diet, I wonder if the blocked condition ever be reduced?
back in the 1980's( I think) Dr Dean Ornish( cardiologist) published a study on how to reverse heart disease, namely plaque build up in coronary arteries. He has written several books since then, you can google him. At the time his work first came out, I asked a cardiologist friend why docs dont teach patients this diet? He said because it is so rigid, no one would do it. Now, I see medicare ( here in USA) has approved Dr Ornish's program, so it has to have merit or medicare would not back it. He promotes a plant based diet, low fat, exercise, meditation, etc. But the key ingredient is plant based diet.
If I were in your shoes, I would continue statins and get strict on diet, no alcohol, no processed foods, eat plant based. I would not do stents until you give the natural route a year.
I have stents and do not perceive them to represent an unacceptable risk. Conversely you want to take a 'risk' on controlling the blockages you have despite a hitherto 'healthy lifestyle'. With extreme dietary measures you may be able to arrest the deterioration but the evidence on reversing the problem is hotly debated!
I am acutely aware that stents do not fix the underlying problem ie why the arteries blocked in the first place, and I also need to address lifestyle choices and take various medications but on balance I feel it is the more assured route.
Thanks for sharing. I am probably conservative and tat scared really, even though I stenting do sound like a safe operation. I am however, still preferring to follow very discipline diet, exercise and statin/medication therapy. I wonder how are you doing your diet and medications therapy, have they stabilised your blockage?
Hi, my husband has lived with a 100 % blocked main artery for 21 years. This isn't operable unfortunately, so he has been managed with medication since. We follow a low fat, low salt diet & he takes statins to keep his cholesterol as low as possible although it's never really been high. Personally, if my husband was able to have stents fitted or bypass he would definitely go for it, much better option than to wonder & worry as to how his other arterys are doing particularly as he's already had a massive heart attack which resulted in cardiac arrest & he now has heart failure!! By the way he was 42 when this started!!
42 to 63 years he lived on medication and low fat food... I have same situation but just 2 years into it ... bypass option is being postponed till any serious symptom comes up indicative of heart attack.did you not notice of any symptom till heart attack of your husband ?
Yes, my husbands heart condition has been managed by diet, exercise & medication since 1997. However, if the option to have had stents fitted or have a bypass had been available there is no question that he would have taken this option. It's difficult to say whether or not he'd had any symptoms before his heart attack. Certainly he'd had a couple of viruses around his heart but they were some years before. The year before he'd had a poorly chest & was sent for xrays but they were looking at his lungs specifically as he'd worked with asbestos. However, on boxing day in 1997 he'd lifted something heavy & immediately dropped it as he felt a pain in his back. Over the course of the next 3 days this pain got worse & spread, he visited A&E 3 times & each time was told its a pulled muscle, or a virus & then finally told it was a virus in the muscle. He then went to Dr's as he wasnt improving but was in tremendous pain, Dr gave him pain killers & told him to go back to hospital if he didn't improve, 20 mins after he got home from Dr's he went into cardiac arrest. The hospital admitted they got it wrong & that he'd had a massive heart attack, his heart was badly damaged so bypass was not an option as his artery was totally blocked so there was nothing to attach the bypass to. However, his never had another heart attack, he has heart failure but that was inevitable due to the damage.
Did you have your CTA scan done privately? Have you had fasting blood glucose and fasting insulin tests done? Have you looked at low carb / Keto type diets which seem to clash head on with low fat diets but hold out the hope of reducing blocking of arteries?
Hello Carehearty, your post resonated with me so I wanted to reply. I’m 51 and had an angiogram 6 weeks ago and a stent was inserted into my LAD artery, which was 95% blocked. I too had had no major symptoms, but some mild tightness in my chest on exertion on a few occasions. I had a CT scan in February, which showed a 70% narrowing, however during the angiogram the problem was found to be much worse than that and the cardiologist said it would not be safe to leave it. It has all been a huge shock, I didn’t expect to have a stent and was very concerned about stent thrombosis, but I feel that in my circumstances, I was safer with one than without one. I’m now taking 80mg Atorvastatin, but I hope to halve the dose within a year. I’m also on Clopidogrel for a year and aspirin for life. I think what caused all this to happen was untreated high BP, along with raised cholesterol. I also have a strong genetic link. It’s a horrible thing to happen, I’m scared I won’t be able to live long enough to see my kids grown up and happy. I’m also angry that my GP’s weren’t more proactive. But now I think I need to try and move forward positively. Reading some of the stories here where people talk of living well for many years with CAD is very reassuring. I wish you all the best with your decision making.
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Stress test - 6 months post stent 
Bad hospital experience - not sure what to do now 
I’m new here, but wanted to share a positive message and touch on post heart attack mental health 
Trying to cope after HA
Heavy calcification D1
