The Widowmaker movie

[bobaxford]

I apologise to all those confused by my post. In my enthusiasm in getting the message out I failed to explain my rational - "My interests are in prevention, early diagnosis and self-management of those with atherosclerosis. I had a CT scan back in 2004 which first highlighted me to be at high risk of heart disease. A further CT scan in 2013 confirmed further progression of atherosclerosis had occurred - I had no symptoms!"

I recently came across this fascinating movie which tells the story of CT scans for heart disease and the possible prevention of many deaths or the need for interventions if the diagnosis had been earlier.

I can thoroughly recommend the movie, it tells a fascinating story narrated by Gillian Anderson.

It was commissioned and is being promoted by two Irish entrepreneurs who both have heart disease and want to get to the root cause and want to halt the progression of their heart disease and to help others by spreading the message"

I have since discovered that a TV version of the movie is freely available on youTube, here is the link to Widowmaker TV Version

youtu.be/WygYk81gXXk(Not working as expected?)

If you have an interest in seeing what is possible in preventing Heart Attacks and strokes, I do hope you will view the movie and comment as appropriate - I was ceratinly emotionally moved and recalled my own experiences while watching it.

[SilverDreamMachine]

Hi bobaxford,

Thanks for posting this. Fascinating video. Rather alarming that so say clinicians try to poo poo a scan that can be hugely helpful in diagnosing heart problems before strokes or heart attacks. At least it appears to have got the green light in the US. I googled info on Calcium CT tests in the UK and for £225 River Hospital will do the scan for any over 40 male or over 45 femail who wishes to self refer. BUPA also do it as part of their heart health check (£835), but won’t do it as a separate scan.

Do you know if the NHS will do it if there a family history of heart problems?

[bobaxford in reply to SilverDreamMachine]

Thank you for your reply and pointing out is is available at Riverside Hospital. I have just googled and found that Cotswold cardiology at Great Western Hospital in Swindon offer it too.

I had mine at Lifescan in Brentwood Essex in 2004 and 2013 but they were absorbed into Spire Hospital group and no longer offer direct to public without a GP or cardiologist referral.

My guess is that they didn’t want lots of the worried Well self referring for these scans and then ending up at GPs who had no idea about them.

I do not know what the NHS offer, my guess it’s still not widely known among the general GPS. Mine poo pooed it back in 2004, but hopefully it is becoming more widely accepted.

[SilverDreamMachine]

Thanks for the background. It just re-affirms my belief that we are our best advocates and whilst clinicians do their best we should take full responsibility for our health and future well being. My son’s at med school and I’ve asked him for his opinion on the film. He’s surrounded by current cuastom and practice so I’m not holding my breath he’ll see the bigger picture.

[Dash65]

As someone with an extremely high Cac score my question is what can you actually do about it once you have the disease.Sure you can lower other risk's but the score still goes up.

[Dash65]

I am on to that.No grains,sugar or potatoes at all for over a year.Rarely see blood sugar over 6.5 now.Carbs around 40-50 a day.I think my main problem (as far as progression goes) is a very high LP(a) level.