Reply to Thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="TheBigNewt" data-source="post: 1650674" data-attributes="member: 380756"><p>The so-called &quot;calcium score&quot; CT scan is only of value if you have ZERO calcium. Then it&#039;s very unlikely you have any coronary disease, if that&#039;s you I wouldn&#039;t take a statin. But it&#039;s rare to have zero calcium especially if you&#039;re older.&nbsp; On the opposite end of the spectrum is someone with &quot;established coronary disease&quot; which includes anyone who&#039;s had a coronary stent or a heart attack or bypass surgery or an angiogram with, say, a 50% lesion.&nbsp; Statins have shown their most benefit in these patients, and high dose statins like Lipitor 80mg at that. For Type 1 diabetics I think they are not proven in primary prevention (before you have established disease). There are too few Type 1&#039;s to enroll in a primary prevention trial. Type 2&#039;s are different, they tend to get &quot;macrovascular&quot; disease (coronary, cerebral vascular/stroke, peripheral vascular disease in legs/feet). We Type 1&#039;s tend to get &quot;microvascular&quot; disease (eyes, kidneys). Statins are not a big deal for that, better blood sugar control is. High blood pressure&#039;s major risk is a stroke, not coronary disease. Coronary disease&#039;s major risk are lipids. And the risk of a smoker having a cardiac &quot;event&quot; drops to that of a non smoker within a year of quitting. Just my .02.</p></blockquote><p></p>

[QUOTE="TheBigNewt, post: 1650674, member: 380756"] The so-called "calcium score" CT scan is only of value if you have ZERO calcium. Then it's very unlikely you have any coronary disease, if that's you I wouldn't take a statin. But it's rare to have zero calcium especially if you're older. On the opposite end of the spectrum is someone with "established coronary disease" which includes anyone who's had a coronary stent or a heart attack or bypass surgery or an angiogram with, say, a 50% lesion. Statins have shown their most benefit in these patients, and high dose statins like Lipitor 80mg at that. For Type 1 diabetics I think they are not proven in primary prevention (before you have established disease). There are too few Type 1's to enroll in a primary prevention trial. Type 2's are different, they tend to get "macrovascular" disease (coronary, cerebral vascular/stroke, peripheral vascular disease in legs/feet). We Type 1's tend to get "microvascular" disease (eyes, kidneys). Statins are not a big deal for that, better blood sugar control is. High blood pressure's major risk is a stroke, not coronary disease. Coronary disease's major risk are lipids. And the risk of a smoker having a cardiac "event" drops to that of a non smoker within a year of quitting. Just my .02. [/QUOTE]

Verification

Search

Search

Reply to Thread