Can Coronary Calcium Score Be Lowered?

You may have been led to believe that coronary calcium score cannot be lowered; that the coronary calcium score progression can only be slowed down ‘” or at best, halted. But according to a cardiologist whom I consulted with for this article, you can, indeed, lower your calcium score.

I consulted with Dr. Larry Santora, MD, cardiologist, medical director of cardiac CT, and medical director of the Vascular and Wellness Center, Saint Joseph Hospital, Orange, CA, and author of “OC Cure for Heart Disease.”

Dr. Santora says, “Yes you can reverse the plaque.” If this is to be done, it is through commitment to a “clean” diet, exercising daily, a statin drug, and certain supplements. Sounds simple, right? Well, it’s not as straightforward as you may think.

The statin part of lowering calcium score is as simple as taking it as prescribed. Same with the supplements that are known to lower calcium score and benefit heart health.

The confusion is with the diet and exercise part. I’m a certified personal trainer, and nutrition expert. I can’t begin to tell you how many people I’ve encountered who truly believed they had a “healthy diet,” but just the opposite was true.

A perfect example of this is my mother. She was floored upon being told she needed emergency quintuple bypass surgery. “How could this have happened to me?” She kept asking. I’ve always ate a health diet ‘” I’ve been on the Mediterranean diet! I’ve always been active!”

My mother did not have a coronary calcium score test; she had a catheter angiogram. I can assume that had she had a calcium score test, the result would have been a very high number.

Are you one of these people who thinks you’re on the Mediterranean diet because you cook your white rice with olive oil, or because you dip potato chips in yogurt, or because you eat a daily salad with dressing that contains sugar? Is your idea of cardiorespiratory exercise doing housework and walking about at Walmart?

The calcium score can be lowered, but not without pinpointed changes in diet and exercise habits. Think whole foods. Not foods that come in a box, can or bag. Exceptions are all-natural whole grain foods, or the actual grains, that are sold in plastic bags.

Go very light on red meat and eat only grass-fed beef; grain-fed beef contains a lot of “bad” fats. Replace chicken from frozen dinners with whole chicken. Eat a lot of wild-caught fish. Don’t even look at processed meats. Try to eliminate foods with white flour, high fructose corn syrup and sugar. Avoid partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Eat as many raw vegetables as possible, and have fruit every few hours. You can indulge in pizza, waffles, white bread, donuts and candy ‘” but only occasionally.

Daily exercise means using weight machines, dumbbells, tension tubing and cardio equipment, or attending fitness classes, hiking, jogging, or swimming laps. A lengthy visit to Costco does not replace your exercise session for that day.

Supplements that will help lower calcium score (in combination with the other lifestyle changes just mentioned) are niacin (vitamin B3) and vitamin D3, along with magnesium citrate, turmeric, green tea, garlic, fish oil, and plant sterols. Though there is some controversy over whether or not some of these supplements actually aid in lowering calcium score, there are plenty of studies showing that all of these supplements are very beneficial to heart health.

Dr. Santora says, “I had my first heart scan in 1999, and then every two years since, and have had a reversal of some plaque. But remember, you do not have to reverse the plaque; you just need to stabilize the plaque so that it does not rupture. Studies show that if the plaque does not progress more than >10 percent per year; the chance of a heart attack is low.”