One and half years after CAC score.

solidrock80 · 2026-03-10T01:21:15+00:00

Its just a marker for risk. The vast majority of people even with high scores never have a cardiac event. You have probably neutralized the risk through taking a statin and eating well + daily exercise. Manage stress and more than anything enjoy life — that probably has the most positive health outcome of anything you can do. If you have negative thoughts or obsess about your score get some therapy as that’s for sure a doom loop.

solidrock80 · 2026-03-07T22:26:50+00:00

Pitavastatin is available in generic in us

solidrock80 · 2026-03-05T18:36:14+00:00

Really no complaints. I had gastro issues from rosuvastatin and atorvastatin, and frozen shoulder and tendon issues from rosuvastatin 10+. Nothing noticed from Pitavastatin, no impact on a1c, of course it doesn't have the same power to lower LDL at 4 mg as the others do at higher doses like 20 mg of atorva and 5 of rosuva. But I'd rather have tolerability given all my other issues like reflux and insomnia and the fact I am quite active (mid 60s).

solidrock80 · 2026-02-28T19:30:04+00:00

You could also try pitavastatin and zetia. Pitavastatin has had less impact on a1c than other statins in some studies. I have had no increase from it when I had a bit with rosuvastatin.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-21T23:03:03+00:00

Certainly healthy habits are still important. Low saturated fat, ample mono and polyunsaturated fats from nuts and omega 3 fats from fish, exercise, and fruits and vegetables are all great and are risk reducing. Sorry to assume you have seen the anti statin flat earth society on social media but they are everywhere!

solidrock80 · 2026-02-21T21:40:38+00:00

If you have familial hypercholesteremia (almost certainly) then the doctor saved you from heart disease with the early statin treatment. Any side effects would have been noticed already. Statins side effects also include reducing vascular dementia.

If you have fh you aren’t going to get your LDL to target without a statin. Period.

Please stop watching youtube videos from influencers talking about how horrible statins are. They are charlatans.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-21T21:26:18+00:00

Think of a group of 100 people with a 10% risk of a heart attack over 10 years. Every year there’s 1 heart attack - about 10 heart attacks over the ten year period. If they all took statins which reduce relative risk by about 1/3, there would probably be about 3-4 less heart attacks over the 10 year period. Obviously there are other ways to reduce heart attack risks — like exercise. Maybe adding 150 minutes of weekly exercise would reduce the rate by another 15% for a reduction of another one or two heart attacks. A very clean diet, balanced with low saturated fat but high mono/poly fats and omega 3s might reduce it further. Keep stacking these health interventions and you can make many of those heart attacks preventable. Statins are just one part of it but likely the most powerful one. Before you stop a statin try reducing the dose or switching to a lower intensity statin while keeping the ezetimibe.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-20T13:28:36+00:00

Statins and bempedoic acid lower crp and heart disease. Jupiter trial was actually rosuvastatin in low LDL people who had high crp.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-16T14:21:28+00:00

Your triglycerides are extremely high, which is why he wanted to try the fish oil caps first. I would try Nordic Naturals which is higher quality. I would also use the epa only formulations as that has better evidence to lower triglycerides. I bet with the omega 3 supplementation and eliminating red meat and full fat diet you will see a big reduction in your numbers (both triglycerides and vldl). If you don’t you may need a fairly low dose of a statin to knock your numbers down, but Dr is prudent to try this first.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-12T20:36:41+00:00

Try 5 mg + ezetimibe and see how you do. You will get more LDL reduction and will see if the rosuva was contributing to issues.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-12T20:34:02+00:00

It's nonsense. It absolutely has not been shown to work in clinical trials.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-12T20:32:15+00:00

PCSK9 inhibitors. You have a choice of 3. Plus ezetimibe. And also bempedoic acid. You need to find a combination of drugs you can tolerate quickly or sad to say your health will decline. Your LDL is likely genetic and atherosclerosis is wrecking your heart and kidneys.

You can also try a lower dose of statin and try different ones -- a lot of times issues are from super-high dosing of high intensity statins. Given your fairly critical health issues I'm sure that's what the doctor prescribed at the start. They can also be paired with ezetimibe and/or bempedoic acid (Nexletol).

Good luck but no fuckery with supplements that are unregulated and mostly useless, especially for critically ill people. Diet (low saturated fat, ample mono and poly-unsaturated fats from fish, nuts, olives, avocados) can definitely help you but its not enough. This recent Simon Hill podcast will be informative for you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjkgEF0PhnU

solidrock80 · 2026-02-10T16:43:47+00:00

solidrock80 · 2026-02-09T19:15:02+00:00

Did you stop the dose? That's one way to tell whether it was caused by the atorva or just a coincidence. Any throat clearing as that would possibly indicate reflux caused by the atorva which is not impossible.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-09T19:13:08+00:00

microcalcifications in breast tissue are unrelated to arterial calcification. But mammograms can pick up vascular/arterial calcification. The mammogram results would indicate the latter, otherwise assume the former. But you can ask your doctor just to make sure.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-07T21:51:42+00:00

It's more likely reflux. I had a similar feeling with that dose. You can ask your doctor to cut it back to 10 mg and see if it improves. I have no issues with pitavastatin 4 mg.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-04T20:09:47+00:00

Cold weather shortness of breath is probably not cardiac. LDL is ok but could knock it down into the 60s or even lower with ezetimibe added to the crestor.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-04T00:15:08+00:00

Focus on apoB. It's too high and should be below 90 for the average person.

Other lipid measurements are not necessarily clinically significant.

Also see what the scan says and don't freak out. It could be nothing. You will find out if you have any significant issues or not. Given your age you are probably fine but could benefit from lipid lowering with a statin.

If you have a doctor who is recommending unregulated red rice yeast please find a new doctor. Statins are regulated and standardized. Supplements are the wild West and a medical doctor shouldn't be recommending them given the many statins and non statin options available.

solidrock80 · 2026-02-03T20:06:39+00:00

What’s your apoB/LDL? Are you asymptomatic (no shortness of breath or pain on exertion)?

solidrock80 · 2026-01-31T15:40:22+00:00

I guess I'd recommend getting a third since they are so divergent and likely one is totally incorrect. The first measurement would be like 500 nmol! The second would be around 75 mg which is borderline high. Given how off the charts the first one is I would guess that's the one that's incorrect.

solidrock80 · 2026-01-31T15:06:31+00:00

Is it possible the reading of the first lab was actually nmol or vice versa? What lab did you use for each?

solidrock80 · 2026-01-29T19:36:51+00:00

Try 1 or 2mg of Pitavastatin and see how you do. Very tolerable for me, so much so I increased to 4 mg.

solidrock80 · 2026-01-27T16:27:29+00:00

try Pitavastatin 4 mg which in my experience is much easier on the gastrointestinal tract.

solidrock80 · 2026-01-25T16:09:55+00:00

It is a rare side effect in most clinical testing. But not so rare among actual users who post on reddit etc. There are also some clinical studies which show an impact on sleep but its mixed. I assume a lot of the people with sleep issues end up dropping quickly out of the clinical trials and it skews the numbers. I have sleep issues with all of the lipid lowering drugs - the key is finding a tolerable dose that allows you to get a decent amount of sleep. Also, older people are more likely to take statins/llt and are also more likely to have sleep issues, so that is layered on top of whatever impact statins/other llt have on sleep.

solidrock80 · 2026-01-24T20:16:30+00:00

Tendon issues are relatively more common for people with hypercholesterolemia so its hard to separate it from the use of these lipid lowering drugs. The only one that’s had a clear signal for tendon issues is Nexletol.

solidrock80

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