Coronary Calcification Predicts Future Heart Attacks and Coronary Death. Choles

[Guest guest]

Coronary Calcification Predicts Future Heart Attacks and Coronary Death.

Cholesterol Not Found To Be A Significant Risk Factor

_http://www.knowledgeofhealth.com/report.asp?story=Coronary%20Calcification%20

Predicts%20Future%20Heart%20Attacks%20and%20Coronary%20Death%20Not%20Cholester

ol & catagory=Calcium,Cholesterol_

(http://www.knowledgeofhealth.com/report.asp?story=Coronary%20Calcification%20Pr\

edicts%20Future%20Heart%20Attacks%20and%20C

oronary%20Death%20Not%20Cholesterol & catagory=Calcium,Cholesterol)

By Bill Sardi

A striking report just published in the New England Journal of Medicine

indicates the accumulation of calcium in coronary arteries, and not

cholesterol,

more accurately predicts a future heart attack or other heart trouble, far

more than cholesterol or other standard risk factors.

This report gives evidence of a major misdirection by modern medicine – the

creation of cholesterol phobia in the population at large. Prior studies

show use of cholesterol-lowering drugs does not reduce mortality rates for

coronary artery disease. This report follows a front-page report in Business

Week

Magazine declaring cholesterol-lowering drugs to be of marginal value.

The study involved 6722 men and women, ~age 60, who were studied for a

period of 3.8 years (median). None had coronary artery disease at the

beginning

of the study. Subjects who experienced an adverse coronary event (heart

attack, angina, placement of a stent, coronary death) were more likely to be

taking cholesterol-lowering drugs (~28%) than those who did not experience such

an

event (~16%). Furthermore, subjects who experienced a heart attack or

angina had about the same total cholesterol (~199) as subjects who did not

(~194).

Cholesterol barely met statistical significance whereas calcium was a

highly predictive factor.

Traditionally-used risk factors, such as C-reactive protein (a marker of

inflammation), triglycerides, HDL cholesterol and greater body mass, were not

predictive for a future coronary artery event.

Among subjects whose coronary artery calcium score was zero, their risk for

any adverse coronary event was only about one-half of 1% (0.0044), or less

than 1 in 200, whereas those with a coronary calcium score over 300, about 8.0%

experienced an adverse event involving coronary arteries (0.0804), or about

8 in 100, an 18-fold difference (1800%!), over the 3.8 year period.

This study shows the risk for a future heart attack is nil for those with a

calcium arterial score of zero. This data helps to explain why hundreds of

thousands of Americans experience a sudden-death heart attack with

low-to-normal cholesterol. Most heart attacks emanate in the four coronary

arteries

that supply the heart with oxygenated blood. About 50% of arterial plaque is

calcium and only 3% is cholesterol.

Arterial calcium can be measured by use of a CT scan (called an Agatston

score, for Dr. Arthur Agatston, South Beach Miami, Florida cardiologist).

About

70% of white males, 52% of black males, 57% of Hispanic males and 59% of

Chinese males, have coronary calcium scores greater than zero. The calcium

arterial scores for women are about half that of males owing to the fact they

donate calcium to their offspring during pregnancy and lactation and control

calcium via estrogen throughout their fertile years.

Calcium begins to accumulate in coronary arteries in males as soon as full

growth is achieved, around age 18. Women begin to accumulate calcium in

their arteries with the onset of menopause or early hysterectomy. It was

recently reported that postmenopausal women who take calcium supplements

increase

their risk for a heart attack by about 45%. [british Medical Journal 2008 Feb

2; 336 (7638): 262-6]

In the early 1990s British cardiologist Stephen Seely noted that countries

which consume that highest amount of calcium (New Zealand, Ireland, North

America, Scandinavian countries), mostly from dairy products, have the highest

rates of cardiovascular disease. [international Journal Cardiology 1991 Nov;

33(2):191-8]

Sixty-four percent (64%) of subjects who experienced any coronary event were

current or former smokers compared to about 50% of those who did not

experience a heart attack or other adverse event. [Coronary Calcium as a

Predictor

of Coronary Events in Four Racial or Ethnic Groups, New England Journal of

Medicine 358: 1336-45, March 27, 2008]

Copyright 2008 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.