New Study: Higher Cardiac Plaque Calcification in High Intensity Athletes

[FitmanNJ]

I’ve always had high cholesterol no matter what. Cardiologist ordered a DNA test the gene responsible for regulating it.
Sure enough it is mutated. Why in spite of being only 170lbs, good health, 40 Mg Crestor (yup 40 hurts) it could not get below 275 with LDL stubbornly high.
Put me on Repatha. 2x monthly pen injection. Its not a statin.

Wow.
It dropped immediately. He said “basically now you have the cholesterol level of a child”
Lol
*my calcium score was a 6.
You can see when i switched to the Repatha.
View attachment 273959

I'm curious, Frank -- has your doctor referred to these persistently high LDL levels as "Familial hypercholesterolemia?" FH is pretty rare, but when nothing seems to lower a high LDL and there's a genetic component, I've got to wonder...

I'm glad that Repatha has improved things so dramatically!

 

[FitmanNJ]

Possibly, but this is my 1st CAC test. Last labs in Sept '22 were 9 months into my new fitness routine and were improved over previous tests in Oct '21. My PCP at the time wasn't concerned about the LDL then.
Sept '22
Cholesterol = 175
LDL = 110

Oct '21
Cholesterol = 176
LDL = 115

Since the CAC test measures calcified plaque, I'm not sure that there's much evidence for reversal. Staying the same, though, would seem like a good goal.

 

[FitmanNJ]

My family physician said that without changing anything to impact the course of the calcification, the "average change" is an increase of 10% per year. I don't know if that's a proven estimate or just my doc's ballpark figure. It bears mentioning that he's a general practitioner, not a lipidologist.