#50

I am curious, what is your LDLc, and APOb with your current program?

#51

Last time I did a complete with apoB was 3 months ago and numbers were:
Homocysteine 7
HDL 89
Triglycerides 75
LDL 115
Apo B 90

My last one was abbreviated, just lipids and CBC and the LDL was 150, so a little higher. That was a week or so ago. My other numbers were pretty healthy.

Uric acid was 3.1 which was low. What did you decide to do about your low Uric acid? Weren’t you the one talking about using Bempedoic acid to raise Uric acid? I’m kicking it around. I have a supply here of BA I bought and haven’t tried yet.

I take empag off and on and have decided to go back on for a while. I don’t like to get up in the night, that’s the only reason I don’t do it all the time.

My general attitude about drugs is that I’m not really bright enough to do it right, but my body does really well on it’s own. Probably smarter than my brain. Probably should leave it alone entirely. Yet I really enjoy the theories and practice of longevity. These seem like pivotal times for AI and Longevity. And with all the studies, if not biased, some of these drugs do look like they’re better than nothing.

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#52

Yeah, my doc feels the same way about it. It really does not mean hardly anything except that I’m doing something wrong and it doesn’t tell me what.

I was going to do the Cleerly thing, but it looked dangerous and is expensive. I can spend that amount of money on something that will help my health, not just tell me what’s going on. So I decided to just keep tracking the calcium. I’ve heard rumblings that there is something better near here and I don’t know what, but it came from my doc through somebody else. He told them to not get a CAC and wait a few months and go there. When I find out what’s actually going on I’ll let you know if it’s useful.

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#53

Thanks, I’d love to hear about it when you learn more

I’m no expert, but as someone with crappy heart genes, I can tell you that it doesn’t necessarily show you are doing something wrong.

My husband was going to do the Cleerly last week, but it’s a 2 hour drive, and the day before they said we may keep you waiting for hours once you arrive… WTAF … so that is not happening any time soon.

My theory, that I learned from my cardiologist, is if it’s not going to change what you are doing, then there is not much reason to do the tests. With your CAC score, you know what you need to do, so I think you have the right mindset to spend the effort and money on helping your health instead of seeing more evidence.

One person here with a high CAC score did do the Cleerly and the results were better than expected, so that did give him peace of mind. I’m worried about the other scenario and worrying to death, especially when there is nothing they are going to do differently based on the results.

Incase this is helpful, my CAC is higher than yours and my goal is to get my APOB to 30. I am WFPB and take repatha, colchicine, ezetimibe, and recently added bempedoic acid and have it down to 43. I’m sure it would be worse without my good diet, but my issues are my genetics so I think most of the heavy lifting here is from the drugs. I just feel better knowing I’m not making it worse.

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#54

If your CAC included the volume score then you could do the quick calculations and find out whether you’re going to die or not:

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#56

He’s tried it - see this thread: Cyclodextrins, Cavadex and Cyclarity for Reversing Atherosclerosis

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#57

It may not be crappy heart genes for you either. My doc told me that too. Then I found out I have high lead levels with a chelation challenge. The challenge is $80 but you have to have the chelation to make it work and that takes some money and it’s even illegal in my state. I had to drive to a neighboring state. Heavy metals cause heart disease, or make it much worse. My view is that reducing apob will help, but if the underlying condition of heavy metals remains, then the problem will not be gone.

I still take DMSA, which I get off ebay from a company in England. I take a gram every 2 weeks and supplement copper and zinc daily. I also use pectasol with alginate daily, sometimes twice a day. It’s a pain because you need an empty stomach.

It takes years to get rid of heavy metals, but you can lower them quickly. High levels in your urine mean large amounts leaving. Over time the numbers for the challenge go down. Less metal leaving your body. So you can get pretty good results quickly if it’s a big problem. Search for chelation, I did a couple posts with studies.

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#58

This is all waaaay over my head. I don’t really understand what you are doing and will need to spend a little time reading. Thank you for sharing and I may come back with some follow ups

I will say it definitely runs in my family, but could metals be a part of this for me, maybe?

My siblings have high CAC scores, although at much older ages, theirs are lower than mine was a decade ago. My mother’s father and my father had heart attacks before the age of 50, so there is at least a strong genetic component.

Oh, also, while I appreciate you sharing it’s possible, I don’t really want to do the calculations to see if I’m more likely to die :). I need to keep my anxiety about this in check. I have a pretty good attitude about it all and can laugh at it, so I need to keep it that way unless there is something I can do about it.

Off to search for chelation….

#59

If anything shouldn’t you do everything you can to lower your risk of stroke or heart attack then?

Clinical trials show what lower those

#60

Update: My 78 yo father just tested his LP(a) and it is 18. His LDL-c has moved down to 58 while his APOB is now 48. His HDL is 51 and triglycerides 88. He has successfully dropped his HBA1C from prediabetic 5.8 to a non-diabetic 5.4.

He is taking Atorvastatin 5 mg, Bempedoic Acid and Ezetemibe as well as 12.5 mg Empagliflozin.

He is also taking 3 mg+ GFJ of Rapamycin weekly.

He also takes Taurine, GLYNAC, Omega 3, D3, B12, Metformin, Telmisartan, and Astaxanthin.

His numbers keep trending downwards each year. I’m surprised he’s still making good progress! He hasn’t hit a plateau yet!

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#61

Wow, good for your dad! I envy his A1c drop😢, I can’t get mine to budge below 5.8. I’ve done 12.5mg/day of empagliflozin for 5 months, just last week upped it to 25mg/day. I’m considering pioglitazone next year - still doing research on that one (bone health has me worried). I’m taking most of what your dad is, except metformin, GlyNAC and telmisartan (telmi likely year end, still doing research - plus keeping in mind your hypotension episode which freaked me out). I just started bempedoic acid, will test my lipids and add ezetimibe. What were his lipid numbers before all the cholesterol meds, if you don’t mind? I’m wondering how his lipids got him that CAC score, of course given his age. But super impressed that all his numbers are trending in the right direction. We should all be so lucky at that age!

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#62

@CronosTempi His dad’s Apob started at 120! What a transformation.

Great job @DeStrider

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#63

I only wish I had started him on the cholesterol meds earlier so he would have had a lower CAC score. At least he started taking them before he had a heart attack or stroke!

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#64

@DeStrider, not starting earlier is my single biggest regret in life… I feel ya!

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#65

Honestly man, I know you’re sceptical, but it seems like you’re missing the forest for the trees here.

You have a positive CAC, which is growing yearly.

You’re talking about lead chelation and heavy metals, but you’re also sitting there with a LDL-C of 115 mg/dl or maybe 150 mg/dl and not treating it.

This makes absolutely no sense because the evidence of ApoB causing ASCVD for you is orders of magnitude stronger than the evidence for heavy metals. With ApoB of 90/LDL-C of 115 mg/dl you can easily build enough plaque to cause a heart attack and kill you - in fact, that’s pretty much the average trajectory that kills the average person in their 70’s or early 80s. A level of 150mg/dl accelerates process that even more and kills you earlier.

Your body actually isn’t that smart. Humans are the only species who have LDL-C this high. We get atherosclerosis from “normal” or “average” circulating LDL-C, and no other species does this. That appears to be more of an evolutionary glitch more than anything deliberate or advantageous. It looks like LDL-C might play some sort of role in the response to bacterial infection, and Lp(a) doesn’t have any obvious biological function but maybe can assist with wound healing. But, looking at the bigger picture, heart disease kills 1/4 of all people and bacterial infection and wound healing just isn’t that big of a deal in 2025.

There are people with genetic disorders of PCSK9 walking around with almost no circulating LDL-C/ApoB for their whole lifetime, and they have no heart disease, but also have no other deficits. There are also people who have reduced their LDL-C/ApoB to negligible levels with medications and they also don’t suffer from anything.

Also, there is value in the Cleery vs CAC. In your case, your CAC score is increasing every year, but is that because you’re continuing to lay down more plaque, or maybe this is a “good” thing because your soft plaque (i.e. vulnerable to rupture and kill you) is actually stabilising? Without the full CTCA, you don’t know. (IMO, if your LDL-C is 115-150mg/dl, you’re building plenty of plaque and some of it is calcifying.) CTCA can see the soft and calcified plaque. However, if you’re determined not to treat your high LDL-C then I agree it wouldn’t add value. But if you have an open mind, and you can actually see the soft and hard plaque, maybe it will push you over the edge into dealing with the LDL-C?

That all sounds absolutely awesome. I think you’re adding years to his life!!

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#66

I started pioglitazone next 3 months ago. Inveresting video on low dose pioglitazone which works on pancreas beta cells to reduce insulin resistance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYhXlPGiaOc

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#67

I did a month of bempedoic acid and just could not get up any speed. I don’t know why this isn’t mentioned anywhere. Maybe it’s because I’m low carb/keto and I need a little more ldl to ferry around the fats? In any case I quit so that I could get the spring work done and I’ve been better since. I may be able to tolerate it now that we’re done with the hard part.

My Lp(a) is very low and has been checked many times.

I agree that CAC is a blunt instrument and at this point I should do Cleerly. I’m going to ask the doc about it at my next appt. (July I think). If he agrees then that will probably happen. I hate to spend the money and it seems like the test is not risk free, also they pour a bunch of contrast in and I don’t like that either. But I can still manage things better at this point and the information might be worth it.

My sister just did it twice and found out she had 50% blockage. I won’t bore with the whole story. My sister is a character and married to a doctor.

I still have optimism about Cyclarity and think they will have a palatable solution relatively soon. It’s an injection, or a series of injections depending on your level of disrepair.

Thanks for the free advice! I might not take it but I take it seriously.

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#68

Nice video, thanks. I did post studies of 7.5mg dosing in the other thread, and that dose is available from Indian pharmacies. And yes, you can split pills - it’s very cheap, you could even split 30mg pills 4 ways for ultracheap doses. I am still researching pio, but am inclined to go with 7.5mg/day, at least to start with. How do you feel after 3 mo?

#69

Here is the video that convinced me to start pio. Not only helps with mitochondria disfunction, but also increases ATP for more energy. at 1:15.

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#70

Have you read anything that leads you to believe that there will be a “palatable solution” with regard to Cavidex relatively soon? I hope you’re right because as promising as it initially seemed to be based solely on the singular N=1 study the doctor who created did, I haven’t seen much more data beyond that. And that “success story” was based on an IV administration not the current suppository protocol.