- Joined
- Feb 25, 2011
- Messages
- 2,082
I wonder if statins may be counterproductive in some cases. If I remember correctly plague is formed within years or even decades to actually form "solid/hard" plague on the walls of blood vessels. Isn't it counterproductive to speed up the process by a lot? Because that is what my cardiologist told me that statins improve lipids on blood work but increase the rate of forming rockhard plague tremendously. I somehow dont get it. Or I understood that totally wrong when my cardiologist talked about it.
The idea is that a statin will help to "stabilize" the soft plaque. This will prevent a piece from breaking off and having a heart attack or a stroke. This is why you see persons with a zero or low calcium scan score have an incident or someone with no risk factors have a problem.
There is about a 10 year lag for the soft plaque so it will not always be seen on a calcium score scan. A CT angiogram with contrast will pick up the soft and a CIMT will as well.