Can you lower your heart’s CAC score? Is it even possible?

“ The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.”- Marcus Aurelius

Hello Zuncia Family,

Today’s post is about Heart Health. How does a person lowers his CAC (Coronary Artery Calcium) score? I saw his post on X and sharing with you all. If anyone has the same kind of experience, please comment or message us so that we can share and make our society healthy.

I searched scientific data and sharing below what I found

What is CAC?

According to Mayo Clinic website

“A coronary calcium scan is a special computerized tomography (CT) scan of the heart. It looks for calcium deposits in the heart arteries. A buildup of calcium can narrow the arteries and reduce blood flow to the heart. A coronary calcium scan may show coronary artery disease before you have symptoms.

Coronary calcium scan results can help determine the risk of heart attacks or strokes. Results from the scan may be used to plan or change treatment for coronary artery disease.

Other names for this test are:

• Coronary artery calcium (CAC) test.

• Coronary calcium CT scan.

• A coronary calcium scan is not recommended as a general screening test for those known to be at high risk for heart attacks. It also isn’t suggested if you have had a heart attack, a heart stent or coronary bypass surgery because other tests or procedures that are done for those events show heart arteries. Ask your healthcare provider if Coronary Calcium Scan is right for you. “

  Here is the conversation of Daniel Wildt on X

The person named Daniel Wildt is saying that he lowered his calcium score from 600 to 458. I first time heard about CAC test on twitter from a billionaire Chamath, that he has to force his doctor for a test to detect Calcium plaque in his artery.

This person used heavy dose of Vitamin C and amino acids lysine and proline.

Let’s find out what research says about it.

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)

Two times Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling recommended heavy dose of Vitamin C daily because human body can’t synthesise Vitamin C but just other animals can do. We are dependent on nutrition to get daily dose of Vitamin C. However Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University recommends Vitamin C uptake to 400 mg / day for disease prevention.

This study published in American Journal of Epidemiology (2004), in African-American, White men and women aged 18-39, found that men with low to marginally low levels of plasma ascorbic acid had increased prevalence of coronary artery calcium in comparison to men with high plasma ascorbic acid. Women didn’t show any difference. The study conducted over a years of 15.

According to this study published in Circulation (1999) concluded that long term administration of ascorbic acid has a sustained beneficial effect on endothelium derived nitric oxide (EDNO) in patients with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). They examined the effects of single dose of 2 gram and long term dose ( 30 days ) of 500 mg/day of ascorbic acid in 46 patients with CAD.

This study on Dr. Rath research Institute stated that researchers have shown that Vitamin C used alone can reduce the calcium accumulation by the cells and block oesteigenic transformation of the cells by 20%. Their results also showed that supplementation of Viatmin C was effective in reducing alkaline phosphatase (ALP) by 80%. ALP is an important metabolic marker of the calcification process. It is an enzyme produce by liver and bone cells and its higher levels are associated with increased calcification leading to an increased risk of fatal heart attacks.

In this study published in Applied Nutrition (1996), 55 patients with age of 46-67 with various stages of coronary heart disease for 12 months before and after of nutrition intervention were examined. The natural progression of coronary artery calcification decreased on average 15% over the course of 1 year of nutritional supplementation while in patients with early stages of CAD, a statistical significant decrease occurred and no further progression was observed. Their nutrition supplementation includes vitamins ( Vitamin C- 2700 mg, Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol) 600IU, Vitamin A as beta-carotene 7500 IU along with Vitamin B groups, amino acids, and other micronutrients.

Proline and Lysine

There is not much research data on direction connection of amino acids lysine and proline in relation to reduction of Calcium in Coronary artery. These 2 studies are most relevant I found.

This study in Biochemical Pharmacology (2020) showed that Proline, a non essential amino acid, protects again myocardial Infarction (MI) partially by redox regulation in vivo study in mice.

This study is on Dr. Rath Health Foundation where they provided a paper “ Reducing the risks of Cardiovascular Disease with Nutritional Supplements “ published in Journal of Orthomolecular medicine (1992) by Dr. Matthias Rath MD.

“L-Lysine

The essential amino acid L-lysine competitively inhibits the binding of lipoprotein(a) to fibrinogen, fibrin, and fibrin degradation products which are known to be hallmarks of the atherosclerotic lesion. My earlier findings about the potential reversibility of lipoprotein(a) deposition and the isolation of lipoprotein(a) by use of lysine led to the therapeutic introduction of L-lysine and lysine analogs in an earlier paper1 (Figure 3a).

L-proline and hydroxyproline

Trieu et al. reported that lipoprotein(a) also binds to L-proline and hydroxyproline with an even higher affinity than to lysine. Since collagen and elastin are particularly rich in proline residues this mechanism is of importance for the binding and retention of the lipoprotein(a) particle in the vascular wall. On the basis of these observations I propose here the therapeutic use of L-proline in the prevention and treatment of CVD. The dietary supplementation of this amino acid should prevent the binding of lipoprotein(a) to collagen and other proline-rich constituents of the vascular wall and thereby prevent the accumulation of lipoprotein(a) in the vascular wall.”

I tagged all these research articles (click on blue colour). You can read in details there.

Disclaimer: This knowledge is for educational purpose only and no medical advice at all. Please check with your doctor before making any decisions.

Everyone is bio-individual just like your DNA. Please consider this before following anything in life. The person ‘Daniel Wildt’ also posted his CAC score report online which I didn’t post here.

Today’s Mantra: I am happy and healthy.

with much love,

Sudesh (Ph.D biology & integrative nutrition health coach)

Founder, zuncia.com