Tuesday, November 23, 2010
JUPITER to Earth: It's the Calcium Score Stupid!
Well, well, well! A funny thing happened on the way to the "statin forum."
Astra-Zeneca, in a bald-faced attempt to broaden the market for its statin
product Crestor, ended up proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that heart scans
and calcium scoring is the most powerful predictor of heart attacks in
asymptomatic people.
A post hoc analysis of the MESA study population using JUPITER criteria revealed at 25-fold increase in risk for persons having a positive calcium score. These two studies were fairly large so it was adequately powered to deliver results with a high degree of confidence.
For years docs like Bill Davis and Bill Blanchet have been screaming this from the hilltops and it something every Track Your Plaque practitioner knows. If you have a positive calcium score you have coronary artery disease and your risk of a heart attack skyrockets. Fortunately, it also gives you often decades of warning so you can actually DO something about it. Coupled with technologies like advanced lipoprotein you can find the root causes and correct them.
So, "thank you" Atra-Zeneca. I know you did it for the money - but what the heck - you might end up having helped save some lives in spite of it!
Now darn it, go out talk to your doc about getting that heart scan if you have any doubts about having the seeds of heart disease in your arteries.
Looking out for your health,
---
Who is HeartHawk?
I am a numbers guy, an engineer, MBA, and for the real numbers geeks, a Six Sigma Black Belt (statistics on steroids). I am also a heart disease sufferer. It took my mother, her brother, and their father. One minute they were alive and symptom free, the next they were dead. No good-byes, just gone. So, I became a heart health activist and resolved that I will die some other way. This blog is about my journey to save myself and others, unearthing advances and atrocities, separating hope from hype, and delivering the unvarnished truth about curing heart disease, both good and bad. So, hold on tight. I promise you a hell of a ride!
=============================================
Read HeartHawk's blog here.
A post hoc analysis of the MESA study population using JUPITER criteria revealed at 25-fold increase in risk for persons having a positive calcium score. These two studies were fairly large so it was adequately powered to deliver results with a high degree of confidence.
For years docs like Bill Davis and Bill Blanchet have been screaming this from the hilltops and it something every Track Your Plaque practitioner knows. If you have a positive calcium score you have coronary artery disease and your risk of a heart attack skyrockets. Fortunately, it also gives you often decades of warning so you can actually DO something about it. Coupled with technologies like advanced lipoprotein you can find the root causes and correct them.
So, "thank you" Atra-Zeneca. I know you did it for the money - but what the heck - you might end up having helped save some lives in spite of it!
Now darn it, go out talk to your doc about getting that heart scan if you have any doubts about having the seeds of heart disease in your arteries.
Looking out for your health,
---
Who is HeartHawk?
I am a numbers guy, an engineer, MBA, and for the real numbers geeks, a Six Sigma Black Belt (statistics on steroids). I am also a heart disease sufferer. It took my mother, her brother, and their father. One minute they were alive and symptom free, the next they were dead. No good-byes, just gone. So, I became a heart health activist and resolved that I will die some other way. This blog is about my journey to save myself and others, unearthing advances and atrocities, separating hope from hype, and delivering the unvarnished truth about curing heart disease, both good and bad. So, hold on tight. I promise you a hell of a ride!
=============================================
Read HeartHawk's blog here.
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