I was taught in medical school that coronary artery disease (CAD), or the blockages that can choke off blood flow to the heart, progresses from minor “streaks” in youth, to visible plaques in young adulthood, and on to complicated plaques and major problems later in life. During my training, the arrow always pointed towards heart disease advancing and never reversing. This is just not true! Indeed, for nearly 3 decades it has been known that just as arteries can worsen with time, they can also improve rapidly. Some of the measures to achieve this are presented here.
Statin Medication
While the reversal of clogged heart arteries has been shown before, most of the studies actually look at other endpoints like the risk of heart attack and even survival in patients with calcified arteries treated with statins. A study just published looked at a database of 13, 644 patients studied for heart artery disease by a coronary calcium CT scan and followed for over 9 years. The group was also analyzed as to whether they were on a statin medication to lower their cholesterol. As the picture above demonstrates, when the score, a measurement of how much calcium was in the heart arteries, was calculated as abnormal at 100–400, or over 400, being treated with a statin was associated with a lower risk of bad outcomes. In fact, when the calcium score was over 100, only 12 patients needed to receive a statin to prevent one event like a heart attack, stroke, or death.
