Is Calcium Deposit Bad for Coronary Artery Disease?

 It is a calcium deposit in the coronary artery or the blood vessel which is carrying blood to the heart

muscle. So why does this calcium start depositing in your coronary arteries? So naturally, around 99% of

the calcium deposit happens in your bone and in your teeth. But sometimes this calcium can also

deposit in the coronary arteries. For many decades, there are a lot of research work has done and they

have shown this deposition of calcium is directly linked to your chances of getting heart attack in the

next ten year, which is called a ten year risk.

So what is the reason this calcium deposition is going to increase your risk of getting a heart attack for

that? Now, what the clinical implication or how to treat this has emerged? So many patients with this

calcium deposit in the coronary arteries. They go to the cardiologist, and when the cardiologist find they

have a thick calcium deposit in your blood vessel, whether the patient is mildly symptomatic or

asymptomatic, they try to open up the blocked artery, which is calcified, and some of this patient is

usually in India. They go for an alternative way to remove this calcium from the blood vessel.

It could be any of the natural way, some food intakes and sometimes extreme cases. They also do

something called IV chelation. This is EDTA, which is injected into the blood vessels to remove the

calcium. Now, recently, some groundbreaking research have thrown more light into this calcium scoring

or calcium deposit in the coronary artery. Contrary to the belief that calcium in fact, is going to increase

your risk of getting heart attack or you're going to die early, in fact, it shows the opposite effect.

And then the opposite. For example, patient who have cardiac risk factor, we all know a couple of

cardiac risk factor. So in these group of patients where they are diabetic uncontrolled, or their blood

pressure is very high, obese, smoking. And in this group of patient, when they did a calcium scoring, they

find out the calcium score is very less. So what really happened is if you have a high density calcium

deposit in your blood vessel, it actually is a prevention because it can prevent you getting a heart attack

in the future.

The recent studies have shown, in fact, if you have a high density calcium in your coronary artery, it

actually prevents you from getting a heart attack. Now, just think about somebody who are athletic.

They do regular exercise and their good cholesterol is very high. So when they do the calcium scoring to

these type of people, they found out they have high calcium score. So it's athletic and have good

cholesterol and they have high calcium score. And then the opposite.

For example, patient who have cardiac risk factor, we all know a couple of cardiac risk factor. So in these

group of patients where they are diabetic uncontrolled, or their blood pressure is very high, obese,

smoking. And in this group of patient, when they did a calcium scoring, they find out the calcium score is

very less. So what really happened is if you have a high density calcium deposit in your blood vessel, it

actually is a prevention because it can prevent you getting a heart attack in the future.

At the same time, if you have all the cardiac risk factors, then your body will not deposit calcium into

your blocks. So if the blocks are not deposited enough calcium, these blocks are called soft. And this soft

plaque can break up and causes heart attack at any time. So in fact, in many of the studies they have

shown people who tends to get heart attack frequently when they did an angiogram, they found out the

blocks. And these blocks are devoid of any calcium deposit.

And in many patients who always complain of chest pain, it means a mild chest discomfort. When they

do regular exercise, when they do a routine angiogram, they find out these people with chest pain, but

they not got a heart attack, they tend to have a highly calcified artery. It means high deposit of calcium

in the coronary arteries. So it is a surprising finding, which make us to believe that calcium deposit in

coronary artery by nature, in fact, it's not bad. It is healthy to prevent a future heart attack.

So what is the reason this calcium deposit is preventing a heart attack? It's a simple because when there

is a block in your coronary vessels, this block has a tendency to rupture or break. And once they rupture

or break, it's a cause for a heart attack. But in people with have a calcium deposit into the blocked

arteries, which is called high density calcium deposit or calcified artery, this calcification will prevent the

hard blood vessel getting into getting breakage or the plaque will not get broken or rupture. So it has a

preventive effect.

So this is a new finding to show if you have a vessel which are highly calcified, don't get panicked

because sometimes calcification is also going to be helpful for you to prevent a heart attack. Now, the

another important question now I want to answer is then why did we believe that high calcium

deposition, in fact it's going to be bad and been treating this patient for a long time? The reason is yes,

calcium deposit. In fact, it's bad if it happens everywhere across your body, everywhere across your

coronary vessel. The reason is it is a predictor of heart attack because you tend to have more injury and

the nature is trying to cure the injury by putting a calcium into the injured artery.

So if you keep on having more and more injury, it means you are a high risk for developing a heart attack

in the future. So deposition of calcium, it's actually beneficial. It's not as bad as we think before. Thank

you. Bypass surgery.