How to lower your calcium score | Masterjohn Q&A Files #21

Mastering Nutrition

Content provided by Chris Masterjohn, PhD and Chris Masterjohn. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Chris Masterjohn, PhD and Chris Masterjohn or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

4+ y ago 3:55

MP3•Episode home

Archived series ("Inactive feed" status)

When? This feed was archived on February 29, 2024 23:14 (2M ago). Last successful fetch was on January 13, 2024 12:53 (3M ago)

Why? Inactive feed status. Our servers were unable to retrieve a valid podcast feed for a sustained period.

What now? You might be able to find a more up-to-date version using the search function. This series will no longer be checked for updates. If you believe this to be in error, please check if the publisher's feed link below is valid and contact support to request the feed be restored or if you have any other concerns about this.

Question: "Calcium score, is there a way to treat one's calcium score and get it to zero?"

⇒ No, you don't treat the calcium score. You take the calcium score as indicative of what's going on in atherosclerosis, and you treat that.

The goal, I think, is calcium score equals zero. No, that's a bad goal because that's like saying my goal this year is to be a billionaire. Is that going to make me harder and get closer to it? I don't know. You set somewhere what the ideal is, but then you don't think about that, you think about — okay — what's the next step right now in front of me. What you focus on is the thing that's right in front of you. So, maybe you want to be a billionaire -- but your goal is, how do I increase my revenue this month? Not how do I be a billionaire this year.

If you want a calcium score of zero, fine, but you don't think about that; you think about how do I lower my calcium score, because then when you lower your calcium score, you do more of that. When you do something that raises your calcium score, you do less of that.

In atherosclerosis, calcium is super driven by the atherosclerotic progress. So, ideally it would be nice if you had ultrasound imaging of your carotid IMT. If you have advanced plaque formation, you probably will be able to see that on the IMT, like you can see how the plaque is developing and whether the actual atherosclerotic plaque is.

K2 is relevant there, but a general deficiency of K2 is more likely to manifest as diffuse calcium deposits everywhere in the artery. So, it might be that your LDL is high, and then that's what you should be focusing on.

You really have to start from point A through B through C, and K2 is one of those things, but you need to look at all the factors that can be contributing to atherosclerosis.

This Q&A can also be found as part of a much longer episode, here:https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/podcast/2019/02/09/ask-anything-nutrition-feb-1-2019/

If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up with a 10% lifetime discount here: https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/q&a

Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

701 episodes