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A coronary calcium scan is appropriate for almost anyone over age 45; sooner if you have specific risk factors for heart disease. Watch cardiologist Arthur Agatston, MD, explain how the results of this heart scan may impact your need to take statins.
The calcium scan should be done on almost everybody after the age of 45, men a little bit earlier, women when they're postmenopause. If there is a family history of heart disease, we sometimes recommend it in the 30s or even in the 20s, but almost everybody should eventually have a heart scan to determine their risk of future heart attack.
Today our national guidelines are quite frankly somewhat misguided. They are recommending that millions more Americans should take a statin for high cholesterol, and in fact if you don't have any pluck on the CAT-scan, on the calcium score, we call it the power of zero. If you have a zero score, it doesn't matter what your cholesterol is, you do not need to be on a statin and right now that's about a third of Americans who are on Statins who could be off the Statins if they have the calcium score and have a zero.
Arthur S. Agatston, MD, FACC, is a preventive cardiologist, medical director of wellness and prevention at Baptist Health Medical Group and author of The South Beach Diet book series.
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