Beat the Heart Attack Gene: The Revolutionary Plan to Prevent Heart Disease, Stroke, and Diabetes

by Bradley Bale

including coronary artery calcium score (CACS), which we’ll discuss in more detail in Chapter Six. This test involves a CT scan to check for calcium in the coronary (heart) arteries. The score is based on the amount of calcium found in each major artery, with a separate score for the total amount. Since healthy arteries don’t contain calcium, finding it is a major warning sign of atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the arteries). In general, the more calcium the arteries contain, the greater the patient’s risk is for a heart attack. “My coronary artery calcium score (CACS) identified me as being in the worst one percent for in my age bracket,” says David. “When I started reading about this test, I found out that I had a one in four chance of dying from a heart attack in the next 10 years. As a nonsmoker with this calcification score, I actually had a risk of fatal heart attack 10 times greater than a smoker without