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THIS PHOTO IS LOOKING FOR CALCIUM AROUND MY HEART!Before I tell you what I eat these days, or how I learned I’m a diabetic, or how I’ve managed well for over 4 years, without medications or insulin shots, I’m going to show you the result of this heart scan – also known as a coronary calcium scan . . . |
That’s me in the video , lying on a narrow bed so I can hold my breath for the count of ten and get my heart scanned in keen, precise slices. A coronary calcium scan is a high-level test for heart disease risk It’s considered highly predictive, and since heart disease is a common side effect of diabetes, if you’ve been diagnosed like me, it may be helpful to know your risk. My diabetes is why my primary care physician asked me, a couple of years ago, to consider getting this test. If you want to see my test results and learn a bit more about calcium scan tests, watch the video . . . where you’ll see that . . .
TA-DAH!!!!
According to Bill Blanchette, MD, Front Range Imaging, (and the official confirmation that came later from the lab) my arteries contain no calcium. That’s the best score you can get. The data summary that came with the test says that only 1/3 of the women my age (which is 53) have a test result this good. It’s especially good considering that I have diabetes. To most medical professionals, it’s even more astonishing considering the way I eat. Most medical professionals would say I’m eating a diet that would INCREASE the risk for heart disease (and probably diabetes). I suspect what I eat tends to do just the opposite of what they say. Even though I’m a little sloppy about how I go about this way of eating. There are far too many times when I overeat. There are plenty of times when I don’t eat as well as I could. I could use some help sticking with what I know is good to do, and to eat. Sticking with it is particularly hard without the support of the standard health community. Among licensed, certified medical doctors, registered dieticians and diabetes educators, 99 out of a hundred would tell me NOT to eat this way. Still, I got a perfect calcium scan. So Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!
