Originally Posted by
terrymorse
Also, there may be some good news for us aging athletes. It appears that male masters athletes tend to have higher amounts of calcified plaque, but a lower risk of a heart attack. That
calcification may be protective:
“Although marathon runners [and other masters athletes] have more calcium in their arteries, the plaques that they get seem to be much, much more stable than the plaques that normal people get, and this may actually protect them [against heart attack],” Sharma [St. George's University Hospital, London] said. “[It] may explain why so few marathon runners actually suffer a cardiac arrest and why people who exercise all their lives live longer than people who don’t exercise.”
Ref: Merghani et al, Prevalence of Subclinical Coronary Artery Disease in Masters Endurance Athletes With a Low Atherosclerotic Risk Profile, Circulation, July 11, 2017.
The theory I've heard that makes the most sense is that the shear stresses caused by very high pressures and flow rates in athletes cause vessel wall damage which calcifies through a different mechanism than intimal plaque. I guess that might be reassuring to athletes with high Ca scores, but if mine looked ugly, I think I'd treat it as a warning. I know I've got a calcification in one of my carotids and I'm sort of scared to check.