My husband (aged 43) has had a stent placed in his 100% blocked LAD. He had none of the usual risk factors and was very fit. He did however suffer from severe rhinitis and had a septoplasty, which didn't help (that is another story)

If my hunch about this is correct...what can he take to reduce the risk from inflammation in the future? He is already on asprin, but a low dose...How high would the dose need to be as an anti-inflammatory?

His cardiologist looked blank when I mentioned that the link between CAD and plaque was all over the internet:confused:

Can any of you experts (Lenin?) help me here?

Thank you in advance. I am so worried because he doesn't have any stats that he can improve much...His GP was, in her own words "knocked over with a feather" when his chest pain turned out to be angina.

There is a relationship between body weight and the effectiveness of aspirin as an anti-inflammatory medication. If your husband is over 375 lbs. or so, a double dose of 325 may be required.

~K~,

Personally, since I have heart disease, I think that using aspirin in an anti-inflammatory dosage is useful for me so there is NEVER a day when I don't take at least 650 mg. of aspirin.

I SUSPECT that I might do better on a gram or 2/day or more but I don't want to take that much without some confirmatory studies, and nobody is too kean on doing more aspirin studies because the money isn't there. Aspirin is pretty kind to my stomach and I have taken as much as 6 grams in a day...but the 6 grams caused some gastritis...so there IS an upper limit.

<I took as much as 6 grams on several occasions because at those kinds of dosages, aspirin causes the excretion of copious amounts of uric acid...but that's another story.>

Thank you both so much for your replies. My husband is on far too low a dose
for my liking. As I said he had none of the known risk factors apart from being
male! I have been reading a book by Dr Robert Superko who thinks that inflammation (gum disease, rhinitis for example) Is a risk factor)
In my husbands case - maybe the inflammation plus lower oxygen intake at night, over many years. We were so shocked. No family history, very fit and
active, good diet. Aged 43 and started to have burning chest pain, radiating down both arms.
Went to cardiac rehab after stent...and there is nothing he can change for the better, which is pretty frustrating.
Dr Superko uses a course of Bioxin in people with gum disease, but doesn't mention how to deal with long-term inflammation. Severe rhinitis isn't easy
to deal with. I think a higher dose Asprin is the way to go.
Maybe not till his year of Clopidogrel is finished? because he's getting some
colourful bruises at the moment.
Thanks again...

~K~,

Part of the trouble is that inflammation inside the coronary arteries is almost impossible to confirm even at autopsy. So we have to operate on theories. When using theory as the basis of medication, one has to be hesitant to bring out the big guns lest the theory proves a bad one. Making a correllation with gum disease is risky because one we can plainly see, the other we can only guess about.

Confirmed arterial inflammation is called arteritis and that can be a fast and horrible killer...an altogether different disease.

All that said, I think 650 mg. aspirin/day is safe and beneficial enough for me to do it without fail.