Thanks everybody. It is exciting news and I'm happy to share it. I've been on cloud 9 all weekend. I still don't really know what to make of it, but I'm very hopeful that reducing my calcium score can only be a good thing.
So what is it that I did to make this happen? I can only tell you what I did and give you my best guess as to what I think the key factors were that lead to these improbable results.
Step 1: Eat a carb loaded unhealthy diet for decades, become diabetic, lay down loads of plaque in your arteries and let it calcify. You can't reduce your calcium score if you don't have one.
Step 2a: Go LCHF/Keto all the way. Stop eating the junky foods that made you sick in the first place. I've eaten LCHF or keto (between 10 and 50 net carbs) for over 5 years. Was this enough to reverse a high heart calcium score? I don't know. My guess is that this WOE will slow or even halt progression of CVD. The caveat to that would be this question: Are you getting sufficient magnesium, vitamin D3 and K2 from your diet? According to Ivor Cummins and others those two vitamins play a very important roll in the proper distribution of calcium in your body. Magnesium is also very important. I have been supplementing with D3, K2 and magnesium for over 2 years. I often walk in the noon day sun for some natural vitamin D. I've added some fermented foods (sauerkraut), free range chicken eggs, and cheeses (Brie & Gouda) to my regular food rotation in order get more natural vitamin K2 in my food.
Step 2b: Physical activity... I move everyday. I've averaged 15K steps per day over the past 3 years. Most all of that is walking, but I have spent some time on the elliptical and plenty of time slow jogging to make cardio a regular part of my routine. I don't kill myself. I enjoy my new freedom of movement and I take advantage of it every chance I get. Watch TV or go for a walk? Ask my family. They know my answer to that question.
Step 2c: Fiber. I started adding fiber to my diet during the first year of my lifestyle change. Back then it was about having more stable blood sugar. Then when my LDL cholesterol became an issue I added a boatload of fiber to my diet - 25g to 40g per day from chia seeds, psyllium powder, flax meal, almond meal, coconut flour, hemp hearts, cocoa powder and the fiber in LC fruits & veggies. I ate high fiber for all but 3 months during the period between my two calcium scans. I don't know if fiber had anything at all to do with my outcome, but that is how I ate so it is certainly worth mentioning.
Step 3: Keep doing step 2, then get a follow up heart calcium scan. Your results may very from mine. We are complex creatures, further complicated by genetics and our state of health.
I hope that all of you have zero calcium built up in your arteries. That would be a good thing. You just need to keep eating healthy and you are good to go. But if you do have an issue, then work on it. I made educated guesses for what to do about my problems. Something about what I did seems to have worked for me. I can't say for sure what did it. But I will tell you that I'm sticking with my vitamin K2, D3 and magnesium regimen. I believe that those nutrients + keto + physical activity were the drivers in these fantastic results.
If you didn't check it out, watch this podcast video that Janet posted above (Thanks Janet! This was very good). I'm not the only one who has reduced their calcium score. What this guy did is very much in line with what I did. The content gets a little deep on this video, but somewhere in there is a good explanation of how proper nutrition can make the body repair itself.
https://thefatemperor.com/want-to-r...w-podcast-ep21/
Added 5/20/19
Three other things worth mentioning:
Apple cider vinegar has been a regular staple of mine over these past two years -- taking 1 tsp to 1 tbsp. per day. I haven't been 100% consistent with it, but I'd say I consumed that modest dose of ACV at least 80% of the time over the past few years.
The second notable is low-dose aspirin. After getting that high calcium score 2 years ago my doctor prescribed low dose aspirin and a strong statin. I refused the statin, but compromised by accepting the aspirin recommendation. After reading another recent article about potential problems with taking aspirin everyday I decided to stop taking it. That was a few months ago. But for the record I was taking 325mg of aspirin daily for most of the past 2 years.
The last notable is Niacin -- the regular 'flush' type. I did experiment with taking niacin twice over the past 2 years (500 to 2000 mg daily). That was done for cholesterol reasons. Each experiment lasted about 2 months. I wasn't fond of the niacin flush and the regimen seemed to make me sweat more on my cardio workouts. So the niacin thing was short lived.