Heart attack -- advice?

vanjr wrote:

70 year old wrote:

Thanks. It is nice to see some sanity on letsrun. This is a serious life and death matter.

Two of my friends got cardiologist advised stents put in, and three months later they were dead.

Typical letsrun thread with a mixture of knowledge and lack thereof.

Medical mistakes are NOT the 3rd most common cause of death-not even close. I work in a hospital. I rarely see anything that comes close to a fatal medical mistake.

And 70 year old, how long would your friends have lived without a coronary stent? People commonly die due to a number of medical conditions while being treated for those conditions. That is why they are treated.

Do you have any studies/research to refute the iatrogenic damage that's being done by the system? So you work in hospital...and that's evidence that refutes the BMJ study? Lol. I recently lost a family member to medical drug-induced renal & pancreatic failure 😠. The same drugs that she was being treated for an autoimmune disease ended up blowing out her kidneys & pancreas!!! She's just a statistic now as part of the tens of thousands of people who are fatally poisoned every year by the normal administration of medical drugs. The BMJ study referenced was completed by lead research Dr. Markary of JH:

And the late & renowned researcher Dr. Barbara Starfield of JH compiled some very sobering data on the state of the medical system:

The findings by Barbara Starfield, MD, of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health:

12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgeries;

7,000 deaths from medication errors in hospitals;

20,000 deaths from other errors in hospitals;

80,000 deaths from infections acquired in hospitals;

106,000 deaths from FDA-approved correctly prescribed medicines.

The total estimated number of deaths caused by medical treatment in the US every year is *225,000.*

>100,000+ deaths from *FDA-approved* correctly prescribed medications! This is what you get when the medical journals are polluted with industry-funded safety studies, and doctors are oblivious to the publication bias of these studies (and many, IMO, could care less). But all is well and good in medical system 😕.

Ok now lets get real. This is a thread started by a heart attack survivor who wants some guidance about resuming his life including running. There have been a number of stories posted by other runners that are heart attack survivors including me. What's the point you're trying to make here? Every sane reasonable person understands that Doctors are human and make mistakes. It is also reasonable that quality in the system can improve.

If you are not ignorant you realize the most important thing to do if you have chest pain is to get it checked out by a healthcare provider . Every heart attack survivor will tell you this can be the difference between life and death.

Your post is insulting to me and others on this thread who are trying to share experiences and be supportive to the OP.

PLANT BASED DIET............YOU STUPID PEOPLE

"Every sane reasonable person understands that Doctors are human and make mistakes."

It goes a lot deeper than that pal...you need to read up on the roots of false medical research that permeates the medical journals...you know the same journals that M.D.s trained to pay homage to and worship as their Bible. Pharma's pulling the strings here with their industry-funded studies that doctors embrace as legitimate research. Perhaps you need to read what Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the prestigious journal the Lancet, has to say about the current state of medical research (that is if you can handle it):

And of course people should have chest pains checked-out by medical professionals, and hopefully it's nothing serious. But many people think because doctors can put accident victims back together, surgically repair damaged body parts and temporary treat pain effectively, that all is well & good in other facets of the system. This is complete & utter nonsense to the tune of over 225,000 PREVENTABLE deaths occurring every year by the medical cartel! 😠 Now, I find it insulting that you're too naive to understand this.

Could spend hours describing the variability in care delivery I have seen first hand and more importantly how it can be improved. Can also relate first hand stories about the favoritism that goes on in what gets published and what gets funded. Not from crap I've read but what I've seen and work I've done. So... not at all naive about the points you make but your comments are tangential to this thread. Feel free to start another thread on what's wrong with the heath care system and how medical evidence is half-baked since you clearly have a lot of passion on that topic.

Advice.. wrote:

If you are not ignorant you realize the most important thing to do if you have chest pain is to get it checked out by a healthcare provider .

There is zero increase in life expectancy from seeing doctors for heart conditions.

In fact people who routinely see doctors are more likely to suffer premature deaths

not only from heart complications, and to suffer from lower quality of life in the meantime.

There is way too much suffering that results from routine medical malpractice atrocities.

It is very important, for the sake of all of us and our loved ones, to seek healthy alternatives.

First of all, I'm glad you're alive. If you weren't a runner, there's a good chance your wife's a widow now.

The heart is a funny thing - I'm under 40 and have had two heart attacks (service related injuries). My diet could be better but I'm not a smoker or anything else. But sometimes a malformation in our CV system leads to cardiac events. In my case, an inferioposterior infarc.

My advice?

1) Breathe. Remember to breathe.

2) It sounds like you've done everything you could have over the years to take care of yourself. This has what's kept you alive.

3) You can get back to running, but you won't be that same runner again. I wish that weren't the case. And this was the hardest thing I had to learn. I'm not that same athlete.

4) The cardiologist isn't joking when they say gradually. You know those days when you could run 10k like it was no big deal? Your new goal will be to walk around the block slowly. This is what made me cry. And to get back into running? You're probably going to have to start over and do Couch to 5k. That's what I had to do. Even though my brain is like "no big deal let's go" my body wouldn't.

5) Learn to love the exercise bike. This will be your new friend.

6) Get your legal paperwork together (life insurance, etc.). If I had a heart attack during a fun run and shuffled off, I want everyone to be on the same page for end of life directives and financial stuff.

7) Tell your wife that you love her every day.

You'll be a runner again, but it'll be slow. In the meantime, listen to your cardiologist and work towards long walks (preferably with your wife.)

70 year old wrote:

Advice.. wrote:

If you are not ignorant you realize the most important thing to do if you have chest pain is to get it checked out by a healthcare provider .

There is zero increase in life expectancy from seeing doctors for heart conditions.

In fact people who routinely see doctors are more likely to suffer premature deaths

not only from heart complications, and to suffer from lower quality of life in the meantime.

There is way too much suffering that results from routine medical malpractice atrocities.

It is very important, for the sake of all of us and our loved ones, to seek healthy alternatives.

- Face Palm -

That's because healthy people don't go to doctors for heart conditions.

Then again, maybe you're right...the medical profession thrives by maiming and killing its customers...eye roll...

Unfortunately, in all likelihood your running days are over. Your road to recovery will be very slow and your first priority is to follow your doctors advice. In a few months he may recommend you join a "Healthy Heart Program" where you will be monitored very closely in terms of exercise and diet recommendations.

Priority number one is to be get stabilized then return to work returning to running should be last on your list of priorities.

I'm week out from the hospital and saw the cardiologist today. I've been doing short (

[quote]1955 wrote:

I'm week out from the hospital and saw the cardiologist today. I've been doing short (

[quote]1955 wrote:

typing and hope that it

1955 wrote:

[quote]1955 wrote:

typing and hope that it

Are you OK???

conserving my

Not sure why previous post got cut off, and it appears someone else used same handle to post. Disappointing.

I suggest getting a copy of "How Not to Die". Dr. Michael Gregor's NY Times best-seller. Lays out the best way to reverse heart disease and the most common killers of Americans. Yes, it does call for a plant based diet. But that is the best thing anyone can do for themselves.

Several questions............forgive me if I didn't see answers to them in the 5 pages of posts:

1.) Did the angio show anything other than a clot, IE significant stenosis (narrowing) in any of the other arteries?

2.) Which coronary artery was the clot in, IE LAD, right coronary, circumflex?

3.) If there was stenosis , what was the % and which arteries were stenosed?

4.) How did they treat you initially, IE meds.

5.) Have you had a stress test, and if so were there ECG changes indicating coronary ischemia (lack of O2)? At what heart rate and blood pressure did the changes occur, if known?

6.) What meds did they put you on long term, if anything?

7.) Did you have a procedure, IE stent, etc?

8.) I know you said your cholesterol was good, but what were the actual numbers for total, LDL and HDL cholesterol?

That's a start, will likely have more based on the responses to these.

longroad wrote:

This thread made me wonder if i should indeed worry about my cholesterol.

My Total is around 200 and LDL around 100 but since my HDL is 110 or so, i never thought that i should worry about this since my HDL is almost 3 x above normal in the good direction.

To the guys who had heart attacks, what was your HDL?

As long as the LDL is 100 or below, epidemiological and study data suggests that there is minimal if not zero risk of arterial narrowing in the bulk of the population, irrespective of the total or HDL level. I have seen coronary disease occur however in a very slight few that have this kind of lipid profile, however the probability is so small as to make it almost non existent.