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Conservative
Commentary
by Ed Donath
January 2, 2012 |
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Defending the right to rant! |
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Some Good News About
Heart Attacks
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An annual
non-political appeal for my readers to take care of
themselves...originally
published 1/3/09.
I
was out shoveling snow for a couple of hours this morning.
Our driveway is two cars wide, over 100 feet long and there was
about eight inches of overnight accumulation. When I began
shoveling and cleaning off the cars the temperature was
seven degrees but it felt like minus ten as a result of a
stiff wind.
Nonetheless, I
feel quite well after my shoveling workout, especially now
that I've had a hot shower, lunch and a bottle of beer. Did
I mention that I'll be 63 years old in ten days?
It had also snowed overnight on this date 27 years ago.
Unfortunately, I was unable to go out and shovel on that
particular morning because a couple of nurses were in the
process of attaching me to a monitoring device in the local
hospital's ICU
They were pretty sure I had suffered a heart attack at
home the previous evening -- a fact that I denied,
attributing my sickness, instead, to a 24-hour bug and
over-exerted chest muscles.
I would have stayed at work that day and perhaps gotten
sicker or died had a business associate not convinced me to
call my doctor an hour or so before being placed in the ICU.
"Don't get depressed or stressed-out over this heart attack
that you've survived," my new cardiologist told me as I lay in
yet another hospital bed post-cardiac
catheterization
two weeks after the week's stay at the
first hospital. "You've got one-and-a-half artery disease
-- pretty common," he continued.
I looked puzzled and was rolling my eyes in disgust so Dr.
Edwards kept right on talking.
"That means one completely blocked artery -- with damage, of
course, to the surrounding muscle tissue -- and another one
that's about 50% blocked. Fortunately for you the
main heart artery still looks pretty good, so I won't
recommend bypass surgery at this time. But it's always an
option if things get worse."
"Wow, lucky me," I answered sarcastically.
"Hey Ed, if you can hold out for couple of years -- quit
smoking, lose weight, lower your cholesterol, start an
exercise program, avoid losing your temper -- they'll have
balloon surgery perfected by then."
"Balloon surgery?" I asked. "What the heck is that?"
"They've been experimenting with catheters like the one we
just used to inject the contrast material for the x-ray
movies we made of your heart damage," Doctor Edwards
replied. "But instead of a dye injector at the end of the
catheter it will carry a tiny balloon that can be inflated
to expand a severely blocked artery."
Fast forward 27 years. I never had surgery of any kind --
not even one of those balloon procedures that became so
commonplace right on my doctor's predicted schedule. Most
probably, this was the result of doing nearly everything the
doctors had suggested in 1985.
I lost 55 pounds in the first year after the heart attack
and have managed to keep it off by changing the content of
my diet
(I still have a very large appetite and consume quite a bit
of food)
and adding more exercise to the mix. I quit smoking. I
even went vegetarian a year later in an effort to lower my
cholesterol after the recommended lean meats, poultry and
fish failed to do the trick.
As readers may have
noticed, my
fight-or-flight reflex is still a bit of a problem, but compared to the way I was before the heart attack,
I am the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi today. Actually, the instinct to
fight rather than flee may have enhanced my disease-fighting
ability. Depression and non-activism are not at all helpful
to heart disease.
In any case, God answered my prayers and has given me the
power to live with, if not overcome, heart disease. I
sincerely hope that my writing today will give others the
encouragement they need to overcome or prevent their
own health problems.
If you're
wondering how even a compliant, health-conscious "heart
patient" can shovel snow
(chest pain and symptom free)
in the coldest weather, there is a real explanation. It's
called
collateral circulation
which, in short, is the body's ability
to create alternate routes for the flow of blood through the
heart to compensate for blocked vessels. CC is a natural
form of bypass surgery that is thought to be the result, in
large part, of aerobic exercise that both strengthens heart
muscle and requires it to find ways to deal with the
exercise-increased blood flow.
My own collateral circulation was confirmed a few years ago
when I was brought in for a 20-years-later cardiac
catheterization. My current cardiologist was unhappy with
the results of a
thallium stress test
he had ordered around the time that he
took me on as a new patient. We now know that the test
result appeared abnormal because of the large number of
alternate routes my blood now takes to nourish and oxygenate
the healthy parts of my heart.
A day at the Cath Lab confirmed that 20+ years of "clean
living" can, in fact, reverse some of the more serious
effects and symptoms of heart disease. While the
cardio-surgeon was fully prepared to insert expandable
stents into any number of blocked arteries, he was gleeful
in his report that he had never seen "a road map of
collateral circulation" quite like the one he documented
during my procedure.
Of course, most of his subjects are much older than 35 when
they have their heart attacks. Even compliant heart
patients rarely get a follow-up cardiac catheterization 20
years or more years after cleaning up their acts. Sadly,
the majority of heart disease patients are less than
compliant.
Can you imagine how healthy your heart could be if you
cleaned up your act before you have a heart attack?
We're in the midst of snowstorm season and I'm ready,
willing and able to shovel us out. Are you?
click on the heart
eddobloggo home
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