BS: Heart attack

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Greg B
Date: 06 Sep 11 - 02:45 PM

C-Flat, I'm with you. The gym has become fun, not to mention all the things that are now easy and fun to do as a result.

My resting heart-rate was in the 70's late last year. Now it's in the 40's.

I find that jigs, reels, hornpipes, rants, etc., are indispensable aids to keeping going, especially on the elliptical trainer. And on the stair-mill, you can't beat Bruce Springsteen's version of "Jacob's Ladder."

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 07:57 PM

Gosh, Peter. Good info. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 07:13 PM

bobad is right, they can be hard to recognise. My first (2003) caused little more than mild discomfort, but it persisted for some hours so I got it checked out. By the time I did, the discomfort had gone, all indicators suggested I was OK, I began to feel sheepish... until blood tests came back and proved I'd had a fairly big heart attack.

Inevitably there was some tissue damage, but within a few weeks I was back to a fairly active life walking 30-plus miles most weeks and lots of cycling. But obviously I've been on meds ever since. At Easter this year I got more slight discomfort while touring around Ireland. Checked it out at once this time, and sure enough another episode. After angioplasty (stent insertion) and follow-up angiogram I was back in reasonably good shape, and I've got to say the healthcare in Ireland was firstclass (and free of course, to we citizens of Europe).

But heart attacks are not power-cuts John MacKenzie. They are caused by impaired bloodflow in one or more of the arteries that supply oxygen to the heart muscle. Consequently breathlessness can be one of the symptoms, though I never had that. All I had was a puzzling sense of mild pressure, deepish and central, somewhere between the chest and the throat, and radiating gently upwards towards both sides of the jaw.

If you do get chest discomfort, don't assume it isn't a heart attack just because there are no obvious causal factors. I was fit, non-smoking, bp typically 100/50, cholesterol 3.5 on the UK scale (down to 2.6 second-time around), no family history, no evidence of or reason for stress. I was told it was enough to be mid-50s and male.

The good thing about heart attacks is that they often come with an excellent prognosis: a normally active life can be resumed (the more active the better) with life expectancy little impaired.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 06:57 PM

Bat.... last one was my ex. She was wrong. >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Nancy King
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 06:35 PM

I'll have to say I had the same reaction as Bobert did to the thread title and seeing Kendall's name first. OMYGODNO!! Whew.

Um -- you're not thinking of having a heart attack, are you, Kendall? DON'T!

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 06:22 PM

Anyone ever tell you you're really trying? ;-)

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 05:38 PM

I try.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 05:28 PM

Jim Fixx? No. Run his story by me.

Groan, Gnu...(good one!)

Thanks for the laugh!

(You are bad; you're really bad -- I admire that in a man.)

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 01:27 PM

Jim Fixx? No. Run his story by me.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Stringsinger
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 12:18 PM

One of the most important components is food intake. Exercise without a good diet puts you at risk, especially if you smoke and/or drink or consume fatty products made with sugar.

Also, and this is controversial, dairy and meat products clog arteries. Don't expect the meat and dairy industries to agree with this, their propaganda is widely known and accepted.

1. Sensible food intake.
2. Moderate exercise.

Do you remember Jim Fixx?

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: C-flat
Date: 05 Sep 11 - 08:49 AM

Rob & Will,

My earlier comment was strictly tongue in cheek.
As recently as December last I underwent heart surgery (triple bypass) and have since embarked on a fairly rigorous excercise programme to ensure I'm in better shape in future!!
Not only am I begining to benefit from my new regime already, but I'm actually starting to enjoy my visits to the gymn!!
I too now have an impressively low resting rate (although partly due to a genetic quirk which runs in the family)

C-flat.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 06:59 PM

Hot pants... ya know... nevermind.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 06:57 PM

Geez, Lox, I haven't worn a mini-skirt since 1980-ish (when I was a hundred pounds younger...). I'm thinking of selling a couple pair of hot pants, though, to the local vintage clothing shop.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 06:33 PM

heheheheee

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Lox
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 06:18 PM

.... and so inevitably, it comes back round to miniskirts ...

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 04 Sep 11 - 03:38 PM

If I had to choose how to go....

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: kendall
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 07:49 PM

Linn, if he is that bad off he shouldn't be making out anyway. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 03:12 PM

C-Flat: So, if the heart has a, more-or-less, pre-determined number of beats before it runs down and stops, it naturally follows that a couch-potatoe like me will enjoy a longer life than someone who excercises regulary, increasing their heart-rate and using up more of their beat-quota!

Sloth is good!!

Not quite....another thing that regular exercise does is slows down your *resting* heart rate. My resting heart rate was about 65 before I took up circuit training twice a week. It dropped to 56 within a few months. Then when I replaced circuits with British Military Fitness 4-5 times a week it dropped to 44...which my Consultant in a recent medical investigation was most impressed with. So in the periods between exercising I'm actually "using up" far fewer of my "alloted number" of beats than I was before.

And the "conditioning" also means that when I exert myself in "normal life" (ie today I've spent several hours manually sanding window frames and mouldings) my heart rate doesn't rise to anywhere near the level it would have done before I took up regular exercise.

A friend 20 years younger than me frequently used to take the piss out of me for exercising (I'm clumsy and have a tendency to injure myself). He would say that he spent his evenings and weekends on the couch drinking beer and *never* had an injury doing that. Four weeks ago he had a stroke! When I went to see him he did have the grace to mumble "I'm laughing on the other side of my face now"....which I thought showed a great sense of humour for someone in his position!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 10:53 AM

Tom was "lucky"...he DIDN'T have a heart attack and thus missed the attendant heart muscle damage.

But his heart capacity was down to less than 20% in 2004 when I was terrified he'd die on me and, since he was underemployed (and I was unemployed at the time) and he was without health insurance we were going frantic trying to find health care at a rate we could afford.

He ended up having his aortic valve replaced, tricuspid valve repaired, double bypass and the installation of a defibrillator/pacemaker. (Yes, my husband runs on batteries...)

Call him the Quarter Million Dollar Man (US$). I tell everyone he had a valve job, a tune-up and some electrical work and now he'll never play football again...(of course, he never played football before...).

As it was, because we had no insurance, no income and no savings, we ended up not having to pay for any of that medical care -- financial assistance through the hospitals took care of it all. However, if we had HAD insurance and it hadn't covered EVERYTHING (which most insurance doesn't), we would have lost the house (for which our mortgage is considerably less than what we'd have to pay for rent).

Now his heart works fine, but his arteries are a mess (heavily calcified), and, among other things, he's not getting enough blood to his eyes. Yesterday, after a meeting with his primary care, Tom was officially declared legally blind.

I should probably start a Curmudgeon health update thread, since I know many people here at Mudcat are interested in how he's making out.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: bobad
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 08:56 AM

Unfortunately it's not always easy to recognize the symptoms of a heart attack. A doctor I know went for 24 hours before going to a hospital thinking that his symptoms were just indigestion, consequently his heart muscle suffered more damage than it would have had he had it treated sooner. He's doing ok now but he could be better.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: skarpi
Date: 03 Sep 11 - 07:41 AM

well all , take care of your body , you only have one .

kv Skarpi

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Greg B
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 07:21 PM

Make that 2010, not 2011.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Greg B
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 07:19 PM

Well, in my case, on September 22 2011, after feeling very uncomfortable and short of breath for a week or so, a clot caused by plaque (cholesterol) fully blocked off my lower anterior descending coronary artery. This cut off the blood supply to an area of my heart, and it felt rather like an elephant jumping up and down on my chest in spiked heels.

I fortunately live about 1 nautical mile from one of the best heart institutes on the East Coast, and Karen and her F150 got me there in no time. Whereupon they futzed about a bit, gave me a load of morphine that didn't ease the pain one bit, and in about ten minutes inserted a catheter up through my wrist, popped open the artery, and left a nice stent behind. I was home in less than 48 hours.

Although it was distressed, none of my heart muscle died. Had it been allowed to go on, though, it could have become the "widow-maker." Lots of people died of this very thing right up into the 1970's.

Since a couple of weeks after that, I've been in "cardiac rehab" which to make a long story short consists of going from a couch-potato to an endurance athlete. Plus getting my cholesterol numbers where they need to be and my blood pressure too.

Now, six days in seven, I go to the gym, walk on a treadmill at 4MPH and 15 degrees incline for 15 minutes, followed by climbing the equivalent of 50-55 stories in 12 minutes on a "stair mill" (a cross between a short escalator and Jacob's ladder), do a 20-minute cross-country interval course on an elliptical trainer, then perhaps 10 minutes of rowing. Then, I lift some weights.

As a result of my little "wake up call," I've taken off 40 pounds of fat, put on 20 pounds of muscle, and am literally in better physical condition than ever before in my 52 years.

I celebrated the six-month anniversary by climbing a 50-story building in 14 minutes to benefit the Lung Association. I've got an even more interesting challenge in mind for the 1-year.

It's been interesting.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 02:13 PM

... it naturally follows that a couch-potatoe like me will enjoy a longer life than someone who excercises regulary, increasing their heart-rate and using up more of their beat-quota!

Seductive little idea, isn't it? Unfortunately... exercise of the heart actually makes it stronger - and letting it lollop along can weaken it...

Damn!

LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 02:11 PM

If you follow that link, which I was also going to post(:-), it eventually, after much rambling, turns into a come on for the good doctor's newsletter for only $39.99, I think it was. He does give some good info, but my gosh there is a lot of rambling to get one hooked. If you just click on it, as if to close it, it will switch to an all text of same, so you can just read without the pre-a_mble.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: maeve
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 01:35 PM

My heart beats...fortunately.

I think that's the same link I posted, mg. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 01:31 PM

My heart beats between 60 and 64 bpm while sitting. Unless I am sitting in my truck driving around town... we really must have the world's worst drivers here.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: open mike
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 12:33 PM

http://www.newsmax.com/US/Heart-Attack-Symptoms-Signs/2011/08/26/id/408823

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: open mike
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 12:01 PM

I have heard the expression "I am as serious as a heart attack"
and it always makes me cringe!

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: C-flat
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 12:00 PM

Will, I like where this is going...

So, if the heart has a, more-or-less, pre-determined number of beats before it runs down and stops, it naturally follows that a couch-potatoe like me will enjoy a longer life than someone who excercises regulary, increasing their heart-rate and using up more of their beat-quota!

Sloth is good!!

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 10:50 AM

One of the facts I've always found fascinating is that, no matter what the species is (in the main), the number of heartbeats in a lifetime is around the same number. So a mouse has as many heartbeats as an elephant or a human. The difference is in the speed of the heartbeat, which accounts, to a certain extent, for the normal lifespan of each species. A mouse's heart beats much faster than a human heart, etc.

Of course, some hearts stop functioning quicker than others - for all the reasons given above. But in the main, the spring of our life runs down to it's natural end...

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Lox
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 09:36 AM

Point at the guy behind her? ...

... do I really want this clarified? ...

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: maeve
Date: 02 Sep 11 - 09:31 AM

There are some informative links here, Kendall: http://www.newsmax.com/US/Heart-Attack-Symptoms-Signs/2011/08/26/id/408823

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 08:29 PM

I'm not reading anything into it, but the thread list currently reads:

BS: Heart attack         
BS: No More Battery Powered Tools!!!         
BS: Another new steam loco!

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 08:15 PM

Understood, no problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 08:07 PM

That was a good joke Bluey... until... oh dear.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 07:52 PM

No Lox, when you see a young lady in a mini skirt don't have a heart attack, take a stroke, it's much more fun. Always do it quickly, best in a crowd and point at the guy standing behind her.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Lox
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 07:45 PM

about miniskirts?

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Bobert
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 07:44 PM

I don't mind sayin' that when I see "Heart Attack" and open it up and there's my buddy Kendall's name a startin' it it did give my heart a little blip...

BTW, I worked for a couple years as an assistant service manager at the Chevy dealership and I was drenkin' too much coffee and running my ass off and got something called PVC (pre-ventricular-contractions) which ain't no fun either... Reckon that Mick had them before his heart attack but didn't recognize the symptoms but they are stress related... Quit that job and they went away...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 07:43 PM

Kendall... it is surprising how much one can learn in this forum INSTEAD of researching on the internut. Ya get advice from friends without a lot of bullshit. Not that it should be used as a sole resource, but it's a GREAT resource.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: kendall
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 07:36 PM

You might be surprised at how much I have learned simply by asking.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 07:27 PM

Family medical history can play big part. Stress is a killer.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Cats
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 05:56 PM

Mine was caused by emotional stress resulting from continued harrassment over a period of time.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 02:21 PM

Kendall, think of how an old car might misfire because the timing is off or, as my dad would say of himself, only running on 3 cylinders. Eventually, it's going to "cough" and go kaput unless you get a "tune-up.":-)

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 01:12 PM

Glad you recovered, Mick. xx

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Big Mick
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 12:56 PM

I suffered a heart attack in 2004, as many of you remember. Mine was brought on by something known as a "dynamic blockage". In short terms, it was stress related. I was in a battle with a former boss who tried to end my career (I beat him eventually), and I was now in the process of playing a ton of gigs to make enough money to keep the homestead going, plus I had a wedding to pay for, plus I was out of shape. The bottom line is that I got my heart beating so hard at a gig that it literally pinched off a blood vessel and triggered the v fib that could have killed me. There have been no reoccurences, and there was no permanent damage. Nasty shite though.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: gnu
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 12:54 PM

"Like kicking the bodhran player."

HAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAA

Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: EBarnacle
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 12:14 PM

In my father's case, he fainted in the street [sidewalk] when his heart slowed down too much. His brain was starved of oxygen. Had the condition been allowed to continue, he would have died. Instead, he "merely" suffered brain damage.

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 12:00 PM

When you are watching a medical drama, and somebody shouts "V-fib", and everyone starts running around doing absolutely dreadful renditions of CPR -- that's actually not the heart stopping, per se, but going into uncoordinated motion called "ventricular fibrillation".
The heart has its own timing and regulating system that causes the muscles to contract in a sequence that makes it act like a pump. If something fouls up the timing, you get a quivering motion that doesn't move any blood.
That's what the electrical shock is intended to fix. It doesn't actually restart a stopped heart, it sort of reboots the electrical system in hopes it will get back into proper rhythm.
Like kicking the bodhran player. (sorry, couldn't help it -- hey, does that mean this thread can go up top now?)
-Glenn

Subject: RE: BS: Heart attack
From: Amos
Date: 01 Sep 11 - 09:20 AM

Chemistry -- such as no oxygen --

or mechanical failure -- such as blocked pipes and overload --

or electrical disorder -- such as electrical shock or some complication from brain signals.

Emotional impact or pain or extreme stress can cause all three.