Rider Down...Really Down.

[AustinBike]

13 hours ago, CBaron said:

This, combined with all the talk over in the "injury thread", then combined with my healthy neighbor's out of the blue heart attack (triple bypass) got me to go out and get my Heart CT calcium scan.  Which I got a perfect score and now sleep better for it.  Don't stop banging this drum...

Thanks
CJB

Yes, a CT scan is fundamental. And don't think that because you don't eat a lot of red meat that you're probably OK. A lot of the calcium buildup comes from sugar, not fat. Dietary fat does not become serum (bloodstream) fat, which is a common misperception. If you have high serum cholesterol, sugars (i.e. starches like rice, pasta, bread, BEER, etc.) can have a huge impact. 

I'm no doctor, but when I first had high cholesterol my doctor immediately jumped in with the get off red mean and fats bandwagon. I did that and it did not improve. Then I went low car, high protein and had lots of improvement in cholesterol. When I brought this up to her, she basically copped to the fact that the "red meat and fats" is just something doctors immediately snap to and that there was increasing indications that carbs are more of a problem. By then the damage was done. My score is still in the single digits and probably has not moved significantly since my dietary change.

Cody is right, get that test done ASAP, especially if you bike a lot. Not doing so could hamper your sport greatly in the future, among other things.

[crazyt]

2 hours ago, AustinBike said:

Yes, a CT scan is fundamental. And don't think that because you don't eat a lot of red meat that you're probably OK. A lot of the calcium buildup comes from sugar, not fat. Dietary fat does not become serum (bloodstream) fat, which is a common misperception. If you have high serum cholesterol, sugars (i.e. starches like rice, pasta, bread, BEER, etc.) can have a huge impact. 

I'm no doctor, but when I first had high cholesterol my doctor immediately jumped in with the get off red mean and fats bandwagon. I did that and it did not improve. Then I went low car, high protein and had lots of improvement in cholesterol. When I brought this up to her, she basically copped to the fact that the "red meat and fats" is just something doctors immediately snap to and that there was increasing indications that carbs are more of a problem. By then the damage was done. My score is still in the single digits and probably has not moved significantly since my dietary change.

Cody is right, get that test done ASAP, especially if you bike a lot. Not doing so could hamper your sport greatly in the future, among other things.

it is very clear that heart disease is all carbs. If you look in your pantry it is pretty much 100% carb. Eating fresh meat and vegetables is the healthiest thing you can do.  Doctors and nutritionists are very slow to change decades of incorrect training. It started with a harvard study that was paid for by the sugar industry that showed dietary cholesterol and fat were bad.

The obesity problem is entirely because carbs are cheap and so poor people mainly eat carbs.  Carbs arent inherently bad, but they dont cause long term fullness so you feel hungry even when you consume a lot of calories. People massively overeat carbs.

Once you go keto you start to eat a lot less because just a little bit of meat and veggies fill you up.

I struggle to stay keto because my wife constantly buys sugary desserts. 

[TheX]

Sugar is the worst thing you can consume. There is nothing wrong with good carbs, cheap processed food is NOT good carbs. 

My awesome Cardiologist preaches eating foods that are close to the ground. Grass fed beef, not fatty BBQ shit. I have a full lipid panel twice a year, and see the direct results of different dietary choices. I use good quality whey proteins. 

Edited September 27, 2020 by TheX

[RidingAgain]

My wife went veggies and fruit kind of only, beginning of the second week in August. She saw a TV program on the meat and poultry food industry and was disgusted by it and decided that was enough. She has had some sweet now and then — once a week cup of coffee, after dinner piece of chocolate — and maybe some pasta twice a month, flour something maybe twice a week... So not totally veggies and fruit... But I'd say 90% for sure.

She's lost, and kept off, 13 lbs since, and just feels all-round better. No exercise, as she doesn't go to the gym, and says it was too hot to walk outside. But now with cooler weather she's going to kick in with more exercise, including riding. I'm interested to see how the weight loss goes with the addition of regular exercise. She used to do CG classes three times a week and just found she couldn't lose weight. And she worked really hard in the classes. I thought it was because the exercises she was doing was building muscle, which kind of negated any weight lose. So I'm interested to see what consistent walking and riding will do with the changed eating program.

Edited September 27, 2020 by RidingAgain

[jcarneytx]

Had abnormally high blood pressure starting this spring, with some chest "discomfort;" Got new bp medicine, an EKG that showed no issue, and a heart CT scheduled later this week. Asked doc about high heart rate while mountain biking (as in if it will be an issue) he said should be fine, just stop and rest if I start to feel dizzy (What!? I always feel that way when I ride!) We'll see if anything needs to change later this week.

[AustinBike]

Yeah, I'd be willing to bet that unless your doctor is a mountain biker they have zero frame of reference outside of Mountain Dew commercials. They see 20-somethings ripping it up and doing big gap jumps so they assume anyone older will probably be wheezing the whole time. Also they are 90% sure that you should not be doing this even though the drive to the trailhead is more dangerous in most cases.

[TheX]

4 minutes ago, AustinBike said:

Yeah, I'd be willing to bet that unless your doctor is a mountain biker they have zero frame of reference outside of Mountain Dew commercials. 

My cardiologist isn't a mountain biker, but he is damn good at what he does. That's a hell of an assumption to make.

J, glad you're taking the right steps, this really is no joke.

[cmc4130]

On 9/26/2020 at 11:01 AM, ATXZJ said:

100% this^

I (used) to see people at the gym and at work who were grossly out of shape, up and decide they were gonna take up an aggressive crossfit program or the old P90x to "lose weight". All they ended up doing was permanently injuring themselves, or at best just giving up after a couple of weeks.

You cant got from a sedentary office lifestyle to being active or erase decades of poor diet and lifestyle choices in 120 days. With the pandemic, I see people who should NOT be running, trying to get laps in on their lunch hour in the middle of the summer. One of the owners of a local auto dealership who's in his mid 50s tried that, and had a bad ass heart attack for it.

This is the one that scared the shit out of me:

https://www.bicycling.com/health-nutrition/a25337675/mark-weir-dodges-widowmaker-heart-attack/

 

Thanks for the link.  I oughta get heart tested.  I don't think I have symptoms, but it runs in my family also. My dad had a heart attack when I was around 25, and he's still here with those stents 20 years later.

EDIT. Just asked my folks, and my dad had the same condition as Mark Weir--"left anterior descending (LAD) artery, which is the main pipeline of blood supply to the heart."

Edited September 28, 2020 by cmc4130

[Bamwa]

Yeah hbp is a bitch, just started valsartan even though I'm down 25 lbs from xmas and running 2 5ks/week in July.  WTF? 

[RidingAgain]

I'm Type 2 diabetic and was give medication called Trulicity early last year. Messed me up really bad within the first few weeks... Constant heart arrhythmia... And I mean shit that would wake me up at night my heart was beating so heavily... Like it wanted to pop put of my chest. Was sent to a heart specialist to see if anything could be done, because my doctor wanted me to tuff it out with the medication as it was keeping my blood sugar down in a good range... Even though after about five months I had come to realize that it was doing a number on my GI tract, which I came to believe was somehow related to my arrhythmia, as when I felt bloated was when my arrhythmia was at its worse. The heart specialist just prescribed some medication as all the test came back showing no heart problems. Any who... Long story short... I continued researching the matter and found out that there is a clinical condition related to intestinal bloating causing arrhythmia because of pressure put on a certain part of the heart by the bloated intestine. I eventually told my doctor that I was stopping the Trulicity and that he needed to prescribe something else. After much back and forth, he did... And it has taken about 12 months for my GI tract to get back to feeling anywhere near normal again.

Oh... And that heart specialists... When I showed him my research regarding the arrhythmia being caused by bloating in the intestine... He was not aware of it. For almost six months I had to endure intense arrhythmia... And this shit-hound wasn't in the least bit concerned about listening to me and trying to see if there was something that needed to be addressed. I was the one who had to find out and then pull myself off the medication causing it. He did enjoy talking to me about taking a trip to Jamaica with his wife. Honestly... You gotta wonder about some people.