Sailing after a heart attack

[dvCali]

[swchandler]

One more thing that's worth investigating to better characterize where your heart is at after a heart attack, and that's performing an echocardiogram in concert with an EKG. I've had many over the last 15 years, and they give your cardiologist a very detailed review of your heart's performance both at rest and after a treadmill test.

An echocardiogram is a non-invasive test, and all mine were performed in my cardiologist's office. If you have any resulting irreparable damage, it can be highlighted and characterized to help guide you if you have any notable limitations.

[isobars]

[wernerhickey]

@dvCali - I think that is Isobar's point. Inform yourself and check what you are being advised. Not all doctors are the same and their bias for treatments for the same disease can be totally 180. Go to a surgeon their advise will be to cut - go to an endo they will advise "blockers" as one small recent example in my family showed. One was right one was clearly wrong as post-op biopsy showed.

[dvCali]

[DelCarpenter]

I think Isobars mention of HIIT, high intensity interval training, was not intended as a prescription for any other person to exactly follow what Isobars does in his HIIT. In everything else Isobars in effect says, "Do it the way that fits you." HIIT for someone recovering from a recent heart attack will be quite different from what it would be months later.

Obviously, too much strain for even the healthiest heart is: too much strain. And too little strain also weakens any muscle.

[isobars]

I don't give medical (or wind forecast) advice. Google "HIIT after heart attack" minus the < and >.

Every one of us should educate himself in everything from cancer to toenail fungus, including heart attacks, if we want to outlive the harm often done by countless well-meaning medical providers. The third- (probably heading for second-) largest cause of death in the U.S. is medical errors, and that doesn't even include the death and/or disability rates from simple bad advice involving such myths as lowering our cholesterol, avoiding saturated fats, gutting out aerobic exercise, accepting drugs or surgery for everything, and so much more.

We don't need, nor could we expect, to know more overall than the better physicians out there, but we CAN and SHOULD know enough to spot and avoid most bad advice and doctors. We CAN and SHOULD know some specifics about our own medical issues and solutions that even the better, often best, specialists do not know. I used to be amazed at some of the entrenched BS fed me by specialists (including cardiologists, medical/surgical/radiation oncologists, surgeons, internal medicine concierge physicians, nutritionists, medical professors, PAs and nurses, and so much more), but the surprise factor is gone. Now I just present overwhelming research data to them if necessary, and fire them if they dismiss it out of habit or resent my involvement. I can usually prove my cases; many of them cannot and/or won't even try to dispute any evidence contrary to what they were taught decades ago. Many of them just figuratively thump their chest, as though the name embroidered on it was, "God", not "Jones".

Turning off the TV, doing some homework, and questioning these "gods" is likely to add years of heartbeat, quality, and windsurfing to our lives.

[isobars]

[dvCali]

[U2U2U2]