As a cross country and track runner, my coaches and trainers have taught me various facts and helpful information about keeping my body healthy and strong. Running in general is a fantastic way to keep your body in shape and in good health. Like swimming and biking and other aerobic exercises, it builds muscles and helps your heart, lungs, and other parts of your body gain strength and stay in great condition. Exercise of any kind is always beneficial to the human body, especially after something as major as a heart attack. It might not be the best idea to start running intensely right after such a drastic health scare, but maybe slowly working your way into a routine would be very beneficial to your health an your body. Exercise is a big part of the path to recovery, however it might be a better idea to gradually get back into a regular exercise routine rather than starting the very next day.
The question isn’t that we each have heart disease it is to what degree and how soon before our first heart attack or stroke. This particular resource was tremendously helpful to me. https://www.drfuhrman.com/shop/products/207/the-end-of-heart-disease-qui...
Umm, what is the point of this article?
That the author of a book called “Running: A Love Story” promotes running (and her book)?
A few anecdotes are not data.
And those heart-attack runners who died because of it are not around to be quoted…
If one looks at the data, instead of a few anecdotes, one actually sees little to no benefit, or actual harm, in exercise after heart attacks.
See the 2016 Cochrane Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis on Exercise-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation for Coronary Heart Disease at: http://www.onlinejacc.org/content/accj/67/1/1.full.pdf.
Their “RESULTS: A total of 63 [randomized] studies with 14,486 participants with median follow-up of 12 months were included. ... [Despite some] improvements in quality of life... There was no significant effect on total mortality, myocardial infarction, or revascularization.”
(And for those interested in more of a deep dive, I also suggest Table 2 on adverse events in the PMID 24866862 randomized controlled trial and Figure 3 of PMID 19264819…)
My advice is to listen to your own body.
If it tells you not to physically exert yourself too much, then don’t.
Stressing any body part too much, including your cardiovascular system, is simply not good for it.
2
Something that most folks don't talk about, when it comes to blocked arteries and heart disease, is the importance of Vit C. Without sufficient "REAL" Vit C the body can not repair minor damage done to the interior artery walls. If you don't have enough Vit C in your diet the only other option the body has is to cover the artery damage with fat/cholesterol/calcium, basically patching over the damage as opposed to making a proper repair. Once this cycle begins it only gets worse with time until the artery gets blocked. The human body does not produce Vit C so if you don't ingest enough your body can't repair artery damage efficiently. It has been established that just about all artery blockage begins with a laceration /cut/abrasion of the artery interior wall. Google CVD and Vit C and you'll find a few videos on how important Vit C is to preventing blocked arteries. Since my heart attack I consume 4 limes with Grapefruit juice every day. Many vitamin C supplements will not substitute for actual "natural" Vit C. In the end, no matter how good your diet may be, without enough Vit C, you're destined to get blocked arteries!! Thousands of British sailors (Limies) can't be wrong! Treblig in Texas
1
The physical rehabilitation starts immediately. After my quadruple bypass surgery 11 years ago, by noon the next day in the ICU, still tied to a catheter and other tubes, 3 nursed forced me to roll onto my side (the greatest pain I have ever felt, despite being pumped with morphine), and made me walk - albeit only a few feet - to sit in a chair.
3
I had a heart attack 3 years ago, at the age of 52—while on a cruise ship coming back from Alaska! I was treated in Victoria, BC and had wonderful care. I have a familial hypercholesterolemia and have been on statins for about 30 years. I probably postponed a heart attack by 15 to 20 years with the medication. I am slowly heading towards veganism but haven’t made the transition quite yet.
I exercised very regularly before the heart attack, which the doctors in Canada told me most likely helped. Since the heart attack, my main exercise is swimming. I did one 5k open water swim in May and am doing another this coming Saturday. I highly recommend both the US Masters swim program, as well as a Facebook support group called Cardiac Athletes. Cardiac Athletes is an incredibly supportive group of people who have had all kinds of heart problems, but continue to exercise and participate in sports. I discovered them 2 years after my MI, and wished I had known about them from day one.
Fellow survivors, keep on participating, and best wishes to everyone!
12
People who exercise regularly (aerobic) have a big advantage over those who don't when it comes to heart attacks. The harder you exercise (running, swimming, hiking, cycling, etc) the more micro-blood vessels will be created on the heart muscle to bring the extra oxygen needed for long duration aerobic exercises. These micro-vessels will shrink when they are not needed (later in life) and may even seem to disappear. Later in life when your not exercising as much and you have a heart attack the micro-vessels can jump into action. When an artery(ies) is blocked the heart will have alternate routes to pump blood using the micro-vessels. It seems in my case (I used to run 5 miles every morning) when my arteries got blocked I was able to get blood to the needed areas by exercising after my heart attack. No, it was not easy or painless. But with the help of the isosorbide mononitrate, and nitroclycerin my body was able to open up my blocked arteries just enough to allow me to exercise hard enough to get the micro-vessels to reestablish themselves??? At least that's my theory. I imagine you can still grow new blood vessels either way but it would take longer. Again, since my Doctors won't do another angiogram there's no way for me to know why all my symptoms are gone in spite of the fact that I'm no longer taking any medication at all for my heart/angina. The pain used to stop me in my tracks and would last 10-15 min, My left peck would remain sore for days. Treblig
Hats off to all the heart attack survivors who made the decision to make life style changes after the cardiac event. I had mine in February 2016. I was treated at San Antonio Military Medical Center. The staff was simply fantastic. The lead doctor made it very clear that I had to change. I quit smoking and entered a cardiac rehab program and shed a lot of weight. Because of a knee problem I don't run but spend at least 4 hours a week on a treadmill. My cardiac doctor is ok with the walking program. Temptation to back my old ways is always there. I just keep plugging away.
8
Is there any info in regard to aortic aneurysms and exercise out there?
5
I’ve was diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm about 7 years ago. While I’m sure it’s dependent upon the size of an individual’s aortic aneurysm, my cardiologist told me to keep on running, but to not run any marathons. Keep it relatively mild, up to an hour of running at a time. He stated the real danger in living with an aortic aneurysm was in lifting too heavy.
2
It is absolutely shocking that an article in the New York Times about heart attacks would fail to have one single word about the impact of nutrition on heart disease.
Alert! Read “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease” by Caldwell B Esselstyn Jr., M.D.
27
When reading these articles I'm always interested in a summary of a heart attack patients diet. 9 out of 10 times it isn't included. The focus is on symptoms and surgery. 9 out of 10 times the patient's diet included years of dead animals, dairy and processed foods.
I'm not surprised there was no mention of that here. No matter how hard you try, you cant out train an incompatible diet.
8
Add to those dead animals, dead plants and cheese, and that's a good base for a Mediterranean diet. An elite athlete can perform world-class training on that. The high-carb diet is dead.
I had a heart attack 2 years ago, I was 64 at the time. They found three arteries 90, 75 and 75 percent blocked (diagonal arteries). Luckily (I guess) the arteries were too small to stint. I suffered severe pain for many weeks/month after leaving the hospital. Isosorbide mononitrate, baby aspirin, Statins, Metroprolol, Nitroglycerin (under the tongue). Isosorbide mononitrate twice a day, a nitroglycerine pill 4 to 5 times/day for angina. Angina would hit me sleeping, doing nothing, with any kind of exertion. There was nothing they could do to help me. Researched my problem on internet. I became a vegetarian, exercised on my own. I would get bad pain while exercising used nitroglycerin pills. Today, I am off of all medications, can reach my maximum heart rate for 20 minutes non stop with no pain at all. Free of all the angina, live a normal life. Don't know if I cleared out the clogged arteries or if I grew new arteries because none of my Doctors seem to care how/why I am well??? I received no help from Cardiologists . They told me to NEVER stop taking the pills. Now they say "Keep doing whatever you're doing". No one can tell me what happened inside my body. I still have the pictures of my heart arteries from the Angiogram and you can easily see the blocked arteries. Many Cardiologist have no idea how to treat blocked arteries. I still get up every day and get on my elliptical and work hard for 20 minutes (heart rate 150, I'm 66 now). Treblig in Texas
16
Unfortunately this book is something that most people will not read in their lifetime ,“Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease” by Caldwell B Esselstyn Jr., M.D. It's only when they have had a heart attack that they seek answers (like me)!! Even if you eat right and exercise you can still get blockage if your genes are inclined to deal you a bad hand. Nutrition is a big component but the great majority of folks don't worry about it until the grim reaper knocks on their door. Treblig
9
Contrary to what I've always believed, many nutrition MDs say that empirical studies find that diet is much more powerful than exercise in affecting our cardio health.
4
Congratulations ! Keep it up.
1
Running? Right after a heart attack? Hmm, methinks NOT.
Try a nice walk instead.
5
My understanding is That Jim Fixx Outlived All the male members of his family by 20 years. I could be wrong.
3
It wasn't quite 20 years, but he extended his life span 20% (10 years+) over his male family members. However, his case does not really apply here, because his family had a genetic disorder called familial hypercholesterermia, in which the body makes extremely high levels of cholesterol independently of diet. The men in Fixx's family (father, grandfather, uncles) died in their 30's and 40's of heart attacks. Fixx joined the first running boom in the 80's and died at age 52 of a heart attack while on a speaking tour about the benefits of running. Unfortunately, he died not long before statins became available, because they can be used to control this condition.
9
It was Dr. Cooper who got Jim Fixx into running
1
Credit should be given to Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper for his book, “Aerobics”, which I am certain, led to the entire industry and interest in sustained physical activity beginning in mid ‘60s.
BTW: Dr.Cooper is still active at 87 Years.
15
I survived a widow-maker heart attack 2.5 years ago at age 56. My symptoms leading up to it were atypical but I knew something was wrong, so I had been going to the doctor beforehand. Fortunately it happened in a medical facility and a veritable United Nations of EMS and healthcare providers saved me. They had to shock me 7 times including 2x while awake. I received a stent in the only blocked artery I had. I was three days in the ICU with a balloon device implanted temporarily to assist my heart's recovery. Function in the affected area of my heart went down 50%. I went thru the managed exercise protocol and my heart function recovered 46% of that 50% loss. I had my heart attack on a Friday and was back to work a week after the following Monday. (The bill was @ $155k, almost all covered by insurance.) Today, I continue to exercise at the gym, doing cardio and weights. I play golf (walking the course), my weight is still improved (I'm 6'3" and it's 208, down about 15 pounds), and I watch my diet (but have something "bad" maybe 1-2x a month.) I take daily medication to help prevent a recurrence. The only issue I have is that every time I have an ache in my shoulders or chest I wonder if another heart attack is imminent. I like to think of it as the Fred Sanford ("I'm coming Elizabeth!") syndrome.
19
I was diagnosed with heart disease at age 49, and one week after a stent was implanted in my main left-descending artery it became 100% blocked and I had my widow-maker event, presumably because I was "drug-resistant". The recommendation by specialists was a pacemaker and lifelong drug cocktail and my prognosis was that my heart would never get better.
After some alternative research, I refused the pacemaker, embraced daily exercise, and switched to a vegan diet. Six years later I am without a pacemaker, weaned myself from drugs, and have done almost a dozen marathons (including the NYC marathon) and ultra running races. There is hope - be disciplined and don't assume the doctors are always correct.
Every day is a good day.
44
Hi MSC,
My father died of a heart attack at age 55. At age 51 (14 years ago) my cardiologist sent me for an angiogram. My right coronary artery was blocked 90-95%. Back in 2003, while I heard of Dean Ornish, I knew very little about his program, followed my doctor's directions and had a stent placed in that blocked artery. I took plavix for 2 years and took pravastatin and Zetia for the last 15 years, and continue to do so. For the last two years I have been on a plant based whole food, no extra oil diet. Overall my health is excellent. But I wish I had the option back in 2003 to have gone on that plant based diet, for at least a year, to see if the angina would have stopped just by diet alone. There are lots of vegans out there but I wish I could find whole food, plant based, no oil vegans to hang out with. There are so few of us.
14
KWW et al, kudos to you for making the conversion. Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's book has saved many of us, including me. I have a lot of cynicism regarding our western medicine approach which just piles on the drugs, since there is no financial incentive for doctors to promote the Esselstyn diet. Frankly it is not a sacrifice to give up meat & dairy - it is just a bit more effort and the payoff is extending your life by years or decades. I am on my "bonus life" now and without symptoms associated with heart disease such as angina.
Changing diet is the real story here, or perhaps the efforts by big pharma, big food, and western medicine to squash and discredit this approach. This is worthy of an expose story by the NYTimes.
1
Friedrich Nietzsche put it well, “That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.” Surely researchers can identify those of us who actually shouldn't go out and run a few miles after a heart attack, at least not without very slowly working up to it.
9