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Well, you have to start somewhere. Getting total Cholesterol and Triglycerides checked and a treadmill stress test is a start. Or, go out and run 3 miles at 10/mph pace (fairly slow). If you come through those with flying colors, you are at a lower risk. yes, you may keel over dead some day, but if you are at a reasonable weight, don't gasp walking up stairs, and eat a diet not loaded with saturated fats, with plenty of vegetables, you probably won't keel over dead anytime soon. There are no guarantees in life though.
a 5-kilometer is 3.1 miles and just scraped through one last week in about 25 minutes. I just wonder if there's buildup from over the years that I don't know about. Like, say you eat a crappy diet for 10 years and build up blockages. Then you clean up your act and now you think you're OK, but you still have a problem from those 10 years.
How about a test that actually looks at the inside of the veins and arteries? Sometimes healthy people who work out get heart attacks. Doesn't a cholesterol test only tell you how many milligrams (mg) of cholesterol are floating around in your blood per one-tenth of every liter (deciliter) of blood on average? I don't believe that would actually indicate if there's actual buildup inside the veins and arteries. If you diet for a while and get a lower cholesterol rating, that could trick you into thinking you're okay when there's really blockages.
It has been proven that too much exercise affects the heart. It also doesn't change congenital heart conditions which many people have. Many people also have genetics for high cholesterol and heart disease. Them working out or eating healthy doesn't mean anything as genetic trumps everything else.
What you want is called a Nuclear Stress Test, where they inject a radioactive dye into your blood stream and then they take images of your heart at rest and while on a treadmill. It will show how well blood is flowing to the heart.
After my heart attack 31 years ago, they did a stress test every year to monitor what was happening. I just had one before my quadruple bypass, and they found the 4 blocked arteries that way.
Talk to your Cardiologist, they can arrange this test for you pretty easily.
"You know those news stories where someone not overweight drops dead from a heart attack."
not a news story: my cousin did that last month.
he was 6'1", 182 lbs, and walked 4 miles a day.
he woke up and told his wife he could not breathe.
DOA. 71 years old. never drank, but he did smoke.
regarding tests:
he had them all. he had comprehensive "cadillac" insurance
due to being a Union welder, and his wife told me "nothing showed".
surprised everyone. tests are fine. they do not provide all the answers.
What you want is called a Nuclear Stress Test, where they inject a radioactive dye into your blood stream and then they take images of your heart at rest and while on a treadmill. It will show how well blood is flowing to the heart.
After my heart attack 31 years ago, they did a stress test every year to monitor what was happening. I just had one before my quadruple bypass, and they found the 4 blocked arteries that way.
Talk to your Cardiologist, they can arrange this test for you pretty easily.
unless you have a condition or records that you've had problems with your heart, is unlikely doctors would order these kinds of tests for someone who "just wants to know"
The gold standard is an angiogram. Coronary angio to look at each artery in the heart, carotid angio to look at arteries in neck (carotid and vertebral). Catheter goes into femoral artery in groin or radial artery in wrist, catheter tip is placed at beginning of artery, contrast is injected and images are recorded. But no one is going to order that just for a “look see”. You need to have symptoms, chest pain, etc. You could get a non-invasive test, called a sonogram (ultrasound) but again, you need a reason to have this test, not just curiosity.
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