Heart Health

February is American Heart Month, and since I ignored many signs that my heart was in trouble, Lennart and I thought it would be a good idea to offer a practical guide of signs you should never ignore.

Don’t Ignore Chest Pains

Damn, it looks ridiculous as I write these words–who would ever ignore chest pains, right? Well, it turns out that a lot of people do–especially men (sorry guys). Men tend to ignore health issues, or at least delay responding to them in a timely manner.  With me, it was the fact that the pain was very mysterious. It wasn’t the classic “elephant-sitting-on-your-chest” kind of pain that many describe during a heart attack. This was more like an itch I couldn’t scratch–way down deep in the middle of my chest.  I would rub my chest, poke my fingers in between the ribs there–but I couldn’t touch the point where the pain came from. It was a mild, but constant pressure. I have talked to many other heart attack survivors that had different kinds of pains–in the jaw, in the neck, in the back, or radiating down the arm. If you experience anything like this, act quickly and decisively. The clock is running.

When Your Significant Other is Concerned–You Should Be, Too

While I was secretly dealing with my chest pain over a three-day period, I got grumpier and grumpier. I was uncharacteristically yelling at my kids, and just feeling very negative. After grumpily getting my kids off to school one morning, my wife asked what was wrong with me–saying that I didn’t seem like myself.  I then came clean that I had been having this chest pain.  “Chest pain?! For how long?,” she exclaimed. “Oh, three or four days,” I sheepishly admitted. “Call the doctor now!” I listened. 

Don’t Ignore Family History

My Dad had quintuple bypass surgery when he was in his early 60s. He went on to have various other heart procedures throughout his life, and lived to be 86 years old. In the wake of his bypass surgery he was a different person though. Much less active, and a bit more weak and frail. Observing this really motivated me to be healthy and strong.  After I got off of alcohol and drugs 20 years ago, I pretty much devoted my life to being strong and healthy. I was consciously insisting on not repeating my Dad’s patterns. So, despite having this family history of heart disease–I ignored it with ego-driven pride. Not me! I’ve broken the cycle on this one! Look at me! I was wrong. If you have a family history of heart disease, and you’re over 40–get checked out. 

Don’t Ignore Stress

My primary tool for dealing with stress was doing very stressful workouts. Again, these words look pretty silly as I write them. I know from experience and from talking to others that this is not such a rare phenomenon. I used to work out very angrily–yelling, grunting–thinking I was exorcizing demons. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Buddhist monk, wrote that he believes acting out anger physically is a way of rehearsing the anger in your nervous system. This makes a lot of sense to me. Biochemically, if you are under chronic stress–and have high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in your system, then treat that state by giving your system daily cortisol baths through constantly stressful workouts–I believe you are asking for trouble. Cortisol is one of the things that erodes the lining of your heart’s arteries, causing a damage/repair cycle that can narrow your arteries and lead to a heart attack. Many loved ones voiced their concerns for my health leading up to my heart attack. They could see what stress was doing to me when I couldn’t. This is another sign that should never be shrugged off or ignored. In the aftermath of my heart attack, I have switched my training and life around to be much less stressful–short, less intense microworkouts for strength and easy runs to support cardiovascular health. My go-to stress management tools, as I’ve written about many times before, are cold water immersion, breathwork, meditation, creative pursuits, and always working through some type of spiritual book. Anger has a much less prominent position in my life. 

A Healthy-Looking Outside Does Not Equal a Healthy Inside

This is a misconception that many people have–including doctors. When I ended up in the emergency room with chest pains, the doctors didn’t believe I was on my way to a heart attack. I was very strong and physically fit, and my heart monitor kept setting off the alarm because my resting heart rate was below 50 bpm. They actually discharged me. Four days later I had a Widowmaker heart attack that came very close to fulfilling the mission in its name. I have since talked to many heart attack survivors who were physically fit and experienced similar things. Does exercise help reduce rates of heart disease? Yes. Will being physically fit help you survive a heart attack? Definitely. But, being physically fit does not protect you from having a heart attack.

Act On Other Risk Factors for Heart Disease

In closing, I wanted to mention other risk factors that I didn’t have, but are important to face and act on if you have them. High blood pressure, obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and being a smoker all put you at risk for heart disease. The good news is, they are all things you can do something about, and we will explore those in a later blog article,

Until next time,

Scott