zacster

I just had the Calcium score done, and it doesn't even cost that much. They charged me $99 but it isn't covered. The fact that it isn't covered makes me think that it isn't considered a reliable score or is still controversial.

Joe F

Yep! Per my earlier post, my cardiologist pretty much rolled his eyes at it and told me not to bother with it again going forward. I do find it interesting however that source after source links "endurance sports" to higher levels of calcification in the heart, yet it is apparently "more stable calcium" and the person has no corresponding elevated risk of heart disease. I guess I'll check back in in 10 years to report how it turned out. Hit the mountain bike trail yesterday and over 1hr 20mins I averaged 1hr 10min in my preferred target zone (130-160) with an average BPM of 148 and a peak of 172. Not bad for someone eligible for Social Security now.

alo

Just live your life to the max, and do those things you want to do. Do what you can to maintain optimum health. One day it will be too late. But there is no point in worrying about it now.

Flip Flop Rider

me and a friend of mine joked about going riding and pre dialing 91 on the cell, so you just have to hit the other 1 if necessary

Joe F

I ride the trails with the Road ID bracelet and accompanying Road ID app on my phone. If I am stationary more than 5min and don't abort it, it will text my wife that I have not moved in 5min and may require attention along with giving her my location. At that time she will immediately...start planning the European vacation that I have always been so resistant to.

ironnerd

Yup, I do. My grandfather died from a heart attack, my dad survived one a year or so ago, and he's healthier than I am (he used to do triathlons - I just ride a bike to work). But... Something is going to get me. Keeling over on my bike is a more attractive option than cancer.

The funny thing is, the only time my heart feels "right" is when I am riding.

bmcer

Worry about my heart? At 70+, who doesn't at least consider the possibilities. As for myself, my history has provided a somewhat difference perspective. At age 60, I had a heart attack after decades of self abuse (cigarettes, fatty foods, alcohol, obesity) that required 2 stents in the right coronary artery. That was my wake up call. Quit smoking and drinking, turned to a more vegetable based diet. and got back on the bike after 25 years of not riding at all. Fast forward 2 years. I'd lost 65 lbs., got off my statins and still had a perfect lipid panel (Total Cholesterol < 170, HDL > 60, LDL < 70), had my BP running at <120/<70, and was the very picture of health. Right up until the Sunday morning I was waiting for my riding posse to show up at the Pete's Coffee where we usually met. While I was quietly contemplating a hot cocoa after the ride to get there when I just dropped dead. Don't even remember falling over. No pulse, no respiration while a couple by-standers did CPR. EMS showed up about 5 minutes later and got my heart going again after 2 jolts. The cardiologist that did my angiograms told my wife he could not understand why I was still alive. I'd completely obstructed the main artery supplying blood to the whole left ventricle. Long story short, they did a double by pass graft, and a month later, was back on the bike, riding with my guys. A couple more months and I was as strong as I'd been before the infarct. As might be expected, the experience rocked my life at several levels, but most significantly it taught me just how tenuous life is. And to accept the fact that each and every moment is precious beyond measure 'cause it just might be your last. So no, I don't worry about it. Too busy living until I die (again)

drbarney1

I agree completely. I have been amateur bodybuilding since I was in my 50's because I never want to have a pot belly and I like having good muscle mass. A long time ago I gave up all meat when I was studying Heisenberg indeterminacy in graduate school which caused it to occur to me the indeterminacy of electron transitions during the chemical actions in the brain manifesting consciousness established that because ultimately the laws of physics at that scale are laws of pure probability, every sentient creature has a measure of freedom which makes it wrong to breed animals for food, leather, gelatin, etc. I never smokes and out of rebellion I never drank. Staying in bed as an invalid to exist a few years more is not worth it.

big john

wut

CommuteCommando

Unless you have a congenital condition like AFIB, or a defective valve, going hard shouldn't hurt. I had a heart attack while riding, but caused by LAD blockage. This was caused by a life of bad diet, and to a lesser extent, genetic pre disposition to high cholesterol. After my emergency angioplasty, I felt like superman. I started hitting all kinds of PR's. In a case like mine, the doctors concur that being physically active helped my chances of survival, and minimized damage to the muscle.

bpcyclist

Very glad you made it through all that!

bmcer

Your story sounds eerily like mine. The LAD infarct I had in 2012 threw me into a full cardio-pulmonary arrest. According to the cardiologists who did my initial angio, I should have stayed dead. But I didn't and in less that 6 weeks post CABG X 2, I was back on the bike. Subsequent echo-cardiograms showed no decrease in ejection fraction or increase in ventricular stiffening after the event. I was in superb condition prior to this due to my cycling, and I'm convinced that's what saved my bacon.

After that, I learned to stop worrying and enjoy the bejeezus out of whatever time I've got left. Since I hope to be doing something I love when my time does come, so I dedicate as much of the time as possible to those simple joys.

drbarney1

I am 73 years old and I have been exercising, relying on bicycles since my 30's because I always do poorly in the job market and can't afford to drive everywhere, I always did some body weight exercises, and took up bodybuilding with weights in my 50's. Last year I won first place in a purely amateur bodybuilding tournament in the class of men over 60, and I still use a bike most of the time. I never eat anything produced by the major food conglomerates; e.g. Kellogg, General Mills, Nabisco, Frito-Lay, Kraft, Del Monte, and their kind and I don't bother to read the label if it is made by such corporations.
I do not live this way because I value a long life. I live this way because I do not consider life capable of being worth living if I have to live it with a beer belly. If having flat ripped abs and nice looking muscles instead were to shorten my life expectancy by decades I would accept it as a good bargain. Therefore I don't worry about the risk of sudden death if I continue lifting weights and riding a bike.
Here is another consideration. Regular exercise cuts the risk of later getting Alzheimer's by 80%. Dementia is one of those diseases for which I think physician assisted suicide should be available. We all deserve the right to define for ourselves our own standards of what kind of life has the kind of meaning we deem worth living.

bpcyclist

Welp, ironically enough, as I started this thread, I just started having some left-sided chest pain totally at rest two days ago. Very short bursts, very, very sharp pain that goes away immediately. Kind of intermittent. No cardiac history here at all, no real risk factors, other than being 56. After doing a fair bit of reading, I initially concluded I wasn't to worried about this being cardiac in origin. Did get out on the bike (I know, I know) and it actually was quite a bit better while riding, at times, pretty vigorously (I know, I know). Actually, almost completely absent while out for 90 minutes or so. Did a little mini-stress test on some steep hills (I know, I know) and it was just zero symptoms--felt great, huffing and puffing.
Overall, better today, but still intermittent and quite sharp. I am having some tingling in my left hand, I freely admit, but I have a neuropathy and get that from time to time anyway, so not sure at all what that means--if anything.
No other symptoms at all--not tired, no nausea, no sweating, nothing else. Great appetite.
Anyway, thought in the spirit of the thread that I would just update. If it does not go away soon or worsens in any way, I will have to be seen. Not looking fwd to that, given the viral situation. But just can't blow it off, just in case it is some totally bizarre presentation of unstable angina for the first and only time. Would have thought I might have noticed somethng earlier, given I ride about 175 miles per week. But hey, anything can happen.

bpcyclist

So, pain progressed yeterday afternoon. More in my arm and neck. Finally, just went to the ED, pretty much based on age + symptoms. Enzymes and EKG and CXR were all pristine. Nice, seemingly bright, ED doc really just does not believe this is cardiac in nature. But have appt. with cardiologist in a few days. Perhaps a stress test... I dunno.

Still, I am extremely stoic and bad at taking care of my physical health (other than that I have a great diet and exercise a ton). So, for me to get up and go says it certainly had me worried. I never ask for help, unles it is bipolar stuff. Glad I did. In general surgery, there is a saying that goes: "Don't f*** with the pancreas." I am quite sure cardiologists and CT surgeons feel the exact same way about the heart...

Carbonfiberboy 

Doubt it's your heart. I never heard of that pain just going away to quickly. WAG is that it's a pinched nerve in your neck or upper spine from all the bicycling. While you're stuck at home, try doing some exercises. A fave neck thing of mine is to completely relax my neck, then let my head flop all the way down and go all 360° like that, very slowly. That's harder to do than it sounds. Neck muscles are really hard to relax..Maybe try some overhead presses. Fool around, see if you can make it hurt by doing something or stretching something - or better yet, not hurt. Of course it's also possible that it's referred pain from who knows where. Certainly nervous making anyway. But the normal EKG sounds really good.

Carbonfiberboy 

Thinking about that neck hypothesis again, do you know about/do this? ; https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycl...discovery.html

bpcyclist

Hadn't seen it--thanks a bunch!!

wphamilton

I do worry about my heart- it's only reasonable for anyone over 60 to be concerned. Two days ago my HR was 209 for almost 4 minutes during a run, and I know that it doesn't mean anything specific. But it's abnormal by definition. Abnormal for me, nobody knows and just maybe the reading was wrong, yet still I found myself researching it. And wanting to see if it's replicable.

OldTryGuy

Did you "manually check" ???

wphamilton

I didn't stop the run and check my pulse if that's what you mean, mainly because I wasn't watching it that closely. Actually 200-209, not "over" 209.

It's not unusual to start high and have a sudden drop, but it would normally ramp up first and only to 180's or so. I've never seen one jump up like this which is why I think "mismeasure" or worry about a problem. Objectively it's probably not either.

gregf83 

I often get a high HR over 200 at the start of a ride if my jersey is dry and flapping at all. Once I start to sweat it settles down. If you don't feel anything different when it's up it's likely just a measurement error. Pretty easy to check with your finger on your neck even while running. 200+ is fairly easy to notice. You could also have a condition like Afib but you'd likely feel that.

OldTryGuy

BMC - Before My Cancer - I could hop on my bike for the 5 mile ride to the trail head for a group ride start and within .75 mile be at 160bpm at 20+ mph and it would settle down some after 1 mile. Rarely could I get to 180+ without the feeling that I was going to puke, so when it occasionally spiked over 200 and I was feeling OK I knew it was just an erroneous read. If I wasn't going hard and I would have felt like barfing AND the pulse was 200+ there would be a quick stopping the bike and a finger pulse check.

wphamilton

I usually call anything over 200 a "measurement error" and forget about it. But it's not that simple; cardio for me is 165 and threshold in the 180's, so my 200 heart rate isn't the same as an ordinary 60+ year old seeing a 200 heart rate. It's not necessarily a case of making itself obvious in you-want-to-pass-out fashion.

What's obvious and easy to feel is that subsequent drop. It's my point of feeling warmed up and ready to establish a groove, and the first moment that I feel like I might make it to the finish of whatever I've planned, That's what makes me skeptical that it's all measurement error. It's enough to worry me in idle moments, but not enough to change anything.

gregf83 

Have you had a stress test? Probably not a bad idea.