indyfabz

Deep thought.

Chuck M 

I created a stir one time on a board with that reference. There was some post about what confession or secret do you have. Most replies were in the vein of stealing, cheating, lusting or odd behaviors. I replied that I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die and the audience was apparently too young to get it. Fortunately the admins/mods were aged enough that they calmed everyone down before an attempt was made to report me to the authorities.

I began my process in late September and have an appointment with a cardiologist the 29th of this month so I resemble that remark.

3alarmer 

...I actually got a regular cardiologist a couple of years back. I've had a slight arrhythmia going on 50 years now. But it was not until I required clearance for a minor surgical procedure requiring anesthesia, that anyone thought to refer me to a cardiologist. It took me way longer to get an appointment with him, and suffer through all his various testing procedures, than it took to schedule the surgery. Nice kid...now I am supposed to drop in annually and share my stories of how I'm doing on beta blockers. From sitting in the waiting room a couple of times, I did not get the impression that business was lacking.

I bet they're getting screwed on insurance reimbursements though. Physicians all complain about that.

stevel610 

Wondering what his spike protein activator serum intake habit was....

streetsurfer

there is that, too.

MoAlpha

Nah, it was the toxins in his colon or the government shooting directed energy at him.

rsbob 

Nothing that a coffee colon cleanse and a tin foil hat wouldn’t have prevented. Gallos humor, sorry, not sorry.

First hand experience? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

3alarmer 

...it's pretty well accepted as fact, that they've been doing that in the UK to remainers, ever since the vote.

Camilo

Yeah, they ask for insurance info every time you go to any medical facility, except maybe free public health functions, etc.

ERs of course do the same, but they generally (always?) do not turn you away if you don't have coverage. So it's a non-relevant fact that they asked you for your insurance infol

Troul 

was the guy pounding down big macs while riding? key details are most likely missing from the provided story.

Lombard

Most likely. I know a few people who are in great bike shape, but their diet is crap. It's not an either/or thing. If you eat crap, you can still clog your arteries regardless of how good physical shape you're in. Not to mention the man in the article could have had a congenital heart condition in the first place. Granted it is clearly possible to overtrain and "extreme" athletes can indeed develop an unhealthy enlarging of the heart. Combine that all with an unhealthy diet full of refined sugar and saturated fat and it could be a perfect storm.

wolfchild

2000 KM or more per month on an indoor trainer is the key detail in this story.... It`s pretty obvious he took it to the extreme and his heart paid the price for it.

spelger

i am doubtful that that is what did him in.

3alarmer 

...that's a nice thing to imagine, but private hospitals here (which is most of them), when they discover you have no insurance, are only on the hook for minimal care that keeps you breathing and your heart beating. Then they send you on your way, after a routine EKG, with the advice that you seek out insurance coverage, so you can get a specialist workup from a cardiologist. Most of us do not encounter that, because we do manage to maintain some kind of health care coverage. They do have hospital social workers, who will help you explore any options for insurance under the ACA or Medicaid.

But these places are businesses...at least the ones I visit here. They don't devote extra resources to losing money. But the UK is different.

rsbob 

You may assume that people may know where The Big Tomato is located but The Google sure doesn’t know. Where are you?

3alarmer 

...all the cannery buildings have been turned into office parks, though. The trucks are still around, during the season, but they are hauling tomatoes to other towns. like Williams or Los Banos.


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terrymorse 

No, not obvious.

Figuring that 2000 km in a month would require about 14-18 hours per week, that amount of riding is fairly common.

I put in more hours than that in season, and I'm am still breathing.

wolfchild

Hours and KMs are not the same thing..Few years back I used to put in as much as 20 hours per week of riding outside, but it still was far from 2000 KM per month.

LarrySellerz

Lots of athletes have been dying suddenly in the last 18 months. Across the board there has been a huge increase, off the top of my head FIFA keeps good stats and the death rate suddenly increased by an order of magnitude.

wolfchild

Pro athletes take a lot of drugs and chemicals so that they can perform at the top level. Being a pro athlete is bad for your health.

terrymorse 

In other words, some people ride faster or slower than average.

Thanks for the personal anecdote.

tempocyclist

Likely he was riding on Zwift, so with it's super inflated average speeds 2000km / month probably wouldn't work out to being an extreme amount of time.

I'd bet there was a genetic component, as well as some other underlying issues (and of course the "ignoring the chest pains" part).

tempocyclist

Good job.👍 Getting the ball rolling is the important first step.

I recently went through the cardiology testing process. I am early in my 40's, eat super healthy, lots of exercise, I look and feel SUPER fit. My results still came back pretty bad (like 95th percentile probability to have a future cardiac event bad). It's probably almost 100% genetic. It pays to get checked and that way you'll either know you're clear, or be able to take steps before it's too late.

Chuck M 

That is probably absolutely true. As much as I want to convince myself (and my wife) that I'm doing better, I know I need to keep this appointment.

blacknbluebikes 

"Correlation is not causality." But if I were dropping over 2 hours a day, every single day, that might qualify as "escapism." And probably grounds for divorce.