What Red Meat Can I Eat ? #91

I remain so enthusiastic about exercising that I am surprising myself.  It has become more of a hobby rather than something I do to regain my cardiovascular health.  I look forward to going, although there are only certain times I will go, and I can not share that information with you.  I have added a few new exercises to my routine.  I am back to doing the assisted chin up strength exercise.   It and the leg lift extension are a couple of my favorites.

I am also doing some push ups. Now let me tell you the details.  First of all, I don't think I have been capable of doing a push up in at least 35 years or more.  I tried a few years back and could not get off the floor.  I thought at the time it was more normal not to be able to do it than to be able to do it, and that satisfied me at the time.  I do remember my arm and shoulder muscles being too weak to move my bulk more than a hairs breath off the floor. The more I strained to lift the more everything would quiver.  Now you could not have been worse than that!  The first week I went to my current fitness center some aging badly guy, not quite as old as me, dropped to the floor out of no where and did about 25 push ups.  Right in front of me! And his face didn't even turn red. I thought what the heck was that about ? I not sure, but I think he was putting me on notice about who was running the show for us old guys.  I thought for a moment I might have to go get Cindy and let her teach him a lesson...you know my heart and all I couldn't address the situation.......

 As I got more into my exercise routines, I was continuing to build my arm and shoulder strength as a result of doing exercises designed to increase my cardiovascular circulation.  A few months ago, I begin to try and do push ups from the floor, and was able to raise my body to forearms length, but only once.   I was concerned and careful not to exert to much force on my chest incision area, even thought it was healed completely.   I still felt the need to be cautious about too much stress there.  But as I grew stronger and could do more pull ups and chin ups, I begin to attempt doing a heart patients push ups.  From a horizontal bar 12 inches above the floor, you extend your body and take the same position as the traditional push up from the floor.  I now do two sets of 6 each.  You should not attempt to do these until you are completely healed and strong enough.  You will know if you are strong enough to try it.   If you don't feel that strong do not attempt it.

I have not changed any of my eating habits, maintaining the same healthy only foods attitude we have discussed many times.  I know some new readers are recent heart attack survivors and are wanting to know what red meats they can eat.  That is a complicated subject and has been discussed many times in depth.  Some as recently as in January and February, so refer to those postings. In brief, there is a lot you must consider as a heart patient when deciding on which red meats to eat for protein.   First of all, processed meats should not be eaten period.  Heart patient or not!  These include hot dogs, sausages, canned meats, luncheon meats, deli meats, did I leave any out?  Oh I did, well add those to the do not eat this thing called meat list.   There is not one processed red meat you can eat that will not increase you LDL cholesterol and lead to further coronary artery blockage.  And we won't go into all the chemicals from the preservatives used in the meat  processing.   Hamburgers are out also. There is not a red meat I can suggest you eat for cardiovascular health benefits.  And that pretty well tells you what you should do about eating red meats as a heart patient.   Well, what about me you may ask?  Yes, I do eat some red meats.  Small, extremely small amounts, in some soups my wife makes, and that is not often.   I even gave up spaghetti, my favorite. 

During our next posting I will go into what I think are the best overall foods for a recovering heart patient to consider.    Oh, and that old guy doing the push ups, when I see him now I just sort of stare and grunt and he goes the other direction.   Yeah, this heart patient is doing the push ups now.

Back to Great Health #90

As much as I have preached to you about the importance of exercise and how I enjoy it, there are and have been many times I would have much rather stayed home in bed, sleeping late and not going.  There was always that thought that once I started not pushing myself forward I would get out of my routine and eventually would lose all that I had gained. But when I got there I enjoyed it very much and I always felt good about myself. You too will take a lot of pride in yourself as you gain physical improvements. It also was being around the people there, who are much like me. It was mostly the same crowd working out , day after day.  I kept thinking that some day my health would so much improve that I would be completely back to normal.   I think I got there.  Around last Christmas I could tell a big difference.   The sudden loss of stamina, and needing to rest slowly but surely dwindled away.  My grandson and I do a lot of things together, which normally is quite often.  Usually he enjoys us going out back and finding "man work" to do.  Anything from picking up limbs and hauling them off, to digging with a shovel..but slowly over an hour or so I would fade away.  My stamina failing me and I would have to disappoint him and tell him we had done enough.   I now can go for the entire day at a normal pace and not lose all my stamina.  Now look, I know I can't do the hard manual labor, difficult yard work, or what have you. But for my age I believe I can keep up with most other same age healthy guys.

My heart rate has improved and now is is  staying in the 65 to 73 rate when relaxed.  When I workout I usually feel invigorated and not tired or out of breath.  When I first started working out, I would feel tired after a hard workout for a short while.  Over a period of time as I continued on a regular basis, my heart and circulation strengthened and my physical abilities grew.  Over a long period of time I have exercised myself back to a physical level that is better than where I was years before having heart problems.   Let us not over look weight loss and eating a healthy diet are major contributors in the overall improvement of my health.

I have been watching a program on TV I really enjoy.  It is a reality program about a guy who travels around, finding classic collector cars, and going to automobile auctions.   And I thought that would be fun, he is pretty lucky to be able to do that.

Cindy's sister's husband owns a chain of new car dealerships based in another state and town.  About a month ago they called me out of nowhere and offered me a deal going to automobile auctions finding and buying late model pre-owned cars and trucks for their dealerships.  I can not tell you how much I am enjoying it.   Why am I telling you?   Well, I truly believe if I had not under taken changing my lifestyle a couple of years ago rather than just giving up on things, I could not physically meet the demands of what I am now doing.

I also truly feel I have achieved a level of health that would have been ludicrous to even consider before, or after I had a heart attack.   I do not know what more I can do to improve my health.  I know I still have a lot to do in maintaining my current health level.  I will continue to write about my health, and do my best to encourage and tell you of my experiences in exercising and eating healthy foods.

Remember, that  eating a heart healthy diet is going to have much to do with your recovery.  Fruits, vegetables, salads, soups, oatmeal, fruit juices, nuts, chicken fish will all lead to lower LDL cholesterol and a more sustainable weight loss program. 
It is time for me to go work out.   See you later....

Beginning Heart Attack Recovery Part II #89

At some point during your recovery you will suddenly realize you are beyond that fragile, don't bump into me, I'll break stage.  You will no longer be getting tired as easily and those surgery healing pains will have gone away.  Basically you will be getting to feel stronger. You will need to get out more and do any other sort of thing that will give you normal activity.  My recovery began in early October, I had some problems with my lungs, and a return to the hospital that pushed my recovery back somewhat.  Sometime after Thanksgiving I begin to feel differently.  No longer weak. Able to do more things for myself.  I tried to get out of the house with Cindy often.   I wasn't driving yet.  I would go out shopping with Cindy, which I had not done for years previously.  But it was a good way to be active.  After less than half an hour I would have to find a place to sit and rest while she continued to shop.  That was normal for all of us and it will be for you.   It is part of recovery, gaining more strength as you become more active.  The same will go for walking daily.  You will begin to feel stronger as you increase the distance and how much time you spend walking.

There are some basic elements of recovery and rehab.  Regular exercise, weight control, and eating healthy foods.   All of these combined are your goal. Put together they are the basis of a healthy lifestyle.  The further you get into recovery the closer you are to beginning rehab.  You will not be truly rehabbing until you have gotten into a regular routine of exercise.  It does not have to be a fitness or cardio rehab center.  Those are better, but you walking a distance that takes you to the safe limit you are capable of is your goal.  By that time you should be beginning eating the types of foods that will improve your cholesterol levels and accomplish your healthy weight goals.   Five months after having a heart attack and heart surgery my daughter Michelle had me in a regular daily exercise program at a fitness center.

Losing weight is a very good by product of eating more healthy foods and exercise, even though exercise may only be walking at a brisk pace.  When you begin to change your eating habits to healthier foods it also means stopping, giving up, or how ever you want to put it all of the bad foods you had been eating.  Now you know better than anyone what those are.  They probably had a significant part in you having a heart attack.   You should become familiar with your cholesterol levels, and I don't mean knowing your total....You need to know your exact numbers on HDL, LDL, and triglycerides.  Anything you were eating that increased LDL and or triglycerides should be stopped and replaced by fruits, or vegetables.   Losing the weight and lowering your cholesterol levels will not be as difficult as you might think in the beginning.   Remembering your goal of not going through again what you just survived should be great motivation.  Also becoming healthy may mean to you doing and enjoying things that in the past may have been too laborious or tiring.  You will feel younger.  I can honestly say I do feel younger and stronger.  I enjoy my new eating habits,  the foods I eat, exercising daily, and feeling strong again.  I think my family looks at me differently now and is proud of the new person I have become.

I was fortunate in that I was so motivated that once I was clear of hospital stays, heart test, and weekly doctor office visits I was serious about getting better.   I have thought a lot about this but I think in the very early stages or recovery, being as active daily as I could,  and progressing after the first 3 or 4 weeks had much to do with me getting quickly back on my feet so to speak.   It did not make any matter to me, cold, or rain I was going to do my walking outside once or twice each day.  And as I have told you I rested when needed, which was often, but I stayed away from just lounging and watching TV.  I found other positive things to do.

I am going to finish this up by saying the last two posting were done by request to help kick start some who may be searching for what to do and how to do it.   I didn't know either, but somehow if you try hard enough you will find your way.   Most of this blogs earlier posting title's indicate the content.  There is a lot about healthy foods, exercise, and how to lose weight without "going on a diet."  I didn't say you will not miss some of the foods you use to eat.  Go back and read some of those postings, I am sure they will answer a lot of your questions.

Just Beginning Heart Attack Recovery ? #88

My daughter Ann, brought to my attention, that perhaps I need to back up some for those just starting to read this blog. Those who are very recently beginning recovery from heart attack and surgery.  It got me to thinking and I have sort of progressed the blog along with my level of rehab and have gotten away from those first initial days home from the hospital and thinking "what now?"

Well, you're going to be somewhat thinking more of how not to have another heart attack now that you're home from the hospital.  Adjusting to being responsible for tending to and taking of all  your prescribed medications.  Going to the cardiologist for check ups the first few weeks.  During that time, one of the most reoccurring themes from my doctor was, be active, get up and move around, do all you can do without straining your incision area or tiring yourself.  You do not want to stay in bed most of the day, or in your favorite recliner in front of the TV.  You know, in reality maybe the first week you owe it to yourself to be overly cautious as far as sleeping and resting a lot.  After that, it is time to go to work in getting back to normal.  And let me guarantee you, that is not going to happen without your full participation. And I don't mean that to be humorous.  You are going to have to be serious and responsible for making the best of this "special another chance" you were given.   Talk to your cardiologist and get a good sense of the activity and level at which he tells you is safe for you and your specific condition.  With that being said and understood, for the rest of this posting, concerning exercise and activity.  You will have to follow your cardiologist's instructions.  We all had different levels of stamina, strength, and heart damage. Those first few weeks of recovery, following doctors orders is absolute.

I started walking the first few days home.  Not a great distance.  After about 3 days home my wife says "why don't you try walking out to the street and get our newspaper".  It was only like maybe a hundred yards out there and I stopped to rest, but those were my first real steps in beginning an exercise recovery program. You get the idea.  Become active as soon as possible, as feeble and insignificant that activity may be.  Doing something other than sleeping or resting all day is important.  Next is I didn't spend much time watching TV.  I read books about healthy foods and healthy lifestyles.  And for you new beginners, believe me when I say I was worse, or as bad as any of you when it came to living an unhealthy lifestyle.  As my daughter Michelle said I was a heart attack that was going to happen.  Rather than TV, I would spend time on the internet getting an idea of the things I needed to do to become healthy and enjoy my life.  My initial goal was pretty simple.  I am not going to have another heart attack or heart surgery because I continued to live an unhealthy life.  I am going to change all my bad habits to become healthy.   You can do that, it is not difficult once you decide your going to do it.    Eating health foods is important in the initial stage of recovery.  Losing weight is not a big issue right now, getting your strength is the priority.  However, don't lay around thinking it is okay to eat fatty foods that are going to create cholesterol problem levels, or start putting on weight.   What is the first thing they do when you go in to your cardiologist?  Check your weight and blood pressure.  If you're standing up there with your eyes closed, not wanting to hear the nurse say, " well, look at this, you've been home 2 weeks and gained 10 pounds...aren't you special". You do not have to lose weight yet, but don't add to the problem, and above all think of the cholesterol.  Are you doing what you need to do to lower it? 

For me, when you first come home from the hospital, you are going to experience two stages.   Recovery in which you are being attentive to your physical surgical healing. Internally and the incision itself.  You're also taking those few and careful, and short walks.  Beginning to do things for yourself.  Getting in and out of the shower.  Making yourself do as many of the things that were part of your normal daily routine.  Rehabbing will come later, once your healing is completely over, and you are strong enough to begin to do things other than walking a few hundred yards.  Cautiously of course.  You know, maybe taking the trash out, helping your wife bring in the groceries, getting out of the house with her, going to the store.  I know... little baby steps now, the bigger ones aren't too far away.   More on that later. 

Probably if you are wondering what to do starting your recovery or rehab you should go back and read the first ten postings of this blog.

#87 Lightheaded, dizzy ....... + up, up and away!

I was having some problems a while back with feeling lightheaded, and dizzy.  This especially was happening if I bent over, or had squatted down and then stood up quickly, as I would be while doing work in the yard. My cardiologist told me this was not unusual for heart patients taking certain medications.  He sort of combined the fact of my exercise program and weight loss to lowering my blood pressure, and continuing the same blood pressure medication dosage being the major reason for this occurring sometimes.

Hypotension is the medical term for blood pressure lower than 90/60.  Typically mine is in the range of 115/65.  It has gotten lower and sometimes quite a bit higher.  This morning it was 134/ 67.  I have never taken my blood pressure  immediately after this dizzy lightheaded feeling I told you about.  My bigger concern was my heart rate was getting to low, which I had told you, I thought was good and a positive result of exercise.  I was wrong on both of those thoughts.  A slow heart rate can be very dangerous.  Mine was pretty consistent in the mid 50's-low 60's.  Then it began to drop into the high 40's.  Cindy also records my heart rate, along with my daily blood pressure readings.  When my cardiologist saw those numbers, he became alarmed and quickly changed one of my medications, lowering the dosage.   Here again, exercise, combined with my medication had gotten my heart rate too low.  The threat with a slow heart rate is your heart is not pumping enough blood to reach all parts and meet your body's needs.  This can be especially dangerous for older patients.   Meaning if heart beat becomes too slow, it can just stop.   For most people a heart rate of 60 to 100 beats per minute is considered normal.

This has nothing to do with this blog or health, though I wanted to share the humor I found it to be.  This week I flew to Dallas and back on Southwest Airlines, which I had never flown on before. Southwest is a little bit different than most other U.S. airlines.  They don't have assigned seating for one thing. It is first person boarding, takes his choice of seats and so forth for all passengers.There is only one cabin, no separate first class or business class.   It is a very casual atmosphere by the cabin crew, but very professional service oriented. They don't seem to be uptight, waiting for you to break some rule or say something that they can use as a reason to throw you off the plane, just to show everyone on board who's in charge. Prior to take-off, the cabin crew asked everyone to sit down so they could make a head count. Just then, one of the attendants announced she was a blond and it might take her two or three counts to get it correct, so be patient and stay in your seat. Another announced there was going to be rough weather ahead but we would fly extra fast to get through it quickly. Finally, the one that I would have never ever thought you would hear a pilot say.  As you sit there white knuckled gripping your arm rest and staring intently ahead as you pronounce your last will and testament, normally the pilot will announce a rolling takeoff as "cabin crew prepare for an immediate take-off."  This Southwest pilot announced as he rolled onto the runway and applied take-off power to full thrust "Cabin crew buckle up. This Boeing......is a going."  

Next time more on heart patient recovery.

Blood Pressure #86

You have noticed  recent postings have focused more on our health issues and causes rather than exercise and specific foods.  I felt we should spend some time trying to understand the basics of what poor cardiovascular health is and it's causes.

What is high blood pressure, and what are the causes?  Well it is not as simple a subject as I thought it would be.   First thing that I thought of when my doctor told me I had high blood pressure was I had been using to much table salt.  Bet you did too.  First let us find out what is good and bad blood pressure.  Less than 120/80 is normal.  Above 140/90 is considered stage 1 hypertension. Stage 2 hypertension is over 160/100.  I would consider that to be getting in the area of dangerous. High blood pressure is the physical result of your heart having to work harder and pump more blood to reach all the areas of your body.   The more blood pumped and the narrower the arteries the higher the blood pressure.  The exact cause is not known but some known factors that contribute to this condition are.  Smoking, being overweight, lack of physical activity, too much sodium, stress, genetics, and others. If you have untreated high blood pressure  you are four times the risk of heart disease and seven times the risk of having a stroke.  If left untreated your heart can become muscular and enlarge leading to heart failure or heart attack.  Blood vessels can harden or become damaged, and aneurysms can occur leading to stroke.

If you can reduce your blood pressure your heart will be working with much less effort and the force on your arteries will decrease.  The Mayo Clinic suggest losing weight, especially reducing the weight around, and the size of your waistline.  Also to exercise on a regular basis, eat a healthy diet, limit your sodium intake, and to regularly monitor your blood pressure.

I have found several sources they state the same.  "It takes two to three months of regular exercise to have an effect on your blood pressure."   Most of you know that I take my blood pressure daily, usually once in the mornings and again in the evening.  Cindy records it and we are sure my cardiologist reviews it each time we go in to his office.  I mean if all he knows is that one reading when your pressure is taken when you go to his office every six months, that is not going to be too helpful to him or you.  He needs more information to determine your progress or lack of and what treatment you need.  You should consider doing the same, it would be useful to you and your doctor.

What is the systolic pressure?  That is the top number which is the pressure in your arteries when the heart beats and is pushing blood through.  The diastolic is the lower number and is the amount of pressure in the arteries while the heart is resting between beats.

We will get back to some healthy foods and exercise beginning in the next post.

Trans Fats #85

We have established that a high cholesterol level contributes to heart disease.  We know what happens in our coronary arteries to trigger a heart attack.   Not all cholesterol is bad for you, HDL or LDL.  Once oxygen is introduced to cholesterol it then can become harmful to you.  Again how harmful or not harmful  depends on cholesterol from what foods and the amount you consume..are you eating healthy? This somewhat goes back to some of our earlier discussions about what is natural to our bodies and what do we consume that is not.  Cholesterol is essential and required by our normal body functions.  This comes from the amount, and type we take in.  Much like sodium problems arise from taking in more than our normal body functions were intended to regulate or use.  This can mean a couple of things.  One is we can control how much we consume by our choices in the types of foods we eat. The other way we take in more of a particular substance than we should is from it being added to food during processing.  Such as sodium, preservatives, and additives to enhance taste, and present a more desirable product to the consumer. 

I have often read on food package labels "trans fat free" knowing that trans fats were not good for you but I never knew what they were and why they were not healthy.   Trans fats have been described by cardiologist and nutritionist as the worst type of fat that you can consume.  Why?  It raises your LDL and lowers your HDL.  I do not know of any other fat, or food that does that.  Lowers good and increases bad cholesterol at the same time.  Trans fats are not a normal substance and are rare to occur in natural foods.  It is the result of a food industry manufacturing process.  Hydrogen is added to vegetable oil in a process know as hydrogenation.  Partial hydrogenation to be exact, which is important.  The manufacturing process creates the trans fats to reduce the possibility of the oil spoiling.  The foods produced from the oil stay fresh longer, have a longer shelf life, and have a less greasy feel and taste than oil not hydrogenated.  You will find foods such as snack cakes, crackers, cookies, breads, buns, pancake and cake mixes, donuts, french fries, chicken nuggets, hard taco shells, containing higher levels of trans fats.  You also need to be aware seeing a package food product that states "trans fat free" does not necessarily exactly mean that.  There is a standard trans fat minimum per serving allowance that if the product is below it is considered trans fat free. Which leads to the problem being  per serving. As an example saltine crackers have a per serving of based on a quantity of five and packaged as trans fat free which is not accurate. They do contain the harmful fats and if you eat more than five you are eating more trans fats than you should.  As long as you eat five or less that day the government considers you to be trans fat free when eating that product. Also you may eat other additional so called trans fat free products that day unknowing to you the "per serving" boobie trap.   So at the end of the day you have possibly eaten several foods thinking you are going the good health route when you are not.  I no longer am eating saltine crackers.  You know we have talked about this several times recently but to eat healthy you have to really begin to educate yourself on what is and what is not healthy.  And as a heart patient it is crucial to know as much about cholesterol and unhealthy foods as possible.

The good news.   In recent years the food industry has either eliminated or greatly reduced the use of trans fats in processed food ingredients.  It is also true of the fast food industry is converting to using trans fat free oils.  This has mostly been the result of public health concerns and governmental imposed food regulations concerning trans fats.  The Food and Drug Administration reported a 58 percent decline in recorded blood trans fat levels over a 8 year period.

No,  this does not mean we can start eating potato chips and Frito's again.  Get use to the fruit and oatmeal.  mmmm...mmmm. good

HEART ATTACK #84

It has been months since we have talked about having a heart attack, and what happens or can happen during and after.  A heart attack occurs when blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked for a long enough time that that part of the heart muscle is damaged or dies from the lack of blood flow.   The blockage is caused by a blood clot in the coronary arteries.  Plaque formed from cholesterol builds up in the coronary artery walls.  The plaque hardens and tears collecting blood platelets which form blood clots eventually blocking the flow of blood through the coronary artery.  The result is referred to by your cardiologist as a myocardial infarction.  A heart attack.  They can occur while you are asleep, during physical activity, being outside and active in cold weather, or after severe emotional or physical stress.

If you have had a heart attack and survived, yours and my chances of dying from a future heart attack are 4-6 times more than anyone else.  Almost 10% of us survivors will die from another heart attack within 6 years of the first one.  Most first time heart attacks (60%) occur to men and 70% of the first time men and women are 65 or older.  Over one-third of those having a heart attack the first time did not survive, and half of those died within one hour of having it.  Most heart attacks occur on Monday mornings, second is Saturday morning.  Most heart attacks occur during early morning hours, and most having a heart attack delay at least 2 hours before asking for medical help.   Mine happened very early on a Saturday morning and I waited about 4 hours before asking for help.   Chewing uncoated aspirin early in the beginning of having a heart attack can reduce damage to your heart.  How do you know you are having a heart attack?  Symptoms range from chest pain, indigestion, feeling like something heavy is on your chest.  A squeezing or heavy chest pressure, nausea, rapid heart beat, shortness of breath, heavy sweating.   Any one or a combination of these symptoms should alert you to seek help.   Mine began over a period of time of infrequent chest pains.  Sometimes being weeks in between.  Yes, I did see a doctor, read my first couple of postings. Eventually, while sleeping, I awoke having severe pain in my elbow.  Yep in the elbow, no chest pain at all, at least not in the beginning, progressing over the following 4 to 5 hours.

There are some things I want to share with you.   The scary part was not the night of the heart attack, or the following 2 weeks in the hospital.  It was the first night home.  You are thinking, what am I going to do now if it happens again?  I hadn't appreciated until that moment, how secure I felt being in the hospital, only seconds away from receiving emergency medical help if needed.  I don't know about you but I do not remember a lot of the hospital day to day details, or the first weeks of being home.  I was so maxed out on prescription narcotics most of that time is fuzzy to me.   But at some point  within the first month or so of recovery I made a decision and commitment to myself and family. I was going to immediately make major lifestyle changes.   I was not planning on being one of those percentages who don't make it past the first 6 years or have a second heart attack.  Might not be so lucky the second time, so why take the risk.   So I began to enjoy eating fruit and oatmeal.  Started walking and accepted what I was going to have to do to get in excellent health.  I did not have to fret over it, thinking to myself "oh, what should I do?".   There is only one answer and you know what it is.   I did it, and you can do it.