What did I do wrong this time?

silenthunterstudios

silenthunterstudios

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/orbitaljoe/sets/800396/

I went here for a short hike couple weeks ago. Short, because my knees were jelly after the climb back up. These are the stairs I climbed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/orbitaljoe/36368398/in/set-800396/

These are not my photos, but as you can see, it is a beautiful spot. Basically, a LONG flight of stairs to a platform below, and a trail down to the Gunpowder that is clearly marked "DANGER".

The Tuesday after Memorial Day, I decided to drive through the Reservoir, and came across the Dam. Stopped at the stairs, but as I was in work clothes and had nothing to change into, I decided against it. That Friday, after work, I changed into a pair of shorts, and went down. Seeing as I have nightmares about falling down stairs, these stairs made my knees knock (yeah, I'm a puss). I had to hold onto the railing and take one step at a time, and couldn't look down or back up. Anyway, I enjoyed the view on the platform, and started my ascent back up.

I had my cell phone, a water bottle and my Benchmade 710. Other than my car keys, that was it. I hadn't told anyone I was there, but there was a couple who went off into the woods where the DANGER signs were. If I had fallen, and the rapids downstream had gotten them, I would be screwed. When I got to the halfway point, the small platform you see in the second picture, I was in fullblown atrial fibrillation. I was able to get it under control, but my pills were in my truck, only at the parking lot at the top of the stairs, but that last climb could've meant life and death. Pass out and fall down that flight of stairs.

After sitting down at the top for a while, and almost swooning (I am a crybaby, but it was a hot day), I decided to walk the dam. The sidewalk runs along the road, with about a 4 inch drop to the road below. Since my legs felt like rubber, I could've wobbled into traffic. I waited until my legs felt better before I went home, it was a good fifteen minute wait.

I'm a big boy, I've lost a good amount of weight, but I'm still a big boy. I knew that my body could handle the excercise, but maybe not the stairs themselves.

So, what did I do wrong? What could I have done better? This is not a well traveled road, I would have been found in a day by a passing police cruiser, but then I would have succumbed to whatever ailment befell me. I didn't contact any family or friends to let them know where I was.

At least I had the cellphone...:D
 
A lot of things can help trigger AF. Low oxygen and high blood pressure are a couple. If you do some deep slow breathing for a minute or two before you start it should reduce blood pressure and get you oxygenated. Don't know it will help, but it helps to relax me.
 
Tough to say you did anything wrong really.

You went out and got some exercise, good.

You had a cell and a supply of water, good.

Sounds to me like you just over did it, happens to the best of us.

I have been where your at. It really has less to do with your size, and more to do with you fitness level. I can remember not all that long ago being sluggish and feeling very heavy. I haven't lost any weight in the past 2 years but I am MUCH more fit than I have been previously, I run circles around much thinner guys at work and in the bush. I can hike for miles farther then I ever have before and rarely feel tired or beaten.

Your getting out and getting healther. It's a day by day thing. You won't even notice the changes until one day you'll realize, you don't feel like crap anymore.
 
You wanna go steady there bro ! Pills are no good if you don't have them with ya eh !!!!
Next time put the pills in ya pocket, tell someone where ya goin and don't over exert ya self.....your too valuable to the forum !!!!!
 
You need to start working out regularly and not just during an occasional hike. Talk to your Doc and set up a regimen to do a cardio workout min four times a week. Add some resistance training and you'll have a real work-out.
 
Jeff Clark said:
A lot of things can help trigger AF. Low oxygen and high blood pressure are a couple. If you do some deep slow breathing for a minute or two before you start it should reduce blood pressure and get you oxygenated. Don't know it will help, but it helps to relax me.
Click to expand...

If its not bad AF, I can get it under control with the breathing excercises.
 
Did you warm up, or just start the climb, if you are in medium to poor shape this could kick your ass..and did you go at a fast pace right of the bat? ...I always walked before and after a cardio work out...this is the way to tell your heart "get ready sucka"..and after, it says "hey little guy, you can slow down proper now"...sounds corny, but just walking and moving your arms around for 10 minutes before, and some light stretching, I bet you would have smoothly climbed all the way.
 
I think you were subconsciously working too hard on 'bringing sexy back!' :)

I don't know if you did too much wrong. You did a number of good things. You say you have nightmares about falling down stairs, yet you faced and conquered those pictured there. That's pretty awesome! And if you aren't typically active, it was a good thing to get out and do something.

But about your ticker... Yeah, the pills aren't going to help you when left in the truck. Same goes for me - My Epi-Pen or Twinject won't help me wherever I am if it is left in the car, or worse, at home. Yet, I forget it often. Like many of us have done before, and will certainly do again, you were excited to do something and didn't consider your personal fitness level for undertaking the activity. You more or less over-estimated your ability. We all do that. Maybe be a little more conservative the next time out. Think of the activity, and come up with a plan. For example, going down the stairs wasn't necessarily the most physically difficult part of your visit to the dam, it was going up the stairs. Perhaps if you only went to the half-way platform, you would have been in much better shape after going back up.

Just my $ .02, and I'm just trying to help. Afib - irregular rhythm, no P waves - isn't a good thing. Keep that in check and take care of yourself. We need you here! We want you here!
 
ras said:
You need to start working out regularly and not just during an occasional hike. Talk to your Doc and set up a regimen to do a cardio workout min four times a week. Add some resistance training and you'll have a real work-out.
Click to expand...

I'm going to agree with ras here. I've just begun losing some weight myself. I wasn't severely overweight, but I needed to lose about 20 pounds to get back into a healthy range.

Daily jogs (2 miles), sit-ups, push-ups, and other exercises have really helped. The emphasis here is on daily. I also cut out foods with high fat, sweets, and snacking. I still have a drink now and then, but I only have soda on rare occasions. Water, milk, and juice for me now.

I've lost about 12 pounds in the past couple of months, and I plan to lose 8 to 10 more. It has really made a difference in how I feel and how I play. At the beginning of this year's summer softball season, I felt tired and sluggish, as though I'd lost a step on defense. Now I feel like I can move again, and I seem to have my speed back. I'm hitting better too.

I may spend an hour a day total exercising, but it seems to be paying huge dividends in how I feel. A little bit each day, and you'll see some improvements in a month or two.
 
WILLIAM M. posted this over in the Busse forum:

WILLIAM.M said:
Think what you will--but I deal with the patients who ignore their bodyfat levels until it's too late.(Diabetes,Heart Disease,Cancer)

The main question that gets their attention is this one.

I ask them(MY obese patients) if they know what a Japanese Sumo Wrestler looks like??

OF course--they all say "YES"

Then I ask "Have you EVER seen a OLD Sumo wrestler???

That's gets them everytime.



. . .



Put at least as much effort much into your health as you do into your knives

because it's hard to look cool in a wheelchair..

Sincerely

Dr.Bill Martin D.C.

this was released today\

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070614/hl_nm/obese_diabetes_dc_1;_ylt=AhDMKBTmbjZWB1XMriEWfU0E1vAI
Click to expand...


shotgunner11 said:
Your getting out and getting healther. It's a day by day thing. You won't even notice the changes until one day you'll realize, you don't feel like crap anymore.
Click to expand...

+1, from my recent experience.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
Since cutting out caffeine, my bouts of afib have pretty much gone away.
Click to expand...

That's good news. :thumbup:

Water and milk are about all we really need. And you don't even need milk if you've got a good alternate calcium source.

Okay, I take that back...

Water, milk, and whiskey are about all we really need.
 
I would think that having your meds with you, perhaps in a spy capsule around your neck, would be prudent in you are disposed to this condition. If you are going to venture out solo, it wouldn't hurt to phone somebody and tell them where you are, what you're doing, and what to do if you don't call back ba a set time.

-- FLIX
 
Another thing that can help is chocolate. I don't mean your basic Hershey bar and particularly I don't mean white chocolate. The extra dark chocolate that actually lists cocoa content can help improve arterial flexibility. I buy bags of Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate chips and take 6 to 12 chips if I expect stress. There isn't all that much sugar or fat when you buy the concentrated stuff and you don't have to take a lot. These chips aren't the most concentrated that you can buy, but they are cheap and taste good.
 
I hereby nominate Jeff Clark as my new hero.

A medical reason to eat chocolate, holy sweet crap.....my life just changed forever.
 
February 28, 2006

Bilthoven, the Netherlands - Consuming cocoa was associated with lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of death in a new observational study in elderly men [1].

The study, published in the February 27, 2006, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, was conducted by a team led by Brian Buijsse (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands).

The researchers note that cocoa contains flavanols, which have been linked to lower blood pressure and improved endothelial function, and that small randomized trials have shown similar benefits with chocolate or cocoa, but that the products tested generally contained much higher amounts of flavanols than commercially available chocolate products do.

They conducted an observational study in which they estimated cocoa intake in a sample of 470 elderly Dutch men and investigated whether cocoa intake was related to blood pressure and cardiovascular mortality. The men underwent physical examinations and were interviewed about their dietary intake when they enrolled in the study in 1985 and at follow-up visits in 1990 and 1995. The researchers then placed them into three groups based on their level of cocoa consumption. Information about their subsequent illnesses and deaths were obtained from hospital or government data.

Results showed that over the 15-year study period, men who consumed cocoa regularly had significantly lower blood pressure than those who did not. After adjustment for a host of lifestyle and dietary factors, the mean systolic blood pressure in the highest tertile of cocoa intake was 3.7 mm Hg lower than the lowest tertile, and the mean diastolic blood pressure was 2.1 mm Hg lower.

Systolic and diastolic blood pressure according to cocoa intake


Cocoa intake
Lowest tertile
Middle tertile
Highest tertile
p for trend

Systolic blood pressure (mm Hg)
150.2
149.0
146.5
0.03

Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg)
84.4
83.8
82.3
0.03


Over the course of the study, 314 men died, 152 due to cardiovascular diseases. Men in the group with the highest cocoa consumption were half as likely as the others to die from cardiovascular disease, and they were also less likely to die of any cause.

Relative risks for the association between cocoa intake and 15-year mortality


Cocoa intake
Lowest tertile
Middle tertile
Highest tertile
p for trend

Relative risk of cardiovascular death (95% CI)
1.00
0.70 (0.47-1.05)
0.50 (0.32-0.78)
0.004

Relative risk of all-cause mortality (95% CI)
1.00
0.73 (0.55-0.97)
0.53 (0.39-0.72)
<0.001

Buijsse et al say that they believe this to be the first epidemiological study reporting inverse relationships of cocoa intake with blood pressure and with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. They point out that one previous study has suggested a lower risk of all-cause mortality in people who eat candy vs those who don't, but no differentiation was made between chocolate and sugar candy. However, in the Nurses' Health Study, the frequency of consumption of chocolate was not associated with a lower risk of coronary heart disease after 14 years of follow-up.

They note that the blood-pressure reduction in the current study was associated with a usual daily cocoa intake of about 4.2 g, which is equal to 10 g of dark chocolate per day. "Although this amount is one tenth of the dose that is used in most intervention studies, it suggests that long-term daily intake of a small amount of cocoa may lower blood pressure," they comment.

The researchers further point out that the lower cardiovascular-mortality risk associated with cocoa intake in this study could not be attributed to the lower blood pressure observed with cocoa use, and they suggest that the known improvement of endothelial function by flavanols in cocoa may instead be the mechanism behind the lower cardiovascular mortality. But they add that cocoa-containing foods and flavanols may also reduce cardiovascular risk by the inhibition of platelet function and low-density-lipoprotein oxidation, the modulation of cytokine production, and a beneficial effect on serum cholesterol levels.

They also note that cocoa is a rich source of antioxidants, and it may therefore also benefit other conditions linked to oxidative stress (eg, pulmonary diseases and certain types of cancer), which could have contributed to the lower all-cause mortality seen. But they caution that these results could also be due to residual confounding and therefore confirmation by other studies is needed.
 
Guyon said:
That's good news. :thumbup:

Water and milk are about all we really need. And you don't even need milk if you've got a good alternate calcium source.

Okay, I take that back...

Water, milk, and whiskey are about all we really need.
Click to expand...

Milk is for babys and fish poo in the water, stick with whiskey;)
 
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