The Way I See It - If I should die before...I do anything!
The Way I See It
by Doug Dickerson
If I should die before I...do anything!
According to a new study released in the July issue of the Harvard Heart Letter, I should be dead. In fact, most of you reading this should be, too. According to the study, anger really can stir up a heart attack, so can getting sick, being too hot, being too cold, air pollution, lack of sleep, grief, overeating, natural disasters, exercise and sex. In fact, the study says that just waking up in the morning is the worst thing you can do if you're trying to avoid a heart attack.
Sharing the house with the wife and two daughters, the thermostat war is a constant battle. I am a hot box. In the winter, they bury themselves in covers and I am throwing them off. In the summer, I like to keep it cool and they sit around the house with blankets. Back and forth we go, on the verge of the next heart attack.
I know I shouldn't let studies like this bother me, but it just really gets under my skin. Just about the time it seems we have things figured out from the experts telling us what we need to do to stay healthy, they change everything up.
Before waking up in the morning, the study says, our bodies release stress hormones into the bloodstream. I thought that's what my wife was for, but I digress. Our bodies release stress hormones that give us energy to get out of bed, but this also stresses the heart slightly. That nudge can cause a cardiac event if one's arteries already are rife with festering cholesterol-rich plaque. If I can survive waking up and getting out of bed, then I have a fighting chance.
I learned that dehydration that normally occurs after a night's sleep also puts a plaque-plagued circulatory system at risk. In addition, heart medications wear off during the night. Now what's one to do? If I get up in the night to get a drink, I am not sleeping, thus increasing my risk of a heart attack. If I don't and consequently dehydrate, then that could kill me too.
I gather that mornings are a high-risk time to either have or avoid a heart attack. Getting up in the morning is a roll of the dice. Nevertheless, wanting to do something to stay healthy, surely exercise is the key.
Well, not so fast. The study says that strenuous exercise such as shoveling snow or running can be a trigger, but exertion is much less likely to cause trouble in people who exercise regularly. With mid 90-degree temperatures outside with heat indexes well over 100 degrees, I don't think I will be shoveling snow any time soon. Strenuous exercise in this heat is out of the question. Therefore, if I do exercise, it could trigger a heart attack, and if I don't then, tick- tock, the big one could happen at any moment.
Living in the Lowcountry, we face the threat of a natural disaster in the form of a hurricane from June 1 to the end of November. When a big thunderstorm develops out near the Lesser Antilles, the T.V. stations hype it up and have everyone running out to Home Depot faster than you can say nitroglycerin tablet! If the hurricane doesn't give me a heart attack, the weatherman will.
If a hurricane were not enough, the friendly folks on TV also remind us that a big killer earthquake, which wiped out Charleston and a good chunk of Summerville back in Aug. 1886, could happen again. Sure enough, I saw a spot on local TV recently asking what if we had the big earthquake today.
Well, I am not going to have a heart attack sitting around waiting for the sky to fall.
I am determined that if a heart attack is going to take me out, it will not be because of a hurricane, earthquake, exercise, being too hot or cold or for a lack of sleep. I am going to have it peacefully, and if not, I am really going to be angry!
Doug can be reached at editor@berkeleyind.com
by Doug Dickerson
If I should die before I...do anything!
According to a new study released in the July issue of the Harvard Heart Letter, I should be dead. In fact, most of you reading this should be, too. According to the study, anger really can stir up a heart attack, so can getting sick, being too hot, being too cold, air pollution, lack of sleep, grief, overeating, natural disasters, exercise and sex. In fact, the study says that just waking up in the morning is the worst thing you can do if you're trying to avoid a heart attack.
Sharing the house with the wife and two daughters, the thermostat war is a constant battle. I am a hot box. In the winter, they bury themselves in covers and I am throwing them off. In the summer, I like to keep it cool and they sit around the house with blankets. Back and forth we go, on the verge of the next heart attack.
I know I shouldn't let studies like this bother me, but it just really gets under my skin. Just about the time it seems we have things figured out from the experts telling us what we need to do to stay healthy, they change everything up.
Before waking up in the morning, the study says, our bodies release stress hormones into the bloodstream. I thought that's what my wife was for, but I digress. Our bodies release stress hormones that give us energy to get out of bed, but this also stresses the heart slightly. That nudge can cause a cardiac event if one's arteries already are rife with festering cholesterol-rich plaque. If I can survive waking up and getting out of bed, then I have a fighting chance.
I learned that dehydration that normally occurs after a night's sleep also puts a plaque-plagued circulatory system at risk. In addition, heart medications wear off during the night. Now what's one to do? If I get up in the night to get a drink, I am not sleeping, thus increasing my risk of a heart attack. If I don't and consequently dehydrate, then that could kill me too.
I gather that mornings are a high-risk time to either have or avoid a heart attack. Getting up in the morning is a roll of the dice. Nevertheless, wanting to do something to stay healthy, surely exercise is the key.
Well, not so fast. The study says that strenuous exercise such as shoveling snow or running can be a trigger, but exertion is much less likely to cause trouble in people who exercise regularly. With mid 90-degree temperatures outside with heat indexes well over 100 degrees, I don't think I will be shoveling snow any time soon. Strenuous exercise in this heat is out of the question. Therefore, if I do exercise, it could trigger a heart attack, and if I don't then, tick- tock, the big one could happen at any moment.
Living in the Lowcountry, we face the threat of a natural disaster in the form of a hurricane from June 1 to the end of November. When a big thunderstorm develops out near the Lesser Antilles, the T.V. stations hype it up and have everyone running out to Home Depot faster than you can say nitroglycerin tablet! If the hurricane doesn't give me a heart attack, the weatherman will.
If a hurricane were not enough, the friendly folks on TV also remind us that a big killer earthquake, which wiped out Charleston and a good chunk of Summerville back in Aug. 1886, could happen again. Sure enough, I saw a spot on local TV recently asking what if we had the big earthquake today.
Well, I am not going to have a heart attack sitting around waiting for the sky to fall.
I am determined that if a heart attack is going to take me out, it will not be because of a hurricane, earthquake, exercise, being too hot or cold or for a lack of sleep. I am going to have it peacefully, and if not, I am really going to be angry!
Doug can be reached at editor@berkeleyind.com
posted by Doug Dickerson | 9:14 AM
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