Dealing With Heart Disease

Update On Me.

2009-10-12T23:51:00.005-04:00

Here's my update. I recentley became a proud owner of another ICD. They found some bacteria when they did a swab of the pocket and I've been on antibitics for the last month. No indication that there is actually infection though. The pocket and wound look good and feel good. I have a Cardiologist visit in about ten days and a follow up at the ICD clinic in about twenty.

My new device has a wireless tranmitter that sits next to my bed is brand new technology for me. I have to say that it's about the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I understand that they want to keep it as simple as possible and that there are people out there who are not familar with any technology at all. However this is the most hospital looking thing I have ever seen. I have seen hospital equipment that doesn't look like it belongs in a hospital more than this thing does. I don't know about you folks, but my bed room doesn't look like a hospital room. Speaking of Hospitals I have to go and visit the nurses on the cardiac ward. I promised them that I would and they always go out of there way when I'm there to take extra special care with me. They've done such a good job that it's more like going to visit friends than going to the hospital.

Thanks, Jon

Preventing Heart Disease

2009-10-12T23:06:00.001-04:00

In the on going battle of how to prevent Heart Disease we have a new food to help us. The Pomegranite. Here's WEbMD's take on it http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/news/20050321/pomegranate-juice-may-clear-clogged-arteries
Thanks guys.

Exercise

2009-09-27T23:29:00.005-04:00

Been a bit since my last post. I've been busy enjoying the great weather kayaking some of our local lakes. That's my actually the subject for the week. Exercise! We as cardiac patients need to exercise on a regular basis. For those couch potatoes reading this it's not as bad as you think. When I break down exercise I break it into three parts, Cardio, Weights and Fun.

Cardio is important. It's actually the most important and the one were able to while doing the other two. The rule of thumb for a good Cardio work out is to work out at 80% of your maximum heart rate. To find your maximum heart rate you take 220 and subtract your age, then multiply that number by .8. I caution every one to discuss what your maximum heart rate should be with your doctor. Depending on what your Cardiac problems are it may not be a good idea to stress your heart with heavy exercise.

My Cardio work out consists of 30 minutes of walking every day. I call it my penance and it is the least favorite part of my day, so I do it first thing when I get up. It was very difficult for me to get into the habit of walking every day so I did it in steps. I started with 10 minutes every day for a month. Then bumped it up by five minutes every month. A couple of quick pointers. Go outside when you can, walking in the real world is more difficult and more practical, because we live in the real world. When you can't go outside use a treadmill, either at your house or at the gym. If you don't have access to a treadmill march in place anything to get your heart rate up. Because I'm pacemaker dependent I can't go by a maximum heart rate. I use the if you can talk rule of thumb. This is very simple when working out you should be breathing hard but, not so hard that you can't carry on a conversation.

Let's talk about the second form of exercise, weights. I enjoy lifting weights, I've done it since my early twenties to gain strength and keep fit. I unfortunately had to give it up for a few years, but I'm doing it again. I've changed my routine from the way I used to lift. I used to lift to gain strength, that means heavy weights low repetitions. I now train for endurance or stamina. I use a lower weight and much higher repetitions. At some point I will go into greater depth on weight lifting, but I'm not going to do it here. I do want to say however that lifting low weights and concentrating on a full body routine will help you to lose weight and keep it off. It will also help with balance and hand eye coordination.

Lastly let's talk about my third and favorite form of exercise, having fun. This is simple, Fun exercise is anything that you enjoy doing that gets you off your but, out of the house and moving around. This could literally be almost anything. Traditional sports like basketball or softball. Outdoor activities like hiking and kayaking. I count my photography hobby as fun exercise because, I have usually have to walk or paddle to find a subject or a good photo. Like I said it's anything that YOU enjoy.

One last thing. If your not used to exercise it can be a challenge to get in to the habit of doing. Take it slow and remember it may feel like a chore at first, but it will get easier and the more you move the more you'll be able to do.

Thanks Jon

About Me

2009-09-19T11:05:00.005-04:00

Maybe I should have started my page with this instead of putting it off. Here it goes my cardiac history thus far.

I was born with an undeveloped pulmonary valve. I had open heart surgery the same day to remove the valve. I had open heart surgery again around the age of 4 to enlarge the opening. I got along fine and was extremely active until the age of 16. I then developed atrial fibrillation. We treated this with several cardioversions, which were unsuccessful. We then used medication to block the rhythm from reaching the ventricles. During this period my activity level was decreased dramatically. Every time I did anything that would raise my heart rate I would break through the block and my heart rate would jump up to 200 beats per minute. Over about a four year period the medication worked less and less. When I was 21 I had an EP Study done to try and correct the bad rhythm this didn't work however so an AV Node Ablation was done to prevent the Ventricles from being affected by the rhythm of the Atria and a pacemaker was put in. I immediately felt much better and was able to return to a very active lifestyle. Everything went along fine until I was about 30. At that time I started having trouble doing the things I loved. We discovered that my heart had begun to enlarge on the right side and it wasn't pumping as efficiently anymore. With in a year I was on diuretics to help remove excess water and I was in CHF(Congestive Heart Failure). Right about that time I started having bouts of Ventricular Tachycardia as well. I was sent to Hartford Hospital where I was run through a series of tests. The results where surprising to me and everyone else. I was in far worse shape than anyone thought. Here's what we found:

An extremely enlarged Heart
Myochardiopathy (Thickening of the heart muscle)
Tricuspid Valve nearly destroyed by the pacemaker lead and the rest of the valves severally leaking
The heart itself swinging in a pendulum motion decreasing efficiency
And a left ejection fraction of 15% (percentage of the left ventricles total volume that is squeezed back out)

We changed all my medications immediately to newer, better working meds. I went into the hospital for a "tune up" as my doctors called it, to get rid of any extra fluid. We then put in a Bi-Ventricular ICD(Internal Cardiac Defibrillator), to increase the efficiency of my heart and control my Ventricular Tachycardia. I was lucky enough to be able to take a year off work and concentrate on getting healthy again. I started walking on the treadmill 20 and then 30 minutes every day. I changed to a low sodium heart healthy diet and was able to return to work full time. Over the last few years, with the correct diet and a lot of exercise I have been able to more than double my hearts output and I am as active as ever. Here's a few things that I enjoy:

Kayaking
Hiking
Weight Lifting
Nature Photography
Tubing
Swimming
Snow Boarding

I manage to live with CHF and maintain an active life and you can to. I'm not saying I don't have bad days, because I do. But those days are few and far between now. Don't stop trying and don't give up hope. They're making huge strides in the fight against Heart Disease every day.

Jon

Putting The Diet Together

2009-09-16T17:32:00.003-04:00

So here's where we put the whole thing together. I think that the easiest way to do that is to just show you how I eat in a typical day, by providing you with a menu. Remember the table in the first part of this series.

Breakfast: 1 Protein, 2 Carbohydrates, 1 Fruit
Mid Morning: 1 Protein and 1 Carbohydrate or 1 Vegetable
Lunch: 1 Protein, 2 Carbohydrates, 1 Vegetable
Mid Afternoon: 1 Carbohydrate or 1 Vegetable
Dinner: 1 Protein, 2 Carbohydrates, 2 Vegetables and 1 Fruit

Here's how that breaks down into actual food.

Breakfast: 1 Cup of Yogurt, 2 Cups of Oatmeal, and 1 Orange
Mid Morning: 1 Tablespoon of Peanut Butter (Protein and A Fat) and 6 Celery Sticks
Lunch: 3 slices of Turkey, 2 Slices of Bread, 2 Romaine Lettuce Leaves, Table Spoon of Mayo
Mid Afternoon: 6 Triscuts
Dinner: 1/2 Chicken Breast Sauteed in a Table Spoon of Olive Oil, A Small Baked Potato with Fat Free Sour Cream, 1 Cup of Rice, 1 Cup of Green Beans, 1 Cup of Corn, 1 Apple

You can see that I eat a lot of food. Probably more than what your eating now. The difference is that my diet is probably lower in fat than what your eating. A lower fat diet is naturally lower in calories. The Menu above is around 2,000 calories.

Now here's a few tricks to keep you on the right track.

Write out a menu each week, see what you already have and then shop for the rest. Do this until eating this way becomes habit for you and that may take several months.
Use things like non fat sour cream instead of butter in potato and similar dishes.
If your a toast person, try skipping the butter and using a table spoon of jam or marmalade instead. You can count your topping as your morning fruit.
Things like egg, tuna, pasta salads have the fat already added to them. If you eat them you've had your fat with that meal.
If you can premake some of your meals early in the week, then you should. It helps when you have those days where your likely to stray, because of lack of time.
Don't beat yourself up if you cheat or skip a meal, just move on to the next meal and let it go. It's not the end of the world and it's gonna happen. I know I've sucked back my share of hot wings or pepperoni pizza.
Secondly treat yourself. When I started I had a very hard time sticking with things until I learned to treat myself. At first I would have a scoop of ice cream, brownie, slice of pizza, handful of chips, etc. a couple of times a week. Then I went to once a week. Then Every couple of weeks.
Treat yourself at special events. Things like a friends wedding, birthday parties, super bowl parties. It's to tempting to watch everyone else eating and not partake.
Lastly remember K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) The easier it is the more likely you are to stick to it.

That's all I have on the topic for the moment. I'm thinking about writing a how to article on substitutions you can make in recipes to keep them heart healthy and still tasting them delicious. That won't be for a while however. My next topic Will be exercise.

Jon

Fats

2009-09-16T16:44:00.005-04:00

Fats are the fifth part of my diet. You'll notice if you go back to the first part of this series that fats are not mentioned in any of the meals. That's because they are included already. If you have toast in the morning then the butter you put on it is a fat. If you have a sandwich then your mayo is a fat. I try to add a serving of fat to my 3 main meals and keep it out of my mid morning and mid afternoon snacks.

Let's talk about the confusion of good versus bad fats. Good fats raise your levels of HDL or good cholesterol. Bad fats raise your levels of LDL or bad cholesterol. All fats raise your cholesterol and a high cholesterol level is bad. Ideally you want to have a cholesterol level below 200 with your LDL below 100 and your HDL above 60. Here's the confusing part. People think that if they are not over weight that their cholesterol levels must be good. This is wrong thinking, cholesterol is not a measurement of how fat a person is. Cholesterol can be thought of how much fat is floating around in your blood stream. Think of it like this. The fat that you can physical weigh (your weight) is like lard and the fat that you have to measure (your cholesterol) is like vegetable oil.

Now what makes a fat good or bad. Good fats are typically derived from vegetables with the exception of palm oil, and coconut oil. Things like corn oil, olive oil, flax seed oil, walnut oil, sesame seed oil, sunflower oil, etc. These are good fats. Bad fats come from animals. Things like butter, lard, bacon fat, mayo, sour cream, etc. These are bad fats. To make sure I have the right ratio I simply have 2 servings of a good fat and 1 serving of the bad fat.

That's it for fats. I'll wrap this up in the next blog tonight.

Jon

Vegetables and Fruits

2009-09-15T21:25:00.004-04:00

I'd like to talk about Vegetables and Fruits together since they are very similar. They both provide us with essential vitamins and minerals, as well as providing our body with energy. They're both high in fiber and low in fat. The difference is that fruits are higher in simple sugars than vegetables and therefore give us energy more quickly than vegetables.

When buying vegetables and fruit try to get it fresh in the produce section. Frozen is ok if your not buying with a sauce of some sort on it. Avoid canned, most of it is high in sodium and packed in some type of sugary or fatty liquid.

For most vegetables the serving size is a cup. It is different for fruits, because they come in different sizes. Small fruits like berries or grapes are about 1/2 a cup. Medium fruit like apples or oranges it is one piece. Large fruit like grapefruit or cantaloupe is half or a quarter. Very Large fruits like watermelon is a slice. Use your judgement in this. When I size up fruit I try to think about how much of it would equal 1/2 to a cup.

Tomorrow I'll try to wrap everything up and bring it all together so that it makes sense.

Jon

Carbohydrates

2009-09-15T14:45:00.005-04:00

Let's talk today about carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are everything that are not protein or fat. Were talking about grains, bread, potatoes, yams, nuts and pasta. Technically vegetables and fruit are also carbohydrates, but I deal with them separately because they also provide essential vitamins and minerals. They are also what give our bodies the energy to do the things that we want to do. That's why long distance runners will "Carb Load" a few hours before a race. I'm going to try and break Carbs down into the way I eat them. When eating Carbs you should look for things that are high in fiber, anything with 4 grams of fiber per serving is fine.

Let's talk about grains first, they include rice, oat meal, cream of wheat and cereal. Most of these are a cup a serving so they're pretty easy to measure out. A few things to watch out for here. When buying rice be careful of flavored rices in a box, some of them are high in sodium. Oat meal and Cream of wheat come in a bunch of different flavors, these tend to be high in sugar and sometimes in sodium. If you want flavored hot cereal add the apples and cinnamon to them yourself. I think it tastes better and you fulfill your fruit requirement. Cereals again come in all kinds of flavors and many are high in sugar and sodium so please read the box when your buying.

Breads are relatively simple. Check them for their sodium content when buying them and keep in mind high in fiber is better. Also keep in mind that a slice of bread is a serving, so if you have a ham sandwich for lunch you've fulfilled your 2 Carb requirements for lunch.

Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Yams and other tubers are also simple. Because they're naturally occurring they are low in sodium and sugar. Just stay away from pre-made boxed potatoes, they are almost always high in sodium. Buy all of these whole and cook them yourself. One of my summer favorites is sweet potato fries with garlic powder.

Nuts are easy as well. Simply buy unsalted nuts. A serving of nuts is usually about a handful, so they're super easy to measure. Just pour some in the palm of your hand and put the rest away. Here's a quick note about nuts. Many are high in heart healthy oils that help you to lower your cholesterol.

Ok, Pasta. I know a lot of people out there love pasta, so this may hurt a little. When we as Americans eat pasta we eat way to much of it. We need to cut way down. If your having spaghetti and garlic bread then you only get 1 serving or a cup of spaghetti and 1 slice of garlic bread. If you skip the garlic bread then you can have 2 servings, or 2 cups of spaghetti. A few cautions here. Again stay away from boxed pastas or ready made pastas, they are high in sodium. Try and buy high fiber pasta or whole wheat pasta.

At the end of this series I'll post an example menu of what I eat in a day so that you have a better understanding of how this all goes together.

Jon

Great Source of information on Heart Health

2009-09-15T03:23:00.009-04:00

This is simply a list of links to sites that have great info on Heart Health and Heart Disease. I'll continue to add to this blog as I find sites that have quality information.

http://medbroadcast.com/channel_main.asp?channel_id=2060

Protein

2009-09-14T00:15:00.000-04:00

Today I want to talk about Protein. It contains everything we need for our bodies to build muscle. It's important that we maintain a healthy muscle mass for two reasons. One we want to be able to be as active as possible and for that we need muscles that are in good shape, two a healthy muscle mass keeps our metabolism boosted and helps us to burn calories. A quick side note, when a I speak of healthy muscle mass I'm not talking about getting huge or body building, I'm referring to lean muscle something closer to an athlete or dancer.

The second thing I'd like to talk about is where we get our protein from and how much we should eat. We need to get our protein from whole foods not frozen if we can avoid it. The main sources are going to be meat, poultry (chicken or turkey), fish, eggs, legumes (beans) and dairy. Since were eating 3-5 servings of protein a day we need to know what a serving is. A serving of meat, poultry, or fish is going to 3-4 ounces or roughly a serving the size of a deck of cards. A single egg is a serving. And a serving of beans and dairy would be a cup.

Here are a couple of things to keep in mind about each type of protein. Red meat like hamburger or steak is ok in moderation. I only eat red meat once a week and often that's venison or bison, because the fat in those animals is not marbled through out the meat like it is in cattle and so it's much leaner. Fish is again very healthy for you. The omega 3 oils in the fish are particularly healthy for the heart. Be careful here though, a lot of our favorite seafoods contain high amounts of sodium and should be avoided. Beans are a great source of protein; they're low in fat and high in fiber. However be careful of canned beans, as you'll learn through out the next few blogs, canned foods are loaded with sodium from the preservatives that are used. If you can get dried beans, the disadvantage of this is that most dried beans have to be soaked over night. Lastly dairy, this could be milk, yogurt, shredded cheese, what ever you want, but again there are a few pit falls. Try to buy non-fat or low fat when you buy your dairy, I my self don't like a lot of the non-fat foods, but I do enjoy most of the low fat things. For instance I drink 2% milk instead of whole and find there is not a lot of difference in taste. Secondly when considering cheeses check the sodium content per serving. Many cheeses have salt added to them when it's made secondly cheese servings differ from other dairy servings. Use the package to tell you what a serving is and if you buy sliced cheese from the deli then a slice is a serving.

Now that we know what are proteins are and how much of each we should be eating there's a few things I'd like you to keep in mind. I subscribe to the K.I.S.S. philosophy in everything I do. That is Keep It Simple Stupid. Don't drive yourself crazy measuring and weighing everything, estimate it. Put a pack of cards in the kitchen drawer to compare servings to. Pull out the measuring cup and use it to eyeball your serving of beans (that way you don't have to wash it later). Find ways to make things faster and easier for yourself. The life af a cardiac patient is hard enough with out complicating things.

Jon

What is a Heart Healthy Diet

2009-09-11T19:17:00.001-04:00

Hey guys, I want to talk about diet and how I approach it and what it means to eat a heart healthy diet. I'm going to go ahead and get pretty in depth with this so I'll break it up into several blogs over the next few days.

The first part of this series is going to just be a quick introduction into how I break down food and how I maintain a good diet. I'm a true believer that diet has about 80% to do with how healthy we are the remaining 20% is exercise or going out to do stuff. Here's the problem that I see while working in the Sporting Goods business. Everyone concentrates on exercise and they never concentrate on diet. It's simple here folks. If you don't give your body what it needs you won't have the energy to go out and do the things you want to do.

Just a quick note before we go farther. As I'm talking about how I eat I'll be referring to things in terms of cups, teaspoons, ounces, etc. If you want to be a nit pick and measure everything, go ahead, so much the better. But, PLEASE, don't think you have to. I don't, I just approximate it and that gives me approximately 2,000 calories. I will say though, in the beginning, I did pull out the measuring cups, and while I didn't fill them up, I did use them as a sort of visual aid to figure out what a cup, teaspoon or a couple ounces really looked like.

Well what makes a diet Heart Healthy as opposed to just Healthy. The truth is not much. A Healthy diet is high in fiber and low in fat. A Heart Healthy diet is simply also low in sodium, around 2,000 milligrams. Now when I start talking about how I eat I'll be using the example of a 2,000 calorie diet, because everything on a food label is based on that. Some of you may need more calories, some less, it depends on you and your body. I encourage you to talk this over with your doctor.

So lets start. In a Healthy Diet your going to be eating less more often, that means you'll be eating five or six times a day. I know what your all thinking, I don't have time to sit down and eat that many times a day. But when I talk to people I find that simply isn't true. How many of you get a couple of coffee breaks and a lunch every day at work. How many others work at a desk where you could munch mid morning while working. How many others would find the time if they made eating right a real priority. Listen here's the way it should be. If your getting flack at work for taking five minutes to eat a handful of crackers, then you need to tell your boss that your doing it to get healthy. Healthy people feel better and people who feel good are more productive. That's not a lie it's a fact.

So here's how I do it. I break my diet into the five parts as follows:

Protein

Carbohydrates

Vegetables

Fruit

Here's how I break those into my meals:

Breakfast I eat a Protein, 2 Carbohydrates and a Fruit

Mid Morning I eat a Protein and a Carbohydrate or a Vegetable

Lunch I eat a Protein, 2 Carbohydrates and a Vegetable

Mid Afternoon I eat a Carbohydrate or a Vegetable

Dinner I eat a Protein, 2 Carbohydrates, 2 Vegetables and a Fruit

Tomorrow I'll begin to break down what's in each category and how I shop for each category.

Thanks for your time and although I know this seems a little confusing now it will get easier as I explain things.

Jon

Some Words Of Encouragement

2009-09-11T13:44:00.001-04:00

Well, I'm assuming your visiting my sight because you, or someone you know has a heart condition or heart disease. The first thing I'd like to say to you is DON'T WORRY!!! Heart disease is a treatable condition. Although it isn't curable, with the right diet, a little exercise and the marvels of modern medicine you could improve your condition. Possibly dramatically.

Let me tell you a little about myself and then maybe you'll understand. I was born with a under developed pulmonary valve and had open heart surgery the day I was born and again around age four to "fix" the problem. The fix at that time was to remove the valve entirely.

I did very well and was extremely active until sixteen when I developed Atrial Flutter. It's a rhythm disorder causing the top half of the heart to beat extremely fast, which in turn forces the bottom half of the heart to beat extremely fast. It is very debilitating. The solution for the problem came in the form of a pacemaker at the age of 21. Again I became very active being able to run and do the things I liked for the first time in five years. I even picked up new hobbies like weight lifting.

Then about the age of 30 I noticed I was having trouble once again doing the things I loved. Because of the original surgery my right heart had begun to enlarge. I was given diuretics to keep any water weight off and monitored to see how I would progress. Slowly I was forced to give up the things that I had loved doing and eventually was so tired by mid day that I couldn't work anymore.

Around age 32 I developed Ventricular Tachycardia a possibly fatal heart rhythm originating in the bottom half of the heart. I was shipped by ambulance from our local hospital to Hartford Hospital to have this new problem dealt with. There I met a great Electrocardiologist Dr. Chris Kline. Dr. Kline called in a slew of other people to consult with. I was in and out of the hospital for two months having tons of tests. The results where staggering to me. I was in far worse shape than anybody thought and might have to have a transplant. I had developed right heart failure. Sounds bad doesn't it.

That was where things changed for me. Until that point I had gone to the doctors a couple times a year, taken a couple pills each day and went on the merry way of living my life, slowly giving up the things I enjoyed doing to a disease that was untreatable.

NO MORE!!! I spent a week in the hospital getting a "tune up", started on a bunch of new drugs and received a bi-ventricular defibrillator to replace the old one leed pacemaker. When I got home I was put on a low sodium diet and asked to buy a treadmill and walk on it every day for twenty minutes. I spent a year getting back in shape and meeting with Heart Transplant specialists just in case. At the end of the year I was back. I went back to work with no restrictions and was able to perform every day things with out being exhausted afterwards.

Here's the good part. I continued to improve each year and today, six years later, I have more than doubled my hearts output. I have started doing the things that I enjoy again. Here's a quick list. Hiking, Kayaking, Nature Photography, Fishing, Weight Lifting, Tubing, Snow Boarding and just hanging out with friends and family.

Now I know that's a lot to take in. Take a minute. Everyone is different and everyone doesn't respond to the same therapies. If one thing isn't working of you talk to your doctor and try something else. It's not always a quick fix. The road isn't an easy one and believe me when I tell you some days you just don't want to do the work, but IT'S WORTH IT!!! I know the life I live now is a completely different then the one I lead six years ago.

I hope my story was inspiring. I will continue to update with ways of fighting heart disease and the things that have and haven't worked for me. I wish you well in the fight against Heart Disease.

Jon