The Fit Nation

https://ift.tt/K2Zlktu One of the things that keeps my grey cells active is learning all I can about medical conditions I have. So I’ve continued to research paravalvular leakage of the aortic valve with Google’s Deep Research . So far I’ve asked it for an overview of the condition, for more details on treatment options, and for exercise recommendations. The resulting reports are all gathered here . The report “Aortic Paravavlular Leak and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy Exercise Risk” was a bit of an eye opener. There is definitely danger of overdoing it with my condition, which can lead to pathological growth of the left ventricle (which is being chronically overworked). This brings a need for a change in mindset. For years now I’ve had an “aging athlete’s” mentality, that pushing it a bit in my training is a good thing because it slows down aging. Now that’s probably not true and I need to be trying more to maintain fitness and muscle mass as much as possible, but more importantly avoi...

https://ift.tt/LNFDZf7 We’ve still been having hot weather lately, into the 90s F (low 30s C). But at least since the days are getting shorter it is cooling off nicely at night. I’m looking forward to it’s being officially fall soon and hope the weather will start matching it. My riding has been pleasant because it is cool in the mornings. Last Tuesday my group rode out to the end of Redwood Retreat road West of Morgan Hill, about 2 1/2 hours on my upright. It was a great ride, but my neck was stiff at the end. I am prone to neck issues, which I try to minimize on a conventional bike by staying more upright, as well as standing up to pedal often. I did these but still had an issue, the neck bugged me for more than a day after. So I think I’ll stick to my recumbent on longer rides, including my group rides. As long as the ride is an hour or less I do fine on the upright.. Wednesday I had a relatively short (90 minutes) but still challenging hard ride on my recumbent, which felt great....

https://ift.tt/IkoS7uA I mentioned in my last post that I decided to cut back my amount of exercise to what my Cardiologist actually thinks I’m doing. This works out to 90 minutes a day on average biking, with 3 upper body strength session of 30 minutes each per week. This still allows me to get in a few longer cruises of 2 to 2 1/2 hours. What’s mostly changed is that my longest days don;t exceed 2 1/2 hours, and hard days are a shorter than they were. This has felt great so far after a few days worth. And it’s much easier to fit it all in. My approximate current schedule. UH means hard upper body day, LH is hard leg (biking) day, and E is easy Last Tuesday My group and I rode to the Southeast of Morgan Hill up in the hills, ending up at the Gilroy Sports Complex and then looping back on Santa Teresa Blvd to our lunch stop. This was on my upright and felt great. I am now tolerating longer upright rides well, including standing pedaling, with no SI joint or sciatica. I think all th...

https://ift.tt/75hbX2D A couple of years ago, my yearly echocardiogram showed a mild amount of leakage around the outside of my aortic valve replacement. This is a fairly common complication . ( https://vivitrolabs.com/support/faqs/in-vitro-paravalvular-leakage-assessment-of-cardiac-valve-prostheses/ ) I have the condition shown in the middle, called paravalvular leakage, where blood flog leaks around the outside of the replacement valve, next to the wall of the aorta Leakages cause regurgitation, which when some of the diastolic pressure when the valve is closed leaks out while the left ventricle is filling. Since the condition is mild and asymptomatic, we went into wait and see mode. Recently my follow-up two years later showed the condition has progressed to moderate. There is still no need to do something because I am still asymptomatic, so we’ll check again next year. If it has progressed, I may have to do a procedure. The minimally invasive approach is to go up from the groin...

https://ift.tt/VMDatwC Dr. Raphael Cuomo, a professor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine who’s work I’ve mentioned previously , called my attention to a fascinating recent paper he wrote. It is about “nutritional epidemiology risk–survival paradox”, for which the term “Cuomo’s Paradox” has also been coined. There is also a good summary of the paradox in this youtube video . To summarize, there are health and nutrition recommendations to reduce the risk of acquiring conditions like cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer. But the paradox is that if you already have one of these diseases, these same recommendations can become contraindicated because they can now increase the risk of dying from the disease. An important exemple is obesity, which is well known as a risk factor. But carrying some extra pounds can be protective after you already have a disease. Example of Cuomo’s Paradox: Effect of being overweight, consuming alcohol, and cholesterol o...