Are You Ready?
For a 10K, 5K or 2 mile funrun? How about a bowling or table tennis tournament? Are you ready for any other big athletic event?
How about cancer or a stoke? Are you ready, mentally and physically, to tackle a grave illness?
If I said “me neither” that would probably make you feel better. But I’m not writing here to make you feel better, I’m writing to make us all better thinkers.
Think about this: My Dad, in his late 70s, is pouring his cereal for breakfast on Sunday morning and has an urgent but painful call to the bathroom. Nearly there, he collapses and looses full control of his body; he cannot move and is speaking gibber. Less than an hour later, the ER doctor tell us he has had an aortic aneurism and introduces us to two surgeons. With solemn expressions the surgeons tell us to go to him and say our good byes, the surgery is not promising, he has less than a 30% chance of survival.
How about that for the definition of ‘snap of a finger’.
Hours later the nurse informs us of their success and that they are closing Dad up. Post operation consultation informs us they grafted a bypass tube in one of his main arteries from the heart to the kidney. This tube arcs around a 9cm x 9cm x 15cm long blob of plaque or what might be better described after seeing pictures is a hunk of conglomerated blood jelly (plaque) which caused the artery to explode.
Was Dad ready?
The blockage didn’t pop up over night. It was years in the making. As Alabama is the land of pulled pork and fried everything as well as fresh veggies and fruit, Dad’s life history of nutrition was from 40% good and healthy foods to 60% plaque build-up foods.
Eighteen hours after surgery, Dad was out of bed and in a recliner. All body functions were waking up and positive. Now, don’t get me wrong. He was not in the lazy boy, sipping a glass of wine watching Downton Abbey. He looked more like a Star Wars alien given life by tubes injected all in his body circulating goo and gunk plugged into an electronic command center. But he was alive.
Medical research reveals the major risk factors of someone suffering from an aneurysm are “age 65 years or older, male gender, and smoking at least 100 cigarettes in a lifetime”. This was dad to a T.
Would this also be the case with you or perhaps your father, an in-law or neighbor?
An overall aortic aneurysm 2006 report from the University of Michigan Health System states “mortality rate approaches 90 percent if rupture occurs outside the hospital”. Granted, in the years since this report, technology has improved greatly and overall death statistics are lower but still…death is very likely.
Was he ready? The reason dad survived is that he is a walker. Over the last couple of years he and mother had become mall walkers, logging in 1.25 +/- miles a day, 5 days a week. With this steady exercise over the years, he and mother have rebuilt their muscles- specifically the heart, activated their fat storage glands and charged up their blood circulatory system. Dad’s history of consistent aerobic exercise kept the blood flowing deep into every microscopic section of his body helping to build up his strength and reserve.
Aerobic exercise is activity which keeps your feet moving such as biking, spinning, jogging, swimming, water walking or power walking—practically any exercise which causes you to take in abnormal amounts of oxygen and causes your heart rate to beat faster for at least 8 minutes or more, ideally 20+ minutes.
Okay, rowing works too but pleasure walking, golf or tennis do not count because you start and stop; your heart rate is on a roller coaster. To qualify for aerobic exercise you must get your heart rate up, keep it up on a plateau while breathing deep and heavy, again for at least 8 minutes or more (20+ minutes ideally).
Circulation is the basic infrastructure for aerobic exercise. Over time, aerobic exercise cleans out and keeps clean your blood vessels and improves circulation, supplies nutrients and oxygen to your cells and helps you grow healthy productive cells. Conducting aerobic exercise over months and years develops your endurance, improves your quality of sleep and strengthens all muscles. It saves your life. It saved Dad’s life.
Build up your strength and your reserve for any big event in life from a 5K run to the strike of a severe illness. Exercise, engage in aerobic exercise. Are you ready? Is your body ready?
