Last month I self-diagnosed my heart disease. I used my heart rate monitor for that diagnosis. But, it wasn't the heart rate monitor that diagnosed it. It was my understanding of what the heart rate data, what the heart rate numbers mean. That's what is important.
As a lifelong professional multi-sport endurance athlete, I thought I was doing something good for my heart training and racing - often in the high hot red heart rate zones. For the past four decades, I have trained and raced that way. And yet, today, I wonder, maybe I was actually damaging myself.
The way I diagnosed my heart disease was to follow the heart rate numbers. For the past 6 months, I have noticed that my "maximum sustainable heart rate"* dropped from 160 bpm to 130 bpm. That's a huge drop in such a few months. Simultaneously, I noticed that my respiratory rate number had spiraled upward. My breathing rate had increased dramatically. You don't want those two numbers to go in the opposite direction.
The way I diagnosed my heart disease was to follow the heart rate numbers. For the past 6 months, I have noticed that my "maximum sustainable heart rate"* dropped from 160 bpm to 130 bpm. That's a huge drop in such a few months. Simultaneously, I noticed that my respiratory rate number had spiraled upward. My breathing rate had increased dramatically. You don't want those two numbers to go in the opposite direction.
So I called my primary physician explaining that even though I turn the age of 80 next year, there's something wrong. Was it my lowering of my maximum sustainable heart rate hence my heart or was it the increase in my breathing rate, hence my lungs that were in trouble?
My doc scheduled me for cardiac tests first. I passed the resting EKG with a breeze. I passed the exercise stress test with the technician saying "you're running when most your age can't walk on a treadmill." Next test is called a calcium heart scan to assess the amount of plaque in my coronary arteries. My score is 403. A score of 400 means you have coronary artery disease. I was on the wrong side of the calcium heart scan score - but close. Turns out it is my widow maker coronary artery has plaque buildup. Yet the test doesn't answer the three questions:
How much plaque?
What type of plaque - calcified hard plaque or flimsy soft plaque?
Where is it exactly?
The common term for this heart disease is clogged coronary arteries. It shocked me, someone who has spent her lifetime training her heart, named her company (Heart Zones) after the cardiac muscle, authoring in 1992 the first book, some thirty years go, on training with a heart rate monitor explaining what the heart rate numbers mean.
Troubling me was that my middle of three older brothers died from a heart attack. He
succumbed from a massive heart attack shortly after having a stent(s) put in his coronary artery. So, my exercise scientist mind started asking several questions:
Is ultra-endurance athletic training and racing lead to heart disease?
Is the disease reversible so how do I monitor that or progression?
Is it my fault - did I do this to myself believing I was doing the right thing?
There's no heart disease history in my family genealogy. Logically, my oldest brother Perry
realizing that 2 of his siblings have or died from heart disease that he should have a similar test. Maybe there is in fact a genetic link. Unfortunately, he too royally flunked the calcium heart scan with a score four times mine. He has no symptoms. I have symptoms.
As I progress into the exploration of next steps, I appreciate that for the past 40 years, I have been tracking my key heart rate numbers:
Ambient heart rate
Recovery heart rate
Resting heart rate
Maximum sustainable heart rate
Peak heart rate
I am encouraging you to use your heart rate monitor for more than your fitness but maybe even more for your heart health. I am encouraging you to do more than collect data. I am
encouraging you know what the the numbers mean. Know which of the key heart rate numbers should be high and which should be low. Watch the trends change over time which in my case lead to my self-diagnosis of heart disease. If willing, share your management of your heart health with others in hopes of supporting their heart health. That's why I am writing this personal story. Use your heart rate monitor for more than training and racing but for so much more. It might save your life.
*This is a term that I created in the early 1980's that I defined as the highest heart rate number you can sustain for a long time - in my case 3-4 hours.
Note: Be on the lookout for what's next in my story! For me, it is a journey to care, feed, and manage a healthy heart. I am on that journey. I hope that you do not join me in the cohort of heart diseased individual. Know and tune into what your healthy heart numbers are.