Angina

Training Bodybuilding
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So as not to hijack Phill’s thread, Breakdown, “this post’s for you.” (grin)

Angina is a symptom of coronary artery disease (CAD), the most common type of heart disease. CAD occurs when plaque builds up in the coronary arteries. This buildup of plaque is called atherosclerosis. As plaque builds up, the coronary arteries become narrow and stiff. Blood flow to the heart is reduced. This decreases the oxygen supply to the heart muscle.

Types of Angina

There are 3 types of angina: stable, unstable, and variant (Prinzmetal’s). It is very important to know the differences among the types.

Stable angina. Stable angina is the most common type. It occurs when the heart is working harder than usual.
There is a regular pattern to stable angina. After several episodes, you learn to recognize the pattern and can predict when it will occur. The pain usually goes away in a few minutes when you rest or take your angina medicine.
Stable angina is not a heart attack but makes it more likely that you will have a heart attack in the future.

Unstable angina. Unstable angina is a very dangerous condition that requires emergency treatment. It is a sign that a heart attack could occur soon. Unlike stable angina, it does not follow a pattern. It can occur without physical exertion and is not relieved by rest or medicine.

Variant angina. Variant angina is rare. It usually occurs at rest. The pain can be severe and usually occurs between midnight and early morning. It is relieved by medication.

Since your dad is dealing with a symptom of CAD, a few other things than the excellent dietary changes you made should be implemented as well.

  • Get your dad’s doc to sign off on his doing 30 minutes of cardio a day. Plain and simple WALKING would excellent. Nothing too challenging to start with. And it’s probably more than he’s doing right now.

  • Optimize his cholesterol numbers. That means raising HDL (the good cholesterol) and lowering the LDL (the bad cholesterol. Even if he’s taking medication, he should be taking fish oil to lower the total number and monos (olive oil & avocado) to raise HDL. Additionally, I’d recommend curcumin with bioperin, niacin (the kind that causes a flush), evnetually working up to 1g x 3. Policosanol at the dosage recommended on the bottle is another favorite of mine because of its effectiveness.

  • Get his homocysteine tested. It’s another very important cardiovascular risk factor. He needs a number below 7. There are supps that will very quickly reduce high homocysteine numbers and lower his risk.

  • Get his C-Reactive Protein tested. It’s a measure of inflammation. If you want to read more about CRP and its implications to your dad, check out http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4648

Once again, there are supps that will correct high CRP-HS numbers.

Good luck to you and your dad! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

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Great post!

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Thanks very much TT! My dad has stable angina. He’s read this thread - it has re-inforced his resolve to keep a clean diet and he is walking everyday to buy newspapers etc…

He is due back to the see the doctor next week - will keep you posted with how things are going and how those tests went.

The CRP protein link is great thanks - very informative.

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Thanks for the update, Breakdown. I’m happy to hear that your dad is getting proactive re his health. Every little bit will be a help.

I continued to do research on niacin after I wrote my post above. Based on my research, have your dad get the no-flush niacin 1g x 3/day. Each version has different benefits, but the no-flush version will get better results at lower dosages and is, for that reason, less challenging to the liver.

If your dad were to go with the flush version, he’d probably have to take almost double the amount recommended for the no-flush version. The exciting thing about the no-flush version is that it gets almost as good results as some cholesterol-lowering drugs on the market today.

Once again, congrats to your dad for getting serious about his health. And congrats to you, too, for being his cheerleader and looking for information that will help him extend his life and add to the quality of his life. All parents should be so lucky!

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Thanks once again TT - I came home from university yesterday for the Christmas holidays so I want to help him get into good habits whilst I’m at home.

I was very impressed with the food that was in the house when I came home. The house pretty much fell in line with JB’s article about what was in his kitchen! I’m confident that his cholesterol levels will have improved the next time he has a test.

I was wondering if I should get him started on any kind of weights program to supplement all of the walking that he does. His lifestyle is actually quite good now - he spends lots of time being active in the garden and doing odd jobs around the house. What sort of weight training would you recommend?

We were also wondering what might have caused the angina in the first place. It’s clear that a very poor diet must have contributed but my dad has been very active throughout his life. He played soccer for 25 years and played rugby for a Manchester team for a few years. He also had an active job before he retired a few months ago. He owned a ‘fish and chippy’ for nearly 40 years and worked as the main fryer for upto 14 hours a day, 6 days a week, 50 weeks a year!! (I owe him so much for sacrificing a large chunk of his life to provide for me!!)

Could working as a deep fat fryer behind a range with 5 big pans for frying fish, chips and mars bars have contributed to the angina? This may sound crazy but when we sold the shop the ventilation system and the range were clogged up with grease and fat that must have got there from the pans. Could my dad have somehow inhaled this stuff by working over these pans for so long? It sounds crazy but it was just a thought!

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Regardless of what you do, sometimes heart disease just happens. I’m a perfect example.

Never smoked, had a decent diet, drank only during those youthful years, no diabetes, never had high cholesterol or triglycerides, never been overweight, ran 3 miles x 4 times/wk until work stopped that in my early thirties. Still managed an occasional run when time permitted.

One month after turning 39 (august, 2001) I began to experience mild/moderate angina during strenuous exertion. Figured it was gas/heartburn at the time as I was on a spicy food kick during this period and had also suffered from gastro problems in the past.

By September it had become more noticeable so I went to the doctor. They scheduled a stress test just to rule out the heart issue prior to addressing what they felt was a gastro problem also.

Failed the stress test miserably on Oct. 3, lasting only 90 seconds. Normal protocol was to have another stress test since I was so young, but fortunately the doctor thought something serious might be up, so he scheduled a catherization (dye job) instead. At this point I still didn’t have a clue that I really had heart disease. I split wood for three hours the day before the catherization, although I had to stop halfway through to let an episode of angina pass.

Oct 30 I had the catherization performed. The doctor’s only comment immediately after the procedure was, “I can’t do anything for you… I’ll speak to the surgeon”, and with that he left the room.

The next morning I had emergency triple bypass… at age 39. Afterward the doctor told me, “it was only by the grace of God you hadn’t already had a major heart attack and died”.

They claim it was a heritary thing since my father had bypass surgery at age 55. Never mind the fact that he smoked like a freight train, ate poorly (favorite meal was a loaf of break and a pepsi), and never ever exercised a day in his life.

While I don’t want to discount that there are many factors that can contribute to heart disease, SOMETIMES IT JUST PLAIN HAPPENS.

TD

[quote]Breakdown wrote:
We were also wondering what might have caused the angina in the first place. [/quote]