I got some good (but confusing) news today. I had a stress echo and the sonography tech did another echo on me before the treadmill portion.
She told me she reviewed the previous measurements before taking mine today and that all of the previous measurements that were taken show my EF well over 50% and only one measurement that showed 40%. She also noted that all the measurements she was taking today showed my heart EF is over 50%, before and after the test.
To be clear, I understand she is not a dr and is not allowed to make a diagnosis, but I’m very surprised, and happy to hear this. I’ll update again once I hear back from my cardiologist. I just hope she’s right and she wasn’t reading it incorrectly.
This is correct, but if I remember correctly @wsmwannabe doesn’t only suffer from high BP but reduced EF. Reduced EF is more in the direction of heart failure and for heart failure Betablockers are THE first line medicine.
I think in this case betablockers are the way to go.
Usually (as in in all cases) beta blockers for heart failure or consequences of high blood pressure are combined with ACE-Is or ARBs.
Well I just verified that my EF is 55% and not 40%. Is it possible to raise my EF that much in one month? Is it possible something happened with the vax that caused it to dip and return? Or was it all just a mistake in the first place?
I am going to try the ARB Telmisartan for high BP. It helps with cardiac hypertrophy directly as well as indirectly through lowering BP. Not making any recommendations, I don’t know enough about these drugs for that.
Currently running 150 test and that’s it. I didn’t want to completely come off knowing that being at “normal”levels wouldn’t be any worse than being at 0.
As far as the vax and death in steroid users. It’s not specific to steroid users. It’s pretty common among all highly active people, AAS or not. Dr Robert Malone goes in depth as to why people are having heart issues from the vax, and some countries are beginning to actually caution against the vax due to said heart issues (among MANY other things).
I don’t know if the vax caused the cardiomyopathy (if I ever actually had it), but I’m certain it is the reason I have been having heart pains that seem to have largely subsided by now.
This topic is clearly a trigger point for you based on your response, so I’ll try to address this all concisely.
I don’t know how you can be sure about the information I got from dr Malone is false. You don’t even know which information I’m referring to. Also, the fact that the US govt is trying to censor him tells me he’s probably got a lot of info the govt doesn’t want us knowing.
Also, most people on here respect you a lot for your high level of knowledge, but you’re gonna lose a lot of credibility if you keep coming in here with Wikipedia entries.
I never said I had myocarditis, and I’m not disagreeing with you about the cardiomyopathy with respect to the vax. I said I’m not sure if it did or did not cause the heart issue.
I never said I had myocarditis, I said I had heart pains. Which is 100% linked to the vax.
Other things such as Bell’s palsy, blood clots, reproductive issues, neurological disorders, etc. Heart issues aren’t the only issues arising from the vax, I think they’re generally the most immediately severe though. Even Pfizer released a 39 page doc as part of a giant FOIA request that shows VAERS data linking, 10’s of thousands of vaccine injuries to their covid shot. This was just in the first 90 days of releasing the vax to the public.
I’d really rather not turn this into a vaccine thread though.
Hey brother, it’s certainly been a while! Everything on my end if going pretty good. I haven’t had an echo done since January, but I feel pretty good about my current heart health.
Back in December when I first got a proper blood pressure monitor, my BP was averaging 130/60 or so. With the sys/dia being so far apart that was obviously a worry of mine. The last few readings I have taken are averaging about 115/68, which may be overall a little low, but the two values are MUCH closer together. So I think I’ve been able to undo some of the damage I did to my heart.
I actually blasted 600/350 test/mast for 6 weeks from mid February to first weekend of April too. Overall it wasn’t a “smart” decision, but it was a calculated risk that I was willing to take on. And I don’t seem to be worse off because of it.
I’m actually as lean now as I was back in September (the leanest I’ve ever been in my life) and I’m only on 175 mg/wk test (down from my usual 200/wk)
For all of the heart gurus on here, I have a couple of questions. Back in Jan, my worst BP reading was 127/57 (70 point differential), and this morning it was 117/74 (43 point differential). I have been monitoring BP almost Daily and it has been steadily decreasing during this whole period. The main changes I have made are: regular blood donations, taking celery seed extract/CoQ10/D3 & K2, and frequent LISS (3-4x /wk for 20-30 mins at 55-60% max HR).
My question is: am I “in the clear”? Have I reversed whatever issues were going on with my heart? Is it possible I actually avoided cardiac remodeling? Certainly I understand it is possible to have this happen again if I get careless again, but I’m pretty certain I am most likely in a better place now, heart wise, than I have been since long before I ever touched AAS.
Any additional AAS use other than above (amount and frequency) over that time frame?
It certainly appears you are in a better spot. Weight and waist circumference before and after?
Nice job keeping track methodically. With COVID, heart inflammation stuff going around this is a confusing and strange time for strength athletes and AAS hobbyists.
Since I got the cardiomyopathy diagnosis, I blasted 620/350 test/mast for 6 weeks, weeks 5 and 6 of that blast I threw in sdrol at 10 mg/day, from mid Feb to April 2, then came back down to 175 test.
For the last 5 days I have been front loading a blast of 420/420/140 test C/DHB/tren E, and I plan to run that for 8 weeks. I have been running BPC/TB at 3.5mg/2.5mg /wk since mid feb also. I don’t have great info on it, but I remember reading that one of those two peptides can also help heal heart damage. Take that with a grain of salt for now, but it’s worth further investigation.
I started using inositol at 4g/day and DIM at 200mg/day to help with mood and estrogen metabolism/disposal. Both of those are OTC supplements that I got on Amazon. I can tell a very big difference in mood since starting the inositol. The reason I mention this is because about a week after starting these two supps, my BP differential dropped about 10 points. I have no idea if that’s correlation or causation, but another item that’s worth further investigation.
Finally, as far as weight/waist circumference, it is more or less unchanged since all of this started back in November, until now.
I was released by my cardiologist back in January almost immediately after the second echo was done, but the diagnosis never changed, nor did they revise it to the best of my knowledge. But that’s the VA for ya.
There were no abnormalities with my heart, aside from the pseudo-low EF (they said minimal LVH, but glossed over it saying it wasn’t a cause for concern and almost wasn’t worth mentioning, which makes me think more of athletes heart over AAS abuser heart)
I would put money on it that my EF is even higher now than it was back in January.
EDIT: for clarity, it appears the first echo was inaccurately diagnosed, based on the conversation I had with the second sonography tech. I don’t know how many measurements are taken during an echo, but the tech told me she reviewed the previous readings, and only 1 of the measurements showed an EF of 40%, and all of the other measurements showed an EF well over 50%
When I did the heart stress test, the nurses told me that if I am able to keep up with the treadmill the entire time, without stopping, it’s very likely I don’t actually have cardiomyopathy, which I was easily able to keep up with the treadmill
Be careful with that diagnosis staying there if you want life insurance or something later. All that info gets passed to the MIB which basically makes you much harder to insure/more $$ if they do. Maybe have them amend your record or get a letter.