Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mindcrime | Hacker News Reader

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> Strangely, for me it was getting fit. What a very odd thing to put off till some unlikely future.

Yeah, tell me about this one. I'm a guy who had a heart-attack, right in the middle of a period of time when we seemed to be getting some momentum going with the startup. I knew I was being silly putting off working out and being active and eating healthy, but I figured "things will level off soon and I'll get back to that stuff". Ummm.. no. Didn't work out that way. And when you're on the back of an ambulance being rushed to the emergency room, it's a bit late to start worrying about getting fit.

Luckily for me, I survived, and I've gotten back into bike riding big time again, and now I take time out to go ride an hour or so a few days a week, work be damned. :-)

So there's at least one lesson I learned and benefited from, but what a horrible way to do it. If anything I say on HN can help influence anybody else, let it be this.... DO NOT DO WHAT I DID. Take your health seriously, and do it starting NOW, regardless of how old you are. Remember, the artery damage that leads to heart-disease (and ultimately, heart attacks) begins very young... in some cases as early as your teen years (maybe earlier in some extreme cases). And definitely by your twenties, if you aren't eating right, watching your lipid profile, staying active, etc., you are setting yourself up for problems later.

Thank you for this story. I'm going for a bike ride right now.

If I may be so bold, a heart attack is a big deal, may I ask how old you are - 40's, 50's? Do you smoke?

I just turned 42 last week, had the heart attack last Nov. when I was 41 and some change. Never smoked in my life. But I didn't always eat the way I should, and while I've been a competitive athlete on an "on again, off again" basis throughout my adult life (wrestling, jiu-jitsu, powerlifting, mountain biking, etc.), I had been too much of the "off again" for the past few years, and had let my weight creep up a bit. Even then though, it took me by surprise, I wasn't exactly one of those 350lb super-obese people you look at and think "how is that guy not dead yet", ya know? But between that and the stress I was under, it almost did me in.

And just to elaborate on all this a bit... I'd always heard the old saw "stress kills", but interestingly enough, after the heart attack, something everybody (cardiologist, GP, nurses, cardiac rehab people, etc.) emphasized to me VERY strongly, was the impact of stress. I'm sure I heard "you need to lower your stress levels" more than I heard "you need to lose weight" or "you need to lower your cholesterol". And I was really grinding those last few months right before it happened. I was working pretty much 7 days a week, and I'd routinely put in 8 hours during the day, then go up to B&N or Starbucks and work another 5 or 6 hours, during which time I'd drink a triple-shot latte, drink a Red Bull, and then eat a box or two of chocolate covered espresso beans. And I'd do this shit 4 or 5 times a week. In hindsight, it was all pretty stupid, but, like almost everybody who hasn't had a brush with death, I thought I was superhuman and could push myself that hard and get away with it.

So, again, moral of this story: DO NOT DO WHAT I DID. I AM A BAD EXAMPLE.

Take some time off, unwind, do something outdoors (hiking, biking, running, swimming, whatever), eat a healthful diet, and talk to your doctor occasionally. I know there's a lot of backlash against "over testing" and all, but at the very least, it's probably a good idea to go have an annual physical. Stop smoking if you do. Heart attacks are largely avoidable, but it means doing things right.

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