Life Long After A Heart Attack

How long is one expected to live after a heart attack?

My Heart Attack Experience

Over the last two weeks, my blog post “Life After A Heart Attack” from 25 October 2010 has been visited more than any other posts. It has been read by people in many parts of the world mostly by those searching the topic “heart attack” I thought it time to bring you u[p to date on my experience. I hope it will reassure those of you who have survived a heart attack or any of you with concerns about your health.

on 4 September 2015, almost five years after my heart attack, I wrote about overcoming adversity. I wrote about my recovery, that I was feeling good, and able to do most of the physical activity I had done before – sometimes at a slower pace. I also mentioned that I was due for a check-up with the cardiologist.

That check-up went well I passed the running ECG test satisfactorily. A year later I did not do so well and I was referred to a heart surgeon who recommended bypass surgery. Her comment that without the surgery, I might survive 5 years until my next and probably fatal heart attack was sufficient motivation to agree to the procedure.

The Second Chapter

On 13 February 2017, I had double bypass surgery. I wrote about it in this post, so I don’t need to repeat the details.

How have the last 7 years gone?

Better than I could have imagined. At my final check-up the heart surgeon told me that if I adopted a healthy diet, exercised regularly and did not smoke, I should be good for another 20 years at least. She also told me that I could do anything I wanted, walk, run, climb mountains, she said my knees would probably slow me down before my heart. The only caution was not to push myself too hard and to remember that I was no longer a 20-year-old.

She was right.

It had long been a goal to walk the Camino de Santiago before I turned 70. In late September 2019, I flew to Porto in Portugal and started the second half of the Portuguese route arriving in Santiago, Spain in October after 12 days and 250 km (150 miles) of walking. I carried all my gear in a backpack and slept in Albergues (pilgrims’ hostels). It was a wonderful experience, I wrote about it in a series of posts in the Camino de Santiago category.

Taking Responsibility For My Own Health

As I have written before, the whole COVID saga and the authoritarian clampdown on rights and freedoms by almost all governments shattered my belief that the established health industry and most medical practitioners had individual citizens’ interests at heart. It soon became obvious that the former were only motivated by profit and the latter by job security.

I have the greatest respect for the tiny minority of doctors, nurses and officials who refused to mistreat their patients or communities and paid a huge price for following their conscience.

My doctor “fired” me because I refused to comply with a requirement to wear a mask after the mandate had been lifted. As a result of that and the COVID fiasco, I decided to take responsibility for my own health.

After much research and online consultation with other medical professionals, I stopped taking statin drugs which I had been taking for 13 years since my heart attack. I cut out one of the drugs to control blood pressure with no change to its levels. After 2 months, I stopped taking the second and 6 months later, my blood pressure is still at the same or lower levels than it was 10 years ago.

Research shows cholesterol is not as bad as it had been portrayed and is necessary for good health.

I have always led an active life, I have increased the distance for my morning walk to 5 km or 3 miles, my walking speed is faster than when I was training for the Camino in 2019. Every morning, I do 40 sit-ups and 40 push-ups. At weekends, I work for hours using chainsaws, climbing on and off my tractor, cutting grass and splitting wood.

Diet

Following a diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) a few years ago, I have been slowly improving my diet. Now I rarely eat bread, eat very little carbohydrates in the form of pasta, rice or potatoes, a lot of fruit and vegetables, some red meat, poultry and fish. I have cut out the mid-morning and mid-afternoon biscuits or cookies and substituted nuts if I do feel the urge for a between-meal snack.

Most importantly, I fast once a week by skipping breakfast and lunch and I follow an intermittent fasting routine by not consuming any food for 13.5 hours between, 5:30 pm and 7 am the next morning.

After much research, I also take several supplements to ensure optimum levels of vitamins, minerals and micronutrients.

All that has resulted in my weight at almost age 74 being the same as when I finished my initial military training at age 19. I am grateful that I am still fit enough to live an active life on a farm.

Conclusion

A long life after a heart attack is indeed possible. But it is up to each of us to take responsibility for our medications, nutrients, diet, exercise and lifestyle.

For more alternate health information, visit our podcast website The Yakking Show. Every week, Kathleen Beauvais and I interview an expert guest on topics for health, fitness and wholeness.

For natural herbal remedies and information, visit Dr. Morse’s Herbal Health Club.

Disclaimer

All the above is my experience and my opinion, I am not qualified to give medical advice and nothing contained in this article is intended to be. You should do your own research and consult health professionals before stopping or starting medications or activities.

Here are some of the tools I use to produce this blog and podcast.

Hostgator for website hosting.

Podbean for podcast hosting

Airtable for organizing our guest bookings and automations.

Audio Pen for transcribing voice notes

Clicking on some links on this site will let you buy products and services which may result in us receiving a commission, however, it will not affect the price you pay.