So if you never use doping you will never get a heart attack? I fully agree with your last comment ‘Stay away from drugs kids’ but I think you can’t prove the doping and hearth attack are related to each other.

please keep your moral to yourself, apart from doping in the sport. We don't need more policing then that.

I believe he is correct to have a high index of suspicion. Despite the media proliferation of "sudden death" among athletes, it's not as common as you are lead to believe. But, an athlete with an extremely conditioned heart (i.e., low heart rate because of great health/strength) and an increased number of red blood cells (EPO use, as an example), would be a perfect scenario for a top level athlete to have a myocardial infarction out of the blue. It'll certainly be interesting to read more of this story as it develops.

That's assuming he still dopes... Sounds like he's retired so I doubt he's shooting epo just for the heck of it.

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What's your CdA?

I’ll disagr with this point. The FDA requires that all Epoetin products (Epogen, Procrit, etc) carry the following Back Box Warning in their package insert:

“Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) increased the risk of serious cardiovascular events, MI, stroke, venous thromboembolism, vascular access thrombosis, and mortality...”

Not sure what he has used in the past, but Epo is one of the more commonly used forms of doping in endurance athletes

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Matt

He is now at 40 - the perfect master age. Plus doping has long term effects, that is why folks are so annoyed about these short bans.

Doping is wrong. He is also a middle aged man. It seems discrediting to yourself to jump to wild conclusions.

My good friend is in his 50s and rides bikes. He had a heart attack. Must be the dope he was using...... :( Not buying it.

such a common mistake to confuse causality with correlation (which may not even exist here). This is heavily exploited in marketing (and meaningless internet forum posts)

Two of my friends got heart attack, they don't even cycle, not to mention doping.

Doped non-cyclers! EPO for card games mate! I knew it.

Of course we can't make specific claims about this case, but there's also this study on testosterone supplementation in older men that was halted because of increased incidence of adverse cardiovascular events.

So while it's true we can't say a damned thing about this specific heart attack, I think it's worth bringing up that doping in general may be a poor decision for long-term heath.

Hey Herbert, I don't really like that he doped, but we're talking about an ex pro cyclist. But closing with "stay clean everyone" somehow implies that his former doping is connected with his heart attack, when they may be totally unrelated. His heart attack for all we know may have been caused by his level of activity (which many of us do), but we don't know the cause of his heart attack. I don't really care what someone did, I don't want them to have a heart attack. Getting heart attacks sucks...too many dead family or friend who had them.

Even though I love Sam Gyde's "Dopers Sucks" sign, on the podium with Colom at IM Frankfurt several years ago, I still wish Colom success in his recovery process.

Did he get a heart attack because he doped? I do not know. Did he increase his chances because if it - the answer is likely yes.

I also hope he recovers.

But doping is bad and it is best to stay away

OK, with no proof that doping leads to heart attacks (since there are other factors), the thread seems harsh to a guy who just had a heart attack. I think it is OK to not like him for his doping past. But it comes across like piling on a guy who just had a heart attack for his former sports transgressions. I think we can pile on him for doping and leave the heart attack part out. My thoughts are to leave the guy alone for now.

^^
Wise words in the middle of a lot of mush

Hope he does ok despite the past.

Except it's backwards, I think. I think it should be "...confuse correlation with causality." I wouldn't be nit-picky like that, except if all y'all going to go after someone with Herbert's track record with quips like "meaningless internet forum post" and "lost of mush" the wording better be goddamned precise.

Even when you are are technically ‘correct’ you show your true colors, which are not nearly as elegant as Herbert, Who I have great and deep respect for. Others, not as much.

Still, the evidence is weak. And MI is a huge risk for anyone ‘of age’.

Pick and choose your battles as if you want me as an adversary, I am ready.

The normal training response is to increase the plasma more than the cellular components thus the condition that the late running MD George Sheehan referred to as "runner's anemia".

‘Anemia’ doesn’t kill you, thrombosis/platelet. aggregation etc (I’m not going to give cardiology in services here) does

Sheehan was brilliant and I have several books if his in my library. But, the point is that you likely don’t die from that.

The numbers of athletes having heart attack’s is very very low, especially younger ones.

Urgh... looking beyond the heart attack, it's incredibly disappointing to see people like Colom still welcomed into the cycling community to coach top young talent like Enric Mas.

Call me naive, but I enjoyed watching Mas tear it up in the last week of La Vuelta this year, but knowing that this guy is his coach will certainly taint any further appreciation.

I won't even ask for the smallest indication that he is doping, but:
- source for the claim that steroid use increases cardiac events?
Source for long term effect of EPO?

What's the incidence of cardiac disease in cyclists (let alone Pros) vs. general population?

Correlation does not mean causation.

The 209 men in the trial had an average age of 74 and high rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Come on, LOL. Good thing they aborted. It was going to be a terrible study.

Sounds like a Dwight Schrute quote...

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team