My husband and I ran the Road2Hope half marathon today…I didn’t quite PB, but went all out and fell at the finish and got 5 stitches! #winning
But, a runner behind us collapsed and died (heart attack).
He was in his 50s.
My husband is 45. I know that more old men (it seems) randomly die during races due to cardiac events.
He sees our GP next week for a physical.
Anyone with experience of the Ontario medical system/OHIP - can he just ask for a ECG (or whatever) to check his heart health? He’s done 3 IMs and hasn’t died yet, so I’d expect he is fine, but today was a reminder that it would be nice to have a check up.
I asked my primary care doc for a EKG at the beginning of the season a few years ago because I was scared by all the seemingly healthy guys close to my age (31 at the time) dropping dead during races. It was no problem and covered by my insurance (in the US). That probably doesn’t help much, but I’d try for it, explain the situation and hopefully they’ll understand.
Side note, according to the EKG, my heart is healthy, FWIW.
Last year had my EKG, ECG, treadmill test, and lots of blood work. Fortunately all was good! As I left from the ECG, I chuckled and said to the nurse something along the line is “of course, because I come and do all of this, everything is fine” to which she said, at your age (56) it’s good to have the baseline. My wife was very pleased that I had everything checked out!
i went through the whole process two years ago and had no problems with OHIP coverage. Set the clinic’s record for longest, fastest and highest elevation for the treadmill test. Horrible wearing the heart rate monitor for 72 hours (not allowed to shower)
Sorry to hear about the person passing away during the race. i was planning to run the marathon but got sick
I live in Ontario and had an ECG done last week. My sports doctor ordered it and it was covered by OHIP. I was surprised she asked for one since I’m only 24.
Yes, I was just in front of the man, but my husband who had IT issues was behind me and saw him, so I guess it’s an extra wake up call when you watch that.
I don’t know about the system in Ontario and can’t help you here, but allow me to tell you a brief story.
My dad is (was, retired) GP and for years he has told me to do a stress test ECG. Of course I ignore his wise advise. 2 years ago my older sister died from heart condition. She was a consultant and never got tested. I finally got a test done (49 years old at the time) in the hospital where she worked . The cardiologist, a friend of hers, explained to me that a) he would have detected her problem if she had got tested, b) only a stress test, not just a simple resting or slight exercise, was useful to detect abnormalities in most fit people. I have since discussed with a lot of cardiologists (I help a charity promoting heart disease prevention through sport) and they all agree that in particular for active people it is crucial to do more than the basic test.
Bottom line: get yourself tested, but make sure it is properly done. Good luck.
I don’t know about the system in Ontario and can’t help you here, but allow me to tell you a brief story.
My dad is (was, retired) GP and for years he has told me to do a stress test ECG. Of course I ignore his wise advise. 2 years ago my older sister died from heart condition. She was a consultant and never got tested. I finally got a test done (49 years old at the time) in the hospital where she worked . The cardiologist, a friend of hers, explained to me that a) he would have detected her problem if she had got tested, b) only a stress test, not just a simple resting or slight exercise, was useful to detect abnormalities in most fit people. I have since discussed with a lot of cardiologists (I help a charity promoting heart disease prevention through sport) and they all agree that in particular for active people it is crucial to do more than the basic test.
Bottom line: get yourself tested, but make sure it is properly done. Good luck.
Yep, I got a stress test at 50, and then at 55. The folks gave me a bad time who tested me at 55 after the test saying why was I there since my test went so well. I said because I am trying to be
pro active and make sure that when I die, it was not because I was lazy and it could have been prevented for my family.
There are SO many easy tests that we can do that either prevent or catch issues early. But so many have so many excuses as to why they cannot find the time or want to do certain tests.
I was just talking with my neighbor about this topic. She has had some funny heart issues but has not gone to the doctor. Her Dad just had a heart attack. I told her she needed to go get a stress test.
I bet she does not do it.
for active people it is crucial to do more than the basic test.
My sense is the culture may be changing more to this. I get the passive ECG every year with my annual physical and have for the past few years ( I’m 53). Always very good.
However, my Father who is not an athlete had a minor heart attack a year ago.
Next April, when I typically go for my annual physical, I will be asking my GP to have the active stress test.
I’ve never had any issues. I’ve been an active endurance athlete since my mid-teens. I am by “normal” standards, very physically fit. However, as others have mentioned here, I’ve had friends and people that I have known, age-peers and younger, die from sudden heart-attacks that have come out of no where! I must confess - it does lurk in the back of my mind.
Apparently a lot of these marathon deaths happen near the finish, when people pick up the pace for the end.
So if you are over 40 or 45, you might consider not doing that.
I’ve started thinking about that on hot, difficult days, just chilling out at the end.
I am 57. When I was running the half marathon on a relay team at Challenge in October, I totally opened it up during the last half mile. I was working SO hard that my heart was going
nuts and I was really hurting. I sure was thinking about this statistic while I was doing this. But if it is my time. Plus, with the stress tests, at least it gives me some piece of mind that
if one makes it totally through the stress test, which totally kicks ones butt, one should be okay.
Plus, with the stress tests, at least it gives me some piece of mind that
if one makes it totally through the stress test, which totally kicks ones butt, one should be okay.
.
A stress test is a really different scenario than a sprint at the end of a marathon. One simply has to weight the risks vs the rewards. If you are competitive, you maybe take the risk. If not, maybe chill out. Or if you are sick of life’s shit, maybe you take the risk =)