I haven’t been to the doctor in quite a long time, but I had a clinic visit for some insurance that I’m applying for.
Before I went in, I had no idea what my blood pressure was or what the numbers meant.
As the nurse was taking my blood pressure and pulse she commented “you must be a runner”. Later she showed me
some charts where my bp was charted as Athlete/Child. It’s 106/70.
When I first started running and riding bikes about 10 years ago, I had exercise induced asthma to the point that
I would carry a inhaler with me everywhere I went. I recall it being so bad in winter that I wouldn’t even think of going outside without taking a hit off it. I don’t think I’ve used it in 3-4 years and couldn’t even tell you where it is located or if I have one.
It progressively went away as I got more fit.
It’s not too often that I stop and think about this, so thought it would be cool to share and to hear your story.
Congratulations on the fitness report, there are many many benefits to maintaining an active lifestyle. Frontline on PBS had a program last night about Parkinson’s disease, and one of the treatments being studied was running on a treadmill. They put one group of monkeys to work running on a treadmill, and another group on an identical setup who just watched. They induced Parkinson’s disease with a neurotoxin to both groups, and the runners were somehow protected from the disease while the watchers lost a lot of brain function.
I had to do a similar thing recently. I was told that I was in extraordinarily good health and in great shape for an almost 48 year old man. It’s also nice when I tell people my age and they are shocked to know how old I am. They usually think I am 10 years younger than that. Not sure if that is genetics or the physical activity or both. But there are obvious benefits to adopting a life-time of physical activity.
That is a good compliment. I wonder how the athletes that are in their 60’s are doing? Is a life-time of active life style and hard training still evident or
do some have issues related to it.
Another perk is not being diabetic. At least for me, my family has a history of Type 2 Diabetes. My brother and sister have it (don’t exercise or eat well), I don’t!
However, my BP is high. This might be more genetic/hereditary, though. I can easily say I exercise >15 hours/week, but still have high BP. Funny, though, after swimming, my BP drops significantly, more so than after running or biking.
I have HBP as well due to hereditary issues, my brother is 270 and has adult onset diabetes, my sister is 225 and has the same, both tell me I’m crazy for doing all the training I do. I say they are crazy for not exercising, it isn’t the quantity of life but the quality, I don’t want to be tied down to testing all the time.
I was diagnosed with HBP at age 8 and told I’d be on medication the rest of my life. In high school, I joined the swim team and slowly (under the watchful eye of my mom, an RN) weaned myself off the meds. When I went in for a checkup months later and told the doc I hadn’t been taking the meds, he was very surprised and said it had to be swimming.
When I was 16, I was having some problems with a kidney, so they removed it, but the BP was still an issue. Until swim season started.
At different times in my life when I’ve been out of the pool for more than a month or so, my BP goes right back up.
I haven’t been on medicine in more than 12 years and finished my second IM last year. I know (based on my observations of those in my family) that I would be overweight and on BP meds for life if it wasn’t for swimming and tris.
There are a lot of benefits to exercise. I had a Patent Foramen Ovale birth defect in my heart that eventually burped a clot through and caused me to have a stroke. Largely because of my fitness I came away with nearly no lasting side affects, which is the exception. Had I not been fit I would have been in very deep trouble. Also, my recovery from heart surgery has been very fast thanks to maintaining a regular exercise regimen and decent eating habits (largely thanks to my wife).
When I first started running I had the same issue. I wasn’t so bad that cold air would set me off, but if my allergies flared, it would often set it off. In fact, I hated running and was just a cyclist for years because cycling would only moderately aggravate my asthma, while any running would just lock me up completely. I eventually started running via peer pressure, and saw a doctor to be put on better meds. I still take them regularly, but I only really need them if I’m going to be pushing at LT pace or harder.
Fortunately, I’ve never required major surgery, but a few years back I did have to have an appendectomy. It was exactly two weeks before my first marathon, so I was in fairly good shape at the time. I ended up bouncing back quickly enough to run the race.
The only other thing I have to add is last time I had a blood panel done, the lab tech who gave me the results asked if I was vegan because my cholesterol was so low, but that probably has bigger genetic and diet components then exercise. Oh, and people keep telling me I’m too skinny, so I guess I only have 5 more pounds until I hit race weight.