{"id":6237,"date":"2014-06-30T15:54:51","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T20:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=6237"},"modified":"2021-09-12T22:36:50","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T03:36:50","slug":"how-to-not-die-at-your-health-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/30\/how-to-not-die-at-your-health-club","title":{"rendered":"How To Not Die At Your Health Club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All things considered, most of us would prefer not to become acutely ill in a public place. You\u2019d rather not faint at Macy\u2019s, upchuck in a theatre lobby, or suddenly become aware of the Mount St. Helen\u2019s rumbling in your intestines as you sit third row center at Orchestra Hall. If you trip and fall on a busy sidewalk and a dozen helpful people ask if you\u2019re hurt, your response is almost reflexively, \u201cNo, I\u2019m all right, really,\u201d as you bravely hobble into the anonymous crowd on a broken ankle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becoming seriously ill while exercising at a health club or outside running probably occurs a lot more often than we realize, but because of the wee competitive undercurrent lurking in the sweat-drenched air, you keep your chest pain or your shortness of breath to yourself. As a health club habitue for many years (what, you didn\u2019t notice?), I\u2019ve certainly seen fellow exercisers abruptly leave looking sweaty and ashen. Even if they were having heart attacks, to avoid the embarrassment of appearing vulnerable I\u2019m guessing many would keep the pain to themselves. I\u2019ve asked a couple of fitness trainers about this, and both told of multiple instances where an ambulance had to be called by staff because a client had collapsed, but never an example of a client requesting an ambulance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you work out regularly, you\u2019ve probably thought at least once about this. When you join a health club, there\u2019s always that recommendation advising the couch potatoes and over-40s to have an EKG and be cleared by a doctor before starting an exercise program. That\u2019s actually pretty good advice if you\u2019re out of shape, overweight, have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes, or you\u2019re a smoker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that a routine physician clearance doesn\u2019t yield much in the way of useful information for higher-risk health club members. You\u2019ll have your blood pressure checked, heart and lungs listened to, maybe a cholesterol test, maybe an EKG, and then you\u2019re sent off to the sweaty trenches with an approving pat on the head. The reason the EKG isn\u2019t helpful is that it\u2019s taken when you\u2019re resting on a table, which is exactly what you won\u2019t be doing at your health club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evaluating blood flow to your heart\u2026ahead of time<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By far the better screening device, which insurance companies cover (though they don\u2019t like to because of cost), is a nuclear stress test.The original heart stress test dates from 1950 and was called the Master\u2019s Two-Step Exercise Test. You climbed up and down two steps a certain number of times and then quickly had an EKG, which looked for exercise-induced changes, a sign of possible heart disease. Later, the steps were replaced by a treadmill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compellingly, however, a stress test alone misses about 50% of potentially dangerous heart blockages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter the nuclear stress test:<\/p>\n\n\n\n