07-11-2019, 02:20 AM
Thanks for caring and your time to note the possibilities you presented in your diagnosis based upon a post.
Fortunately, it's not applicable to me.
It reminds me of a three or four decades old article in Bicycling Magazine. The article was written by a doctor who passed out X-rays of a very enlarged heart at a convention of cardiologists that were there to share with each other what they've learned in a sort of show and tell.
Consensus comments among the world's top cardiologists there was that it was "a grossly enlarged heart" that "represented serious disease condition" and often asked was "is the patient still alive?"
The problem doctors have is they mostly only see sick people because that's what they do.
But, no. That was the heart of the legendary world's best ever professional bicycle racer, Eddy Merckx who is strong, active and healthy to this day at the age of 74.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Merckx
It is true that an enlarged heart can be indicative of disease conditions. It is also true that the best of top endurance athletes have healthy enlarged hearts.
It's not uncommon to mistake the two.
Back to me. My doctor has said of my high resolution abdominal ultrasound: "I've seen this before ... it is very rare in younger teenagers, but I have never seen it in older teenagers. (I'm decades past teenager) You have zero arterial plaques. Your arteries from the heart to lungs are huge." My lung volume measures considerably above most endurance athletes.
There are considerable oddities in my blood tests and 23andme reports. My doctor told me I am at very low risk for cardio vascular disease. I'm very much NOT normal in very good ways.
I know of the conditions to which you refer and it is true that it can be indicative of disease conditions for other people. There is a large range of "numbers" from blood tests and they don't mean that much just looking at individual numbers. There is also an odd tendency to try to "correct" numbers to make them more in line with normal as if that makes a person healthy to force the body to have different numbers with new man-made chemicals that have never existed in nature otherwise known as highly advertised and very profitable pharmaceuticals.
The odd thing about pharmaceuticals forcing the bodies of unhealthy people to have the normal numbers associated with healthy is it doesn't make them healthy according to the medical studies.
My blood tests also show after a bicycle race that I have stressed my heart. At first, my doctor was alarmed. Well, sure! It's a bicycle race! It quickly repairs and becomes even stronger. My doctor advises continuing all aspects of my healthy living including the extremes of racing and I have zero prescriptions for drugs for me at all.
Where I've been helped most by doctors has been nutritional advice to optimize athletic performance and health.
Taken out of context, a set of numbers might be guessed to be a disease condition. I've raced at events such as the Hotter 'N Hell 100 in Texas many times which attracted over 11,000 riders from all over our United States for a hundred mile ride. Professional racing teams came from around the world to "win" the "race" though not officially a race and only an "event," but being a cover feature of bicycling magazines and covered by newspapers and television has their sponsors have them compete for the publicity of their products. I've raced the professional racers there seeing the best of them cross the finish line within eyesight and the rest of them behind me.
That race in which I pushed myself the hardest did some temporary harm to me. I pushed myself very hard. Three weeks after the race, I could only reach about twenty miles per hour. My leg muscles felt strong. I couldn't figure it out, so I saw my doctor. He seemed to instantly know the cause and tested my lung volume. Quite puzzled he said that wasn't it because my lung volume was "normal." Then he listened to my breathing with his stethoscope and said my lung volume is greatly displaced by fluid in the lining of my lungs due to the extreme of the race and pushing myself that hard. He said "normally" he would drain that fluid for a normal person to be able to breathe. But, for me he said: "you'll know what it feels like to be normal for the next few weeks while your body reabsorbs the fluid and for your real lung volume to come back." That worked and my sprint soon came back.
I never want to be "normal" again!
There are a lot of anomalies in my "numbers." Some are rather extreme. Testosterone measures in the high of the range for young adult males. My bone density isn't even on the chart for being that high. In karate class I spar with black belts working on techniques of multiple attackers against me. I'm not that good. I get hit a lot. I penetrate their zone of greater reach by getting hit and then the advantages are mine. I have the advantage that I'm very resistant to injury and tend not to bruise even with extreme impacts. When I do bruise, I heal overnight and it's gone. I haven't had a cold or flu for three decades.
But, what do anomalies mean when they aren't normal? Does it necessarily mean disease conditions? Perhaps it means healthier than normal.
Most doctors don't see those people.
Ronald
Fortunately, it's not applicable to me.
It reminds me of a three or four decades old article in Bicycling Magazine. The article was written by a doctor who passed out X-rays of a very enlarged heart at a convention of cardiologists that were there to share with each other what they've learned in a sort of show and tell.
Consensus comments among the world's top cardiologists there was that it was "a grossly enlarged heart" that "represented serious disease condition" and often asked was "is the patient still alive?"
The problem doctors have is they mostly only see sick people because that's what they do.
But, no. That was the heart of the legendary world's best ever professional bicycle racer, Eddy Merckx who is strong, active and healthy to this day at the age of 74.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Merckx
It is true that an enlarged heart can be indicative of disease conditions. It is also true that the best of top endurance athletes have healthy enlarged hearts.
It's not uncommon to mistake the two.
Back to me. My doctor has said of my high resolution abdominal ultrasound: "I've seen this before ... it is very rare in younger teenagers, but I have never seen it in older teenagers. (I'm decades past teenager) You have zero arterial plaques. Your arteries from the heart to lungs are huge." My lung volume measures considerably above most endurance athletes.
There are considerable oddities in my blood tests and 23andme reports. My doctor told me I am at very low risk for cardio vascular disease. I'm very much NOT normal in very good ways.
I know of the conditions to which you refer and it is true that it can be indicative of disease conditions for other people. There is a large range of "numbers" from blood tests and they don't mean that much just looking at individual numbers. There is also an odd tendency to try to "correct" numbers to make them more in line with normal as if that makes a person healthy to force the body to have different numbers with new man-made chemicals that have never existed in nature otherwise known as highly advertised and very profitable pharmaceuticals.
The odd thing about pharmaceuticals forcing the bodies of unhealthy people to have the normal numbers associated with healthy is it doesn't make them healthy according to the medical studies.
My blood tests also show after a bicycle race that I have stressed my heart. At first, my doctor was alarmed. Well, sure! It's a bicycle race! It quickly repairs and becomes even stronger. My doctor advises continuing all aspects of my healthy living including the extremes of racing and I have zero prescriptions for drugs for me at all.
Where I've been helped most by doctors has been nutritional advice to optimize athletic performance and health.
Taken out of context, a set of numbers might be guessed to be a disease condition. I've raced at events such as the Hotter 'N Hell 100 in Texas many times which attracted over 11,000 riders from all over our United States for a hundred mile ride. Professional racing teams came from around the world to "win" the "race" though not officially a race and only an "event," but being a cover feature of bicycling magazines and covered by newspapers and television has their sponsors have them compete for the publicity of their products. I've raced the professional racers there seeing the best of them cross the finish line within eyesight and the rest of them behind me.
That race in which I pushed myself the hardest did some temporary harm to me. I pushed myself very hard. Three weeks after the race, I could only reach about twenty miles per hour. My leg muscles felt strong. I couldn't figure it out, so I saw my doctor. He seemed to instantly know the cause and tested my lung volume. Quite puzzled he said that wasn't it because my lung volume was "normal." Then he listened to my breathing with his stethoscope and said my lung volume is greatly displaced by fluid in the lining of my lungs due to the extreme of the race and pushing myself that hard. He said "normally" he would drain that fluid for a normal person to be able to breathe. But, for me he said: "you'll know what it feels like to be normal for the next few weeks while your body reabsorbs the fluid and for your real lung volume to come back." That worked and my sprint soon came back.
I never want to be "normal" again!
There are a lot of anomalies in my "numbers." Some are rather extreme. Testosterone measures in the high of the range for young adult males. My bone density isn't even on the chart for being that high. In karate class I spar with black belts working on techniques of multiple attackers against me. I'm not that good. I get hit a lot. I penetrate their zone of greater reach by getting hit and then the advantages are mine. I have the advantage that I'm very resistant to injury and tend not to bruise even with extreme impacts. When I do bruise, I heal overnight and it's gone. I haven't had a cold or flu for three decades.
But, what do anomalies mean when they aren't normal? Does it necessarily mean disease conditions? Perhaps it means healthier than normal.
Most doctors don't see those people.
Ronald