The stress test was normal, It had shown excellent exercise capacity. The doctor felt very frustrated. We were working with the best technology available, yet it wasn't good enough to detect a heart attack that was only weeks away.
Today, we do have other noninvasive tests that are much better at predicting the likelihood of a future heart attack. A normal stress test does not mean there aren't any potentially lethal soft plaques growing inside the lining of your coronary arteries that could rupture and cause a heart attack at any time. All it means is that the blood flow to your heart was fine on the day you took the test. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that the blood flow will still be fine tomorrow.
The problem is that many patients destined for heart problems don't get the benefit of our most accurate tests (including presidents of the United States). Many seemingly perfectly healthy people are "suddenly" getting heart attacks because their arteries are not perfectly healthy and they don't know it. With the proper noninvasive tests, these diseased arteries would have been identified, and the heart attacks wouldn't have happened.
It is of upmost importance to keep stress levels down, eat healthy, exercise, and laugh a lot.
God grant me the
Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
Courage
to change the things I can and
Wisdom
to know the difference.
www.victoryp.com
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