Is Running the Cure All? by Frieda Wyner

   I was born and raised in a Mennonite farming community in Manitoba, Canada. The small village of Altona lies just across the border from North Dakota. My diet was rich in saturated fats and simple sugars, usually in the form of bacon, sausage, eggs, and milk. Homemade pies, cookies, and cakes were plentiful. Consequently, I was overweight most of my childhood and teenage years.

   When I arrived in Jacksonville in 1964 ( a legal immigrant and a job at Baptist Hospital) I sought out a weight loss physician who set me up on weight loss program. By the time I started running in 1976, I was maintaining a healthy weight and a fairly decent diet. Working in a medical laboratory made it easy to have my blood chemistry levels (lipids) checked on a regular basis.

   In the early 1980s I researched a book by Robert Haas, "Eat to Win." His diet regime was rich in complex carbohydrates and low in saturated fats and transfats. Haas was a world renowned nutritionist who worked with past athletes such as Martina Navratalova and present athletes such as Lance Armstrong. It was not coincidental that during this time I ran my peak performances. I basically followed his suggestions and got my weight, body fat, and blood lipids in the healthy normal range.

   I retired from a career in medical microbiology in 1996 and Norm and I sold all our possessions, packed up our motor home and took off to see the country. This is a great way to travel, but is not without challenges. The nature of the irregular schedule made it more tricky to stick with a healthy eating regime. There are many more temptations such as new bakeries, restaurants, and grocery stores along the way. Yumm yumm!

   By 2004 my total Cholesterol and my LDL (bad cholesterol) were beginning to creep up. I went to the library and bought Dr. Kenneth Cooper's book "Controlling Cholesterol". You may remember Dr. Cooper was the originator of the aerobics concept. His book basically outlines a preventive medicine program and shows how you can lower cholesterol levels without drug intervention. Through an exchange of correspondence, his nutrition department tweaked my diet and brought my lipid profile back in the normal range. Since the LDL remained in the high normal range, Dr. Cooper recommended a noninvasive CT Scan of the heart for calcium scoring. Shortly after River Run 2006 I had it done and much to my amazement it came back with a score of 210 which puts me in a 90 percentile range. (This was in one artery only; all other were clear.) This means that only 10 percent of women in my age group have more calcification. Calcium may be an indicator of soft plaques in your coronary arteries. After some quick research I found that this procedure may be mired in controversy, such as false positives.

   I faxed a copy of the report to Dr. Cooper and set up an appointment with my Internist who set me up with a Cardiologist. The Cardiologist scheduled an Echo/Doppler scan and a Nuclear stress test. Both tests were normal and they gave me an appointment for a follow-up visit next November. The Cardiologist was apparently still concerned about my high level of activities during the summer and convinced me to postpone our departure for a week to have an angiogram (heart catheterization ) done before I left. The heart catheterization helps to identify heart problems such as, coronary heart disease, heart valve disease, or heart muscle disease.

   The bad news is that the results showed mild disease in two arteries, and the good news is that a low dose of a statin (cholesterol lowering) drug should prevent a worsening condition and possibly reverse the disease. Another positive is that a collateral circulation develops in older folks who stay in compliance with a regular exercise program and cholesterol controlling diet. This means that the smaller vessels that supply the heart with blood grow larger and stronger.

   The lesson we can learn from this is that we must not become complacent just because we have no symptoms of heart disease and because we are in great physical shape, and/or that some of your cholesterol risk factors are in the low range. It is possible to do every thing right and still have genetic factors for high lipid values.

   Regular physicals, blood work, plus a baseline stress test are a must for all! Yes, even for highly fit runners.