[QUOTE 5210017, member: 43827"]Last year, while out for a ride, I took a coffee break and was sitting next to a man and his wife and we started chatting. He was about my age and was interested in my cycling and how it helped my fitness. He said he used to ride and run but hadn't done so for a while following a heart attack, although he still had a bike and was thinking about it.
A few weeks later I read that he had collapsed and died from a heart attack on a bike ride near his home after just starting cycling again.
I have worried that my enthusiasm for cycling and its beneficial impact on me influenced or contributed to his decision, and when I read threads like this it reminds me that we should not let our non medically qualified enthusiasm, based on our personal experience, be taken as expert advice about heart rates or any other medical issue. From now on my only advice would be to never give advice on medical matters......no matter how fit or unfit the recipient seems.[/QUOTE]
That's a sad story indeed, and it's very hard to generalize. And you can never know - it's possible the second heart attack was waiting to happen anyway, and he might have lived longer had he started sensible exercise earlier?
I had a heart attack 11 years ago, and I was strongly advised that exercise was the best thing I could do (and my GP is a cyclist and strongly supports my cycling). But, it was made clear to me that it's a balance... between the increase in fitness improving my chances of greater longevity, and the possibility of something excessive triggering a new attack. The doc reckons that balance is very much in my favour, but it clearly does depend on the individual.
