Heart Health

Just read some old posts about Blood Pressure, and thought I'd add some of my 2 cents on heart health. I was diagnosed with HBP at age 17, when I was a senior in High School. It was around Jan., and I was looking for colleges ---a pretty stressful time. I was a blue chip prospect for baseball, and ended up in the ER more times than most people in their lives- VERY INJURY PRONE. Every time I went...it was off the charts...literally the machine couldnt read it. I have a very very very long history of heart attacks in the family, so we decided to check it out. I was in extreme shape, but it was still around 150/95. During routine kidney ultrasounds performed to help find the cause, I learned I had hydronephrosus, blockadge in the tube from the kidney to the blatter. They immediatly wanted the kidney out...it was damaged and could be the cause for the HBP. However, after a very short time on meds...It came down...which elimanated the kidney as a cause for the HBP, they believe I was born with the condition. I have talked to several VERY EXCELLENT doctors(Thanks NCAA) about other treatments, such as herbs and whatnot...they all agreed that most supplements and multivitamins are expensive Pee Coloring. That most of the beneficial effects are identical to placebo's- if you believe its working, it might. That being said, they also informed me that one shouldnt give up on herbal medicine, but cannot rely solely on it. Exercise is the absolute #1 thing for HBP, aside from prescription meds. I've also had the pleasure of learning all about Cholestrol, which is the most misunderstood thing in heart health today. They beat it into my head that it's not the number the ratio...I was extremely worried about the number, mine was in the high range. However, my ratio is surpringsly in the Extremely good range...thanks to the tuna and salmon we eat. As far as exercising...to lower bad cholestorl...I was told to get my heartrate up to a very high level very quickly, then maintain that as long as possible. The "Warm-Up" for some reason doesnt help the bad cholestrol as much. As far as heartrate is concerned...I was told two very distinctive answers on where to train. There is no "Fat-Burning Zone", despite what "Lifecycles" tells us. So training at a higher level, for longer is the goal for anyone who wants to achieve over health or weight loss. Find your zone, do what you can...of course doing 40 minutes at 50% is better than 5 minutes at 90%...find YOUR MAX. However, the same doctors told me that for specificity training...like most atheltes do, heart rate is significant. Those wanting to acheive better times, or longer stamina can curb their heart rate to do so. However, the Karvonean theory of "Fat Burning" vs. "Cardio" Zones has little merit...according to these very respected doctors.