Beats me. I realized that I was not seen as an individual with unique features but something called a patient.
Similarly, I was given a chemical stress test, as opposed to nuclear, that had the effect of nearly knocking me unconscious. As I put my head down to try to get blood flow back to my brain, he kept telling me to keep me head up, which made matters worse. I’d dump him if there was a cardiologist closer to where I live, but I’ve noticed the same tendencies with my GP. Aside from surgeons, I don’t have much respect for medical practitioners.
Try to find a sports medicine doctor.
I have been finding that in Europe, cardiac rehab is done differently. Here in the US, it’s just 3 months of the lowest common denominator, and that’s it, take it easy for the rest of your life (just be happy with getting by). There was a study at Methodist Hospital (Houston, TX), where after the conventional rehab, some patients were taken under the wing of a cycling coach who has experience working with pro cyclists (no doping, EPO, etc). Just a basic conditioning program where after 18 months the patients would be riding the MS150 from Houston to Austin. All completed the ride. The patients were then re-evaluated, and the cardiologists were hard press to find any indication of heart damage.
The bulk of the training program was base conditioning around Zone 1/Zone 2 heart rate. Believe it or not, pro cyclist do a lot of their base training miles at this level. At that low intensity, a lot of capillarization takes place, where the increased circulation builds up muscle conditioning. Of course with the heart being a muscle, this results in a lot of tissue repair.
Keep in mind that this program was done supervised by the cardiology department at Methodist. There has been a white paper published based on this program. It has not been widely accepted mostly due to resistance in the profession.
” I don’t have much respect for medical practitioners.”
You know, I am hearing that more and more. People are losing respect for doctors because they aren’t listening to them. I have walked out of more than one doctor’s office for that reason.