(In case you don't wanna read this whole thing, tho I don't see why not, I'll let you know that I'm in great health and looking good!)

Up until June of 2002, I had always started the day with coffee and ended the day with beer or wine.  I would have at least 5 cups of coffee per day.  I always said that I drank too much coffee.

I also had been thin.  I am a very fast sprinter, but I had very little stamina.  I could maybe sprint from the car to the store entrance, about 100 yds, before I became exhausted.  I never exercised.  I never lifted weights.  I always had an extremely low pulse and blood pressure.

Then, one day...  The day started, and I really felt like I had a bad case of jetlag.  The day felt like a dream.  I laughed hysterically at stupid jokes.  At first, I felt well enough to drive my mom to the school where she was meeting someone, but while waiting in the office, I really felt like I was going nuts, so I went to the car to try to sleep.  I didn't attribute this to anything except jetlag.  I always used to experience jetlag whenever my sleep schedule was messed up.

My mom eventually got back to the car, and she drove home, playing music.  The music really made me feel like I was in heaven.  (I have a strong connection to music.)

What did happen next was a blessing in disguise.  I got back, and felt like I needed to go to the bathroom.  (It's odd, but it's a regular symptom.)  While I was sitting on the toilet, I suddenly came to the realization that I was going to die.  I thought logically to myself that I had no visible reason to think that.  As I washed my hands, I looked at myself in the mirror, and I thought, "No, I'm going to die!"  I then thought, "I wonder if I'm having a heart attack.  An ominous feeling of impending doom is a symptom of heart attack."  I put my hand on my chest, and my heart was beating very very strong and fast.  To this day, knowing all I know about the heart, I'm still amazed that it was able to pound so hard.  It was going about 160 bpm.  Bang, bang, bang...

I went out to the living room, and told my mom about the problem.  She told me to lie down on the couch and put my feet up.  My pulse quickly dropped to about 120 bmp, but my heart really felt like it was pounding.  It was shaking my whole body.  I had no chest pain, but it felt sorta like my heart was getting tired.  My mom called 911.  My vision went cloudy white, my hearing seemed distant, the back of my neck felt numb and warm, my arms and legs felt numb.  I started passing out.  (I have never actually passed out, but now I understand what was starting to happen then.)  I thought that if I allowed myself to pass out, then I would die.  Actually, if I had passed out, my heart would probably have gone back to normal, and I would have been fine, but instead, I stayed conscious.  The paramedics checked my pulse and hooked me up to a 12-point monitor.  The monitor said I wasn't having a heart attack, but my pulse was in the high range.  It wasn't in the danger range, though.  I had started to relax, and my pulse was going down, so I decided not to go to the hospital.

About 4 days later, it happened again.  Actually, it happened every 4 days.  I would have a tachycardia (fast heartrate) attack and then half an hour later have another.  I went to the hospital 3 times.

(By the way, to show a contrast to the Canadian health system, I was already hooked up to the computer with IV before the ambulance started to move, and it took 5 minutes to get me through triage and into a room.  Within about an hour, I got a chest x-ray, blood test, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, and urine and stool sample tests.  Subsequent visits were just as speedy.  My only complaints are these: One of the nurses had a tough time getting a vein, and practically had to draw blood with a shovel.  The medical costs were $1,800 per visit, though they're letting me pay over a very long term.)

I have always been thin.  While I was at the hospital, a doctor practically gasped and asked my mom, "Has he always been this thin?"  I never thought that being thin could be a problem, but it turns out that mitral-valve prolapse is most common in tall, thin people.  I later found out that I had MVP.

I cut out coffee and alcohol instantly.  I also cut out candy and really salty things.  I eventually had to cut out Pop-Tarts.  (By the way, there's a Pop-Tarts knock off called Toast 'Em Pop-Ups.  Try them out.  I've only seen them at Mars stores so far.)  I had an instantaneous lifestyle change.  I was given Metoprolol, which is an adrenaline blocker.  It seemed to be a silver bullet!  The first day I took it, though, I had to take the whole pill.  Unfortunately, that was much more than I should have been prescribed, since I have an odd over-reaction to many kinds of drugs and under-reaction to most drugs.  My pulse went down to about 48 lying down.  Below 50 is considered a risk.  That was actually very fun for me, but as I started to fall asleep, it dropped lower and lower.  It started to hurt.  Since my pulse was low, the heart seemed to be pumping much harder, and it actually caused chest pain.

(Technical note: Chest Pain (Angina) is caused by the heart muscle not getting enough oxygen.  This can happen if you overexert yourself and your lungs can't keep up.  In a heart attack, the coronary arteries, which are responsible for bringing oxygen to the heart, get clogged up.  The heart then becomes sore, like a sore muscle...'cause then it IS a sore muscle.  You can probably do a certain number of pushups before getting too tired to do more, but if you do them a few at a time, you can just keep doing more and more, right?  Well, that's 'cause your muscles are getting replenished in-between sets of pushups.  When my heart was pumping slowly, the oxygen was first coming in faster than the heart needed it, since oxygen moves at a certain speed.  Then, after giving my heart too much oxygen, the long delay between beats would leave the heart with less oxygen than it ought to have.  It was not really in danger of stopping, but it was uncomfortable.)

I cut back to 1/2 pill, and that seemed to be just right.  But I was so wrecked that I stayed on the couch for about a month.  I couldn't stand up.  My brain worked so poorly that I could barely keep up with the complex plots of Blue's Clues, which I always watch when I'm sick.  I learned to use every ounce of energy carefully.  I stopped wasting time and energy.  (This is why I consider this ordeal to be a blessing in disguise.)

By August 1st, I was determined to improve my health.  (Bruce Lee is an inspiration.)  I got up off the couch and walked myself to the bathroom for the first time since that embarrassing heart problem started.  I first planned to work up to walking, then work up to sitting for most of the day, and then get closer and closer to normal life over the next year.  I was walking within the first day, and instead of going back to the couch after I went to the bathroom, I went to the kitchen and got some food.  I felt really liberated.  (My doctor diagnosed me as also having a mitral valve prolapse.  From what I saw in the echocardiograph, it looked like a big one, but it's not really a life-threatening problem.)  Within just one week I was lifting weights and bicycling.  Hah!

I actually got in an argument with doctors and family, because I believed exercise to be a waste of food.  I didn't understand how it could be a good thing to wear down your body.  But now I understand that humans and animals are not static, they're dynamic.  We can't think of ourselves as machines.  The essence of a machine is the set of parts that it was made of, which eventually break and deteriorate.  The essence of a machine is the design.  The parts are made to die.  When parts die, they aren't always replaced by the same part.  They're generally replaced by a better part.  The body is made to operate well with parts dying all the time.  We thrive under a certain amount of destruction.  Nutrition is something I did understand, though.  Think of it this way.   Each cell has your DNA and therefore has the building plans for a near-perfect person.  If each cell has access to all the different materials in the maximum amounts they can use, then your body will regenerate itself in amazing ways.  Unfortunately, most people just have enough nutrients to stay alive.  100% of the RDA is not enough for most people.  Check with a nutritionist, like someone from USANA.

No, the doctors never found out what caused the tachycardia, but exercising has eliminated the problem!  One doctor prescribed me Paxil, saying that it's extremely safe.  Let me tell you, don't take Paxil until you get a chemical test!  That doctor thought that my tachycardia was caused by panic.  I tried to reassure her that I have almost no emotions, but she convinced me that it would be harmless to take Paxil.  I took Paxil for 2 days, and I became depressed.  (It's listed as a side effect to get depressed within the first couple days, but that would go away with or without the pills, as the brain balances its chemicals.)  I have never been depressed.  Like I said, I have almost no emotions.  (No, I'm not a cold, unfeeling person.  I'm very loving.  It's just that most people don't understand emotions.)  I stayed depressed for months.  Again, the only thing that worked to remedy the problem was exercise, which has the effect of flushing brain chemicals so that the brain doesn't get a buildup of anything.

Please friends, take care of yourself.  Within just a few months, I went from being unable to get off the couch to being able to finish a stress test with a pulse of only 160.  I don't think that excessive weightlifting is a good idea, though.  Don't just lift the heaviest thing you can.  Pick a weight you can lift 50 or 60 times and work with that.  Walk.  Start out your exercise routine moderately.  If you get exhausted to begin with, you'll be sore the next day, and you won't be able to start a daily routine.  Start with something you will be able to do again the next day and the day after that.