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Ironhorse242 passed away
- Thread starter Bostondic
- Start date
79steeler
New member
Here's some info on this bro's. It looks like Iron horse had a condition that many Americans have. Just like a certain percentage have heart disease like I had in my arteries that fed my heart.
What causes HCM?
HCM can be inherited, caused by an abnormality in a gene that codes the characteristics for the heart muscle. There are many genes that can cause HCM. When a gene defect is present, the type of HCM that develops varies greatly within the family. In addition, some people who have the HCM gene may never develop the disease.
Hypertrophy may be acquired as a result of high blood pressure or aging.
In other instances, the cause of hypertrophy and HCM is unknown.
Because the cause of HCM varies, it is frequently difficult to identify a high-risk population.
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Who is affected by HCM?
HCM affects an estimated 600,000 to 1.5 million Americans, or one in 500 people. It is more prevalent than multiple sclerosis, which affects one in 700 people.
HCM is the most common cause of death in people under age 30. HDCM may be best known for its role in cardiac arrest and subsequent death in some young professional athletes.
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What are the conditions associated with HCM?
Many people with HCM live a normal life and do not experience health-related problems.
Other people with HCM may develop heart conditions that shorten life or decrease the person’s quality of life, including:
Sudden cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death: Sudden cardiac arrest is a sudden loss of heart function caused by a dangerously fast heart rhythm called ventricular tachycardia. Unless emergency treatments, including CPR and defibrillation, are initiated immediately after the onset of symptoms, sudden cardiac death can occur.
Most people with HCM have a low risk for sudden cardiac death. However, HCM is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in people under age 30. HCM may be best known for its role in cardiac arrest and subsequent death in some young professional athletes.
Heart failure: A condition in which the heart’s pumping power is weaker than normal.
Associated Symptoms
Symptoms associated with the presence of ventricular tachycardia or heart failure include:
Chest pain or pressure that usually occurs with exercise or physical activity, but also may occur with rest or after meals.
Shortness of breath and fatigue, especially with exertion. These symptoms are more common in adults with HCM and are most likely caused by a backup of
pressure in the left atrium and lungs.
Syncope (fainting or passing out) may affect HCM patients. Syncope with HCM may be caused by irregular heart rhythms, abnormal responses of the blood vessels during exercise, or no cause may be found.
Palpitations (fluttering in the chest) due to abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) such as atrial fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. Atrial fibrillation occurs in about 25 percent of those with HCM, and increases the risk for blood clots and heart failure.
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As you can see this is more common than mutiple sclirosis, or 1-500 Americans have this condition. Did gear contribute to this or shorten his life? Possibly, but it's really all speculation. "Because the cause of HCM varies, it is frequently difficult to identify a high-risk population." The article does state that young athletes are prone to this condition. So if Ironhorse was a totally natural bodybuilder would this still have happened to him, quite possibly yes.
I am in no way saying that gear did not contribute, but no way to prove that it did either. Please get those tickers checked as often as possible bro's alot of hidden conditions can be uncovered with the proper tests. I think they can measure your heart with a cardiac ultrasound machine, to see if it's enlarged or has thickened walls.
What causes HCM?
HCM can be inherited, caused by an abnormality in a gene that codes the characteristics for the heart muscle. There are many genes that can cause HCM. When a gene defect is present, the type of HCM that develops varies greatly within the family. In addition, some people who have the HCM gene may never develop the disease.
Hypertrophy may be acquired as a result of high blood pressure or aging.
In other instances, the cause of hypertrophy and HCM is unknown.
Because the cause of HCM varies, it is frequently difficult to identify a high-risk population.
Return to Top
Who is affected by HCM?
HCM affects an estimated 600,000 to 1.5 million Americans, or one in 500 people. It is more prevalent than multiple sclerosis, which affects one in 700 people.
HCM is the most common cause of death in people under age 30. HDCM may be best known for its role in cardiac arrest and subsequent death in some young professional athletes.
Return to Top
What are the conditions associated with HCM?
Many people with HCM live a normal life and do not experience health-related problems.
Other people with HCM may develop heart conditions that shorten life or decrease the person’s quality of life, including:
Sudden cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death: Sudden cardiac arrest is a sudden loss of heart function caused by a dangerously fast heart rhythm called ventricular tachycardia. Unless emergency treatments, including CPR and defibrillation, are initiated immediately after the onset of symptoms, sudden cardiac death can occur.
Most people with HCM have a low risk for sudden cardiac death. However, HCM is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in people under age 30. HCM may be best known for its role in cardiac arrest and subsequent death in some young professional athletes.
Heart failure: A condition in which the heart’s pumping power is weaker than normal.
Associated Symptoms
Symptoms associated with the presence of ventricular tachycardia or heart failure include:
Chest pain or pressure that usually occurs with exercise or physical activity, but also may occur with rest or after meals.
Shortness of breath and fatigue, especially with exertion. These symptoms are more common in adults with HCM and are most likely caused by a backup of
pressure in the left atrium and lungs.
Syncope (fainting or passing out) may affect HCM patients. Syncope with HCM may be caused by irregular heart rhythms, abnormal responses of the blood vessels during exercise, or no cause may be found.
Palpitations (fluttering in the chest) due to abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) such as atrial fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. Atrial fibrillation occurs in about 25 percent of those with HCM, and increases the risk for blood clots and heart failure.
Return to Top
As you can see this is more common than mutiple sclirosis, or 1-500 Americans have this condition. Did gear contribute to this or shorten his life? Possibly, but it's really all speculation. "Because the cause of HCM varies, it is frequently difficult to identify a high-risk population." The article does state that young athletes are prone to this condition. So if Ironhorse was a totally natural bodybuilder would this still have happened to him, quite possibly yes.
I am in no way saying that gear did not contribute, but no way to prove that it did either. Please get those tickers checked as often as possible bro's alot of hidden conditions can be uncovered with the proper tests. I think they can measure your heart with a cardiac ultrasound machine, to see if it's enlarged or has thickened walls.
Yes, you are right about guys having trouble. Bald Nazi did have very serious liver problems. Another guy I talk to occasionally has cardiomyopathy just like ironhorse did. His heart has recovered a lot though on its own after getting off all the sauce. Heart problems do occur with the use of AAS, even though most of us dont want to admit it. That interview a few years back on HBO about steroids needs to be updated. I remember John Ramano asking "where are the bodies?" well ..... we have enough now to raise some questions.
He had an enlarged left ventricle, but it was not due to this disorder chances are. if you read ironhorses posts you see where the symptoms came and went when he went on and off substances. If it were this disease the symptoms would have remained stable no mattter what he did. The guy I know over on Professional Muscle has the same condition and his is now much better after getting off all the steroids. His ejection fraction still is not normal but it went up from a low of like 20% to 45% or more now. YOu can either look at the obvious or blame the disease on rare condtions like HCM. The choice is yours.
Big_Joe
New member
I'm sorry that ironhorse passed away but your assertion that this is evidence of steroids causing heart conditions is just not there. One in five thousand people have this disease and how many of them are athletes? The problem of saying that this disaster is related to steroids is lots of people have this problem that never touched a weight or ran on a treadmill. It always makes the news when an athlete drops from some disease because we think exercising will keep us from dieing but it's not the fault of being an athlete that we die.
Death is no respecter of persons. Death will take you no matter who or what you are.
steroids, excessive training, large diets, size that exceeds our nature is all bad for our organs. steroids kill people. it amazes me that some just cant grasp this. its not ingraved in stone that you will die from steroid use if you use them or that you wont die from these same conditions it you didnt use them but we sure are increasing our chances for disaster when we play god and start screwing with our chemistry. think about it we are like machines we where built to function properly with set amounts and ratios of components. we work perfectly with what we have. then we decide to add 80lbs of mass by completely changing all of these components that made us run perfectly for all of these years. we raise some levels lower others and add instability all over the place where we were supposed to be stable. what happens? parts start lagging and breaking down.
blackhatcowboy
New member
The cause of his passing is not really an issue. We lost a good bro. Place the blame where ever you will. People will argue that steroids were the cause, people will say that steroids were not the cause. No on will ever know for sure. We all make a choice to do what we do and no one can convince us that the choice is good or bad.
Don't tarnish the mans memory by bashing the choices he made. Even if you don't agree with what he did, let this thread honor the man...and start another thread to let your opinions be known.
Don't tarnish the mans memory by bashing the choices he made. Even if you don't agree with what he did, let this thread honor the man...and start another thread to let your opinions be known.
Yes, I am sorry if I stirred up any problems when I posted on this thread. I should have started a new thread at most. I was just trying to make sure that the news might make some think about what they are doing in their own life.
From what I read on here, Ironhorse seemed like a great guy with a good sense of humor. I was truly sorry to read the news about his death.
It just made me feel so frustrated to read his posts and see what was happening. It brought back bad memories about what happened to me. I just hope that others learn from his and my examples. RIP ironhorse.
Maldorf, I read the 10 page thread you linked about your heart attack and subsequent heart arrythmia requiring a pacemaker.
You frightened the living daylights out of me. I'm 50 and my father had a fatal heart attack at age 49.
I appreciate you taking the time to write your story here, but considering the gravity of this topic and that people are dropping dead all over the place, I'd like to make a few points which seemed to have been overlooked in over 190 posts on that thread which I think are worthy of consideration.
1. You apparently had advance warnings that all was not well with your heart on MANY occasions.
You said in your opening post #1: "I was doing squats at the gym when the heart attack happened. I had just finished doing 3 sets of squats. 455x12, 405x13, 365x14. After racking the weight on the last set I felt really dizzy and sat down. After sitting for maybe half a minute I broke out in a cold sweat and my heart was beating rather fast. I didnt think too much of it though because Ive felt similar many times in the past when I push really hard on squats. Been lifting since I was 16, so over 20yrs now and Ive felt sick enough in the past that I have thrown up. So i figured I had just pushed it too hard."
You felt dizzy many times before when squatting. It's not normal to feel dizzy no matter how hard you push yourself. It's a sign there isn't enough oxygen reaching your brain which indicates your heart is failing to pump enough blood. This should have sent you running to the doctor long before you suffered a heart attack. Every single gym membership disclaimer states for people to cease exercising immediatly if feeling dizzy and see your doctor.
If a person is going to have a heart attack, it's most likely going to happen on the squat. There is no exercise which stresses the heart as much as squatting. You certainly did seem to have an obsession with high reps at very heavy weights.
The day of your heart attack you squatted: "455x12, 405x13, 365x14". You may not think so, but these are extremely heavy weights. Did you never consider doing 5, 8 or 10 reps like most normal humans? When you push past 10 reps, the oxygen debt becomes extreme under huge loads no matter how strong and fit you are. You would certainly be pushing the limits of your maximum heart rate on these sets. When you're pushing to the limits of your heart's ability to pump, even a tiny irregularity could prove fatal...and you did this for multiple sets.
Less than a month after your heart attack you said you did light squats. You said (post #101 on 15 August, 08): "Did 225 for squats for 26 reps and it feels so light, its hard not to want to put on some more plates. I will let my head rule over my heart though, and drop that weight even more so that I get out 30 or more"
Give me a break. You consider 225 x 26 a light squat workout a month out from a heart attack? That effort would put many healthy gym buffs on the floor. You were even contemplating 30 rep squats.
Did you ever consider leg presses, leg extension and other movements which don't stress the heart as much?
And then this...
Post #123 on 9 September, 08: "just a few days ago I threw my lower back out doing bentover rows with what I thought was a childlike weight"
You were doing bent over rows (another major heart stopper) so heavy that you put your back out less than 2 months after your heart attack. You call it a "childlike weight", but according to your interpretation of light weights it may well have been 225 or more.
And even worse...
You said (post #191 on 25 April, 09): "right now I am only squating 255 lbs, and used to use about 405 lbs for the same number of reps, which right now is about 17. I feel like the 255 is the highest I should risk."
You're now squatting 255 for 17 reps WITH A PACEMAKER!!!
2. I noticed that you never once mentioned anything about what steroids you were taking and your cycles. You did mention that you considered your use "moderate compared to others", but if your idea of moderate equates in anyway to what you consider moderate in lifting, it is probably far from moderate. You continually blame steroid use for your heart attack, so wouldn't it help for people to get some idea of exactly what you've been taking over the last 8 years or so.
You did state that you tend to overtrain. (That must be the overstatement of the decade). Perhaps your obsession with pushing yourself to the point of sickness for 20 years in the gym has contributed to your condition. People often cause overstress injuries to skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints in the gym. Could you have overstessed the most important muscle of all?
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