am I exercising too much with a 4.3 ascending aortic aneurysm?

My aortic dilation is 4.0 cm. I exercise a lot hiking and climbing mountains. Often my heart rate gets into the 140s-150s. I never know though if that bad or not. My doc told me no restrictions on exercise. Thanks for posting this thread.

@shiloh376 hi , here is one of them, the most important:

The other video I have posted is from Dr Andrew Huberman’s channel and he and a guest explain why and how high BP increases when lifting heavy weights, but watch Dr Prakash’s he focus solely on aneurysms

Hope it helps!!

@houston13 How can I find your videos? I am very interested. Shiloh376 Brian

The main issue with exercise is avoiding any exercise that leads you to hold your breath and/or grunt, that is common when trying to maintain back stability, sometimes while doing planks, crunches or lifting heavy weights. It is known that during those moments your BP rises significantly and high BP is the worst enemy of an aneurysm. That is why cardiologists normally tell patients to limit weight lifting to 30lbs. I have posted videos in this forum about exercising and aneurysms, look through my posts and you will find them. One of them is from a cardiologist who does research in the subject the other is by Dr Andy Galpin with Dr Huberman, it is not about aneurysms but how and why straining makes BP increase and by how much

On the other hand keeping your body healthy it’s paramount in case you ever need surgery to repair your aneurysm. I had mine repaired in 2020, I was 54 and my aneurysm was 5.2 cm. I was in very good physical shape and my surgeon gave me >99% of having no complications. I was out of the hospital in 5 days back to work in 3 weeks

Thank you so much for your feed back.. and yes I am trying to pin point the chest pain. It drives me crazy, trying to figure out what is causing it. the Doctors don't want to do more testing because I am a very healthy 60 year old ... expect and aortic aneurysm, that could be life threatening. I am new to this all and still trying to come to grips with it.. it doesn't help when the doc's and nurses give you the standard "don't lift more than 50 lbs" Im 5'2" and 125lbs how is that the same as a 6'2" man of 250 lbs.. doesn't make sense to me.. As does the as much cardio as you are use to guideline.. I am used to Marathons - is that much blood going thru the aorta good for the aneurysm ? no one seems to know.. Any helo is great.

My aortic dilation is 4.0 cm. I exercise a lot hiking and climbing mountains. Often my heart rate gets into the 140s-150s. I never know though if that bad or not. My doc told me no restrictions on exercise. Thanks for posting this thread.

Yeah you’re right. When you explain to your PCP what happened and he doesn’t respond then I should dump him. My laughing cardiovascular surgeon should go next. Especially when I asked him if it could burst and he nonchalantly said that it could. Then practically running out of the exam room. He wasn’t taking me seriously. I had questions I couldn’t ask because he blew me off.

The first hospital I went to said that they found a torn aneurysm and was being transferred to a specialized hospital for emergency surgery.
The second hospital, the cardiovascular surgeon agreed but said that since it wasn’t bleeding at that time I should call my jerky cardiovascular surgeon ASAP and he blew me off. That’s a ratio of 2 vs 1 dingbat.
I googled “Cardiovascular surgeons near me “and at least a dozen showed up with most having doctors hospital privileges at some of the best hospitals including a heart hospital. My cardiovascular surgeon never told me the size of it. Even if it was small I still want to know what size it is so I don’t get a surprise.

I poured over the trauma hospital’s portal which I downloaded years ago and there I found it tucked away in a doctor’s notes “History of aortic aneurysm, and it said 3cm.
You know how long I’ve been dying to find out and I finally found it? A year ago I began to wonder and I just forgot to ask him. That shouldn’t have to be my responsibility in order to find out He should have told me instead of “see you next year!”

I have a torn aortic aneurysm in my abdomen. It only measures 3 cm but it is torn. I went to a hospital emergency department for an unrelated issue and the doctor walks into my exam room and said “we are going to transfer you to a trauma hospital for emergency surgery”

I asked why and he said that a CT scan showed that I had a torn aortic aneurysm. I said ok then was transferred to a trauma hospital. While in the trauma hospital a cardiovascular surgeon said that I would have to come back into the hospital but right now it isn’t bleeding so we feel that you are stable enough to be discharged. I felt uncomfortable with that but I accepted it.

The cardiovascular doctor said for me to see my cardiovascular surgeon ASAP. I made the appointment with him for the next day and he laughed and said “I don’t see anything through a sonogram.”

He was obviously Annoyed that I dare visit him and he was quick to attend to the patients that had appointments that day.
He poo pood the whole appointment and he walked out saying “all hospitals say ASAP and we have ways to take care of these things!”

What if I’m briskly taking a walk and I collapse? Most people would think I had a heart attack and push on my chest. That would do nothing and I could die as burst aneurysms are usually fatal. As he was walking out of the exam room I asked him if could burst and he said “it could!” Then said “see you next year!” I made an appointment for a year from now.

I happen to have a replacement aortic mechanical heart valve and am on blood thinners which could cause me to bleed out. Should I seek a second opinion.
I messaged my PCP last week and he has failed to respond. I feel like a walk-in time bomb!