Get off that bike...

Apparently you can get a heart attack. When you ride you're exposing yourself to two of the biggest heart attackers out there - pollution and exercise.

In fact you're putting yourself at a greater risk than almost everyone else.

"LONDON: Doctors have for long said that cycling is good for health. But, now a new study has claimed it is literally one of the biggest triggers of heart attacks.

The study, which analysed 36 pieces of research , has revealed that the "final straw" in bringing on a heart attack is spending time in traffic as a driver, cyclist or commuter, the Lancet journal reported.

But of these, cyclists are in greatest danger because they are more heavily exposed to pollution and are subjecting themselves to another major heart attack trigger, exercise.

Traffic exposure was blamed for 7.4% of heart attacks, followed by physical exertion with 6.2%. Over-all air pollution triggered between 5% and 7% of heart attacks, while drinking alcohol accounted 5%.

Other risk factors included negative emotions (3.9%), anger (3.1%), eating a heavy meal (2.7%), positive emotions (2.4%) and sexual activity (2.2%). Cocaine was to blame for 0.9% of heart attacks, but this was because of limited exposure to the drug among the population."

I'm in a dither. 

I ride in traffic, I ride in pollution, I exercise, I'm filled with negative emotions and anger (cranky old man here… helloooo), I have all kinds of positive emotions (possibly a lie). The only good thing is I don't eat many heavy meals, use cocaine and my sexual activity is… well that's none of your damn business. But I can tell you at one time I was rockin it. That's right.

I was counting on biking to keep me going. I was hoping to transition from the young side of old to the old side of old with excellent health and clarity of thought. Now it looks like I'm just hurrying myself along to the dead side of old. 

I can't find this article on the Lancet journal site. So I can't look to see if there are some statistics in there that say 99.8 percent of the people that had heart attacks on bikes while riding in traffic and pollution were big fat slobs who just finished a big ol plate of gravy and fixins after having wild sex and snorting a bunch of cocaine and who were mightily pissed off at some tool in an SUV who cut them off as they waddled, er, peddled their fat asses along. 

Since I can't find that out then I'm going with this is just another damn nut trying to scare people into not biking. 


Old side of old, here I come. Even if it means switching to a 3 wheeler when I get over 100.

This ol boy has thought it out. Since falling over and not getting up is on the agenda (which is one of the laws of old) then it's best to do it on a bike and not in your apartment where nobody can see you and you hope you remembered to put that first alert around your neck. If you fall over out on your bike then some passer by is bound to say "Look at that old fool. I'd better give him a hand". 


And the dude ain't planning to give it up. Now that's an attitude. He's not setting there thinking, well, when I get to 105 maybe I'll stop riding.


This ol boy is rockin it.