Klarinet Archive - Posting 000748.txt from 1996/10

From: Jacqueline Eastwood <eastwooj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: What do you think of the following? I'm puzzled.
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 1996 14:03:11 -0500

Sorry, I'm still behind!!

Hi, Dan, hope you're feeling better. I ALWAYS thought of playing bass
clarinet as exercise!! (I'm just not physically cut out for it -- gives
me TMJ pain and headaches!) I certainly would not be surprised to find
that wind players are more aerobically fit, as one can work up a good
sweat after even a short practice time (especially in Arizona!)

BTW, I have a great recipe for you -- lactose free and fairly healthy!!

E-mail me back if you're interested.

Jacqueline

On
Thu, 24 Oct 1996, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> I had to go back into the hospital for a week to have an angiogram and that
> was followed by an angioplasty which involves doing yucky things to the heart
> and then photographing it.
>
> Anyway, the physician found out where my blockage was and zapped the daylights
> out of it so I'm fine. But it is what he said later that has puzzled me.
>
> He showed me on the photographof my heart that the main cardiac arteries were
> very large, much larger than the patients with whom he generally dealt. And
> he began to ask me what did I do to get such large cardiac arteries. For one
> thing I did not even know if that was good or bad, so I was hesitant to
> comment but finally I told him that I played a lot of clarinet, mostly the
> larger clarinets.
>
> And the cardiologist said that he found this to be the case with many players
> of large wind instruments. In effect, he suggested that the years of playing
> act as aerobic exercize to the heart and enlarge the cardiac arteries in
> a very positive way. He went so far as to say that my blockage was large and
> would, all things being equal, have led to a serious problem beyond that of
> a heart attack, and that what prevented that was the large arteries.
>
> Does anyone else know anything about this? Is this even vaguely correct
> or was the cardiologist just woolgathering.
>
> I never thought of playing a bass clarinet as being a form of aerobic
> exercize. But maybe it is.
>
>
>
> ====================================
> Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
> (leeson@-----.edu)
> ====================================
>