Pascal Xavier

An engineer turned risk manager. My days of natural supplementation and touting red wine to be the cure all for matters of the heart (pun intended) came to an abrupt end in the Spring of 2016.

By the start of Summer that year, I was wheeled out of an operating theatre having undergone open heart surgery at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. It appears that I have been managing financial, WHS, asset, project and enterprise risks but overlooking my own health & wellbeing. Where did I go wrong?

A good starting point would be the preventable risk factors of smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, being overweight or obese, inactivity, poor nutrition and excessive alcohol consumption. Which one (or more) of these apply to me?

I couldn't do anything about the non-preventable risk factor of family history. However, looking back, I could have been more careful with diet (i.e. sugar, salt and fat consumption), indulged in a healthier choice of alcoholic beverages, and signed up to an exercise regime. A big risk factor that I am certain, contributed to the adverse outcome is stress. My operational roles within the private sector (multinationals) were the particularly stressful although I think a government sector (federal) job can present its own challenges.

Fortunately for me, the risk of death from the disease was mitigated through intervention. An angiogram showed disease all along four major arteries, so inserting stents were not feasible. The solution was open heart surgery which resulted in a quadruple bypass to get blood to major sections of the heart. For this operation, three veins were harvested, two from my legs and one from the mammary and the fourth blocked artery was removed, cleaned and reattached to the heart.

The surgery was a turning point in my life. I lost about 12kg, changed my eating / drinking habits and subscribed to an exercise routine. For the last 8 years, I have annual checkups with the cardiologist. I have had two additional heart scans (2019, 2022) since the first one in 2016. The scan in 2019 showed that all bypassed vessels were patent (clear). The recent one in 2022 showed a 90% blockage at the juncture where the fourth artery was reattached. A very strange occurrence, given that the three veins that were grafted, were patent. I received no explanation on the cause, in fact, circumstances leading to the detection of a problem in 2022 were interesting. For reasons of brevity, this is best discussed over a podcast or seminar. Overall, extremely happy with my level of fitness. In 2022, I progressed from running on a treadmill to personal training that involved weights. In 2024, I was satisfied with muscle gains that I made and so transitioned into gym membership. The current regime involves high-intensity cardio and weights. I have also been doing significant amount of reading on prescribed drugs, vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements.

So, I would love to be on your show, to share my experience and network with others based on my lived experience. I could:

• Elaborate on any part of my background interest listeners
• Provide details on the diagnostics (root cause was elusive) that eventually established the nature and extent of the damage
• Discuss the phenomena of Cumulative Damage, which is a natural occurrence e.g. metals corrode, timber rots, mold grows, etc.
• Provide references to resources out there e.g. books, research papers, etc. on the topic
• Share about prescriptive drugs, vitamins, minerals, herbs and whole foods that I have tried that could provide potential benefits
• Advocate the "A.I.M. for the Heart" framework to make death from heart disease a thing of the past.

I am currently writing a book which I aim to publish at the start of 2025. I have a basic website that I have built that needs more work before it is published.

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