Eeviac

I had a friend have a heart attack, and he was (a) in his mid-30s, (b) skinny as a rail, (c) a regular bicycle rider/commuter, (d) a pot smoker (makes you less stressed I think?) and (e) just a really nice guy. He had to wear one of those monitors just like my approx. 80 year old neighbors did from time to time. So, no one is guranteed to never have one.....

Yeah, maybe just play something less stressful, like the sax or something.

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Conn Pan Am made in 1950 silver + Bach 7C
King American Standard cornet made in 1940 + Olds 3C
Striving for a Touchy Tone, rather than obnoquious

veery715

Heart attack sufferers are often skinny (wirey), and pot smoking raises anxiety levels and represents a considerably greater heart attack risk to those with heart disease. If he also played the trumpet the risk factors would be the same.
This whole thread is pretty much a red herring. Playing music (on anything) is beneficial to the human organism.

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Music = Love

tatakata

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uapiper

Hey guys, I am by no means a great trumpet player. my wife and family tell me that I am getting much better. I love playing trumpet and I am really starting to love the flugelhorn as well. I love cleaning my horns and looking at them and... You guys know where I am going with this.

I love having the trumpet in my life, It's awesome and so much fun to just sit and play when I get home from work or can spare some time. I have managed to squeeze about 1.5 hrs out of a day lately. If the trumpet was endangering my life I would feel that it would be a fair trade for the enjoyment that the trumpet gives me.

I think this post is drenched in paranoia, it hasn't meant anything to the people that truly love trumpeting. There are much more dangerous things to worry about:

George Bush
delicious bacon
driving in snow and ice
walking down stairs with your trumpet in your hand
etc...

My job is spent on average 150 to 200 ft in the air, everyday. I am a union pipe welder and this is the path I have chosen. I go to work each day and weld together the refineries that make gas and oil for our misguided lifestyles of consumption and greed. I go home to my family everyday and love them all of the day.

My point is ( sorry for getting personal) I love my job even though my life is put into a risk situation daily. I treat my day with respect and It allows me to go home to my wife and girls.

The trumpet greets me like a true friend and comforts me, lets me express what I cannot say. I pick it up and it's cold, I breathe into it and notes come out, some good, some not so good. now it's warm and sounding better. My tension from a hard day is gone and it's time to eat with everyone. What is amazing to me is how calm and relaxed I feel after a twenty minute practice. Nothing special just playing Clarke's or scales.

I love the trumpet and the dreaded valsalva will not intimidate me away from it. I will always play until I can no longer expel air from my lungs.

Thanks for bearing with my mumbling but I had to get it out.

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Yamaha 8335RGM B Flat
1947 Conn New York Symphony B Flat
Olds Ambassador (I had to try it). B Flat
Bach TR300 (First trumpet) B Flat
Conn 18B Director Cornet (Coprion)
King Tempo Cornet
DEG Signature Flugelhorn
Barrington Flugelhorn
Conn Director tenor trombone (Coprion)

silly...boy

Eeviac

Delicious bacon? I can't believe that delicious bacon would ever hurt me! It loves me! I love it!

OK yeah, I see what you mean, dunno if Majestic does though.

I'd never heard of a flugelhorn until I got into trumpet, but they look very cool and I do have one on my sort of wish-list.

__________________
Conn Pan Am made in 1950 silver + Bach 7C
King American Standard cornet made in 1940 + Olds 3C
Striving for a Touchy Tone, rather than obnoquious

francolinni

YO! Does the name Chuck Mangione ring a bell? Google him up, & listen to what a fluegel can say. Franco

rowuk

Majestic1 is now "infecting" other threads with his take on VM.

I decided to do a little research to bring the conflicting views into perspective. I found two studies and many (inaccurate) references to the second one! Here is what I found:

Pulsatile ocular blood flow: the effect of the Valsalva manoeuvre in open angle and normal tension glaucoma: a case report and prospective study
This research came to the conclusion: "Unfortunately, because of the wide interindividual variability in measurements, POBF cannot be used to predict disease in an individual and it is not possible to say whether a greater change in POBF during Valsalva indicates a better or worse prognosis or whether our trumpet player should play less frequently."

Log In Problems
A study by the University of Münster, Germany
"A 17-year-old trumpet player had transient ischemic attacks during intensive trumpet playing.[54] He was found to have a patent foramen ovale, and Doppler ultrasonography showed increased rates of microembolic signals in the middle cerebral arteries during trumpet playing and Valsalva maneuver. An increase in positive end-expiratory pressure may occur in brass players and would increase the cardiac right-to-left shunt fraction, thus causing embolization.[54,55] After the patient had the foramen ovale operatively closed, the symptoms disappeared and no microembolic signals could be detected, even during Valsalva maneuver.[54]

A second study described a 47-year-old French horn player with essential hypertension who had immediate increases in diastolic pressure when playing, especially when playing higher notes.[59] Fortunately, other studies have found no correlation between horn playing and hypertension.[60,61]"

Please take into account that University Studies are often performed by contract of the medical industry. If there is treatment or medication pending approval, we get information of "questionable" quality!

After 10 pages of googling, I am convinced that Majestic1 has a doctor that keeps him wound up. Doom and Gloom has turned into self-fulfilling prophecy. I found NO indication from anywhere that proper trumpet playing by reasonably healthy persons causes significant VM related injury. This seems to support the lack of headlines featuring trumpet players that died on the job.

In any case, it is sensible to get regular check ups, investigate abnormal bodily function and GET A GOOD TRUMPET TEACHER BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

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Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.

veery715

Caution - this may be a bit personal.
For my 50th birthday my Mom and Dad gave me a Yamaha Flugelhorn. It was beautiful and in the next ten years, during which my Dad passed away, I played it for a total of about 2 hours. In 2006 I decided I would play it again, and decided further to take lessons. About the same time I became ill with what turned out to be late-onset bipolar disorder. Essentially unaware of this condition I kept at the flugelhorn until my teacher suggested I rent a trumpet - the flugel had some intonation issues which she felt were holding me back.

I rented a trumpet (Bach TR200) and after playing it half the night fell in love with it. Shortly after I bought a strad 180s37. And continued my lessons on it. All the while my illness blossomed until I was "furloughed" from work by my employer who hoped that I would take the "hint" and seek help. And I was asked by them to visit a doctor of their choosing, which I did and he diagnosed my condition, much to my horror and anger. All the while my trumpet lessons continued.

Finally in an attempt to resolve what in fact was or wasn't "wrong" with me, I sought a second opinion. This doctor, of my choosing, agreed with the other and began treating me with medication. And the medication worked. I began to feel better - normal - as it were, and meanwhile the trumpet lessons continued. And I returned to work.

It is now nearly a year later. I am still under treatment, feeling good, and functioning well. I enjoy life, work and still love my trumpet lessons and playing the instrument. My teacher says that I attract chaos and I'd say she is right. She says I need playing and practicing the trumpet to ground me. Music is important to my life, and the trumpet holds my music together. So in my opinion, trumpet playing and the lessons helped me to survive through the darkest hours of my illness, and they now help me to function and find satisfaction in what is certainly a different world for me than it used to be.

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Music = Love

Jude

So all of this has been about fainting?

francolinni

Yo Rowuk: Ya do a great job & contributr some really informative stuff, but we're beating a dead horse here. I really think this guy does have a doc who has him scared to death. Either that, or he's one of those that has to have the lastest and greatest mystery disease so he can feel special. Yea, your right, getting a good teacher, and a new dov\ctor would probably solve his problems. Franco