About 10 years ago, my father, Arthur Helm, and a primary care doctor, offered to take me and my

brother to Patagonia on a week-long hiking trip. For me, it was a no-brainer. Of course, I said,

thank you so much. Now, my father was never the active type, and his father, my grandfather,

died at the age of 69 of a massive MI, the same age as my father was at the time he wanted to go on this trip.

And so I asked him, do you think you're in good enough shape to climb a mountain?

Well, he said, I'm going to go get a treadmill stress test, and if it's negative, I'll be good to go.

So I said, really? Have you been having any chest pain or shortness of breath or any cardiac

symptoms at all? Because you know as well as I do that there's a huge false positive rate for stress

tests and you might end up having to go for an angiogram and maybe a stent or a cabbage,

which are majorly invasive with potential complications and disasters, etc.

You know, I told them it would be crazy to go for a stress test, especially since you're which are majorly invasive with potential complications and disasters, etc.

You know, I told him it would be crazy to go for a stress test,

especially since he's not having any symptoms whatsoever.

And all he said was, think what you want.

I'm going to get a stress test.

So off he went to get his treadmill stress test,

and you guessed it, it was positive. So he decided the next day to go get a treadmill stress test, and you guessed it, it was positive. So he decided the next day to go

get a nuclear stress test, and it was positive too. So then he called me up to tell me the bad news

and begged me to contact one of my cardiology buddies to get an angiogram. It was, I remember,

a Friday afternoon, and of course, I obliged.

So on the following Monday, he got an angiogram.

What did it show?

...