Life after a Myocardial Infarction - Personal Insights from a Patient

"I now know what really matters in life"

When Rainer speaks to us on a sunny Tuesday morning in February, we see a 58-year-old deacon who is young at heart and beaming into the camera. His eyes light up as he speaks from his office in Bergisch Gladbach about his fulfilling work in the congregation of Bensberg. You can also sense his enthusiasm through the screen when he talks about his family and the two grandchildren. Only when he begins to talk about his "heart stories" – as he calls them – does he become more thoughtful, and concern taints his voice.

At the age of 30, he suffered from health problems for the first time. "Up to that point, my lifestyle wasn't exactly exemplary – I was 25 kilograms overweight, didn't exactly have a healthily diet, and didn't exercise enough," explains the 58-year-old. "When my general practitioner explained the consequences of my unhealthy lifestyle to me, it was a real incentive to exercise more and start jogging." Rainer managed to develop a new passion, and thereby also to temporarily control his high blood pressure without medication.