Heart Disease Does Not Discriminate

Judy Bailey, left, and Paula Fettig, both members of the Hoot ’N Holler Cloggers, a dance group based in Bella Vista, smile Saturday while performing during the Day of Dance at the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville. The event was organized by Washington Regional Medical Center to raise awareness of the importance of heart health and featured several local dance groups.
Judy Bailey, left, and Paula Fettig, both members of the Hoot ’N Holler Cloggers, a dance group based in Bella Vista, smile Saturday while performing during the Day of Dance at the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville. The event was organized by Washington Regional Medical Center to raise awareness of the importance of heart health and featured several local dance groups.

Tregg Brown likes to run and he works out six to seven days a week.

He eats healthy, is in good physical condition and suffers from heart disease.

He has no family history for the disease and is far from the typical heart patient. He is 53 years old.

At A Glance

What Is Heart Disease?

February is American Heart Month.

Heart disease — also called cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease — is a simple term used to describe several problems related to plaque buildup in the walls of the arteries, or atherosclerosis. As the plaque builds up, the arteries narrow, making it more difficult for blood to flow and creating a risk for heart attack or stroke.

Other types of heart disease include heart failure, an irregular heartbeat — or arrhythmia — and heart valve problems.

Source: American Heart Association

“My case was a real head scratcher for the doctors,” he said. “Why was I getting plaque buildup?”

Brown’s case shows heart disease does not follow strict guidelines. The disease is responsible for about 600,000 deaths in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is one in every four deaths.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women.

“It doesn’t spare anybody,” said Dr. Amr El-Shafei, a cardiologist at Mercy Heart and Vascular Center. “Nobody is immune.”

Family history of heart disease can greatly increase a person’s chance of getting the illness. If both parents suffered from heart disease before age 55, a person’s risk of developing the disease can rise by about 50 percent compared to the general population, according to the World Heart Federation.

“We can’t change family history, but there are other things that can be reversed or altered,” said Dr. James Baker, an internist for Northwest Medical Center-Bentonville.

He said risk factors that can be changed include high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol and an inactive lifestyle. A person can reduce their chance of having a heart attack by 50 percent just by stopping smoking, Baker said.

“My goal is prevention. We need to fix the things we can fix,” he said.

It is important to work on one or two things at a time and not become overwhelmed with changes, he said.

Dr. Geetha Ramaswamy, an interventional cardiologist at Washington Regional Medical Center’s Walker Heart Institute Cardiovascular Clinic, said adopting healthy habits can take just a few, easy steps.

“It’s easier to address these issues early than to wait and have serious problems,” she said.

Heart disease warning signs can differ from person to person, but the most common indications include shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, weakness, nausea and sweating.

“Symptoms do not fit in a box,” Ramaswamy said.

Brown’s story started in 2011 when he began feeling a little sluggish and wasn’t getting his runner’s high at the end of runs.

“I attributed it to other things. Then I started having some chest pain,” he said.

A physical came back clean, but he still wasn’t feeling like himself. Doctors did more tests, including an EKG, and still nothing showed up.

“I was starting to think I was a wimp and it was all in my head,” Brown said.

He waited a few more months before going back to his doctor. A sonogram showed his heart chambers were clear.

The blockage was finally spotted after a nuclear stress test, a test that measures blood flow to the heart at rest and another during exercise.

“They saw the blockage when they ran dye through veins while running on the treadmill,” he said. “I had 90 percent blockage.”

That was August 2011 and doctors put in a stent. A coronary artery stent is a tube placed in an artery to prop it open and decrease the chance of it narrowing again.

“They put the stent in on a Thursday. Friday, I felt 15 years younger,” he said.

Brown was eventually cleared to run again, and he ran a marathon in Oklahoma City last April.

“It felt great, but a few weeks after running it, I starting having a little bit of chest pain when running the first mile or two,” he said. “I thought there was no way I was going through this again.”

A trip back to the doctor showed he had blockage again, this time requiring double bypass surgery. Coronary bypass surgery restores blood flow to the heart by diverting blood flow around a section of blocked artery.

His bypass was almost a year to the date after his first surgery.

Brown is running again but no more marathons. He plans to run Bentonville’s half-marathon this April but will do so wearing a heart monitor.

“I’m fortunate because I never had a heart attack,” he said. “In both situations the doctors said I was a week or two away from having one.”

Baker said too often people ignore warning signs and wait to be looked at.

“I use this phrase a lot: Don’t be a hero,” he said. “If you have a symptom you don’t know about, have it checked out.”

Brown said that was a lesson he learned: never be intimidated or embarrassed.

“No one knows your body like you do so keep pushing,” he said “It is better to be safe than sorry.”

El-Shafei said heart disease symptoms can mimic other illnesses.

“You have to be proactive. Get screened,” he said.

Ramaswamy said there have been some great advances in catching heart disease earlier in men, but the trends are not as strong among women.

“There is room to grow in all areas,” she said.

No matter what stage of life or the disease someone is in, everything points back to a healthy lifestyle.

“We are like plumbers. We can fix the hole, but the plumbing is still broken,” El-Shafei said. “Exercise, stop smoking, eat healthy.”

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