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As we look back on a month celebrating our loved ones, it’s important to remember our hearts aren’t just something we share with others. They’re a vital organ – the most vital organ in our body, in fact.
Sadly, heart disease is the leading cause of death in both South Carolina – and the nation.
According to the S.C. Department of Public Health (SCDPH), 11,385 people died of it in 2020, the most recent year for which complete data is available. There were also 75,836 hospitalizations related to heart disease that year – and $6.8 billion in total hospital charges.
Heart disease is an umbrella term that covers a range of illnesses associated with the cardiovascular system. But they all share this in common: Trouble with the ticker.
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According to Christoper T. Perry, DO, a physician who specializes in cardiology at Lexington Medical Center (an award-winning Midlands-area hospital system), the key to heart health is stopping disease before it starts.
“The best mechanism to avoid consequences of heart disease is prevention,” Dr. Perry said. “There are several traditional risk factors we take into account that substantially increase your risk for developing heart disease, specifically coronary artery disease, which is its most common form: cholesterol management and managing high blood pressure.”
And the key to mitigating those factors? Healthy living.
“The overall best prevention strategy is leading a healthy lifestyle.” Dr. Perry noted. “Get routine exercise, don’t smoke and try not to develop diabetes.”
The earlier such healthy habits are formed, the better, Dr. Perry added.
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“Prevention starts in childhood,” he said. “We know from autopsies on children that a cholesterol-laden fatty streak can start developing in the arterial system as early as adolescence. Your overall risk of medical illness in any kind of long-term organ disease is linked to a poor lifestyle. So, starting preventive strategies of routine exercise and dietary discretion early in life certainly provides a lower likelihood of accumulating medical disease as you move forward.”
But what happens when heart disease is diagnosed? According to Dr. Perry, that’s when the emphasis shifts from prevention to management.
“We try to reduce the risk of progression,” he said. “One of the ultimate consequences of coronary artery disease is heart attacks. That’s what we want to avoid.”
If you suspect cardiac trouble, it’s time to talk to your doctor. First thing’s first, Dr. Perry said: people should know the warning signs.
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“These include chest discomfort, chest pain, and chest tightness, particularly as you exert yourself with activity or with exercise,” he said. “In the setting of a heart attack, for instance, people can have radiation of that pain into their neck, sometimes into the back. They often experience nausea or even perhaps vomiting. You may experience referred pain in your extremities, most often in your left arm. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be pain. Sometimes, it can be appreciated as numbness or weakness in the arm as well. Often people will become lightheaded or feel as though their chest is fluttering or having palpitations. Those are some of the things that we look out for. If you’re experiencing them, you need to see your physician. And if need be, they’ll send you to a cardiologist.”
The telltale of all warning signs – chest pain – is sometimes confused with heartburn. But Dr. Perry said it’s important to distinguish between the two sensations.
“It can be challenging even for physicians, much less for patients,” he explained. “It tends to be more of a burning sensation, oftentimes associated with what we would call sour brash, which is an acidic taste into the base of the mouth and in the back of the throat. Certainly, if someone has a history of acid reflux – and they’re very aware of how their typical symptoms generally feel – yet they have a different experience, that could possibly be a red flag indicator that it may not be related to their acid reflux.”
Once damage has occurred, cardiologists are relying increasingly on a relatively new technique to help them repair it.
“With the development of more modern technology, we have more interventions at our disposal," Dr. Perry noted. "They include newer generation technologies and how we deal with plaque stenosis and heart attacks."
Among these interventions is a new method of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a minimally invasive non-surgical procedure aimed at treating the narrowing of the coronary arteries of the heart found in coronary artery disease.
“What we typically do is send a wire down the vessel, which acts as a rail system, and then a stent is delivered over that wire," Dr. Perry explained. "It's positioned across that area of plaque rupture, and we expand that stent, which effectively prompts open that vessel. Precision PCI - what we call imaging-guided PCI - allows us to make sure that the stent is well expanded. The outcomes of this approach to stenting are better than the conventional approach. It is quickly becoming the preferred method to target the best outcomes.”
Prevention (diet and exercise being first and foremost among them), seeing a doctor if warning signs appear, and getting treatment right away if needed are the best ways to increase our chances of celebrating next February.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR ...
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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