"Lifestyle is huge with your heart health," Holly S. Andersen, MD, an attending cardiologist and associate professor of clinical medicine at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center, tells Health. "It's more important than genetics—about 80% of heart disease is preventable."
Jennifer Haythe, MD, co-director of the Women's Center for Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and cardiologist at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia, agrees. "A lot of heart disease is preventable," she tells Health. "If people take care of their heart in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, they won't need to see a cardiologist for most of their life."
So what exactly can you do to get better heart health? Here's what doctors suggest you add to your routine.
Exercise most days of the week
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week. Can't swing that? You can work out harder for a shorter period of time: The AHA also says that 75 minutes a week of "vigorous aerobic activity" or a combination of moderate and intense exercise works, too.
Keep in mind that the AHA recommends spreading out your exercise through the week vs. trying to jam it all into one or two days. "Physical activity is the fountain of youth," Dr. Andersen says. "It makes your cardiovascular system more efficient." If squeezing in an actual workout every day is tough, Dr. Andersen recommends aiming to do something "to get your heart rate up" every day. (Walking counts, by the way.)
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See your doctor regularly
Annual physicals are there for a reason. Your doctor can check you for symptoms of heart disease and also stay on top of your blood pressure, Dr. Haythe says. Knowing your blood pressure is especially crucial. There are no specific symptoms of high blood pressure, but having uncontrolled blood pressure can lead to heart disease, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. If you and your doctor are on top of your blood pressure, you can take steps to fix it if it starts to creep up.
Look into the DASH diet
While the Mediterranean diet gets a lot of airplay for its emphasis on healthy fats and fresh ingredients, both the AHA and MedlinePlus name-check the DASH diet as being good for heart health. In case you're not familiar with it, the DASH diet is an eating plan based on research from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Research shows that DASH lowers high blood pressure and improves cholesterol, reducing your risk of heart disease. These are the basics of the diet, per Medline Plus:
- Eat plenty of vegetables, fruits, and whole-grains
- Have fat-free or low-fat dairy products, fish, poultry, beans, nuts, and vegetable oils
- Limit foods that are high in saturated fat, like fatty meats, full-fat dairy products, and tropical oils like coconut, palm kernel, and palm oils
- Limits sugar-sweetened beverages and sweets
"Making dietary changes like avoiding unhealthy saturated fat will help create a heart-healthy life," Annapoorna Kini, MD, director of the Cardiac Catherization Lab at The Mount Sinai Hospital, tells Health.
RELATED: The DASH Diet Is One of the Top Ranked Weight Loss Plans—Here's What It's All About
Do your best to minimize stress
Seriously. Stress itself can be tough on your heart, but it can also lead to things like being inactive and overeating, which can cause high blood pressure and high cholesterol, the AHA says. And that can up your risk of heart disease.
Still, it's tough to avoid stress. "We're all so stressed out right now," Dr. Haythe says. "It's hard." Dr. Kini recommends adding things like meditation and deep breathing exercises to your day—they only take a few minutes.
Don’t smoke
Most people are aware by now that smoking is linked to all kinds of serious health issues, but it never hurts to repeat it. Cigarette smoking raises your blood pressure and puts you at a higher risk for having a heart attack and stroke, Medline Plus points out. "Smoking is bad for the heart and lungs—it's bad in every way," Dr. Kini says. Avoiding smoking is so important that Dr. Haythe says this is the "single most important thing you can do" to lower your risk of heart disease.
RELATED: 17 Worst Habits for Your Heart
Consider reserving alcohol for special occasions
There are some confusing messages surrounding alcohol and heart health. Some research has suggested that having a glass of red wine a day can lower your risk of dying from heart disease, but there's nothing out there that proves drinking red wine will improve your heart health. "There's a lot of hype about red wine being good for the heart but, in general, alcohol is a toxin to the heart," Dr. Haythe says.
That's why she generally recommends that people try to only drink on special occasions. Currently, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends that women have no more than one alcoholic drink a day and that men have no more than two drinks a day.
Aim for the right amount of sleep
Everyone's needs are a little different, but the National Sleep Foundation recommends that most adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep a night. Consistently dip below that, and you could be hurting your heart. "Poor sleep has been linked to high blood pressure and can make it difficult to lose weight," Dr. Andersen says. It can also make you less likely to want to exercise—and that's not great for your heart, either.
Sleep is also a good time for your heart to recharge, Dr. Kini says. "When you sleep, your heart rate goes down, your hormones settle down, and you're not under a lot of stress," she says. "It's good for your heart and your overall wellbeing."
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]]>Before you start looking for a single, specific number for your heart rate, however, know this: It's not the same for everyone, and it even differs in your own body, depending on what you're doing. Your resting heart rate, for example—or how fast your heart beats when you're not doing anything—will be much lower than your target heart rate, which you aim for while working out.
Many other factors play into your heart rate reading too, like your age and genetics. Health spoke to cardiologists to find out what's considered a healthy heart rate and how to know if yours falls within that range.
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What is a healthy resting heart rate?
As a rule, your resting heart rate should be somewhere between 60 to 100 while you're performing normal, non-exercise-related activities, Ruwanthi Titano, MD, an assistant professor of cardiology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, tells Health.
That's a huge range, but with good reason: A number of factors influence your heart rate, Dr. Titano adds, explaining that genetics play a role in the measurement. However, the biggest determinant is likely how much exercise you get. "For most patients, the big factor is cardiac conditioning," Dr. Titano says. The AHA adds that the temperature outside might also have a slight effect on your heart rate, as can your emotions, claiming that stress or anxiety can make your heart rate higher. Certain medications, including thyroid medications, can also affect your pulse, per the AHA. Additionally, your heart rate might slow down as you age, Dr. Titano says.
There are also exceptions to this 60 to 100 beats-per-minute range—primarily on the lower end of the spectrum. The heart rate of a highly-trained athlete, for example—one who is used to high-endurance workouts and cardio training—might typically be below 60 beats when they're not working out, due to their conditioning.
RELATED: What Is Heart Rate Variability–and Do You Need to Know Yours?
What should your heart rate be while exercising?
Obviously, your heart rate is going to increase when you work out. For this healthy range, you need to know two terms: Your maximum heart rate and your target heart rate.
You can find your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220, says Dr. Titano—but that number will be at the highest end of your spectrum. For example, if you're around 30 years old, your maximum heart rate will be about 190 beats per minute, according to the American Heart Association—and if you reach that point while exercising, its a good idea to take a break, since you'll be near 100% of your maximum heart rate.
A better number to aim for during exercise is your target heart rate, or a safe percentage of your maximum heart rate. During activities of moderate intensity, the AHA says your target heart rate should be 50-70% of your maximum heart rate, while during vigorous physical activity, it should be 70-85% of your max.
How physically active you are on a regular basis influences your heart rate during exercise too, Daniel Cantillon, MD, a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic, tells Health. That means it may take more work on your end to get to your target heart rate as you continue working out and conditioning your heart.
RELATED: I Had a Perfectly Normal EKG at My Check-Up—and the Next Day I Had a Heart Attack
So how can you find your heart rate—and how can you tell if its abnormal?
The easiest, most accurate way to check your heart rate is the old-fashioned way: By checking your own pulse with your fingers.
There are four places on your body where you can do that, according to the American Heart Association (AHA): inside your elbow, on the side of the neck, on the top of your feet, or on the inside of your wrists. To find your number, set your phone (or any other) timer for one minute, then count the number of times you feel your pulse during those 60 seconds.
While you can also use a smart watch or similar device to check your heart rate, Dr. Cantillon advises against relying on those devices too much, especially when you exercise. "Some patients tend to be heart rate-centric when they exercise, [but] you're exercising according to a number that could be, in some cases, grossly inaccurate." Since accuracy with heart rate detection can be difficult for some technology to gauge, it might be simpler to listen to your body during a work out, Dr. Cantillon says.
If at anytime—during exercise or rest periods—you feel your heart is beating too fast, it's something to pay attention to, says Dr. Cantillon. "Many people have an awareness of their heart rate beating faster than normal," Dr. Cantillon says. At that point, you should also monitor your body for other symptoms like dizziness or chest pain, and seek medical help if you notice any other red flags like shortness of breath or if your heart rate doesn't return to normal within a few minutes.
Keep in mind, however, that you may not notice a change in your heart rate at all. "A lot of patients are very sensitive to their heart rate; they can feel when it goes too high [or] slows down, [but] some people are not aware at all," says Dr. Titano.
Aside from beating too fast, your heart can also beat too slow, beat unevenly, or you can even notice pauses in your heart beat. (The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says this may feel like your heart skipping a beat). Other symptoms of any kind of arrhythmia (aka any irregular heart beat), include anxiety, fatigue, fainting, sweating, per the NHLBI.
The bottom line here: It's a smart habit to check your own heart rate once in a while to know your baseline resting number, and how much work your heart does during exercise. And as always, your best bet is to check in with your doctor if something feels off and is worrisome to you.
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]]>At the time, Bert Sr. said he believed the cause of death was a fatal aneurysm, and a coroner confirmed on Tuesday that Berlasco died of "hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease." His family told TMZ that the coroner said it was an aortic aneurysm, which is a bulge in the artery that carries blood from the heart through the chest and torso.
"The aorta is a major artery that carries the blood upstream to the brain or downstream to the rest of the body," Florida-based cardiologist Leonard Pianko, MD, tells Health. "An aortic aneurysm is an abnormal weakening of the aortic wall that causes it to balloon out and is seen as a bulge on a chest X-ray." A thoracic aortic aneurysm occurs in the chest, but an abdominal aortic aneurysm is more common—this happens below the chest. (It's not known which kind of aortic aneurysm caused Belasco's death.)
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Aortic aneurysm: what causes this?
An aortic aneurysm has many possible causes, according to Dr. Pianko, including hypertension, rheumatic fever, atherosclerosis (hardened arteries), diabetes, or rheumatological or connective tissue conditions like Marfan syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder. There are also idiopathic causes (in other words, the cause is unknown). Some cases may be congenital, meaning the person is born with the aneurysm.
The CDC reports that in 2018, about 58% of the 9,923 US deaths due to aortic aneurysm or aortic dissection (when the artery layers separate rather than rupture) happen among men, and a history of smoking was found in about 75% of all abdominal aortic aneurysm cases.
Aortic aneurysm symptoms
The challenge with an aortic aneurysm is that it often grows slowly with no symptoms, making it difficult to detect. "Typically, the aneurysm is found incidentally on a routine unrelated medical test such as an MRI, CT scan, chest X-ray, or echocardiogram," Dr. Pianko says.
However, if the aneurysm ruptures or dissects, the person will experience severe chest pain. Other symptoms of a burst or dissected aneurysm include clammy skin, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, rapid heart rate, and shock, according to the American Heart Association.
RELATED: Actress Tanya Roberts Died of a UTI—How Can That Happen?
How an aortic aneurysm is treated
A ruptured aneurysm is a health emergency requiring immediate medical attention.
If the aneurysm is detected before it bursts, the first step is to treat the underlying cause, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or abnormal blood sugar levels. "The main focus is to keep your blood pressure levels low to avoid a rupture or expansion of the aorta," Dr. Pianko explains. It's also important to monitor the size of the aneurysm by performing an echocardiogram, CT scan angiogram, or magnetic resonance angiogram (MRA).
"Most aneurysms grow slowly at a rate of about 3mm (1/8th inch) per year, but larger aneurysms can grow more quickly," Dr. Pianko says. If the aneurysm is more than 5 cm, or is growing rapidly, elective surgery may be recommended to repair or replace the affected section of the aorta. In some cases, the artery wall may be reinforced with a stent. If the aneurysm has ballooned out the side of the blood vessel, a coiling procedure may be carried out to seal the area.
RELATED: The Silent Killer That Took My Dad's Life, My Aunt's Life, and May Someday Take My Own
How does a person die of an aortic aneurysm?
In most causes, the aneurysm is fatal when it ruptures or dissects. "This causes your blood pressure to plummet, followed by massive internal bleeding," Dr. Pianko explains. "This is usually fatal unless you have emergency surgery." He notes that Black people have a higher incidence of heart disease and risk factors that can lead to an aneurysm, but any person of any racial or ethnic background or gender is potentially at risk.
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]]>James died in 1992, and McConaughey told PEOPLE that his “knees buckled” when his mother told him what had happened. “I couldn't believe it,” he said. “He was my dad. Nobody or nothing could kill him. Except mom.”
It turned out that James predicted how he was going to die. “He'd always told me and my brothers, ‘Boys, when I go, I'm gonna be makin' love to your mother,’” McConaughey said. “And that's what happened. He had a heart attack when he climaxed.”
RELATED: 9 Subtle Signs You Could Have a Heart Problem
Why would someone die during sex?
In short, sex increases a person's heart rate. “Any physical activity will elevate your heart rate—whether you are swimming, running, or having sex, and your risk for a heart attack increases whenever your heart rate is elevated,” Aventura, Florida-based cardiologist Leonard Pianko, MD, tells Health.
What's the connection between increased heart rate and a heart attack? During sex, adrenaline levels increase and heart rate and blood pressure go up, Victoria Shin, MD, cardiologist with Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance, California, tells Health. “This is what we do when we subject patients to ‘stress tests’ in the office or hospital to unmask any underlying heart problems,” she explains. “Sexual activity is a form of ‘stress testing,’ and if someone has underlying heart disease that is undiagnosed, it can manifest as symptoms of chest pain or in the worst case scenario, cause a heart attack or sudden cardiac death.”
Sometimes the terms “heart attack” and “sudden cardiac arrest” are used interchangeably, but it’s important to know they’re not actually the same thing. According to the American Heart Association, a heart attack occurs when the blood flow that brings oxygen to the heart muscle is severely reduced or cut off completely by a blocked artery. If the artery is not reopened quickly, the part of the heart normally sustained by that artery starts to die.
On the other hand, sudden cardiac arrest is caused by an electrical malfunction in the heart that leads to an irregular heartbeat (known as arrhythmia). The heart is unable to pump blood to the brain, lungs, and other organs, and the person loses consciousness within seconds.
While rapid treatment is crucial in both scenarios, sudden cardiac arrest is more likely to happen without warning, while heart attack symptoms can show up hours, days, or even weeks before the heart attack itself.
RELATED: More Young Women Are Having Heart Attacks. This Might Be Why
How common is it for someone to have a heart attack during sex?
It’s not common. It happens, of course; McCounaghey’s dad is a case in point. But according to a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, it’s extremely rare to die from a heart attack during or immediately following sex, even if you have a prior history of heart disease.
The study researchers looked at the community-based Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study (Oregon SUDS) database from 2002 to 2015 to determine the frequency of sudden cardiac arrest occurring during or within one hour after sexual activity for all persons over the age of 18. A total of 4,557 cases of sudden cardiac arrest were identified in Portland during the 13-year study period, of which 0.7 percent of them were linked to sexual activity.
“If you have a blockage to your heart and you overexert yourself both physically and emotionally, it may in rare instances precipitate a heart attack,” Dr. Pianko says.
A person's overall health can influence the odds. “For a healthy 50-year-old man, the risk of having a heart attack in any given hour is about one in a million,” Dr, Shin says. “Sexual activity doubles the risk, but it's still just two in a million.”
For men with heart disease, the risk is 10 times higher. “But even for them, the chance of suffering a heart attack during sex is just 20 in a million,” Dr. Shin notes.
RELATED: 22 Heart-Healthy Foods to Start Eating ASAP
Do only men who have heart attacks during sex?
No, but it’s even rarer for it to happen to a woman, largely because men are more prone to heart disease than women, Dr. Pianko says. Using the 2017 study statistics, one in 100 sudden cardiac arrests in men were influenced by sexual activity. By comparison, the number was one in 1000 in women.
So women don’t need to worry about having a heart attack during sex?
Correct—unless your doctor tells you sex is off the table. “Those who have risk factors for heart disease that are not controlled, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, obesity, or high cholesterol, should check with the physicians to make sure these factors are controlled,” Dr. Shin says. And if you have any symptoms relating to chest pain, you should definitely get those checked out.
If you or your partner takes erectile dysfunction medications, such as Viagra, you should also check with your doctor to make sure you’re not on any conflicting medications that could cause heart issues, Dr. Shin adds.
Dr. Pianko points out that the long-term benefits of physical activity (including sex) far outweigh the risks. These include stronger bones and muscles, improved mental health and mood, weight management, and a lower risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes.
Of course, keeping your heart in peak condition is a wise move for everybody. “Sexual activity requires a healthy heart and generally taking good care of yourself,” Robert A. Zaloom, MD, cardiologist and director of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn, tells Health. “This means good diet and nutrition and regular exercise, particularly when you’re over 50.”
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]]>A congenital heart defect is one that is present at birth, Victoria Shin, MD, interventional cardiologist at Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Southern California, tells Health. PAPVR is a rare condition that happens when "some of the pulmonary veins carrying blood from the lungs to the heart flow into other blood vessels or into the heart's upper right chamber (right atrium), instead of correctly entering the heart's upper left chamber (left atrium),” explains Dr. Shin.
RELATED: 9 Subtle Signs You Could Have a Heart Problem
This causes some oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to mix with oxygen-poor blood before entering the right atrium. “When the oxygen-rich blood mixes in a chamber with oxygen-poor blood, this can cause a shortage of oxygenated blood to the body’s vital organs,” says Dr. Shin.
As a result, the right chambers of the heart may become dilated. Over time, this can lead to an abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia). Another possible complication of PAPVR is pulmonary hypertension, which occurs when too much blood flow to the lungs increases the pressure in the lung's blood vessels.
In some people, the only PAPVR symptoms is shortness of breath (commonly during exercise). Others with PAPVR may be asymptomatic, as Grant was. “There are four pulmonary veins, and if only one of them is anomalous, the patient may not display much in terms of symptoms,” says Dr. Shin.
PAPVR can go undetected for a long time. “Sometimes it is found incidentally when we do CT scans for other reasons,” says Dr. Shin. That’s exactly what happened to Grant. In a statement on Twitter in February, she revealed that her doctor discovered she had the heart condition during a "battery of tests.”
RELATED: More Young Women Are Having Heart Attacks. This Might Be Why
In that tweet, the “Every Heartbeat” singer hinted that she would be having surgery at some point this year, writing, "The second good news is that it's fixable, so instead of concerts and camping trips this summer, I am going to take care of my heart. Are you taking care of yours?! Please do.”
A post on Grant's Facebook account on Wednesday asked fans to pray for a successful surgery. "With all that is going on in our world that needs our collective prayer, please also join us in praying for Amy this week as she has heart surgery to correct her PAPVR condition," her team wrote.
Dr. Shin says that if only one pulmonary vein is involved, a person with PAPVR may live a normal life without any symptoms. But if the condition is causing complications, the only way to fix the problem is open-heart surgery, known as a PAPVR repair.
“The surgeon reconnects the anomalous vein to the correct (i.e. left) atrium chamber),” explains Dr. Shin. “Sometimes, this is done when the patient is having another type of cardiac surgery.”
RELATED: These Are the High Blood Pressure Symptoms You Should Know About
As with any major surgery, there are potential complications with a PAPVR repair, including the risk of bleeding, abnormal heart rhythms and infection. However, in most cases the benefits of the procedure far outweigh the risks.
“Thankfully the doctor said it could not have gone better,” Grant's rep told PEOPLE. “We’re praying for a full and easy recovery over the next days, weeks and months to come.”
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]]>In general, blood pressure is is defined as "the force of blood on a vessel wall," Neha Vyas, MD, a family medicine doctor at Cleveland Clinic, tells Health—and having your blood pressure measured by a doctor is the only way to truly know whether your blood pressure is too high.
That blood pressure reading—which is measured by a gauge attached to an inflatable blood pressure cuff that wraps around your arm and gently tightens—comes in two different numbers: Your systolic blood pressure (the pressure inside your arteries when your heart beats) and your diastolic blood pressure (the pressure inside your arteries when your heart is resting). Doctors tell you your blood pressure in this format: systolic blood pressure over diastolic blood pressure. For example, 120 over 80 (120/80) is considered the normal range for blood pressure, per the American Heart Association (AHA).
RELATED: What Causes High Blood Pressure? How To Minimize Your Risk
While there are some risk factors that can contribute to high blood pressure—like smoking, high stress levels poor diet, not enough exercise, and genetics—symptoms of hypertension aren't quite as cut-and-dry. Overall, Dr. Vyas says high blood pressure is "called the silent killer for a reason." That's because any possible symptoms that could be related to high blood pressure could also be indicative of other health conditions. The AHA lists three "inconclusively related symptoms of high blood pressure":
- Blood spots in the eyes: This condition—technically called subconjunctival hemorrhage—is more common in those with diabetes and high blood pressure, though neither directly causes the blood spots, per the AHA.
- Facial flushing: The AHA says facial flushing happens when blood vessels in the face dilate. While facial flushing may occur with high blood pressure, it can also be a result of various other factors like sun exposure, cold temperature, spicy foods, and skincare products.
- Dizziness: While dizziness isn't directly caused by high blood pressure, the AHA says that sudden onset dizziness, loss of coordination and balance, and trouble walking should not be ignored, since they can be indicators of a stroke (for which high blood pressure is the leading cause).
RELATED: 20 Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure Naturally
That said, while higher-than-normal blood pressure often doesn't show specific symptoms, a hypertensive crisis—when blood pressure rises quickly and severely, and reads 180/120 or higher—can show some more specific symptoms and necessitate immediate medical attention, according to the AHA. These emergency symptoms include:
- Severe headache
- Shortness of breath
- Nosebleeds
- Severe anxiety
The takeaway here? Get your blood pressure checked regularly and listen to your doctor if they advise you to lower your blood pressure. Unlike other medical conditions, you can’t count on a symptom to signal to you that your blood pressure is dangerously high, so it’s important to try to keep your blood pressure under control consistently, especially if a medical professional suggests that you need to.
Thankfully, there are are various blood pressure medications that can be prescribed based on a specific patient’s needs, but there are also many different ways to lower your blood pressure via lifestyle changes. If you smoke, consider stopping, and also make sure not to drink excessively. Additionally, Dr Vyas recommends trying to lower your stress levels as much as possible, eating more whole foods, and regularly exercising.
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]]>Jeff Weaver, an adviser to Senator Sanders, said in a statement Wednesday morning, “During a campaign event yesterday evening, Senator Sanders experienced some chest discomfort. Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted," according to the New York Times.
A stent is a small mesh tube made of wire, per the American Heart Association (AHA). They're used to open arteries and are kept there permanently to keep arteries open.
RELATED: What Is Heart Disease?
Stents are used to treat blocked coronary arteries, which feed into the heart muscle. Those arteries can become blocked by buildups of plaque, or fatty deposits, and these buildups can reduce blood flow to the heart. Chest pain can be a result of a blocked coronary artery.
In general, stents are a result of a procedure doctors call a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), also known as an angioplasty. These are used to treat blocked or narrowed arteries, according to the AHA. During a PCI, doctors insert a balloon-tipped catheter (which is a tube) into the artery. The catheter is moved to the blocked part of the artery and inflated to compress the built-up plaque, opening the narrowed area of the artery.
Once the artery has been re-opened, the catheter is removed, but the stent, which is placed over the balloon-tipped catheter, locks into place and stays behind, keeping the artery open and improving the amount of blood that reaches the heart, per the AHA. It also helps alleviate chest pain in the patient. According to the AHA, patients who have angioplasty and stents recover from those procedures much faster than patients who have coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), which can also restore blood flow to a blocked artery.
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After a PCI, patients are recommended to take antiplatelet agents, like aspirin, which are medications that keep platelets from clumping together and forming blood clots in the stent and blocking the artery further. Aspirin is typically taken indefinitely, per the AHA, but other medications are taken as prescribed by a doctor.
It should be noted, however, that stents may not be a permanent fix to a blocked artery: While stents do help prevent restenosis, or the re-narrowing of a previously opened artery, the arteries may still re-close, in which case, patients will need to undergo CABG.
As far as Senator Sanders is currently feeling, one of his campaign aides told the New York Times that Senator Sanders “feels better than ever because that’s how people feel after they get a stent and there’s more blood flow.”
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]]>The story, newly detailed in BMJ Case Reports, involves a 60-year-old woman who went to the ER complaining about chest pain. At a wedding a day earlier, she had popped something in her mouth that she assumed was avocado. You can imagine her surprise when It turned out to be a teaspoon-sized hunk of wasabi, a Japanese horseradish made with mustard greens.
RELATED: What Is Broken Heart Syndrome—and Can You Actually Die From a Broken Heart?
A few minutes later, she said she experienced a sudden pressure in her chest that radiated to her arms. The discomfort lasted for several hours, but she toughed it out at the wedding. The next day, while other guests were no doubt nursing their hangovers, she was still feeling weak and achy.
Finally, the woman went to the ER. Her heart and lungs sounded normal, doctors reported, but she was given a smattering of tests over the next two days: an ultrasound, two EKGs (an electrocardiogram, which measures the electrical activity of the heartbeat), blood tests, an angiography (an X-ray that looks at blood vessels), and an echocardiography (another test for heart function).
The outcome? She had takotsubo cardiomyopathy—aka “broken heart syndrome.” Docs don’t fully understand broken heart syndrome, the authors point out, though it’s often caused by physical or emotional stress, as well as neurological disorders, rare tumors of the adrenal glands, or drugs. Previously, they thought the only way food could trigger Broken Heart would be if someone had a severe allergic reaction to what they ate.
RELATED: More Young Women Are Having Heart Attacks. This Might Be Why
For someone going through broken heart syndrome, the symptoms make you feel as if you’re having a heart attack, but you’re not. There’s no blockage of arteries. Instead, there is a “temporary dysfunction of heart tissue,” Ilan Wittstein, MD, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, said in a previous Health article. Stress hormones like adrenaline are believed to be involved, which is why a stressful event usually triggers it.
“Any kind of sudden stress response can cause weakening of heart muscle, whether it's sudden fear—–someone holding a gun to your head–or the distress your body goes through in the middle of a bad infection or stroke,” said Dr. Wittstein.
In the case of this report, the super spice from the wasabi may have caused her stress pathways to go into overdrive, leading to broken heart syndrome.
Sufferers are often white, postmenopausal women, and those with anxiety or depression may be particularly at risk, as medications to treat these conditions alter the metabolism of adrenaline. Luckily, most make a full recovery. “The heart muscle is stunned and not killed, so you don't have permanent cell death of heart tissue,” said Dr. Wittstein.
RELATED: Heart Attack Signs Every Woman Should Know
The authors of the case study call the amount of wasabi the woman ate “unusually large,” and that’s true—you don’t just outright eat a teaspoon-sized ball of the stuff; it’s usually a small smear across the roll, at least to start. Still, you don’t have to give sushi takeout the stink eye from now on. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of takotsubo cardiomyopathy triggered by wasabi consumption,” the authors write. (Whew, your spicy tuna roll is off the hook.)
As for the woman, she needed to take meds, like an ACE inhibitor and beta blockers, to help her heart function return to normal—and she had to go to a cardiac rehabilitation center. All because of wasabi.
No doubt it’s a wedding she’ll never forget. Luckily, one month later, she was okay. Still, she’s probably never eating wasabi again—and double checking every time she sees an avocado.
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]]>The man featured in today’s Google doodle is René Favaloro, an Argentine heart surgeon who performed the first coronary bypass.
Coronary bypass surgery corrects blocked and partially blocked arteries by redirecting blood flow.
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During a coronary bypass, a surgeon takes a healthy blood vessel from another body part, such as the leg, and uses it to redirect blood away from a blocked artery in the heart.
In addition to correcting blocked arteries, coronary bypass surgeries are performed in some emergency situations, such as when a patient is having a heart attack.
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The procedure, sometimes called a coronary-artery bypass graft (CABG), revolutionized the way cardiovascular patients are treated. “CABG is among the most commonly performed major surgical procedures, with approximately 400,000 operations performed annually in the United States,” the New England Journal of Medicine says.
Favaloro performed not only the first coronary bypass surgery but also the first heart transplant in done in Argentina, according to Britannica.
The pioneering doctor was born in La Plata, a suburb of Buenos Aires, in 1923, and worked first as a doctor in Argentina before moving to the US in 1962 to study cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Cleveland Clinic. He returned to Argentina 10 years later and established a medical institute, the Favaloro Foundation, which is still around today.
After Favaloro’s death in 2000, the Argentine President Fernando de la Rúa established a day of mourning in the country.
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]]>A blood test the week prior had shown my total cholesterol was 187, with a good HDL/LDL ratio and low triglycerides. The report included this reassuring notation: “lower relative cardiovascular risk according to American Heart Association/Centers for Disease Control guidelines.”
At my check-up, my blood pressure registered at 110/70. And I had an electrocardiogram (EKG), which showed no abnormalities. I left my doctor’s office with a clean bill of health.
That was on July 7th. On July 8th—in a scenario that sounds unlikely even for fiction—I had a heart attack.
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I awoke that morning with vague jaw pain. Was it sinus-related? I also had an odd, persistent ache in my left arm. Could that be from the booster shot I had the day before?
While I mulled over the possibilities, I noticed a tightness in my chest—not exactly painful, but uncomfortable and strange. My first impulse was to give it time, have my usual cup of coffee, and wait for the symptoms to subside.
My daughter had a better idea. She told me to get dressed pronto, and she would take me to the emergency room.
On a short drive to the hospital, the chest discomfort seemed to be getting worse. I also had a dry, throat-clearing cough, and I had begun to feel queasy.
All classic signs of a heart attack—but as I checked in to the ER, I half-apologized for presenting with symptoms that “…are probably due to a vaccine I got yesterday.” Nonetheless, I was whisked to a treatment room quickly. And within minutes, a doctor sternly rejected my Google-inspired diagnosis: “This is NOT related to any shot.”
That was the first hint things might be serious. My second clue was seeing the energy in the room change; there was a sudden sense of urgency. But ironically, it wasn’t until a nurse put an aspirin under my tongue and said, “You’re going to be fine,” that I began to panic—as in, You mean, ‘"being fine’"is even a question?
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Within minutes, I was wheeled into the hospital’s cath lab, where a cardiac team got ready to perform an emergency angioplasty. I would later learn that a bit of plaque had erupted in my Left Anterior Descending Artery (LAD), causing a blockage; a stent was needed to open the blood vessel and restore blood flow.
In lay terms, I was having a heart attack—and because it occurred in the LAD, it’s the kind they call the ‘widowmaker.’ No surprise why: This is the biggest of the three arteries that supply blood to the heart—so a blockage in the LAD can be particularly deadly.
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donna-blass heart-attack woman health heart EKG negligence doctor hospital cardiology be to blame? A troubling family issue had reached a crescendo earlier that week. Was family history a factor? Relatives on my father’s side succumbed to heart-related ailments, though not until they were in their 80s.
My doctors said my heart attack was an unusual case, and there’s no way to pinpoint the cause with 100% certainty. But I learned a crucial lesson: low risk doesn’t mean no risk. My experience taught me a few key things I wish I’d known sooner:
Minutes count
If you have heart attack warning signs, every moment wasted can mean more heart cells are dying. The American Heart Association advises calling 911 immediately, since an ambulance often gets you to the hospital fastest; plus, EMS professionals can start treating you as soon as they arrive. Hospitals are rated on their “door-to-balloon time," a measure of how long it takes for a balloon/stent to be inserted after a patient enters the ER or ambulance.
An EKG has limits
It measures heart rate and rhythm—but it doesn’t necessarily show blockages in the arteries. My EKG the day before didn’t detect anything. Now that EKGs are available with some smart phone apps and fitness trackers, it’s important to know what this test can and can't do.
Heart attacks aren’t always obvious
Not everyone experiences the “chest grabbing” drama shown on TV. Symptoms can be subtle and not overly painful—and women’s symptoms may differ from men’s.
All cardiac symptoms—including chest tightness; shortness of breath; pain in the jaw, arm or back—need to be taken seriously, even if you think you couldn't possibly be having a heart attack. Sure, it might be embarrassing to take action and discover it was just indigestion, or stress. But despite the cliché, nobody has ever died of embarrassment.
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