Saturday is World Heart Day
World Heart Day this year focuses on keeping the hearts of women and children healthy.
While it’s a popular misconception that heart attacks and heart disease mostly affect men, heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women.
Knowing one’s “numbers” and keeping an eye on one’s own heart health can stave off future heart disease and issues relating to heart health later in life, as Michelle de Alvarenga learned.
Ms de Alvarenga, a human resources manager, ignored some earlier warnings after doctors found a heart murmur during her pregnancies.
She later learned, thanks to seeing a cardiologist, that she had a sub-aortic membrane – fibrous tissue below the aortic valve that can obstruct blood flow.
She said she first got an inkling of her heart issues back in 2000 when she was pregnant with her daughter. “The obstetrician mentioned to me that I had a heart murmur. He said, ‘Don’t worry about it, sometimes that can come on with pregnancy’,” Ms de Alvarenga said.
Then, when she was pregnant with her son two years later, the murmur was there again.
She decided to visit a cardiologist to get to the bottom of the murmur and find out what was going on. “Over the course of a couple of years, I saw a couple of different cardiologists at the hospital who did echo stress tests on a treadmill to see how my heart acted under stress. They didn’t do an electrocardiogram. They found the murmur, but said I was fine and there was no issue with it. They said if I got to a point where I had difficulty breathing or had other issues, then I should get checked further,” she said.
In 2010, while experiencing stressful situations in the home and work front, she started to feel unwell, experiencing shortness of breath, getting headaches and heart palpitations and feeling as though she would pass out. “It just came out of the blue. I didn’t know if it was stress related or heart related,” she said.
She rushed to the hospital and was checked by a doctor who referred her to a cardiologist, who carried out another echo stress test. “He told me the same thing as the other cardiologists, that I was fine,” she said.
However, when she returned to her doctor at the hospital, he advised her to seek another opinion and referred her to another cardiologist to do some further checks. “My doctor said the murmur seemed so loud, he was concerned and he sent me to the Heart Health Centre,” she said.
“Dr. [Mikhail] Kosiborod said an innocent murmur isn’t usually as loud as that,” Ms de Alvarenga said. The cardiologist carried out an electrocardiogram and said he was about 75 per cent sure that Ms de Alvarenga had a sub-aortic membrane, but wanted her to undergo a further test – a trans-thoracic echocardiogram, or TEE – so he could be 100 per cent certain.
She did the test, which involves sending a miniature camera down the patient’s throat to get a closer look at the heart, at St. Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute in Kansas City. The test confirmed she had a sub-aortic membrane.
“That was the cause of the murmur,” Ms de Alvarenga said. The doctors told her it was not immediately life-threatening, but could cause problems for her later and could greatly diminish her quality of life.
“It’s not common and is usually found in smaller children. I did some research and it seems babies and small children undergo surgery to remove it. In any case, the doctors said it wasn’t life threatening and I didn’t need emergency surgery, but they encouraged me to have the surgery sooner rather than later.
“I was going on 40 at the time. My doctor said the longer you wait to do the surgery, you won’t be in the same shape you were in when you were younger. That was in spring 2011,” she said.
She underwent open heart surgery to remove the membrane in August last year at St. Luke’s, spending three days in the hospital but staying in Kansas City for two weeks for follow-up checks.
“I was extremely calm before the surgery. I think I got to the point where there was no turning back. I knew I had to do it,” she said.
Now, a year after the surgery, she does not get short of breath or heart palpitations anymore and says she has a better quality of life.
She would advise other women to get their hearts checked for any issues, she said. “It gives you peace of mind,” she said.
According to the World Heart Federation, heart disease causes death in one in three women – one death per minute – so the need for women to take control of their heart health is vitally important.
Saturday, 29 September, is World Heart Day.
In a message to the people of Cayman to mark World Heart Day, health minister Mark Scotland said that reducing the numbers of adults with heart disease will be nearly impossible “unless we keep our children healthy”.
“The risk for heart disease can increase significantly during childhood due to unhealthy diet, lack of active play/exercise, and exposure to smoking. Since children have limited decision making control, we must take responsibility for the hearts of our children.
“From parents and caregivers, to doctors and teachers, everyone involved in a child’s life must work together to promote heart healthy behaviours,” Mr. Scotland said.
Learning one’s numbers – blood pressure, BMI, glucose levels, cholesterol – can help in combatting heart disease, by raising red flags and giving early warning signals that there may be heart health trouble down the road.
Throughout the year in Cayman, numerous free health fairs are held by the Cayman Heart Fund and other organisations, at which members of the public can find out their numbers.
Related Videos
