Heart Smarts – Risk Factors, Symptoms & Prevention

As we close out heart month, I thought it was the perfect time to share more of our personal story with coronary artery disease. It was definitely not something I was as prepared for as I should have been a few short months ago. Last week a work colleague lost her husband who was Keith’s age to a massive heart attack which makes me believe there are others who need education too! Today I’m sharing a few heart smarts tips for risk factors, symptoms and prevention I hope will help someone else.

In hindsight, we should have known something was coming. Keith had not been himself for some time. While he had put on some weight over the years, it had shifted mostly to his gut and was very high and hard. He has always gone to bed earlier than me due to his daily commute but he had also become extraordinarily fatigued. The biggest sign that should not have been ignored was his shortness of breath and inability to do physical activity but he wasn’t sharing that with me.

When I look back at pictures from the fall I can see so clearly that he wasn’t feeling well. He just wasn’t himself. Unfortunately the overall health issues were also combined with a higher level of stress. After his dad was diagnosed with leukemia, Keith began needing to help with feeding cattle multiple times per week in addition to his regular job.

It was all just a perfect storm waiting to happen. In early December his office began a move which required him to not only make his regular 5 day 90 mile (one way) commute but added Saturday as well. The weather got cold which meant more stops to put out hay for cattle. Then my grandmother got sick and I was not home for a week which left all the family duties to him. He was stressed.

So on Monday, December 16th, after getting up at his usual 4am and kissing me goodbye, he sat down for a bowl of cereal. As he tried to eat he became nauseated and in an effort to not wake me headed to our kids bathroom. I honestly did not even know he was still home until around 5am when he walked back into our bedroom stripped down to his boxers. He fell onto the bed and told me he wasn’t feeling well and he was covered in a cold sweat. I don’t mean clammy, I mean soaked sweating.

The flu had been going around so of course that was my immediate thought but he knew how short of breath he had been the day before working at his dads. He mentioned heart attack symptoms and I immediately googled “heart attack symptoms for men” and upon seeing profuse sweating at the top of the list knew we had to get to the ER.

We live less than 2 miles from the hospital and let me tell you we got there in record time. They hooked him up to an EKG and within less than a minute informed us he was having a heart attack and things began moving quickly. By 5:45 he was taken back for a heart cath where they found an artery that was pretty much 100% blocked. You can see below the before stent and after stent blood flow.

We were so lucky. So, so lucky! While he had ignored so many signs for so many months, I’m thankful he did not ignore these.

Heart attack is the leading cause of death in both men and women. Whether it is lifestyle choices or family history, do you know your risk factors? Here are a few you should be paying attention to.

Risk Factors for Heart Disease

• Family history
• History of smoking
• High blood pressure
• High “bad” cholesterol and low “good” cholesterol
• Uncontrolled stress
• Inactivity
• Hich C-reactive protein
• Being post-menopausal for women
• Unhealthy diet/unhealthy weight
• Uncontrolled diabetes

Both of Keith’s parents have coronary artery disease and I have been begging him for years to go to the doctor. He would not go. Even people who look relatively healthy have heart attacks friends. People in their 40’s have heart attacks regularly! If not for yourself then for those you love, go to the doctor for preventative care. It could save your life!

Heart Attack Symptoms

Heart attack symptoms for men and women can look a little different as well. Here are some of the things to be looking for.

• Crushing chest pain
• Squeezing, discomfort, fullness in chest
• Pain in the arm, jaw or back
• Shortness of breath
• Cold Sweat
• Nausea

While men may more often experiend unexplained excessive sweating, nausea, squeezing sensation in chest, women are less likely to experience crushing chest pain. Women are more likely to feel pain in the jaw, neck or chest, feel faint or lightheaded, squeezing on the upper back, fullness, pressure or squeezing in the center of the chest. 

Two additional symptoms I’ve recently learned could have been signs for Keith are snoring and bathroom trips in the middle of the night. His snoring I attributed to being overly fatigued but also to his growing stomach but snoring can be an indicator of heart issues.

The second seems kind of odd but over the past 6 months or so I had noticed many times when I would come to bed just a short hour or hour and 1/2 after Keith, he would get up and go to the bathroom. I thought it was weird because he had not been asleep long. When the heart is having to work harder, it is not as easy for the body to release fluid. As he would lay down at night and the pressure was taken off his heart, the fluid would release.

As you can also see, many of these symptoms can be indicative of other issues and I cannot stress enough how important an annual checkup can be as well as being your own health advocate. If you feel like something is wrong do not wait to see a doctor!

Prevention

• Quit smoking
• Eat a diet low in processed sugars and sodium and increase the fiber, vegetables and fruit
• Reduce stress
• Get active with at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic excercise a week
• GO TO THE DOCTOR – having a baseline for your health each year is huge
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Be aware of both risk factors and symptoms

Know your body! If you are not feeling well, go see a doctor. Do not wait until there is an emergency situation find out if something serious is going on becuase it could be too late.

Once plaque build up happens in your arteries it is pretty much there to stay. While they can pump you full of medicine to reduce future plaque build up, there are no studies showing any medicines will reduce what is already there. I don’t know about you but that was an eye opener for me.

The doctor told us the day after that 50% of people having a heart attack never make it to the hospital. I’m so very grateful Keith was on the right side of that statistic. Forty five is way too young to see coronary artery disease on your medical chart yet here we are. It was a huge wake up call for him and I’m thankful he has taken it seroiusly.

This is our heart smart story. While we don’t have all the answers, we have definitely learned a ton and are continuing to learn more with research and additional doctors visits. Keith is down 20+ pounds and has no permanent heart damage. He feels so much better, is no longer snoring and his only complaint is how cold he is! I’m sharing our story and will be happy to share additional info if you have questions!