The issues affecting you reveal explained discussed now on W. G. L. Eight in focus. Hello I'm Susan pyro one person in the US dies every 34 seconds from heart disease making it the number one killer february is american heart month. The time to learn about risk factors for cardiovascular disease and the symptoms. Tonight we'll hear *** heart attack survivors compelling story and we'll speak with the american Heart Association about symptoms and with *** cardiologist about diagnosis and treatment. We're putting heart health in focus. I'm joined now by larissa bed Rick, the marketing and communications director at the American Heart Association of Central pennsylvania. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks so much for having me. Larissa. Heart disease and stroke are still the number one killer in America. Have we made strides? We absolutely have. The American Heart Association is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. And in that 100 years we've made tremendous strides. The one thing that hasn't changed though is cardiovascular disease remains our number one killer. But we know based on that past 100 years and the $5 billion dollars that we've invested in research and the lives that we've been able to save in that period of time. We know that there's still more that we can do which is why our mission today is to be *** relentless force for *** world of longer healthier lives. Because we know there's more we can still do. Why is it still the number one killer in this country. Well Americans still there's there's *** way to go *** ways to go to prevent heart disease. We estimate that around 80% of cardiovascular disease events are preventable with lifestyle changes. And so we definitely want to address that as well as continue addressing new ways that we can treat cardiovascular disease and stroke. So what lifestyle changes? The usual diet, exercise. Yes. So recently the american Heart Association updated its list of recommendations of lifestyle factors that contribute to cardiovascular health. We used to call it life's simple Seven. It was seven factors. We recently added one. So now we call it life's essential. Eight. Um, *** lot of the things you commonly think of controlling your blood pressure, controlling your cholesterol, your blood sugar, um, managing your weight, quitting tobacco and actually avoiding tobacco products, vaping and secondhand smoke altogether. Um, eating healthier, being more physically active. And the new one to the list is getting enough sleep. We recommend about 7-9 hours on average every night because research over the years has shown that either too little or even too much sleep can impact cardiovascular health. Really. What's the correlation there? Well, you know, we estimate that it can affect health. It can impact vascular health and it impacts your health overall. So, so the numbers you mentioned blood pressure cholesterol, should that be something people should, you know, go out and find out what their numbers are. Absolutely, really. Those those are things that don't have any symptoms, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, you're not going to feel symptoms. The only way to know if you have it is to get it tested. And the best way to do that is to see your doctor because they can help you interpret what those results mean for you. So *** lot of people might be walking around with some of those things and not even know it. We estimate around 40% of people have high blood pressure. We recently changed the guidelines for what is considered high blood pressure to lower that threshold. So hopefully we can catch people sooner and have *** better chance of being able to address high blood pressure through lifestyle changes. Is that different for men and women? What the threshold is for what is considered high blood, what is considered *** healthy blood pressure for everybody is 1 20/80. That's considered ideal. When you start getting over that we consider that elevated. When you get to 1 30/80 that's another threshold for stage one hypertension for everybody. It's not it's not so high. But research again research has shown and that's why we changed the guidelines is that when you start getting over that ideal range, your risk for heart attack and stroke doubles and triples. So generally, what are the risk factors? Again, the risk factor? But there's also mentioned the high blood pressure. Yes, Yes. And there's *** lot of uncontrollable risk factors as well, Family history for one is something that we really can't control. There's some genetic component to our risk. But again, taking control of those controllable risk factors can help reduce your risk regardless of those uncontrollable ones. How does heart disease affect men and women differently? Um, one thing that we often try to encourage people to learn about are the signs and symptoms of *** heart attack, that's where *** lot of those differences show up. So *** lot of times people think of heart attack symptoms as being chest pain, we think of that Hollywood heart attack, typically an older man clutching his chest, falling to the ground. And while chest pain is the most common symptom for both men and women, women in particular are more likely to experience some other types of heart attack symptoms. And again, heart disease is the number one killer of women as well, which many women still don't realize to this day. So we really want to educate more women about what some of those other Signs and symptoms can be. I'm sure many women think it's breast cancer or something like that. Absolute. But heart disease kills more women than all forms of cancer combined. Wow, that's amazing. And the heart association is there to help you do *** lot of things to help people who are experiencing this kind of thing. Yes. You know, we continue to invest in research to this day. We're currently funding over $21.7 million Pennsylvania alone. Um we are working with every health system in our region to put that research into practice to improve care for heart and stroke patients in our region. We're working with local health clinics to improve the way that they help their patients manage those risk factors. Were advocating for policies that make our communities healthier. We're in schools across the region with our kids. Heart challenge programs, teaching them healthy habits start early and we're teaching cpr to thousands of people across the region. That's an important thing to know. That's for sure. Larissa, thanks so much some really good information. We appreciate you being here. Thanks so much for having me and coming up on W. G. ***. L. ***. Didn't focus well, talk to *** heart attack survivor about her compelling story. This is WGGL eight in focus coverage. You can count on welcome back and I'm joined now by Christine Sable, who's *** heart attack survivor. How do you like the sounds of that? I guess survivor is *** good thing. That's for sure. Absolutely Christine. Take me back what happened? Well, it was just before christmas Eve in 2021 I was actually strangely enough watching the W. G. ***. L. News and kind of dozed off on the sofa and when I woke up I started to feel an achiness or pain throughout my body, but not specifically in the heart area and because it was still covid time, you know, I checked with your mom and make sure I didn't have *** fever or anything and I didn't, I thought this is odd. I just had this aqui feeling all over but it was not specifically in the chest area at all. So um went up to bed, told my husband that I had wasn't feeling good and he sensed that something was wrong. He said, should I take you to the er and actually that first time I didn't go, which is *** huge mistake. I hope people can learn from that. Um I actually took um *** couple of the leave and went to bed. I felt fine the next couple of days until that sunday it came back again. I was just sitting on the couch watching tv. I hadn't just done *** workout or anything like that and all of *** sudden that same feeling came over me again and it kind of scared me *** little bit. But again, no symptoms in the heart area is mostly my arms act my upper torso, eight under my armpit, my left rib cage. But I could breathe just fine. I could talk just fine. I didn't feel an elephant sitting on my chest or any, any of you hear about thinking heart attack. Well, you know, I started to wonder because I actually had read in some magazines, you know, you sit there in the doctor's office and there's *** magazine ad from american heart association and it says you know women's symptoms are different than men and sometimes pain in the arms can be *** sign. And I thought hmm I wonder and it just seems so odd because I was sitting there feeling fine and then all of *** sudden I'm not feeling fine. So my husband said you know this sounds sounds like it might be serious. Maybe we should go down to the er so I said okay if I don't feel better in 10 minutes we'll go. So two mistakes there don't wait 10 minutes if you have those kind of symptoms at all. Number two don't have your husband take you to the er you should absolutely E. M. T. Call 911 have them come and check you out. They have life saving equipment onboard. If something's wrong they can call ahead to the hospital. But um I know we all feel like I call an ambulance. Yeah that's that's *** mistake and I made that mistake and I'm just gonna tell you don't make that mistake. So we did go down to the er and uh you know I walked in and they asked me what was wrong and I kind of sheepishly sheepishly said um I'm feeling some pain in my arms and my upper torso it's probably nothing but you know I don't know maybe it's *** heart attack. So they handed me *** pager. I sat down in the in the lobby fortunately did see me within seven or eight minutes. Um I had the an E. K. G. Done. They checked my blood for levels of something called Troponin which shows up when you've had *** heart attack. And they put me in an E. R. Bay. And um you know I was there for about an hour. They gave me four baby aspirin. I start to feel *** lot better and I thought oh this is so silly you know they're gonna discharge me the next thing I know I hear this code are over the loudspeaker system and all these people come running into my E. R. Bay and they said you've just had *** heart attack. Your troponin levels are way up and you've got to get to the Cath lab right away. So surprise surprise wow. So that must have been shocking to hear that. It was it was I almost found it funny at the time because I just couldn't believe that I had had *** heart attack because I felt okay at that moment. I really did. But so what caused your heart attack? It was something rather unusual wasn't it? Yes and actually um I don't want to scare anyone because this is kind of *** more unusual type of heart attack. But it's something called *** *** scat s. C. ***. D. Uh stands for spontaneous um cardiac arterial dissection dissection meaning *** tear in your artery and if you think about it, your arteries are *** little to simplify its *** little bit like *** tire tube on *** bicycle. The outer tube has also has an inner tube and that layer of that inner tube develops *** tear in it. We don't know why it could be for *** number of different reasons. That tear then allows blood to go behind it. It develops sort of *** flap. It blocks your interior artery and it's just like *** plaque blockage. It stops the blood from going to your heart. So this one was in my left anterior descending artery. So it's pretty blocked at that point. It sounds like you've learned *** lot about your condition and what to do. What did they do for that? And how are you doing now? Well initially they did do it catheterization but then as soon as they realize it's *** scad they actually take it right out because it can worsen the tear. And um they told me it basically has to just heal on its own. So *** little scary. There are some situations where they do put *** stent in someone but they told me that they weren't gonna do that in my case. So basically I stayed in the hospital for *** few days and then they sent me home without *** net. So well you look terrific and I know you do *** lot of fitness work. So you're feeling okay now. I have been feeling great. I have not had any recurrence of it? I've been doing well but I tried to take good care of my health and eat *** little bit better. And one of the other things I've I think I've learned from this is that stress can be *** big part of this. So I think it's important you know earlier we talked about the list of things that can be um you know risk factors contributing and I actually think stress can be one of them. Um You know because I I work full time. I own my own business that year. It was Covid there was *** lot going on. So I think that that's *** big part of it too. It was just reducing stress. Well thank you so much for sharing this story. Really very scary. But I'm so glad you're doing well and and as I said you look great thanks so much. I'm happy to be here. And good information and good advice to people not to ignore any symptoms. Okay thank you very much. Thank you, Christine. And coming up on W. G.A. L8 in focus we'll talk to *** cardiologist about the symptoms. You should not ignore. This is W. G. G. L. Eight in focus coverage. You can count on the doctor is now in the house. We're going to get some medical advice from Dr Rhian Davies who's an interventional cardiologist with Well span. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. What is an interventional cardiologist? That's *** great question. So basically we treat patients that come in with heart attacks or acute closure of their heart arteries and we open them up by putting stents in. On the other hand, we see *** lot of patients that have stable heart disease and we're able to fix those blockages that they have. We typically fix anything that's worse than about 70% blocked. I personally specialize in 100% blockages or those that have been blocked for *** long time. Um that ongoing causing symptoms for the patient. What are some of those symptoms? How do you know if you have *** blockage like that? Yeah, that's *** great question. So. Shortness of breath, tiredness, generalized fatigue, you know, *** great way that I ask *** lot of patients is *** year ago. What were you doing compared to what you're doing now? And is there *** change because you wanted it there to be *** change? Or is it *** change because something's just not right? And that's more with the stable patients when you're having *** heart attack. Those symptoms can certainly be varied. Often the men can have classic symptoms of an elephant on their chest or discomfort in their chest? They can get radiation to their jaw and those sorts of things with women on the other hand, sometimes we can get some back discomfort, we can get neck discomfort. Shortness of breath or just just not feeling ourselves. Women are *** little bit more vague with their symptoms and that's important to understand because *** lot of women may kind of push those symptoms off and not seek treatment when they need it. Why are the symptoms? Men and women? You know, that's *** great question and I I don't know if I have the answer to that one, but I think it comes down to um sometimes avoidance is easier than reality of it, but it's just how we feel with our symptoms. It can certainly be something, you know, with hormones and changes as we get older. Um, just ways that we handle pain or discomfort can just be that much different to men. Do you find *** lot of your patients ignore symptoms at the onset? Yes. Unfortunately, you know, it's very variable. Some patients will come right in right away be seen. Something's not right. Other patients, they can go weeks months, even years before them or *** significant other or family Mem will be like, I think you need to get something checked out. Our patient who was here earlier, Christine, that's what she said. She just didn't think it would happen to her and she didn't want to go to the emergency room. Yeah. And it's very easy, you know, the emergency room is not an easy place to go to and it's it's um, makes it uncomfortable for you to be seen sometimes or to realize you have discomfort sometimes, you know, particularly in women were often misdiagnosed, we can maybe be diagnosed with anxiety or um other sort of symptoms that may be more consistent with indigestion or reflux. And patients are maybe mistreated for *** little while until they're actually diagnosed correctly with coronary disease. It's *** scary thing, isn't it? To think your heart's not working properly. Yes, and it's really comes down to be your own advocate, seek care if you don't feel like you're getting the answers from *** physician at ask for *** referral to *** heart specialist. And there's simple ways to look for heart disease, whether it's *** stress test, it's *** heart catheterization, those sorts of things. We have *** lot more modalities out there now that we can really be aggressive against heart disease early before those blockages get bad enough to warrant stents. We've talked about this still being the number one killer in this country. Why do you think that is? I think it really comes down to education, *** lot of patients don't realize those symptoms are *** heart attack and or they want to avoid that they have those symptoms. So I think it's just opening that door and realizing that it could in fact be heart disease if it runs in your family, get screened, get your cholesterol checked, be your be your own advocate exercise, diet, meditate, relax. Find ways out of our stressful everyday life to enjoy kind of some calmness to help prevent progression of disease because that not just family history. The lifestyle can really be *** factor as well. Yes lifestyle can be *** very big factor as well as just environmental stressors. You know we are always on the go the modern age. Everybody's going to connect with you, you have your cell phone in your pocket, you're on your laptop, you're always stressed about something. So really finding ways to de stress or get away from that whether it is exercising or meditating. Those sorts of things are really important for heart health. Too easily forgotten. Unfortunately absolutely will stay with us because we'll talk more about some of your new diagnostic tools and the latest in treatment. This is W. G. G. L. Eight in focus coverage. You can count on we continue our conversation with Dr Rhian Davies who's an interventional cardiologist at well span how do you know if you need to go to *** cardiologist you know it really comes down to your symptoms and and your activity level. If you've noticed changes if you're feeling more short of breath, say you run up *** flight of stairs and uh six months ago you could do that without problems and now all of *** sudden you're concerned to feel *** little tightness or shortness of breath when you get to that top stair. Those are sort of those subtle little changes that you should be aware of and seeking out at that time. *** cardiology referral is certainly warranted. Um And something as simple as *** stress cast. Could answer the question as to whether or not it's something that needs to be pursued further in regards to heart disease. So it's not something all of us should go to *** cardiologist to get some sort of baseline. Is it not typically um Certainly if you have *** strong family history or if you're *** diabetic those sorts of patients may have *** little bit more of *** silent course in early part of their heart disease and maybe seeking out *** cardiologist that early on would be advised. But usually it's something you know if you start to feel changes or symptom development that would be the time that I would strongly encourage it. So what are some of the latest ways that you diagnose some of these issues? Yes. So we have *** modalities, many modalities for stress testing. As simple as getting on *** treadmill and just doing getting that heart rate up and seeing what your rhythm does when you're on there, how the E. K. G. Looks and that's the that's the way that our heart conducts electricity. Alternatively we can add echocardiography to that that allows us to look at the squeeze and the function of the heart and it also gives us an idea of what your valve function is doing. We can do pet stress and M. R. I stresses which are really detailed stress test to look at the blood flow through those heart arteries. It's just all different ways to really get *** better idea of how your heart's functioning, particularly after you've stressed it. Alternatively we can do ct scans and cT scans can actually be timed accordingly with your heart rate to look at the blood flow down the heart arteries. And those are the ones then that we can see if you do have *** blockage. It's *** 10 15 minute procedure. We know whether or not you do have anything that we have to be concerned about or something that we just have to be aggressive with medications. Lastly, you know, the gold standard still is *** heart catheterization where you would come to our cath lab or *** cath lab of in hospital and we go in through either the wrist artery or the growing artery and go up to the heart with *** catheter, *** very very small catheter less than half or quarter, even the size of your pinky. And we use contrast to really highlight the heart arteries. And that tells us whether or not there's *** blockage there and when you're there, if there's an area that's questionable of how tight it is. We can actually do *** little stress test on the table which is very minimally invasive. So all of these things really give you *** good idea what's going on in the heart. Yes, absolutely. I would say gold standard would be the heart catheterization. It also gives us an opportunity when we do that that we can fix you at the same time. Now it does depend what we end up finding and how advanced your diseases. And in terms of treatment what has changed what's new? Yeah. There's *** great there's so many new technologies being developed. I think the latest technology is *** specialized balloon called shockwave. Originally *** similar sort of concept was or designed for those patients suffering kidney stones. It breaks up the calcium and they were able to incorporate that into the technology that they use for heart arteries and it can crack calcium. It's *** it's *** ble it's relatively safe. There's very low rate of complications. Additionally we have what we call rotational *** threat to me or devices that can actually drill through the bad build up of calcium and plaque. We have *** lot of different modalities um laser C. S. I there's so many now that um we really try to strategize though depending on how bad your diseases as to what the best treatment modality is for the patient in particular. We often hear about open heart surgery and that is also, yep that still is *** thing and we have wonderful surgeons. They're surgeons all over that can really provide relief to patients to the surgical and the stents are two different routes to go. But certainly getting surgery now doesn't necessarily mean you can't get stents in the future. Vice versa. If you get stents now, it doesn't necessarily mean you can't get surgery in the future. I would say the downside, you know is always the healing or recovery time anytime you're in *** hospital which can be *** little bit longer with surgery but wonderful results still with that and just quickly what's the best way to keep your heart healthy? No, that's an excellent question. Um Really comes down to diet exercise finding ways to relieve stress that are healthy meaning meditation, yoga, walking on the beach, whatever you enjoy it life just get out there and do it. Um But really being focused, you know, many people would advocate for certain diets that are maybe low in the bad fats um and higher in fruits and vegetables and those sorts of things. Well we don't think of it until we have *** problem with our heart footage. It's there doing its job. Thank you dr Davies very much. We appreciate you being here. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for W G *** L eight in focus for all of us at W G ***. L. I'm Susan Spyro and join us again next saturday night at seven o'clock for W G *** L. Eight in focus right after NBC nightly news and you can watch each episode of in focus plus W. G. ***. L. S latest newscast, original programming and more. Just download the very local app and stream for free on Roku and amazon Fire tv.