{"id":30541,"date":"2022-10-31T11:10:45","date_gmt":"2022-10-31T16:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=30541"},"modified":"2022-11-14T13:47:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T19:47:56","slug":"covid-distracted-us-but-heart-disease-remains-our-1-killer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/31\/covid-distracted-us-but-heart-disease-remains-our-1-killer","title":{"rendered":"Covid Distracted Us, But Heart Disease Remains Our #1 Killer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>About 700,000 of us will die of heart disease every year; most of which&nbsp;is preventable provided we&nbsp;become&nbsp;proactive&nbsp;patients.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But you do need to know that for most \u201cheart patients\u201d, dying does not come quickly, like a dart falling from the sky, fatally nailing you, as you clutch your chest, your friends desperately tapping 9-1-1 on their phones, with you&nbsp;stone-cold&nbsp;by time the ambulance arrives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quick and painless? You should be so lucky.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s say you or your significant other is a typical \u2018heart patient\u2019. After pretty much paying half-assed attention to your doctor\u2019s advice over the years, suddenly somewhere in your 40\u2019s, 50\u2019s or 60\u2019s, you\u2019re told you\u2019ve had a&nbsp;small&nbsp;heart attack.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cJeez? Me? A heart attack?\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019re offered the hospital\u2019s Cardiac Rehab Program. You sincerely mean to start (don\u2019t feel bad, only 20% of eligible patients bother to show up).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now slowly, but inevitably unless you become a seriously proactive heart patient, you will go into a decline ending with a statistically shortened lifespan. Note the&nbsp;\u201c<strong>unless you become a seriously etc. etc.\u201d<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Your symptoms will likely include chest pain with minimal activity, shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, palpitations (arrhythmias), which your doctors will try to treat with pills, then more pills. Maybe surgery, a wheelchair at home, applying for disability, and, if you manage to survive, moving into a&nbsp;long-term&nbsp;care facility. Most patients in long term care facilities have dementia, are stroke victims, or have chronic heart disease.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, at a certain point, many realize they\u2019re just going through the motions of life. Studies have shown <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC5490872\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">about 40% of chronic heart disease patients suffer clinical depression<\/a>, a number that to me seems low.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So let me make myself clear on this and then you can go back to your&nbsp;Cinnabon.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With COVID under (reasonable) control for the time being, and, if you read last week\u2019s press releases, the actual number of cancer deaths are dropping in the U.S., the most likely first line item on your personal death certificate (you do realize you\u2019ll have one,&nbsp;someday, don\u2019t you?) will likely be related to your heart or your vascular system (arteries, like from a stroke).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having practiced internal medicine with a subspecialty in geriatrics before switching careers into integrative medicine, I do know something about what I\u2019ll be telling you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Group A (Where I Want You)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You have been healthy well into your 90\u2019s, hopefully your late 90\u2019s. You\u2019re on no meds but you continue to take your supplements. You\u2019ve toned down your exercise program but certainly haven\u2019t stopped it. You go to sleep one night and are found dead in bed the next morning unless some idiot medical resident tries to resuscitate you, but you\u2019ll have made an advance directive, \u201cDo Not F\u2014k With Me\u201d. This is a nice cardiac death. Wouldn\u2019t mind it myself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Group\u00a0B\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Having\u00a0ignored your doctor\u2019s pleas to stop smoking, lose weight, exercise, the most you\u2019ll do is take the prescribed statin, and that erratically. Your coronary\u00a0Angio\u00a0shows <a href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/04\/congestive-heart-failure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">several blockages<\/a>; you\u2019re scheduled for a quadruple bypass graft surgery. You\u2019ve just signed an operative permit and read the word \u2018death\u2019, and your mouth has become very dry. You\u2019re 63 years old and you swear you\u2019ll stop smoking and even cut back on the Lou Malnati\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the next few weeks we\u2019ll talk about moving from Group B into Group A. This takes work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t expect \u2018nice\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>David Edelberg, MD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 700,000 of us will die of heart disease every year; most of which&nbsp;is preventable provided we&nbsp;become&nbsp;proactive&nbsp;patients.&nbsp;&nbsp; But you do need to know that for most \u201cheart patients\u201d, dying does not come quickly, like a dart falling from the sky, fatally nailing you, as you clutch your chest, your friends desperately tapping 9-1-1 on their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":30543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139,2269,50,187,2347,1975,33],"tags":[1492,2071,852,274],"class_list":["post-30541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiovascular-health","category-covid","category-healthy-lifestyle","category-mens-health","category-preventive-health-physicals","category-respiratory-health","category-womens-health","tag-cardiovascular-disease","tag-cardiovascular-health","tag-heart-disease","tag-heart-disease-prevention"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Covid Distracted Us, But Heart Disease Remains Our #1 Killer.\u00a0<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"About 700,000 of us will die of heart disease every year; 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