COLLEGE STATION, Texas — February is heart month and it’s a time to raise awareness about such a powerful organ we simply cannot live without. According to the CDC, one person dies every 37 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease.
“Heart disease in general is the number one killer of men and women. A lot of people think it’s cancer, breast cancer, it’s not. It’s heart disease. And the way our culture is moving, I’m sure we’ve all seen things about more obese people and diets that support a busy lifestyle. These all create factors for heart disease,” said CHI St Joseph cath manager Katie Kinman.
People are susceptible to several different kinds of heart disease.
“You can have an enlarged heart, which is cardio myopathy, you can have heart failure, which is a weak heart, you can have coronary artery disease, which is blockages in those vessels,” said Kinman.
One thing CHI St. Joseph specializes in is heart failure. The Bryan campus has a clinic to treat and monitor patients with a weak heart.
“Heart failure is basically the heart muscle is weak, and it’s no longer strong enough to squeeze and push the blood all over to profuse the tissue in your body. So once that muscle is weakened, it’s not gonna grow back, it’s not gonna get better. But with medication and devices and the proper care, we can maximize and improve the care of these patients,” said Kinman.
The heart failure clinic helps patients to have a more active and healthier lifestyle.
A cath lab, such as the examination rooms at CHI St. Joseph, allows staff members to implant devices that improves heart function, helping different parts of the heart to contract at the same time.
Certain demographics and lifestyles may also put you at higher risk of a weak heart.
“High risk would be your smokers, your diabetics, your sedentary lifestyle, low activity, and we’re looking at starting anywhere from mid-forties all the way up to the sixties and seventies. And you get up into the older population, and some of that is just general deterioration of the body, we get old. Our bodies wear down,” said Kinman
Signs and symptoms for early onset of heart failure include increased weakness and shortness of breath. This is because the heart muscle is not squeezing enough and blood cannot be spread throughout your body.
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