The Beat Goes On - Thankfully

The heart is the body’s engine.  Without it, we die; if it is not functioning properly, it can severely affect our lives.  Your heart does amazing things day in and day out. It pumps about 5 litres (8 pints) of blood throughout your body through the arteries and veins. This network stretches over 60,000 miles (almost 100,000 kilometres).

That is enough to go around the world twice.Heart: Thingsmore amazingly, your heart beats over 100,000 times each day. That is about 35 million times in a year. Over an average lifetime, the human heart beats more than 2.5 billion times.

I wrote about the heart earlier in the year:

Unfortunately, we tend to take our hearts for granted. It just keeps on going until one day it doesn’t.

So, on September 29, take a moment to think about your heart.  This day shines a light on the symptoms of heart disease that can go unnoticed until it’s too late.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) kills an estimated 17.9 to 19.8 million people each year.

That is roughly 32% to 33% of deaths worldwide.  Many of these deaths are preventable. 80% of CVD deaths are caused by risk factors that can be prevented or managed. Small changes, like moving more or eating healthier, can greatly improve heart health.

Over 75% of CVD deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

The World Health Organization states that most cardiovascular diseases can be prevented. You can lower your risk of heart disease by changing key habits. Focus on quitting smoking, eating healthier, and being more active.

We've heard it all before.  Eat healthy whole foods, don’t smoke, limit your sugar, fats and salt.  Don’t drink.  Exercise regularly.  Many would ask, “What’s the point of living? I can’t do all of that.  I’ll take my chances.  I am too young to have a heart problem.”

That may be so, but moderating any or all of these behaviours can only help.

At least eight out of every 1,000 infants born in the US each year have a heart defect. About 1 in 20 adults aged 20 and older have CAD (about 5%). Often, doctors don't detect heart defects until later in life.

My wife, for example, had a family history of cardiomyopathy. She wasn't diagnosed until her fifties. Now, she takes medication and adheres to lifestyle restrictions to manage it.  Her step-sister, who also had the disease, simply collapsed one day when she was in her thirties.  She could not be resuscitated.

At the end of July, I got up one night and just collapsed.  I came to on the floor with blood pouring out of a cut on my elbow.  I had collided with the fridge, and the end of my elbow swelled to the size of a squash ball.  Like any red-blooded male (with no brains), I patched myself up and carried on. 

It was only in the following weeks, after I had recurrent chest pains, that I sought medical advice.  I underwent all sorts of tests, and the tests showed that nothing was wrong with my heart.  The cause of the symptoms is still under investigation.

What it did, though, was leave me with real problems with my elbow.  I am about to have my second steroid injection into the bursa to treat a badly inflamed tendon.  It severely hampers my lifestyle because I am left-handed and the affected elbow is on my left side.

It makes me think about about how fragile life is and how essential organs such as the heart need looking after.

World Heart Day teaches people to spot signs of heart issues. It also shows how to protect and care for your heart.

It is also a call on governments to keep funding heart research.

Recent advancements in heart disease treatment include:

• Minimally invasive transcatheter procedures

• New medications like SGLT2 inhibitors

• (dare I say it) AI-assisted diagnostics

These innovations are changing patient care for the better.

All of these improve patient recovery and survival rates. Treating heart valves and other heart problems without open-heart surgery is a remarkable medical breakthrough.

So, on the 29th, spare a thought, even a few minutes, for your heart.

An entry for Mikeydred's Unofficial September Challenge:

Till next time,

Calvin