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Welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host, Melanie Young, and I'm so glad you're joining me. If you have followed the show for the eleven years I've hosted it, you'll know that heart disease is something close to my heart. I have heart disease in my family, and my beloved grandmother, Mimi, died of cardiac arrest. I monitor my heart health carefully and want to provide as much information as you, my women listeners, on how to take care of your heart.
I have a special topic we're going to talk about at the top of this show. It's heart valve disease, which you may not be familiar with, but this is important. Heart valve disease affects more than five million people in the United States States and leads to twenty five thousand deaths each year. Aortic stenosis, the most common form of heart valve disease, affects five percent of people sixty five and oder. So listen up because my show is for
women fifty and older. I am joined by doctor Janet Wright, who is with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who is based in Atlanta and an important source for all information. Doctor Wright directs programmic and scientific efforts for the CDC's Division for Heart Disease and Stroking, as well as policy partnerships and communications strategies to promote cardiovascular health equity and fulfill the division's mission. She received her MD
for the University of Tennessee. I'm a Tennessee girl from Chattanooga, and I'm really happy she's joining us briefly to talk about the CDC's efforts to raise awareness of heart valve disease. Welcome, doctor right.
Melanie, Thank you so much. I'm so thrilled to join you today.
So you know, we all know about cardiac arress a lot of people hear about cardiac arress and stroke and high blood pressure and cholesterol. What is heart valve disease and what does the heart volve.
Do Melanie, let's take a tour of the heart, shall we. I know you have a good understanding of your heart. And by the way, I'm so sorry to hear about your your grandmother, loss of your grandmother in that way and from heart heart disease. But let's open up. Let's go into that beautiful heart. Every heart has four heart valves. They open and close with every beat of the heart. There are little leaflets on each of these heart valves
imagine flags waving in the breeze. And the purpose of these valves is to regulate the flow of blood through the heart, out to the body and up to the lungs. Valve disease occurs when one or more of those heart valves is harmed by several causes that we can talk about. But the heart valve become oddly shapened or thickened or scarred, and that keeps the valve from opening fully, or it may not allow the valve to close well, and therefore
the valve leaks. And bottom line is that heart valve disease can put a strain on the heart and result in health limitations and even complications, including death. So we at CDC are on the case to raise awareness about this and to help people get the care they need.
Well, I know my listeners are wondering, am I who is most at risk? And what are some of the causes? I understand it could be congenital, but what else.
Some people are born with a valve that might be mildly misshapened or be dissorted in some way. Pedutricians can pick that up at the time of birth and then follow that child carefully through the rest of their lives. But there are some heart valve problems that we acquire. So one cause is an infection of a heart valve. Sometimes that infection results from trouble with gum disease or an abscess, either in the mouth or in other body parts.
So let me just make a pitch now that if you have stripped throat and a prescribed antibiotics, or if you have an abscess or infection somewhere in a given antibiotics, please take those antibiotics and complete the entire course. The germs that cause that infection can easily get into the blood stream, go through the bloodstream, and set up housekeeping on one of your heart belves. And so the way to prevent that, which is what we're always trying to do, is to make sure you complete that course.
That's important because I know I haven't done that in the past, and I kind of cringe as you say that. So, doctor Ray, who is more at risk? You know? Historically women and Black, Hispanic, Latin, and Asian populations have a higher incidence of certain illnesses, often due to lack of access to proper healthcare or a reluctance to go to doctors.
You bet, And let's start with women. It turns out that and the things that I'm going to say now are not about someone being at elevated risk, but people who belong to subgroups of our population that are less likely to get diagnosed and treated. So women more than men, And this is true for many different forms of heart disease, but it's true in heart valve disease, women more than men are less likely to be diagnosed. Also, people who are black, African American, Hispanic, and Latino or Asian are
less likely to be diagnosed and treated. We don't know all the reasons, but we know that lack of access to care. Sometimes there are issues of the way symptoms are described. There may be some language impediments and other factors end up with an underdiagnosis. And so I want to make sure that your listeners, if they belong to one of those groups and they are women, that they need to make sure they ask about heart valve disease when they are in a clinical environment.
So interesting, most women or patients don't know what to ask, which is what I try really hard to impart in my writing and my shows. So naturally, many people don't even like to go to the doctor. But what are some signs symptoms that you may need to seek medical help and how what is the testing involved.
I have to confess I love the heart. I do believe it is a work of art. It is a thing of beauty. But I have to tell you when it comes to heart vol disease, I would call it sneaky. Heart volve disease can sneak up on a person, and because we are who we are and you mentioned it, Melanie, we tend to dismiss or diminish the symptoms we feel. I want to make sure that your listeners know what
the symptoms of heart valve disease are. So first of all, shortness of breath that seems our proportion to what you're doing. You've climbed these steps, you know, once a day forever, or you've climbed that hill, but you're more short breath, a little more air hungry. That can be a symptom. Secondly, chest pressure or tightness. Maybe it's not pain, certainly not severe, but if it's if it recurs with the exertion, that is absolutely worthy of a discussion with your healthcare professional.
Palpitations where your heart skips a beat or beats fast should register with you. And finally, the symptom that of advanced heart valve disease is a sensation that you're going to pass out, a feeling of dizziness or lightheadedness, or an actual blackout. Any and all of those are worthy of a conversation with the healthcare professional.
And of course, if you're find you're experiencing a lot of those, it may be good to call nine to one one in case it could be you know, something that could be life threatening. You know what you describe, doctor Wright. Are many things that people have when they have panic or anxiety attacks, which I have had. Uh, so it is really important not to brush anything off and say, oh, it's nothing, because it could be. What
are the risks if left well? How do you treat heart valve disease first of all, and then what are the real risks if left untreated?
Yes, so I have very good news about the treatment, and I'll just say at the outset that many heart valve problems do not need specific long term treatment. If you do have a heart valve problem, you may be prescribed antibiotics before you have a procedure, and again you need to get that prescription filled and take those medications to prevent the transmission of germs to your heart valves. But before we get to that, well, and so let
me just go with the treatment for now. Treatment can be medications to control a little fluid retention that occurs with increasing severity of the heart valve problem, or medications to regulate the heart rhythm if that appears to be problematic. If the heart valve disease is advanced, the treatment for years and years has been placement or repair through open heart surgery. Over recent years, several decade and a half or so, now a new procedure is now offered to
people with valve disease. That's a catheter based treatment. The catheter goes in through the leg and the valve is actually replaced in that what non invasive way, does not require surgery. So those are things to keep in mind. But the most important thing is to raise the issue.
If you're having symptoms of these sorts, even if they are subtle, to take those things very seriously and raise them at your regular checkup and make sure you know, Melanie, I want to make sure that when people go in for a checkup with their nurse or doctor that they if the physician does not listen to their hearts, that may be the case if you go in for an elbow problem or an earache, they may not listen to your heart. I'm asking all of your listeners just say, hey,
could you take a listen to my heart. I'm curious whether I have any problem with my heart valve. It takes a couple of minutes to do. Clinicians are skilled at listening for heart murmurs, and we need to ask them to do so so that we make sure we capture heart valve disease and make sure people stay safe.
Ah, you mentioned heart murmur, so I think you mentioned that for the first time heart murmurs tied to heart valve disease.
That's right. The murmur. It's a word that doctors use and nurses use, but it describes the sound that can come from blood flowing through a damaged valve.
Because that's what you know. So listeners, I was told I had a heart murmur and you had to take those antibiotics during dental exams. Is that still the case, because I've heard mixed stories on that.
Yes, there are recommendations about that, and your healthcare professional can determine whether you need antibiotics or not. I've been some recent changes to those recommendations.
Right, because I haven't done it in quite some time, so it's kind of interesting. So what can consumers do to reduce their risk other than discussing this and having their heart check with their medical practitioner and taking those antibiotics when they're prescribed in full, what else can they do it can reduce.
Their risk, that's right. So daily oral hygiene is really important. This gets back to regular dental checkups, flossing, and making sure that if you do have an issue with your oral hygiene, that you seek help for that and then getting those regular checkups is just key.
Well you know, who would have thought that oral hygiene is tied to heart health, but it is and other things as well. So where can my listeners go to learn more about heart velve disease? Because we all know you have to have trusted sources. Don't just go googling around internet. You've got to go to trusted sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So I think there's a toolkit you have now for I know, medical people, medical folks, but what about regular folks.
Yes, and in fact, I'm so pleased that we produce these resources to be helpful to individuals, regular individuals like you and me, as well as healthcare teams. So those are all available, including videos and patient stories at CDC dot gov backslash Know your Heart.
Well, I think that's so important, and as I said, listen to real doctors and credible sources, not just moving around on internet, you know, So it's really really important. I know time is limited with you, doctor Wright, You're very busy. So we've been speaking with doctor Janet Wright, who directs programmic and scientific efforts for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, And as always, you have a great heart and you've got to take good
care of it. So thank you for sharing this information with us today. I'm fearloss fabulous you.
Thanks so much for getting the word out.
My pleasure. Thank you, doctor Wright, thank you so much, and for my listeners. I hope that was really really important. I just want to do a little follow up chatting with you about some things that you can do to improve your overall health because, as I said at the top of the hour, my grandmother, Mimi Rose Weiner, died of cardiac arrest. It actually changed my life and how I approach a lot of things in life, including doing
this show. Is in living life on your terms. She was having what she called an anxiety attack, maybe a little indigestion, so she went in thinking she was having what she called an esophagus attack because she has gastro esophagal had gastroesophagal reflux disorder, as do my mother, as did I, and often the symptoms when they have a flare up of gird mimic a heart attack. Unfortunately, what
my grandmother did have was cardiac arrest. And it's important to understand while we were talking about heart valve disease, which is also in late terms medical terms, a heart murmur, heart attack, and cardiac arrests can happen at any age. It's not an old person's it's really episodic. It's not even a disease. Our cardiac cardiovasco disease can happen at any age. I'm going to say that cardiac arrests is when your heart goes into your basic heart failure and
can kill you. And sadly, I have too many people I know my age in the early sixties who have died of cardiac arrest. It is so important to know the symptoms. It is so important to seek help. And most importantly, if you think you were having a cardiac arrest or any kind of heart incident where you can breathe, you start to pass out, you have shortness of breath, the room is spinning. I have been there. You call
nine to one one. You are not a hyperchondriac. Don't let people tell you it's nothing and just calm down, even if it's a panic attack, seek help. And I'm saying that firsthand because I've had to go to the
er twice thinking I was having a heart attacks. Granted it was a panic attack, but you know, I feel all the better that I did, because the day I don't do that, the day I don't call nine one one because I think I'm having a heart attack and someone says, don't worry, it's nothing but a stress attack, that will be the day I have cardiac arrest. So
what can you do? Well, First of all, as doctor Wright said, and what I want to echo, it is very important that you do not skip your annual medical exams, and that is so important. And when you go to your doctor, your primary care physician, you go with a checklist. You don't ask them to do the checklist. You go with the checklist head to toe. You want your blood check, Do you want your cholesterol check, do you want your
heart check? Do you want you know? You ask if you can get an echo, cardiogram, an ectocardiogram, ask for a stress to say I want to have the following because I am over fifty, or I have had symptoms, I have family history, know your family history. Go in with a checklist and say is it time for me to have these exams? I just did this with my new primary care physician. I went in with my checklist and I now have a whole list.
Of things that I'm going to be scheduled to do, including tattah, blood cholesterol, bone density scan, a comprehensive metabolic panel, antibiody panel, lipid panel, rheumatire factor.
Because I have rheumatoid art writers in my family, I asked for everything and fortunately I had a doctor who took the time. Thank you doctor Wan vernalon Wan at Touro Clinic who sat down and listened. If your doctor is not giving you the time to sit down and listen and take the time to request these tests, and maybe it's time to get a new doctor. Just all I'm gonna say, Because a doctor's job is to make sure that you remain in optimal health. Now that's going
to the doctor. What can you do every day to protect your heart? It's as simple as many other things to protect the other parts of your health. Okay, first of all, Number one, Number one, get moving. Sedentary living is harmful to your health. You must get at least forty five minutes of exercise a day, even if it's your ten thousand steps of walking. Move your body and try to make it cardiovascular movement, not just you know, a leg lift here. I love pilates, but let me
tell you something. I love pilates for strengthening and time owning and stretching and making me feel ten feet taller than I am at my five foot foot three. But I swim, I do brisk walks. I try to join my husband biking. Do something to get your heart going. Number two, and I'm doing the dews before the do nots. Do embrace a healthy diet that means lean protein, greens, whole grains, minimize saturated fat, so healthy fats, monoym. They're
saturated fats, minimal process food, ultra processed food. Excuse me, it's filled with sugar and salt and chemicals. Go green. It's also frankly less expensive. We all know how expensive food is these days, right, So I, you know, stop eating meat. It's my choice. I don't want to eat saturated fat. I don't even like the taste of meat. I have a greens focused I love vegetables, so eat a lot of vegetables. Probably two thirds of what I eat is vegetables. And then I do either whole grains
and lean protein. What is lean protein fish. I do follow the Monterey Bay aquariumseafood watch dot org, which constantly is updated on what fish are good and safe to eat versus questionable versus do not. It's not necessarily do not because of health. It could be due not because of environmental issues or overfishing. But seafood watch dot org is a great source. Also the Dirty the Clean fifteen, and the Dirty dozen lists which you can find. You can find on the internet. It's a great source. But
healthy eating, so embrace more exercise and movement. If you don't like the word exercise, let's call it movement and healthy eating. Free get enough sleep, turn off the TV, turn off the phones, put them phones in the other room, and get a good night's sleep. I've learned not to even you know, because I work for myself. I don't even set the alarm. I get enough sleep seven hours, as I doal eight hours is optimum. If you don't get enough sleep, try to have a little thirteen minute
cat nap in the middle of the day. Thirteen minutes. It could be part of your lun shower, thirteen minutes just to catch up before watch your stress. Try to rechannel all that amazing stress energy that can be detrimental and make it positive energy. So if you feel stress, go take a walk. If you feel stressed, go bake a cake. If it feel stress, go call a friend. If you feel stressed, take out your kids or your dog for a walk. Channel that energy and try to
reduce your stress. Take up yoga. It's great for heavy breathing exercises to moderate your stress. Identify what stresses you out and try to tailor it or edit it out of your life if you can. And more importantly, if you can't handle the stress and you're feeling overwhelmed, seek help. It's good to seek help. Everybody probably should have a therapist at some point in their life. Now let's talk about the no nos. No smoking, do not smoke, and
do not start. It's a direct cause of many major illnesses, including heart disease. Okay, do not smoke. And again, why spend the money smoking when you can spend it on something else. Alcohol. There is a lot of information and misinformation and debate on how much beverage alcohol, as in a glass of wine, two glasses of your man, or a small one point five ounce glass of heart alcohol like whiskey or bourbon, or whatever or beer. There's a
lot going on with that right now. The World Health Organization is saying no amount of alcohol is good for you. Then there's team reports and research studies. A moderate amount is okay for you. I follow the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet does say moderate amounts of alcohol, preferably with meals like a glass of wine. Know your risk, know your limits. If it's not making you feel good to consume alcohol, then don't. It's okay, but you should not.
According to the current dietary guidelines, which are subject to change in twenty twenty five, it's one five or six ounce glass. I think it's five or six ounce glass of wine for women and two for men a day max. Okay. If you do drink alcohol, have days where you don't. David and I are wine writers, so we drink. You know, we have wine. We drink. We share a bottle of wine at dinner. Sometimes it's two glasses for him, two glasses for me, or maybe three glasses for him and
one glass for me. But we also have nights where we just have water, you know, we dry out, and we just we try really hard not to overdo it. Finally, perhaps you time for yourself and enjoy family and friends, and realize that life is short. It is simply a passage in a journey, and enjoy every moment. And go and make sure you are seeing your doctors. Make sure that you understand your family history. Make sure you, as doctor Wright says, make sure you take those antibiotics when
they're prescribed. Don't be half half about taking your pills. And as always, just understand that if there's something going on in your body or your brain that doesn't feel right, go get help. No one wants to be taken by surprise by being diagnosed with a major illness. And my heart breaks whenever I read about yet another person in my age group or younger or older. But really my age group are younger who is dropped out of a
sudden health incident. When I see that in the paper, I freeze because I know it's probably a heart attack. We didn't talk about stroke. I had a terrible My husband had a terrible scare several years ago. He had a health episode that mimicked a stroke and it wasn't, but boy, oh boy, I knew the signs. And when I saw his face starting to droop and his speech starting to slur. I said, we are going straight to
the emergency room at Vassar Hospital, which we did. We got off a train from New York and did it because I knew that it could be life threatening. It was not a stroke. It ended up being something called adam a cute, which is a whole other thing. But I am so glad that I knew the signs and said I am taking you to the doctor. Stroke can also be a sudden stroke. Sadly, a very famous chef, very famous chef, died of a stroke recently, and it just made me think long and hard about the symptoms.
So what are the signs of a stroke? Signs and symptoms of a stroke? Again, if you have any questions, go to CDC dot gov. This is the signs of symptoms of stroke in men and women. One sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm our, leg, especially on one side of the body. You may see a face drooping. That's a sign. Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or difficulty understanding speech. Two three sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
Four sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or lack of coordination. Five sudden severe headache with no no cause. If you have any of those symptoms, call nine to one one. They call it act fast fast. To act fast, look at the face, ask the person to smile. If if you think someone's having us broke, act fast fast do this f face. Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face drew a arms? Ask the person to raise both arms? Does one arm drift downward?
S speech? Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is the speech slurred or strange t time? If you see any of these signs, call nine one one right away. Do not drive the person to the hospital or let someone else drive you. Call nine one one for an ambulance so that medical personnel can begin life saving treatment on the way to emergency room. That is the number one reason if you see that a loved one is having a medical a major medical incident, do not drive
that person in the hospital. Called nine one one because they can start life saving treatment on the way to the emergency room. The last thing you want to be doing is carrying a loved one in your car in traffic when they could have been getting help. Okay, there are many other aspects tied to heart conditions, that you need to be aware of. We talked about heartfile disease, we talked about stroke, we talked about cardiac arrest. There's
also high blood pressure. There is high cholesterol. My husband is on a high blood pressure medication. I am on a high cholesterol. You must watch your intake of salt and sodium, which is just everywhere in processed food. But it's also salt and sodium seems to be very high in restaurants and airline food. So if you're traveling, ask for the low and you were lucky enough to have a meal and ask for the low sodium, ask for a low sodium airplay meal, or bring your own snacks.
Most ultra processed food has a lot of hidden sugar and sodium, Sodium meal salt is a preservative, so of course it's in there because most older processed foods have preserves. Right, Watch your cholesterol. That's saturated fat. This is another tricky one because it could be everywhere. It could be in your buttery foods, it can be in your creamy foods.
There are hidden fats everywhere. If you have any concerns or questions about being able to be on top of your diet, consider working with a health coach or nutritionists who specializes a health coach who specializes and holistic nutrition. It is not peddling supplements. Did you hear me? Work with a health coach who is working on helping you implement healthy changes that you can manage in your diet, lifestyle, exercise, and habits without pushing you to purchase supplements. Supplements are
not magic pills. If you are being prescribed supplements maybe a vitamin D three, your doctor should be doing it. Okay, save the money, make the changes naturally. A nutritionist, a registered dietitian, a nutritionists certify nutritionness is another way to go. They will help you create a weekly diet and budget to work within your financial situation and keep you. They will be your partner to make sure you stay on it. Because it's always great to start a diet and embrace
a healthy diet, but it's really easy. It's a slippery slope. You can slip off it fairly quickly. How many times have my husband I said, oh, we're not going to drink any wine on this vacation. The first we do is go out by white. We're not going to have any snacks and nauss and the next thing you know, there come the chips. So it's really easy to slip into the habits that you're trying to break. So it's really good to have an accountability partner with a health
coach or a nutritionist someone to help you. So again, heart disease, anyone can be at risk at any age. Obviously, your risk increases as you get older. If you have family history, if you were overweight, if you are smoking, if you have an unhealthy diet and not moving, it increases your risk. We talked about with doctor Wright the fact that many minorities, women, Black Americans, Asian Americans, Latinas have a higher risk of incident of many illnesses, including
heart disease. A lot of that could be family history, a lot of it could be lifestal, but a lot of it is also that they don't make the time to go to the doctor. You may not trust the doctors. My mother hated going to a doctor. I had to drag her to them. You may not have time, but you only have a limited amount of time on this
earth to live a healthy life on your terms. So why wouldn't you invest that hour, that half a day, whatever it takes to stay healthy for the rest of your life and at least know that if there's something going on, you can get on top of it and address it before you can't address it and it's too late. Okay. You take the time to do other things in life. You take the time to go to your pilates, glass, you take the time to you know, go to your
kids junior league, whatever you're doing. Take the time for you and with that mind, I'm going to wrap up this show. It's another edition of Fearless Fabulous Shoe and my message is always you have one great life to live and one amazing person that's you. So choose to live your life in good health on your terms, be vigilant about it, stay who you are every day of your life, and always choose fearless and fabulous. I'm Melanie Young. Thank you very much.
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