This February is the 57th consecutive American Heart month, a month dedicated to bringing recognition to heart disease.
Did you know that according to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the number one killer of Americans? No—not many people do.
You aren’t given a set amount of time, and the time you do have can’t be traded later. Based on data that the American Heart Association gathered in 2018, someone dies every 36 seconds. If you do the math, that is 2,380 a day and 868,700 a year.
Having someone in your family with heart disease makes it more likely that you get some form of heart disease. Little unknown fact, what you eat, do and what you’re around can impact your probability of getting heart disease.
Not all heart diseases are life threatening, and they don’t always mean you have to get a transplant. High blood pressure is a form of heart disease. Taking care of yourself helps to manage it and lowers the risk of it getting worse.
I am three times more likely to get heart disease than someone my age. Knowing that and facing that can be scary, but I will never let that stop me.
I come from two families where heart disease is an issue. Both my parents have faced heart disease. One had an okay ending, and the other, not so much. I am not telling my story for pity or for attention, I am telling you because heart disease is terrifying and it is often overlooked, but most importantly it is real.
When I was 18 months old, my dad died from congestive heart failure (CHF). Now, my father was no saint. He drank and smoked, which made it harder for his heart to pump. He suffered with this for most of his adult life, and it only got worse with time.
Because of heart disease, my father not taking the best care of himself, and the fact that my father had a chance of getting heart disease genetically, I never got to know my father. That alone made me passionate for the cause, but that wasn’t the end of my interactions with heart disease.
My mother also suffers from CHF, but unlike my father she also suffers CAD (coronary artery disease). She has high blood pressure and has stents in her heart to help it pump effectively. My mother stopped smoking to take care of herself and is luckily still alive, but these diseases are ever present and are on a long list of other diseases she faces. Heart disease is something she has to consider in everything she does.
Throughout my life people that I know and love have battled heart disease and more people than I would like to admit were taken from me way too soon. My freshman year hear at Monmouth, I learned that a family friend that I have known my whole life died from a broken heart. That might seem made up, but broken heart syndrome is a real thing. In broken heart syndrome, a part of your heart temporarily enlarges and doesn’t pump well. Tommy had lost his wife just weeks before and the stress of losing the woman he loved caused his heart to break.
Those two men, my father and my friend Tommy, were two goodbyes said too soon due to heart disease.
Too many people are uneducated on heart disease. That is why I wrote this and that is why I fight. I will not be another statistic.
IMAGE TAKEN from Edward-Elmhurst Health
