Start a Heart-Healthy Lifestyle: There Couldn't Be a Better Time!
Doctors, like the rest of us, like stories with happy endings. Family physicians, internists, cardiologists, and heart surgeons—all of whom treat patients for heart disease—enjoy telling those tales that end happily.
George E. Cimochowski, MD, chief of cardiac surgery at the Wyoming Valley Health Care System, Wilkes-Barre, tells about a successful attorney in his area, once a non-exercising heavy smoker with badly damaged arteries, who did a 180-degree turn in lifestyle. Recently, when someone asked about the man's health, Cimochowski responded: "I think he may now be healthier than you and me."
Steven Ettinger, MD, associate professor of medicine, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, has several similar stories. One of his involves a 37-year-old woman, formerly both a smoker and obese. She was in serious trouble, but exercise and a low-fat diet turned her life around.
Donald Kovacs, MD, a Carlisle family physician, describes a man with an advanced case of coronary artery disease who barely survived a heart attack.
"No one thought he'd get out of the ICU [intensive care unit] alive," Dr. Kovacs says. "But he's doing quite well due to the fact that he's a regular walker-a couple of miles per day."
These kinds of stories, however, represent shafts of light shining through dark clouds. Dr. Ettinger points out that 1.1 million Americans have heart attacks annually. About 480,000 of these are fatal-and not just fatal, but quickly fatal.
"This means," Dr. Ettinger says, "that almost half of them die suddenly before they can receive potentially life-saving treatment."
Dr. Cimochowski adds that the success rate for arterial bypass surgery averages about 97 percent, but he and his colleagues in Wilkes-Barre take more satisfaction from another statistic: a low rate of repeat business.
"We don't have a zero re-operation rate," Dr. Cimochowski says, "but the number of our people who come back after surgery is much lower than the national average. We believe that's because of the strong emphasis by our surgeons, not only the internists and the cardiologists, on a low-fat diet and exercise."
Of course, the reason for eating sensibly and staying active isn't to avoid a second round of heart surgery. It isn't even to avoid the first round. "I think that exercise is one of the most important factors for leading a healthy life," Dr. Kovacs says. "I don't think you can feel really good without being physically fit. That's the point I try to make with my patients."
Living a healthier lifestyle makes you feel good, most of the time, year after year. That kind of story, at least when you're its hero, beats a one-foot-in-the-grave, heart-attack survival yarn any day.
Last Updated: 2/19/2009