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Heart Health
By The Chef | May 15, 2008
We are getting our ride on lawn mower this weekend. My husband called his dad to see if he would enjoy it because his yard is much bigger than ours, and he has some heart problems. He turned it down because mowing the lawn is the only exercise that he has been cleared for by his heart doctor.
When it comes to heart health, my father in law has no luck! 12 years ago he had a quintuple bypass and has many heart procedures in the years since. He was recently diagnosed with COPD due to his lifelong smoking and poor heart health. We’ve learned if the man goes in for a stress test, most likely he will be in the hospital later that day for a procedure. This is to help keep his arteries clear to keep him from having a heart attack. But what is frightening is the fact that he is a prime candidate for SCA, Sudden Cardiac Arrest. This is something that has nothing to do with the arteries themselves, but rather with the fibrillation itself. SCA is not brought on by plaque in the arteries, nor is the chance of it lessened by the lack thereof. Yet it affects over 325,000 people per year, and there is only a 7-9% chance of survival! I’m sorry, those are scary odds in my mind!
His brother in law recently underwent a procedure to get an ICD implant and honestly, I would love it if my father in law would do the same. However, with the state of his fragile heart, it really may not be an option for him at all. There is so much information out there, and heart health has come so far over the last 15-20 years, that I’m hoping we’ll have him around for years to come.
Find out if you are at risk for Sudden Cardiac Arrest and do what you can to protect yourself and your family!
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