BRYAN, Texas — About one in four men and one in five women suffer from cardiovascular disease.
“So many people think heart disease is just old people. And it is really not. It happens to all ages, all races, encompasses men and women,” said CHI St. Joseph physician’s assistant Ellen Sugarek.
Heart disease comes in many different forms and can affect anyone, but it can be prevented or slowed down by maintaining the health of the muscle.
“Keeping your heart healthy is multi-factorial, it is watching your diet, trying to avoid the sugar, the junk food, the fried foods, but outside of that, it’s increased activity, not smoking is super important, and decreasing your stress level overall,” said Sugarek.
Causing stress on your heart may also lead to heart disease.
CHI St. Joseph wants to remind everyone, including young people, to get checked out for early symptoms.
“The risk factors for cardiovascular disease are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or just abnormal glucose levels, and being overweight, or having higher BMI, or smoking. A lot of young people may have one of these and never know it,” said Sugarek.
And these factors may be signs of heart disease, which people may not even know they have.
According to the CDC, 1 in 5 heart attacks is silent, meaning the victim is not aware of it.
“Silent heart attacks occur more frequently than people are aware of. Heart attacks don’t just occur because you have a blockage. They occur for many different reasons and peoples’ symptoms present very differently,” said Sugarek.
There are also different levels of heart attack, which is a result of a lack of oxygen to the heart muscle.
“If you know something is wrong with your body, you need to have it checked out because that goes back to people can have nausea, have indigestion, shortness of breath, you don’t realize it’s a heart attack but they know something is wrong internally. So if you know something is not right in your body, then you go get it checked out,” said Sugarek.
Doctor Sugarek encouraged all to not wait to be checked by a cardiologist. She said with better awareness and people presenting signs earlier, the hospital can do more to help the victim.
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