The heart of the problem

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This article was published 18/02/2019 (1892 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Affairs of the heart generally have little to do with the organ in the chest of most young adults.

But that wasn’t the case for Kathyryne Herminiano.

The 28-year-old pharmacy technician suffered a ruptured sinus of valsalva aneurysm almost a decade ago.

If you’re wondering what that condition is, you’re not alone. Even among physicians, cardiologists included, it’s not easily recognized because it is so rare.

The condition is often fatal when left untreated, so Herminiano is indeed blessed to be alive today. Yet the Winnipeg resident might not have been had she not been persistent in seeking care.

“I was so sick that I was sitting up to sleep and I was coughing up blood,” says Herminiano, who at the time was visiting her boyfriend’s cabin in the Whiteshell.

Returning to the city, she went to emergency where she was told she likely had a mild lung infection and was subsequently sent home.

“I think my concerns were dismissed because I was young, female and otherwise healthy.”

While the medical emergency Herminiano experienced was extremely rare, the challenge she faced in having her symptoms addressed correctly often aren’t. Of course, health-care providers aren’t the only ones who miss signs of trouble in patients who have rare conditions.

Jane and John Q Public are even more likely to dismiss early symptoms of life-threatening cardiovascular distress. In part that’s because we take this vital organ for granted, assuming it will just keep beating — even though, if it stops, we’re effectively dead.

The Heart and Stroke Foundation continuously reminds Canadians to pay closer attention to matters involving our hearts. And February, which is Heart Month, represents a time the non-profit can raise the profile of cardiovascular health even more.

This year, in particular, the organization wants Canadians to understand the heart’s importance, and not just the existential threat it poses when it stops beating. Rather a new study by the organization aims to highlight cardiovascular disease’s connection to brain health.

“People mostly focus on heart attacks and strokes because these are the two most common emergencies,” says Dr. Olga Toleva, an interventional cardiologist at St. Boniface Hospital.

While stroke has long been associated with brain damage, heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems can also negatively affect brain function.

“People who have cardiovascular disease, in general, are at higher risk of cognitive impairment,” says the specialist who provides lifesaving angioplasty procedures, which involve putting stents in the coronary arteries of heart attack patients to restore blood flow to the heart muscle.

Some impairment may be temporary or very mild, but it can still affect individuals’ lives, Toleva says.

“They might, following a heart attack, become depressed, have low energy and less motivation,” she says.

Why this happens remains unclear. But Toleva suggests when the heart’s ability to send nutrient-rich blood to the body, the organs, including the brain, can suffer mild to severe damage as a result.

She says the foundation’s research highlights this connection between mind, body and heart. As well it illustrates the importance of recognizing cardiovascular problems sooner than later.

Therein lies the challenge for many individuals. While most people know the common signs of stroke — slurred speech, sudden headache, dizziness — and heart attack — chest pain shooting into the jaw and down an arm — how individuals experience these life-threatening conditions can vary significantly.

Years ago, Toleva adds, it was widely thought that women, for example, did not even have heart attacks because they did not present typical symptoms. Of course, women do have heart attacks — though their symptoms are often atypical. They might feel like they have indigestion or feel generally unwell. But they may not feel crushing pain in their chest.

Even when women did have chest pain in the past, Toleva says, “the focus was often on conditions other than a heart problem.”

Today, she notes, health-care providers take chest pain and other possible signs of heart attack seriously.

Yet Toleva urges individuals to listen to what their heart may be telling them. In other words, if you feel something is wrong, seek help. And continue to do so if you feel what you’re experiencing is not being addressed properly by health-care providers.

“Be more aware, and advocate for your own health,” she says.

It is a message Herminiano often drives home when speaking with people on behalf of the Heart and Stroke Foundation in Winnipeg.

“I want people to understand that heart conditions can happen to anyone,” says Herminiano, who underwent two open heart surgeries to repair the rupture.

She adds she always had “a hunch” something wasn’t right with her heart before the aneurysm burst.

“While growing up I would have chest pain here and there, but my complaints were dismissed as… growing pains.”

Her tenacity played a critical role in saving her life, and she encourages everyone to be equally as persistent if they believe something is wrong with their heart.

“My message is get it checked out because you’re the person who knows your body best.”

joelschles@gmail.com