American Heart Association

Scotty and Hannah talk to Sarah Fedele and celebrate 100 years of the American Heart Association

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Carolina Cares. It's ScottieBlaisdell and Hannah Tyler and Sarah Fideli's here
again. Hello, Hello, thankyou for having me. You're glad you're
here. American Heart Association, andI understand it's a big important time for
you, guys. We are reallyexcited. It's our hundredth birthday this year.
That's one hundred years of saving livesfrom heart disease and stroke. You

(00:22):
don't look a day over twenty nine, you know. I love that response.
I can hear that every day.And if power of modern medicine.
Right, she's been around this long, right, looking good for my age.
So let's talk about the American HeartAssociation one hundred years ago compared to
today. Where were we at onehundred years ago? Oh my gosh.
So since over the last hundred years, we've actually cut the deaths by heart

(00:47):
disease where cardiovasca the disease in half. So that's just it's a tremendous accomplishment
to be able to say that we'vecut the deaths by half. Doesn't mean
that we don't have heart disease andstroke has a huge issue. But the
fact is people are surviving. Youknow, there's treatments, there's advancements,
this research, it's really made abig difference. But it all kind of
got started on June tenth, nineteentwenty four, at the Dracotel in Chicago,

(01:11):
with six cardiologists that sat down andfigured out they were going to solve
the mysteries behind heart disease. Wow. I did not know that. Wow.
Okay, So six folks just decidedto let's get together. This is
facing our world, really, yes, and for the first time, let's

(01:32):
really focus in on this particular issue. And because they were cardiologists, obviously
they knew a little bit then that'sright, but not nearly as much as
we know today. But humble beginnings, right, absolutely there enough was enough.
They're like, let's let's really puta laser focus on kydiovascular disease.
Was there? I'm going to askyou a doctor question. Is there something

(01:56):
that was really misunderstood about the heartat the beginning of the organization that just
seems obvious to us now? Ithink a lot would seem obvious to us
now just because of all the researchand advances that have been done. And
we can talk about that more too. Around like prevention and what that has
really changed the face of the AmericanHeart Association as well. But I mean,
if you think back then, evenfifty years, if you don't go

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back Scott, if you don't evengo back one hundred years, you go
back fifty years, right, right, heart attack was kind of a death
sentence, you know, a strokeit was a death sentence. You know.
Nowadays you can have a heart attackand be back to work in six
weeks, you know what I mean. It's just crazy. The difference with
the quality of life and the hopefor the future that has come from those

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advancements. I wonder, and Idon't know the answer. That's why I'm
wondering. We have CPR now,was was there an early version of that?
Is that something that came along inthe as the years went on as
well? Hundred years ago, NoCPR one hundred years ago, No eighties
years ago, No bypassurgery, youknow, one hundred years ago, like

(03:02):
heart transplants. I mean, allthose things that you kind of think are
Jake for granted, Yeah, youtake for granted. One hundred years ago,
there was no blood pressure medications,you know, there weren't cholesterol medications,
there weren't blood sugar medications. Therewas no tie to tobacco, smoking,
right, and cardiovascular disease. Iremember seeing videos of doctors smoking,

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you know, and it's just itjust seems so out of place. Yeah,
and yet it wasn't that long ago. Really it's not. And you
know, a lot of that comesdown to the research, you know,
research from the days. We've hadfive point seven billion dollars in research from
the American Heart Association focused on cardiovasculardisease over the last hundred years, So
five point seven billion. That's onlysecond to the federal government. So it's

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just it's incredible because that research hasto happen to find out where those connections
are and to find out how westop that heart disease and stroken tracks.
It's crazy to think about one hundredyears ago, these doctors, what they
sat down and these are our problems, right, and maybe it could be
something as simple as like, well, what are the signs of a heart
attack, let's get them all together. And now so much of it is

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I don't want to say common knowledge, but you're like, oh, I'm
feeling I should be concerned. Youat least know when it's time like,
okay, I need to call ninetyone. It's not time to go take
a nap or relax, and youknow when you need to take a day
off of work. You now knowwhat those signs are for heart disease,
and you know when a stroke,what the signs of a stroke are.
And that all comes from that education, that research over the one hundred years,

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and just because we're talking about itright now, what are some of
the initial signs if you are havinga heart attack? Sure, so heart
attack, a cardiologist who's a friendhad said one times, it's not really
that classic like grab your left arm, fall off the horse thing you saw
on the old cowboy movies. Youknow, you clutch your chest and fall
off the horse. It's not reallythat. So heart pressure right is still

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and pain in the chest, it'sstill kind of a key fact or a
key symptom for a heart attack,but can also be anywhere in the upper
body. So it can be thatodd back pain that you just woke up
with that comes from nowhere. Itcould be nausea, it could be jaw
pain. You know, it couldbe extreme fatigue, like if you normally
take the stairs in your new awesomebuilding, you take the stairs and it's

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all it's all good, and thenall of a sudden you realize you have
to stop and hold on the railand pause breathe. Shortness of breath is
another big one. So these areall signs that you know, that's an
issue, that's a heart attack,that's where you got to get in there
and actually talk to your primary careor if it's an emergency, you need
to go to nine on one.Well, I think that's part of it
too. A lot of it iswe think, oh, this is a

(05:40):
little thing, this is a littlething, and maybe we wait until it's
too late. Part of it's pride, part of it is just I've had
this before and it was gas.Don't want to I don't want to make
too much of nothing. Yeah,and that'll get in the way of getting
the help we need. Part ofit's embarrassment too, You go, well,
what if I go and if Icall an ambulance and it's nothing,
then I may have wasted money onit. You know, I worried my

(06:04):
family, I worried my spouse.But then really we think that what happens
if you don't Yeah, if youdon't do it, that's the thing,
and when it comes to those littlersymptoms, it's about knowing your own body.
It's what we really focus on.You know, how your breath normally
is. You know, if youyou know, okay, well maybe I

(06:24):
worked out at the gym too hard. Well maybe then you wait a few
days and see if that pain goesaway in your back, you know.
But if it's out of nowhere andyou're seeing the symptoms come together, you
really need to go and see attention, get attention. I do want to
quick go back. You're talking aboutthe symptoms, and I don't know if
this is true or not, sowe're gonna like debunk some myths here.
I like that side or signs ofa heart attack in women different than men.

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Is that true? So they womenoften have more of the unusual signs,
so they may still present with pressurein the chest. I've heard women
describe it as a burning in thechest, tightening in the chest right,
So you could still present the sameway and men. Men typically present more
often with the classic signs of heartattack. Women are more common to have

(07:09):
shortness of breath, okay, jawpain, fatigue. So that's one of
the reasons why we still lose morewomen to men to heart attack. It's
because the signs are harder to identify. It's easier for us to pass it
off. It's easier for us tomake excuses around what those signs are.
And that's a living So if Heavenforbid Scott, he had a heart attack,

(07:30):
he grabbed his chest and you're notdebating whether or not he needs an
ambulance, right, But if youhave these signs, Hannah coms and you're
like, I'm just not feeling good. I feel safe to my stomach.
Maybe I got a cavity. Idon't know. I just sat down my
desk and I'm sweating. For Whyam I sweating for no reason? Is
it menopause? Like? What doyou think about? All these different ways

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of what it could be? Andthen what happens. You go in you
find out that Hannah's had a heartattack for three days. Wow. So
that's the difference why we lose morewomen one of the reasons why we lose
more women to men than men toheart attack. Sarah's with the American Heart
Association. They're celebrating there one hundredyears in existence. I liked something you
mentioned a minute ago about blood pressureissues. Because that's another one of those

(08:20):
factors when it comes to heart issuesas well. And that's something I personally
have struggled with. And I thinkabout people earlier in my family, my
family tree, if you will,and how they wouldn't have even been aware
that this was an issue until youhad a stroke or until you had a
heart attack. But we get bloodtests, we go get physicals, We

(08:43):
have doctors that ask questions that wouldhone in on something before something bad happens.
I feel like we're so blessed tolive right now. Do you think
about what it would have been liketo go to a physician, you know,
and you work with the best whatyou have at the time, but
to visit a physician just that something'swrong but it's not catastrophic one hundred years

(09:07):
ago versus if you go today andyou're like, I'm just not kind of
feeling right. The first thing you'regonna do is check yourloo pressure, right,
you know, and then they're gonnago have you checked it regularly?
You know, what's your average bloodpressure? Like, they're gonna look back
in your files. They didn't doany of that, right, you know.
So it's just it's really interesting soeven beyond the medication we talked I
mentioned briefly about prevention. So that'ssomething that has really been huge in the

(09:30):
American Heart Association over the last twentyyears. It's not just about how can
we develop the next how can wehelp support the next advancement, the next
procedure, the next medication, orfind the next relation correlation between something in
life and how it affects your heart, right, but how can we also
prevent it so that how can wegive you the information that you need?

(09:54):
Right, So you go, wait, I do have a history of high
blood pressure in my family. Ilost my my husband actually lost his father
at forty four. Oh, therewas a huge history of high blood pressure,
but at the time it was notyou know, men didn't focus on
that. Yeah, you didn't seehis primary care all the time, you
know. So it's just it's justit's one of those things where it's like,

(10:16):
now, if we can get peoplethe knowledge to know what you need
to know about your own heart healthand how to fix it, Like you
know that you don't have to goon blood pressure medication. But maybe it's
working out more. Maybe it's watchingyour diet and it's watching your sodium,
it's education and so often, andI do not mean to sound ageist at
all, but in your head it'sheart attacks, high blood pressure, stroke,

(10:39):
it's oh, that's for older people. When I get older, then
don't worry about that. But hereyou're talking about forty four. I mean,
I have a friend who had astroke when she was in her mid
twenties. So it's not just anold man's game. For lack of a
better term, Yeah, Unfortunately,it doesn't discriminate. Heart disease and stroke
don't discriminate. And you know,different walks of life, there's different risk
factors that that tie into it.So the big thing we can do is

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around awareness and knowing your own bodyand seeking that information so that you can
go see a physician when you needto. You can work on your risk
factors. And that's a big differencefrom now to back then or you didn't
go until something dire was happening.So I watched this professional segue, Hannah.
So you mentioned pro work, youmentioned the different walks. There's a

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walk that's coming you go. Iam so impressed. I just we need
a moment to pause. Something.Old lady had a lot of coffee that
was I was impressed with that one. That was great. But a big
Heart Walks coming up, isn't it. Yes, we have our Tried Heart
work coming up. It's on Saturday, October fifth, and it's out at
Tried Park. This is the secondyear we've been out there and I'm just

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really really excited and we're excited tohave you guys out there as well.
I really enjoyed the hosts last yearwere so funny. So well, yeah,
we'll be out there hosting again.And this is something where you can
sign up as an individual or youcan get a group together. Absolutely,
some people join in with their companies, some people it's just like a family

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and friends kind of team, andsome people just sign up to come out
and walk. And in the endit is a fundraiser, so we do
hope you raise some money to helpfund research and local programming around cardiovascular disease
with a Heart Association. But it'salso about we want to get people out
and get people moving. Like lastyear, if you remember, we had
about five thousand people out there andit was just an incredible time. We
have boosts around folks on around survivors, you know, when honoring survivors of

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cardiovascular disease. It's also you know, in memorial for people that we may
have lost. But then there's apuppy area and there's a kid zone.
Just there's so much to do thatwe really were excited about it. Can
I bring my dog with this year, who has a heart condition? Absolutely?
Okay, perfect. As a matterof fact, that's one of the
things I remembered last year was somany fluffalupgus is were there. It's fantastic.

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He can't walk too much now becauseof his heart condition, but I'll
bring his little wagon. Wave willput him in. You know, some
of the dogs that come in areso cute because then they also kind of
dress up. They'll dress them upand they're red and you know when they've
got the red bandanas, and it'sjust part of the whole day. And
from a health perspective, we'll alsobe sharing health information, CPR demos,
just all sorts of things you cando to really work on that prevention part

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of heart disease and stroke. AndI know your website is a great resource
for all different connected services, notjust the walk and not just the medical
stuff, but even ways to gettogether with other people dealing with these kind
of conditions as well, Why don'twe turn folks onto that as well?

(13:43):
The website to get it in touchwith you. Sure, the best website
to really find out what we're doinglocally is just heart dot org slash triad
and that's the way you can findout what local programs are, what are
we doing in the barbershops? Howis that focused on blood pressure? Just
where can I learn CPR? Soheart dot org slut's tryad is a great
website to go to for general informationabout what we're doing and how you can

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get involved. If you want tofind out more about the heart walk and
we get our main sponsors our NomontHealth, Cone Health and med Cost so
we'll have all the information of allthe activities happening. They can just go
to try at heartwalk dot org.Okay, so super easy. Try at
heartwalk dot org and then they canfind out you know, walk event starts
at ten, walk starts at eleven, what to where, tips, tips

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for yes you can bring your dogs? All that's on. Tried heartwalk dot
work. I know last year welayered and it got warmer and warmer as
that they went on because that timeof year. You never know, right,
keep taking off light players. That'sright, fabric players. You can
also go to the website you canmake donations if you want to support the

(14:48):
American Heart Association. One hundredth anniversary. Happy anniversary to the American Heart Association.
That's Sarah Fideli. Thanks for comingin. Thank you so much.