we're kicking things off with our story of inspiration let's meet a local woman
who hopes be an example of why exercise is important when it comes to heart
health deb Granard loves to hike I found that the more I've been outside the more
I enjoy being outside so I enjoy being out there you know in the nature and my
body feels better but several years ago she found herself struggling to keep up
I was finding that was harder I was short of breath I was having a bit of
chest pain and people that were much older than I was
we're just you know hiking right beyond me
so that started to get concerning I thought well you know this there's
something going on here and I need to get this checked out Deb went to her
doctors for cardiac testing and learned that what she was dealing with was
coronary micro vascular disease
coronary micro vascular diseases disease of the small vessels that is more common
in women actually these are the small vessels within the heart that dive into
the heart muscle and supply the heart muscle what happens is that they are
narrowed and there's not enough blood supply getting to the heart the heart is
a muscle and it just has to be fed like every other muscle and if you overwork a
muscle and you don't get enough oxygen to your muscle you're gonna get pain
sometimes it's commonly referred to as the elephant sitting on your chest mine
wasn't quite the elephant but there is definitely pressure that I could feel to
treat symptoms that's the most important thing anytime you have chest pain
especially with activity or chest pain that occurs a trust with sweating and
nausea that needs to be checked out first dr. mendelsohn worked with Deb to
find medications to help her the medications we use in the setting of
micro vascular disease can't open up the arteries and improve blood flow if a
woman has improved blood flow she's gonna have less symptoms of pain I carry
my medication with me even as I walk and I medicate at that time when I'm feeling
the symptoms next Deb had to keep up a regular exercise routine exercise really
made a difference I walked that lakefront as many times a week as I can
manage it's it's a beautiful walk and I try to just go ahead and schedule it in
my day so with exercise what happens is whether you have blockages in the big
artery or in a small artery it causes people to grow more arteries and improve
the blood supply it causes the heart to become more efficient and that way
there's not as much extraction even of the muscles themselves of oxygen with
every heartbeat the final step for Deb was making some major dietary changes I
stopped eating quite as much meat especially red meat and much more
vegetables legumes nuts it was just feeding my body in a better
way and we like patients to avoid meat and cheese because increasing the
cholesterol just adds in the fat in the blood particularly ads just to the whole
problem all these changes have helped Deb get back on the hiking trail I
refuse to let it beat me I'm doing a lot better
I can walk much farther so that has improved so I can do more I actually can
do more I sleep better I would say that some of the fatigue that I I was feeling
before I don't have anymore she is extremely proactive about her health
she's an ideal patient she understands that she reports symptoms educate
yourself take care of yourself and recognize what these symptoms are and do
everything you can because there are a lot of things that you can do to improve
your life and how you feel this is the face of chronic heart disease
I have limitations but I'm out there pushing it and doing everything that I
can do it I don't want it to stop me from doing those things