Heart health awareness month held in February
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., a balanced diet and exercise can help you live a healthy life.
BOISE, Idaho — February is American Heart Month, where awareness of heart disease and preventing cardiac health complications is raised.
According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 people experience cardiac arrest each year in the United States. Even more startling, only about 10% of those people survive those attacks.
Doctor Marcos Daccarett, an Electrophysiologist with St. Luke’s, said it is best to be preventative with your heart health.
“It’s a very important time for us. Specifically, a majority of the treatments and options that we have for our patients requires self-awareness and requires preventive diagnosis,” Daccarett said.
Symptoms of a cardiac problem include, but are not limited to: chest pains, weight or pressure in the chest, shortness of breath, fatigue, tiredness and inability to do normal tasks.
Once a patient has been diagnosed with a cardiovascular ailment like atrial fibrillation or arrhythmias, Daccarett said there are standard treatments and procedures to help like prescribing blood thinners or ablations where surgeons modify tissue in the heart using heat to prevent harmful electrical signals.
When those standard treatments are not effective, a newer procedure is available.
“In the valley, we were participating in a couple of clinical trials evaluating this newer energy source course called Pulse Field Ablation, that is as effective, if not more effective. There are current treatment strategies, but much safer,” said Daccarett.
Pulse Field Ablation is an inpatient procedure that uses short bursts of high energy or radio frequencies to modify the tissue causing Atrial Fibrillation.
Daccarett said patients recover faster with this new procedure, leading to better outcomes.
“Most of them report improvement in the atrial fibrillation. A lot of those patients were able to stop anticoagulation, and a lot of those patients, universally, we stop medications to control rhythm, which are associated with significant side effects and things that also impair the quality of life,” Daccarett said.
Early detection is key. When you feel something is off or wrong, talk to your primary care physician.
Daccarett says a healthy diet and regular exercise will help prevent serious health issues in the long run.
For more information on St. Luke’s Heart Rhythm Center, click here.
Check out the American Heart Association’s website to learn more about preventing heart disease.
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