Heart Health: A Cause for Alarm

"Medical research has revealed enough about the causes and prevention of heart attacks that they could be nearly eliminated." So why do nearly half a million people die from a heart attack each year? Today's New York Times explores this in a sobering article. Here are some reasons:

• The single biggest delay in treatment is from the onset of symptoms and calling 911. People don't want to be seen as alarmist or don't want to get the ambulance bill.
  
• Most people have a misconception of what a heart attack is from the classic Hollywood portrayal of "a man clutching his chest, grimacing in pain, and going down," when it's often just pressure, heaviness, and shortness of breath, or even discomfort elsewhere in the upper body, including arms, back, neck, and stomach.
  
• Up to 40% of heart attack patients are getting the wrong dose of blood-thinning prescription drugs, usually too high.
• Patients' primary doctors don't get enough information to know they have to fill a prescription.
• Patients stop taking their medication because taking a lot of pills lowers their self-image.

The article and its accompanying sidebars fail to fully explore the ramifications of calling an ambulance every time you feel discomfort in your upper body (say, your arm or your stomach). After all, sometimes a stomachache is just a stomachache. Is the piece saying that one should call an ambulance every time one feels upper body discomfort? There needs to be a sharper criterion for gauging heart attack symptoms, or that gap between heart attack onset and 911 will not narrow.

However, this is an important article. Awareness needs to continue to be raised about heart disease and prevention, or all the technological advances in the world will not lessen its casualty numbers.