Beating heart disease—one life at a time

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains America’s number one killer, and as February is American Heart Month there is no better time for us to highlight what is known about CVD in all its manifestations and how we can work together to prevent it.

As co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition, I remain committed to raising awareness of all cardiovascular issues and on the quantity and quality of treatments and preventive education available to all Americans.

{mosads}CVD results in over 600,000 deaths each year—one out of every four deaths—according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In addition to the human cost and suffering, CVD exacts a financial toll on our health care system—the cost is expected to balloon over 20 years from $555 billion to $1.1 trillion by 2035, the American Heart Association estimated in a 2017 report.

There are many forms of CVD, among them: heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, heart failure, arrhythmia, and heart valve disease (HVD).

Some forms of CVD are more understood than others. Heart valve disease—when at least one of the heart’s four valves regulating blood flow is damaged—is one of the lesser understood diseases despite the fact that it affects as many as 11 million Americans and is expected to result in more than 25,000 deaths this year.

Friday, Feb. 22 was National Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day, and we all should know more about HVD, for chances are we or someone we know has it—yet doesn’t know about it.

A heart valve is commonly damaged through hardening—stenosis—or by causing backflow, a “leaky” heart valve. In both of these cases, the heart has to work harder to pump blood. These heart valve defects can exist from birth or can occur with age, and over time if the condition grows more serious the heart is exposed to greater risk.

Symptoms of HVD can include shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness and fainting, heart murmur or shifts in exercise tolerance. If left untreated, serious HVD can result in heart failure, blood clots, stroke or sudden cardiac arrest. 

The condition is especially common in older patients, but certain demographics such as African-Americans can more commonly suffer from it at a younger age. The same factors that increase risk of heart disease—smoking, high blood pressure, or diabetes—can also increase the risk of HVD.

For anyone at risk of heart disease, having important discussions with family members and physicians could be the key to taking a series of actions to prevent this deadly disease. If more people know about this disease, more lives could be saved here.

Simple lifestyle changes such as exercise, a healthier diet, and not smoking can help reduce the risk of HVD as well as other forms of cardiovascular disease. And there is good news on the latest medical treatments available to patients: for those with a heart valve significantly damaged by HVD, surgery or a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) can replace the heart valve and save a life.

Our bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition has pushed for more funding of critical research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to study the causes of all forms of CVD and to advance life-saving treatments. 

We’ve made progress, as we asked for FY 2019 funding increases for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). We got increases of almost $1 billion for NHLBI over FY 2018 levels and over $320 million for NINDS.

We’ve also worked to increase awareness of CVD. I participated in briefings on Capitol Hill on heart health and, last year, I introduced H.Res.752 recognizing CVD “as the global public health crisis of our generation.”

Even with this progress we have more to do—better treatments await discovery and a cure remains the goal. The overwhelming number of Americans who are unaware of HVD—not to mention of CVD in general—should spur us to redouble our efforts to spread the word about heart health, and the need for more research and better treatment.

We must continue to work to promote a heart-healthy lifestyle for ourselves and our loved ones. One conversation is all it could take to start down the road to HVD prevention. I resolve to continue fighting for more funding of research at NIH and CDC and for better education and treatment of patients on all cardiovascular issues.

Smith represents the 4th District of New Jersey. He is co-chair of the Congressional Heart and Stroke Coalition.