Written by Steven Felsundnev | steven@claremont-courier.com

Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but February is American Heart Month, so that’s no reason to stop thinking about heart issues.

Heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States for more than 70 years, but it has steadily declined in recent decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This decline is primarily due to improved understanding of the root causes of heart disease, particularly smoking and high blood pressure.

A fact sheet from the National Institutes of Health lists important factors that promote the heart as getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy weight, eating healthy, being more active, managing cholesterol, and managing stress and blood sugar levels. , blood pressure monitoring, and smoking cessation are recommended. health.

Longtime Claremont resident Carol Wiese would like to add another risk factor to the list. It’s family.

“We came to the conclusion, and were told, that heart health is 90 percent genetic and 10 percent determined by your actions,” Wiese said.

She has a unique perspective on heart disease as she suffered a ‘widow maker’ heart attack on February 22, 2018 while walking in the hills above Claremont and nearly died at the age of 62.

Her husband, Bill, called 911 and she was taken to Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. Her angiogram showed that her three main arteries to her heart were blocked.

“They needed to put in two stents. That’s when I wrote code for the first time,” she said at a June 2019 Claremont College Club meeting. He spoke using terms. “My heart stopped two more times while they were trying to open the artery. Apparently it coded again the next day.”

After two months in the hospital, doctors made the hasty decision to transplant Wiese’s heart and kidneys, saving her life.

Her belief that genetics plays a large role in her heart attacks came from experience. Her twin sister died of a heart attack 14 months before Weise’s collapse. Now, she recommends telling your doctor if anyone in her family has a history of heart disease and monitoring your vitals, including your blood pressure and pulse.

The National Institutes of Health’s dietary plan, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, includes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish, and poultry while avoiding full-fat dairy products, sugary drinks, fatty meats, and sweets. , recommends eating legumes. It also recommends limiting your sodium intake to 2,300 milligrams per week.

The NIH also recommends that adults aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, such as running, each week.

“Sit less! Take the stairs. Park farther away. March in place or walk around,” says the NIH Cardiac Activity Fact Sheet.

It also warns that even occasional smoking can damage the heart.

Before his heart attack, Wiese was no couch potato. In fact, she walked 5 to 7 miles with a group of her friends three times a week and also did Pilates. She also had no common symptoms that indicated her heart attack was imminent. Wiese said she thought her sister had the flu leading up to her heart attack.

Wiese has changed his diet, ditching his favorite milk chocolate for dark chocolate, and continues to exercise regularly.

“The Mediterranean diet is the best heart-healthy diet,” she says, adding that she regularly eats leafy greens, whole grains, berries, fatty fish, tomatoes and drinks green tea. .

She recommends people get a heart exam every year and include an angiogram if there is a family history of heart disease. Before her heart attack, her doctors said her heart looked strong, so she refused an angiogram, but they discovered the problem that would have killed her. It could have been done.

Maintaining a healthy weight also reduces stress on your heart. The NIH recommends monitoring her BMI using the calculator found at nhlbi.nih.gov/health and making sure it is within her healthy range of 18.5 to 24.9.

Wiese said there may have been other factors that weakened her, such as the fact that her parents smoked until they quit more than 30 years ago. Also, she was born three months early with her twins and lived in an incubator for a while.