If you feel like you have heartburn, and antacids aren’t doing the trick like they did before, you might want to seek medical care.
That’s one of the many tips local physicians shared with the dozens of people who attended Wednesday night’s Heart-to-Heart on Cardiac Health, a free session hosted by the Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital (OSMH) Foundation at the Best Western Plus Mariposa Inn and Conference Centre.
Fatigue, nausea and shortness of breath are also among the symptoms indicating someone might be having a cardiac episode.
“This is worth calling 9-1-1 immediately,” said Rose Zacharias, an emergency-room physician at OSMH. “We can have you in the emergency department and on the monitor immediately.”
It’s important to not ignore symptoms, as they can range from barely noticeable to extremely painful.
One person who attended Wednesday’s talk recalled the time she had a heart attack a few years ago.
“I had hardly any pain whatsoever,” said the elderly woman, who did not want her name used.
The night she had the heart attack, she looked up the symptoms, just in case. She decided to go to the hospital the next morning.
“I almost didn’t go,” she said.
She’s glad she did. Doctors found a 70 to 80 per cent blockage in one of her coronary arteries.
She decided to attend the talk to learn more.
“I’m always interested in not having more problems. The more I know, the better it is."
One piece of advice from the presenters — Zacharias and OSMH chief of medicine John MacFadyen — is for people to always stay on their medication after experiencing a cardiac episode.
There are some easy steps to take to help prevent people from even getting to that point, though, and exercise is an important one.
“Exercise runs in families,” MacFadyen said. “If you exercise, it’s much more likely your kids will do the same thing.”
He recommends 30 minutes of exercise five times per week.
Other ways to help prevent heart disease and other cardiac problems include maintaining a healthy diet and not smoking.
Those who do not have heart problems can do their part, too, MacFadyen said.
“If you have somebody in the family with heart disease, that should motivate you to go and take a CPR course,” he said.
Many people think heart disease “is always applicable to somebody else, but not me,” he said.
“When you see a family member with a problem, that personalizes it and brings it closer to home.”
Those in the audience took the issue to heart, peppering the physicians with questions.
MacFadyen was impressed that so many people attended the talk on the stormy night, and he was equally impressed with their questions.
“It shows a general interest and awareness of the issues,” he said. “All of the questions were informed.”
He noted Orillia is a leader in cardiac care.
While some patients need to be transferred to hospitals in Barrie and Newmarket for certain procedures, OSMH has plenty to offer when it comes to helping those with heart disease.
Its cardiac program was the first in the region when it began in the mid-1990s, and its heart function program was the first of its kind, in a community setting, in Canada.
Wednesday’s event was part of the OSMH Foundation’s free speaker series.
“It’s a way we can say thank you to the community and contribute to community health,” said Mark Riczu, the foundation’s executive director.
“It’s also to profile the incredible physicians we’ve been able to recruit and retain here in Orillia.”
Details for the next speaker series event are still being worked out. Stay updated by following the OSMH Foundation on Facebook or its website.
