research indicates <\/a>that people of color experience significantly worse outcomes, including nearly double the rates of stroke, heart failure, and death. Contributing factors may include disparities in health care access, diagnosis and socioeconomic conditions.<\/p>\nWhat \u2018holiday heart\u2019 means<\/p>\n
Feingold, a longtime cardiologist and chief of cardiology at Hackensack Meridian JFK in Edison, said his experience is a reminder of how far cardiac care has come and how vulnerable people still are to preventable triggers. He offers realistic tips to stave off cardiac events during the holiday season.<\/p>\n
The term may sound lighthearted, but Feingold said \u201choliday heart\u201d can be dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a colloquial way of expressing a toxic episode that occurs with the heart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Most cases, he said, involve people who don\u2019t drink regularly but take a large amount of alcohol during the holidays triggering atrial fibrillation \u2014 an irregular heartbeat that can lead to stroke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there\u2019s a clot in there, it goes forward into your head,\u201d Feingold said.<\/p>\n
Doctors now typically start patients on blood thinners immediately to prevent that risk.<\/p>\n
He said alcohol isn\u2019t the only culprit. Heavy holiday foods, especially salty dishes, which pull fluid into the heart, can also trigger symptoms. <\/p>\n
His holiday advice: Moderation<\/p>\n
As the season approaches, patients often tell him they can\u2019t control their eating.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say, \u2018Doc, the holidays are coming,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI say to them, there\u2019s Thanksgiving, there\u2019s Christmas Eve, Christmas, maybe New Year\u2019s. That\u2019s four days. That\u2019s no excuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said holiday food stirs emotions for many people, bringing us back to our childhood and to our ethnic backgrounds.<\/p>\n
But he urges small portions, lighter swaps, alternating alcoholic drinks with water, and eating something before drinking to help slow absorption. For those who insist on dessert, he suggests, \u201cHave a bite or two. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also urges people to move around \u2014 take a short walk \u2014 and pay attention to symptoms. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you feel fluttering in the chest or any discomfort, immediately stop,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it persists, call a doctor or head to the ER.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heart care has evolved<\/p>\n
Feingold said the good news is that the treatment of heart conditions has evolved since he entered cardiology 43 years ago when options were drastically limited. He said when a patient came in with a heart attack, you sat by their bed, and you gave morphine and maybe some nitroglycerin. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey either died or lived\u201d he said. \u201cYou didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
If a patient survived, he said treatment options were limited and only the wealthy had access to bypass surgery in either Texas or New York, which had hospitals offering the latest in heart care technology.<\/p>\n
Today, the landscape is unrecognizable.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you come in with a heart attack, we give drugs that prevent worsening of the heart attack,\u201d he said. \u201cWe put new heart valves in from the skin. We put defibrillators in. Heart disease has become a chronic disease and not an acute killer.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also noted that early pacemakers were the size of a deck of cards and sometimes had to be recharged through the skin, which could cause the skin to heat up or even burn. Today, he said, pacemakers are about the size of a half dollar \u2014 or even smaller.<\/p>\n
Modern monitoring tools<\/p>\n
Thanks to new technology, patients can now monitor their own rhythm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new Apple watches actually give you a printout,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
A small device called Kardia also works, but he cautions that risk still depends on the individual.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone older with hypertension or diabetes needs more urgent evaluation than a 20-year-old with no cardiac history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Feingold has seen the long-term effects of alcohol too. <\/p>\n
While holiday heart is temporary, chronic heavy drinking can weaken the heart muscle itself, causing cardiomyopathy \u2014 the deterioration of the middle muscular layer of the heart wall responsible for the heart\u2019s contraction and relaxation. This condition is not reversible.<\/p>\n
His message for the holidays is simple: listen to your body; enjoy responsibly; and respect what the heart can \u2014 and can\u2019t \u2014 endure. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Dr. David Feingold felt his heart surge into a chaotic rhythm 15 years ago, he knew instantly…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":478275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[216639,216640,216641,216642,70098,216643,1761,164617,1540,4637,1002,216644,216645,4446,48742,7612,210,17287,216646,216647,216648,216649,216650,216651,216652,216653,4451,216654,216655,44523,70652,216656,216657,216658,216659,2252,1083,1184,83423,216660,216661,216662,66317,3546,216663,44275,5855,216664,216665,216666,159,216638,216667,216668,216669,67,132,68,66746],"class_list":{"0":"post-478274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-analyzing","9":"tag-anatomy","10":"tag-aorta","11":"tag-arterioles","12":"tag-atrium","13":"tag-beauty-and-health","14":"tag-biology","15":"tag-black-background","16":"tag-blue","17":"tag-body","18":"tag-color-image","19":"tag-coronary-artery","20":"tag-cut-out","21":"tag-death","22":"tag-emotional-stress","23":"tag-fear","24":"tag-health","25":"tag-healthcare-and-medicine","26":"tag-heart-surgery","27":"tag-heart-valve","28":"tag-heart-ventricle","29":"tag-human-artery","30":"tag-human-heart","31":"tag-human-internal-organ","32":"tag-human-muscle","33":"tag-human-vein","34":"tag-illness","35":"tag-inside-of","36":"tag-interventricular-septum","37":"tag-isolated","38":"tag-isolated-objects","39":"tag-isolated-on-black","40":"tag-left-atrium","41":"tag-left-auricle","42":"tag-left-ventricle","43":"tag-life","44":"tag-medical","45":"tag-medicine","46":"tag-medicine-and-science","47":"tag-morphology","48":"tag-myocardium","49":"tag-objects-with-clipping-paths","50":"tag-patience","51":"tag-people","52":"tag-physical-pressure","53":"tag-physiology","54":"tag-red","55":"tag-right-atrium","56":"tag-right-auricle","57":"tag-right-ventricle","58":"tag-science","59":"tag-septal-artery","60":"tag-splenic-artery","61":"tag-the-human-body","62":"tag-three-dimensional-shape","63":"tag-united-states","64":"tag-unitedstates","65":"tag-us","66":"tag-vitality"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}