Take care of heart health
The circumnavigation of New Zealand in our boat has been interrupted a couple of times because of a faulty fuel pump. Once was a plumbing problem, the other an electrical problem with a fault in the relay switch.
Both times our boat could not move too far and was disabled to the point where it was difficult to manoeuvre even with one of our two motors out of action.
What interested me was how thin the fuel line was. A narrow artery of fuel, the lifeblood of the engine that could have failed in either Cook or Foveaux Strait. Fortunately we were in Wellington harbour and Port William, not on a big passage where we had big seas.
As we sailed around Fiordland with both engines running sweetly it struck me that the boat fuel line was not too different from our own narrow coronary arteries in our fuel pump, the human heart.
Oxygen is our fuel and our heart is the pump. It can stop for exactly the same reasons, a plumbing or an electrical problem. Just a narrow jet of oxygenated blood nourishes our myocardium (heart muscle) and keeps it pumping.
A heart attack as we call it, is when the heart stops either because one of our coronary arteries has become blocked, or there’s a fault in the electrical system that supplies the heart.
Risk factors for having narrow coronary arteries include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, age, family history, uncontrolled diabetes, obesity and being male. For most males, including myself, it’s not if, but when we will get narrowing of our coronary arteries.
Having spent 30 years working in hospital emergency departments I have tried to restart many hearts that have stopped, with varying degrees of success.
Sometimes we can restart the heart, but if the person has not had adequate CPR in the community, the brain has died because of lack of fuel, oxygen, the stoppage is fatal.
Sometimes we can restart the heart and the person can make it to Coronary Care and have the plumbing fixed, or an electrical defibrillator is installed so when the heart stops again, it is internally shocked back to life.
This has been a major development in saving lives and I can recall many patients who have lapsed into unconsciousness because of cardiac arrest only to wake up after their internal pacemaker/ defibrillator that has been surgically implanted has kickstarted them back to life.
Sometimes part of the heart muscle has died so while it may restart, it may not pump efficiently so you can get heart failure. This may result in swollen ankles, shortness of breath and lethargy. It ultimately will result in dying prematurely so it’s important to look after your narrow fuel pumps, your coronary arteries.
If you have a family history of heart disease it is even more important to get these checked by your doctor and your risk assessed. One of the ways to do this is to get your blood pressure, cholesterol, HDL, LDL, triglycerides and total cholesterol/HDL ratio checked.
Your GP may decide you need to see a cardiologist and other tests may be ordered such as a CT Calcium score or an angiogram to assess the state of your pipes.
Thirty years of experience of being a doctor and now driving boats tells me that ignoring faulty fuel lines could end in disaster.
Most of us men know more about the pipes in our cars and boats than our own hearts. You can always get a new car, but hard to get a new heart so get yours checked.
● kyndwellness.com
● drtomonamission.com
● healthythinking.biz
Dr Tom Mulholland is a GP with 30 years’ experience in New Zealand. He’s currently on a mission, tackling health issues around New Zealand.