Vital for all to take better care of their hearts

JOHANNESBURG: It hit him while he was hiking with his son in Swellendam.

Suddenly, he became tired, but he dismissed it as something caused by a struggle to find his walking rhythm. Then he started sweating, and then came the nausea.

But still, the thought that Stanley Henkeman was having a heart attack was still beyond his imagination. Reality struck when he felt a throbbing pain in his chest. Worried, he asked his then-16-year-old son to call a ranger for help.

That was in 2001, when Henkeman was 42 years old. Five years later, he was diagnosed with end-stage heart failure.

“What they (doctors) were basically telling me was that my heart had reached the end of its road… I was perpetually tired, everything was an effort, even if walking 10 steps, I had to psychologically prepare myself,” he says.

Today is World Heart Day, and the focus is on creating healthy heart choices wherever one lives, works or plays. For Henkeman, however, the bigger message is for people who have genetic predisposition to car- diovascular diseases to get their blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked.

“A number of my family members had different heart problems; some uncles had them, my cousin had a heart attack, but my siblings never had heart issues. So, I was genetically predisposed and it’s important that people take note of those patterns.”

Henkeman was put on the transplant list in May 2006, and by February of the following year, he received a new heart. But there were still some emotional and psychological disorders he needed to overcome.

“Inevitably, you feel guilty that you’re alive because somebody is dead. Your family is elated, while another is grieving, but you get prepared (by doctors) for that. And for me, it was important to embrace this heart, and my whole orientation around it has been one of gratitude.”

According to Dr Russel Kirby, a family physician in private practice, heart disease is one of the country’s leading killers, but that a lot of deaths are preventable if people could be screened early.

This assertion is backed by Dr Vash Mungal-Singh, chief executive of the Heart and Stroke Foundation SA, who says that “South Africans are at high risk for cardiovascular disease, and our unhealthy lifestyles are largely to blame”.

“Up to 70 percent of our women are overweight or obese, one in two women and over a quarter of men are physically inactive, and 23 percent of our children (aged) 2 to 14 years are overweight or obese.

“Although the picture looks bleak, South Africans can reduce their risk by creating heart-healthy environments that encourage a healthy lifestyle,” she says.

Mungal-Singh adds that one in three South Africans – 15 years or older – have hypertension, and the majority of them are unaware of this.

Gauteng Health Department spokesperson Steve Mabona urged people to take healthy heart choices, such as exercising, healthy eating habits and saying “no to smoking and excessive alcohol-drinking”.

Henkeman, who is the national chair of the SA Transplant Sports Association, and having represented the country at four World Transplant Games, said: “Don’t let an episode happen to you before you check yourself out. I’m fortunate I got a second chance.”