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What heart patients should know about coronavirus

  • 1.  What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-15-2020 09:28

    What heart patients should know about coronavirus?

    American Heart Association
    February 27, 2020

    For people with underlying heart issues, the concerns are serious enough that the American College of Cardiology issued a bulletin to warn patients about the potential increased risk and to encourage "additional, reasonable precautions."

    Nancy Messonnier, MD, is the Director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). Messonnier summed up her advice as, "Stay home if you're sick; cover your cough; wash your hands."

    The virus's main target is the lungs. But that could affect the heart, especially a diseased heart, which has to work harder to get oxygenated blood throughout the body, she said. "In general, you can think of it as something that is taxing the system as a whole." That could exacerbate problems for someone with heart failure, where the heart is already having problems pumping efficiently.

    Someone with an underlying heart issue also might have a less robust immune system. People's immune systems weaken as they age and in those with chronic medical conditions, the body's immune response is not as strong a response when exposed to viruses." If such a person catches a virus, she said it's likely to stick around and cause complications.

    Patients of all ages with no underlying chronic conditions had a fatality rate of 1.4 percent, according to the WHO report. Covid-19 patients with cardiovascular disease had a rate of 13.2 percent; with diabetes, 9.2 percent; with hypertension, 8.4 percent; with chronic respiratory disease, 8 percent; and with cancer, 7.6 percent.

    Proper Handwashing - is the best way to avoid coronavirus infection. Here's expert guidance on how to do it right. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says proper handwashingmeans scrubbing hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

    Step 1: Scrub your palms in a circular motion

    Step 2: Scrub the back of your hands

    Step 3: Scrub under your fingernails

    Step 4: Scrub between your fingers

    Water and Soap are Best  - but you can use an alcohol-based sanitizer if soap and water are unavailable. It will kill coronavirus on your hands as long as it consists of at least 60% alcohol, health experts say.

    Clean your Smartphone - Remember most smartphones are covered in germs. Infectious-disease experts say that to kill any Coronavirus that may be on its surface, you need to use a disinfectant such as Clorox wipes or alcohol based wipes.

    See your Doctor - Schedule an appointment with your Primary Care Physician, if you have a persistent cough, fever or shortness of breath.

    Remember to Stay Healthy and Safe,

    Best Regards,

    Vic Fabry

     



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    Victor Fabry
    Short Hills, New Jersey
    fvfabry@gmail.com
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  • 2.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-16-2020 05:58
    Thank you so much Victor.  
    It is hard to read the facts about immunity and heart disease along with the underlying conditions that go hand in hand with this Covid 19.  

    Thank you so much for the info...I do appreciate it very much

    Mary H





  • 3.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-17-2020 05:15
    Victor and Mary,

    I approach the statistics cited by WHO and others with some skepticism based upon relatively small sample size (the smaller group that have been tested rather than the general population), sample bias (the samples seem to be drawn from the sickest group, i.e. those that were hospitalized rather than randomly from the general population) and lack of controls. I 'm pretty sure that if these statistics were generated as part of a scientific experiment, the experimenters would be torn apart by the scientific community.

    Here's one example:  I read that 40% of the covid fatalities involved people with heart disease.  I then googled "what percentage of the general adult population in the US have heart disease and learned that the answer is close to 50%.  Really.  So in other words the percentage of covid fatalities involving people with preexisting heart disease mirrors the percentage of people in the general population with preexisting heart disease?  This is like saying that A=A.

    I can take this analysis on a much deeper level, but this example and my criticism of the fatality rate in an earlier post in another thread is enough for now I think.  The point is that there is too much flawed analysis in a noncontrolled setting being repeated by untrained and stressed and panicked people to other untrained, stressed and panicked people to be taken seriously.

    I think the best advice for now is to read less and just take the recommended precautions of hand washing, etc and social isolation seriously to the extent possible.  Read the scientific studies a couple of years from now.

    Ira
     


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    Ira Reid
    Hoboken NJ
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  • 4.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-17-2020 13:05
    thank you so much Ira for adding to this...
    I find for me at least, the more I read, the less I freak out
    and less knowledge makes for more fairy tale stories my
    anxiety tells me

    The only stipulations put on me by my surgeon after my OHS
    was no shoveling snow this past winter.  When I called him with a laundry list of "What If's"  he told me that He and his team fixed the problems with my heart and staying quit of smoking and keeping my blood pressure under control along with weight and exercise meant I could have a pretty decent life from this point.

    I have to believe that has not changed if I called him today, so I continue to do what I have been since August.

    Yes I get scared in the very darkest recesses of the night, but not overly worried when I continue hearing from all of us Via this Mended Hearts Forum

    Stay Safe Ira and let us know how you are doing

    Mary H






  • 5.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-17-2020 13:56
    Hi Mary,

    I'm doing great, so far, but I feel that I really want to challenge this fear that seems to enveloping the country, particularly where I live.  I swear, people creating toilet paper shortages by buying reams of the stuff at one time.  I tell them that there's a coronavirus pandemic, not a norovirus pandemic that's causing worldwide diarrhea.  

    Part of the way I like to do it is by poking holes, Houdini-like, in the amateur statistics we're being fed by people who should know better and the prognostications by political leaders and bureaucrats who aren't research scientists.  They're just feeding a desire for certainty, their own and that of others, a certainty that just doesn't exist now or, for that matter, in life generally (other than death). 

    The message is you don't need to live in fear in order to survive or to avoid things that you think are bad for you.  You can try to avoid contagion simply because you prefer not to get sick, without being afraid of getting sick.  The notion that anyone needs fear as a motivating fact to avoid something bad is an illusion.  Get out and smell the roses.  Just make sure you're not within 6 feet of someone else.

    Stay healthy, Mary, and I promise that if I die from coronavirus, I will find a way to post my reaction from Beyond to these pages.

    All the best,

    Ira

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    Ira Reid
    Hoboken NJ
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  • 6.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-17-2020 18:21
    Thank you so much Ira, 

    I am struck by your sentence, "The message is you don't need to live in fear in order to survive or to avoid things that you think are bad for you.  You can try to avoid contagion simply because you prefer not to get sick, without being afraid of getting sick. "

    This is why I avoided Christmas parties this year, the flu
    was raging in Wisconsin and I just did not want to get sick, even though I had the senior Citizens Triple Heavy Duty Shot in November.  I hate being sick and will do my darndest to stay
    healthy no matter what the illness

    Thank you so much again, and Happy St Paddys Day to you

    Mary H





  • 7.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-17-2020 18:39
    Thanks, Mary.  We frequently use unhappiness in the form of fear, anger, upset as motivation to try to change things that we don't like or want, but the truth is that we can simply do want we want and not do what we don't want without the added impetus of feeling unhappy.  

    A sick friend once said, after another friend asked him how he could be so cheerful when he was so ill, "I feel terrible as it is.  Why should I make it worse by being unhappy at the same time?"

    Happy St. Patricks Day,

    Ira

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    Ira Reid
    Hoboken NJ
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  • 8.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-17-2020 20:39
    Haha Ira, your posts are always so refreshing! I'll be first in line at your book signing : )
    I don't watch or read anything having to do with the virus so I really appreciate these reassuring posts. I found it was giving me a whole new anxiety, since I am also a diabetic. 
    I work on our Navy base and yesterday hundreds of us were ordered to telework until further notice. Of course I didn't mind hearing that haha!
    I agree with you Mary, this group helps me as well : )
    I figure if my anxiety survived our earthquakes this past summer I'll be okay with this virus.
    Take care everyone, stay safe and healthy : )
    Michelle

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    michelle leverett
    Ridgecrest CA
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  • 9.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-17-2020 21:05
    Thanks, Michelle.  We're now in lockdown, similar to San Francisco, and I don't mind it.  I'm not afraid of death, but I don't want to die just yet.  I want to be here for my family a while longer because they still believe they need me.  I also like smelling roses.  I will do whatever I can to stick around for a while.  I hope you and my friends on this site will too.

    Stay safe and healthy,

    Ira

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    Ira Reid
    Hoboken NJ
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  • 10.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-18-2020 11:49

                  I found this discussion valuably balancing. Taking precautions is inarguably sensible. Being governed by worry, anxiety, fear is counter-productive. It feels bad; it probably triggers the release of unhealthy chemicals within the body; it isn't most likely improve the odds on what happens to you. You do the best you can; you hope you're lucky; and, as my mother once quipped, "... you consider converting to Roman Catholicism."  

    Bob Levin

    Berkeley, CA

     

    Sent from Mail for Windows 10

     






  • 11.  RE: What heart patients should know about coronavirus

    Posted 03-18-2020 14:34
    Thank you so much Bob, 
    The last thing a recovering person needs is to diminish the already compromised immune system with worry and anxiety.  Wonderful Point ...And your Mother sounds like a real pistol

    Mary H