Tag: COVID-19

Exploring Heart Disease-How Hearts “Break”

The post discusses the emotional and physical pain of heartbreak, highlighting various heart diseases, including congenital heart defects, cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, and ischemic heart disease. It also touches on personal experiences with family members affected by heart conditions and the impact of high blood pressure, emphasizing the significance of heart health throughout life.

updated May 25, 2026

If you have ever had a “broken heart” (and who hasn’t?), you know the sadness and grief cause not just emotional pain, but physical pain. And since that pain is often felt in our chest, it makes sense that we call it “heartbreak”.

The late Elvis Presley made the expression famous with his breakout hit Heartbreak Hotel. 

And a particularly gruesome battle during the Korean War occurred at a place named Heartbreak Ridge, dramatized in a movie  Heartbreak Ridge.

Exploring -the HEART

We often use the term HEART DISEASE when many diseases involve the heart.  HEART conditions affect people from birth to death.

diagram of the human heart
Heart diseases affect any and sometimes multiple parts of the heart- the atria, ventricles, the valves, the aorta, the pulmonary artery and veins, the walls and the coronary arteries (not shown in this diagram. )

Congenital Heart Disease

Heart problems that are present at birth are called congenital heart disease. Defectos cardíacos congénitos. Signs or symptoms may not be apparent for a few weeks or months.

  • A congenital heart defect is a problem with the structure of the heart. It is present at birth.
  • Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect.
  • The defects can involve the walls of the heart, the valves of the heart, and the arteries and veins near the heart.
  • They can disrupt the normal flow of blood through the heart. The blood flow can slow down, go in the wrong direction or to the wrong place, or be blocked completely.

I remember how concerned I felt when my son called to tell me the doctor had found a heart murmur in my 3-week-old granddaughter- especially since they lived 2000 miles away. An  echocardiogram showed a VSD, a ventricular septal defect– a hole between the two larger chambers of her heart. We were all relieved when the pediatric cardiologist said it was small and unlikely to cause her problems or to need surgery, and his prediction has been correct.

Other congenital heart conditions

CARDIOPATÍAS CONGÉNITAS

Cardiomyopathy

In a previous post I told you about my late friend Chuck who had heart disease. Chuck had developed cardiomyopathy, disease of the heart muscle, which makes up the walls of the heart. Cardiomyopathy has many causes, including high blood pressure (if not controlled), ischemia (lack of blood flow), infections, toxins, including alcohol, and sometimes unknown causes.

Cardiomyopathy can often be managed with medications and lifestyle but sometimes, as in Chuck’s case, requires heart transplantation.

Chuck’s wife Sara wrote about his heart condition as well as other medical issues in her memoir Trumped By Sovereignty.

Myocarditis

Miocarditis

Myocarditis was a potential complication of COVID-19, both from the virus itself as well as the mRNA vaccines against it. But the risk was higher with infection than from the vaccine, the American Heart Association reported.

Myocarditis is much less common than other heart diseases but tends to occur more often in men, and in young to middle aged persons.

Myocarditis results from the inflammation created by a variety of causes.

  • cancer drugs that inhibit the immune system
  • autoimmune disorders such as systemic lupus
  • vaccines-mRNA for SARS-CoV2 and smallpox vaccine
  • the most common cause-viruses including coronavirus, influenza, parvovirus B19, dengue

Like other forms of heart disease myocarditis can lead to heart failure and arrhythmias with a mortality rate of 1-7%. Most people have uncomplicated myocarditis and fully recover.

Ischemic Heart Disease

Enfermedad de las arterias coronarias

My late father developed diabetes mellitus which led to atherosclerosis of his coronary arteries, the arteries that carry oxygen to the heart itself. Atherosclerosis can affect any of the arteries and sclerosis means “hardening”, hence the term hardening of the arteries.

EKG tracing
In sudden cardiac death, the heart stops beating abruptly

In his case this caused a heart attack, which in medical terms is a myocardial (heart muscle) infarction(death or damage).

From the damage to his heart muscle he developed congestive heart failure; his heart could not effectively pump blood  to his body.

I still remember the night I received a phone call soon after going to bed. It was an EMT from the local ambulance service telling me he was at my parents’ home. My mother called 911 after my father collapsed at home and died from sudden cardiac death.

Sudden cardiac death occurs when someone with heart disease dies suddenly and unexpectedly. But sometimes, unlike my father’s case, the victim and family didn’t know a heart condition existed. This is often the case when someone dies from a sudden and persistent irregularity of the heart rhythm, called an arrhythmia.

old photo of man in a sailor uniform
My late  father served in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War

Presión arterial elevada (Hipertensión)

Hypertension

Both my husband and I have hypertension, the medical term for high blood pressure. This is probably the most common cardiovascular disease . Although not a heart condition, it can cause disease in the heart and other vital organs, as shown in this diagram .

complications of high blood pressure

Exploring the HEART of Health

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Medical stethoscope and heart on a textured background

Dr Aletha

Words about government and a president

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the city of New York other major U.S. cities. Government response to the pandemic, both nationally and locally, has created both reassurance and resentment by citizens. And a series of incidents involving police brutality and private attacks against black citizens set off protests, riots, looting, and more violence.

Romans 13      English Standard Version (ESV)

Submission to the Authorities

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,for he is God’s servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.

For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.

 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

from BibleGateway.com

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

statue of George Washington in Manhattan
General George Washington, first President of the United States of America- a photo I took on my only visit to New York City

This post was edited May 31, 2020
George Washington, President of the United States

“This impressive bronze equestrian portrait of George Washington (1732-1799), the first president of the United States, is the oldest sculpture in the New York City Parks collection. It was modeled by Henry Kirke Brown (1814-1886) and dedicated in 1856.”

George Washington was the first president of the U.S.; we will elect the 46th president in November 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the city of New York and other major U.S. cities. Government response to the pandemic, both nationally and locally, has created both reassurance and resentment by citizens. And a series of incidents involving police brutality and private attacks against black citizens set off protests, riots, looting, and more violence.

President Washington, as Commander of the Continental Army, led the colonies in a revolt against rule by England, and in numerous conflicts since the United States has fought back against rule by any foreign power again.

But what of our own government? How much rule is too much? How much control, even for our own good, is enough or too much? That is a question we may be grappling with long after the virus goes away.

George Washington died at 67 years old, making him someone who today would have higher risk of dying of COVID-19. His physicians called his condition quinsy, a term we in the U.S. don’t use today. Quinsy means an abscess in the throat and/or tonsils. Today doctors would treat it with antibiotics and surgery, but neither were available in 1799.

“In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the George Washington sculpture served as a touchstone for collective grieving and public expression, and became the central focus of a massive around-the-clock community vigil and a provisional shrine. These events reaffirmed the symbolic power of New York City’s most venerable outdoor work of art.”

Union Square Parks Monuments, copyright The City of New York

more thoughts about New York City at this link

Weekend Words to remember 9/11

exploring the HEART of health and history

Dr. Aletha