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Alexis: Hello, and thank you for tuning into this segment of we are living healthy. Did you know that your heart beats approximately 115,000 beats a day? That's a lot of work for one organ in the body, which makes it even more important for us to keep it healthy. I'm really excited about our guest. Today. We have interventional and advanced heart failure, cardiologist Dr.
Frank amigo from Chesapeake regional healthcare. Please welcome them to this.
Dr. Amico: Thank you for having me today.
Alexis: Yes. It's a pleasure to speak with you for those who are watching you're listening. Can you tell us what exactly does it interventional cardiologists
Dr. Amico: do? So an interventional cardiologist, so there's a general cardiologist and then we subspecialize out for.
I'm an interventional cardiologist is somebody who takes a wire that they pass it down. The arteries of the heart. If there's a blockage, we put a balloon down there, we expand the balloon and then we put a [00:01:00] stent in there to keep the vessel open so that if someone's having chest discomfort or in the acute case where someone's having a bad heart attack, we, we saved their life.
Alexis: Okay. And I'm glad you mentioned, if somebody is feeling that tightness in their chest, what are the common symptoms of heart disease?
Dr. Amico: So the most common sense of, of, of coronary artery disease that we're, that we're discussing here, Ken Berry based on the patient, but it's, if it's typically chest discomfort in the form of pressure sharpness can move into your arms, can move into your job and it can also be associated nausea, vomiting.
Yes.
Alexis: Now I know a lot of those symptoms are also correlated with other issues and sometimes people can mistake it for something else. Could you name a few things that people commonly mistake, heart disease with that, even though they could mistake it with it, they should still take notice.
Dr. Amico: So the most common I would argue is acid reflux.
A lot of agents believe that whether they're belching or if there's burning in their chest that they have. Taking [00:02:00] that for let's say a heart attack and they may actually not consider it a serious sign, but in fact should always be taken seriously.
Alexis: Okay. And I know in the title, it says intervention.
I know that means to kind of, you know, try to help things out before they get too bad. Are there certain things that somebody can do to make, make sure that they're maintaining a healthy.
Dr. Amico: So the most important part is to not be with the interventional cardiologists. Correct. So it would be to your point is living a healthy lifestyle, which in the form of exercise, it doesn't have to be, you know, intense exercise, but just walking every day and in a proper diet low fat proteins, low fat appropriate The vegetables, fruits and so forth.
Just a, I would argue a common sense approach to diet is very common is, is, is good
Alexis: enough. Okay. So many times people don't understand the difference in terms, could you break down the difference between a cardiologist versus what's usually with intervention and the difference between heart disease and heart failure.
Dr. Amico: Okay, so let's talk. So [00:03:00] first there's a, when, when you say general cardiologist is a cardiologist that will help you with lifestyle modifications and addressing those such as cholesterol, to make sure that we prevent every seeing somebody like myself, who's an interventional cardiologist and interventional cardiologist is somebody who in the setting of bad chest discomfort will then open up.
Well, like I mentioned, Put open up the vessel to help keep the the chest pain from recurring and heart failure cardiologists, which is what I trained in as well is somebody who identifies those patients who suffer from what we call advanced heart failure and puts them on appropriate medications to prevent the progression of heart failure.
But in the event that we are unsuccessful in doing so there are other options that we can use our neighboring hospitals systems that do, for example or a heart pump to help people live a quality of life as well, as well as the quantity of life.
Alexis: Yes. Thank you so much for clarifying that. And just to keep things simple, what are some of the things you [00:04:00] see that we do commonly just as people, something that we probably eat or something, a bad habit that people have that contributes to heart problems that we don't pay enough attention to.
Dr. Amico: So I would, I would argue, going out to dinner is, is, is, is under appreciated. Connor salt in that food. There's a, it's not always cooked and prepared the most, the best way. So I would, the home cooked meals are always, will always be your best, your staple food that you, we should all eat. And so I would think that if there's an under appreciation of the, of going out to dinner and therefore not really getting the appropriate nutrients and food that we should.
Yes.
Alexis: I'm really excited that you said that because I looked at a menu once at the locale section and it was crazy that the low calorie section of the menu had triple the sodium in it. I said, whoa, this isn't helping her at all.
Dr. Amico: So low calorie, right? [00:05:00] Well, Valerie has to make we make up for it somewhere.
Right? Well, a lot of times it's adding sodium where for my heart failure patients, that's a disaster that leads to hospitalizations and just worsening of their, of their congestive heart failure.
Alexis: Yes. Well, you have a plethora of information for those who have questions about preventative care, interventional information and more, how can they find you?
Dr. Amico: So we're located at a one 11 medical Parkway and I'm more than welcome to our phone number is (757) 312-4047 and happy to call. And I guy would tell my patients currently, and then those future patients from ever needed, I'm always available and I will always fit patients in to see them if they need it needed to be
Alexis: seen.
Yes. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Mico for the information for keeping our hearts healthy. Thank you so much for you being a guest.
Dr. Amico: My pleasure. Thank you honestly. It's an honor. Thank you for having me.
Alexis: Yes. Well, that's it for this segment. We are living healthy. Thank you for all those who tuned in. If you [00:06:00] haven't already, please like us on Facebook at we are living healthy and subscribe to the show to keep up with everything that we do.
And if you have a health story that you would like to share, be sure to message us so we can get you here. Well, thanks again for joining us today. We look forward to seeing you next time on we are living healthy.