When was the last time you had your heart and cholesterol checked? High cholesterol is known as the ‘silent disease’ as it often presents with no symptoms. But it’s impact on your heart health is great.
High cholesterol is a critical risk factor for heart attacks and strokes and plays a role in around 85 per cent of all cardiovascular-related deaths worldwide, and approximately 2.1 million Australians are currently living with high cholesterol, whether they know it or not.
It’s important to get regular heart checkups with your GP, a lesson Chris Minol knows only too well. His story starts with the tragic loss of a friend at just 46 after he suffered a heart attack on the way home from a soccer match.
“That just came out of nowhere,” says Chris.
“One day after a game of soccer, he didn’t feel too well while driving home … it actually happened while he was driving the car.”
The death shocked Chris and his group of friends. But it did prompt him to visit his GP for a heart check. As his GP was familiar with Chris’s family history of high cholesterol, she ordered a blood test that diagnosed Chris with diagnosed cholesterol levels high enough to cause strain on his heart.
“It was actually my mum’s suggestion after what happened to him, for me to go and get just a general health checkup from a GP, I was reluctant,” Chris says.
Cholesterol warning ignored
The results showed Chris had an LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) level of 7.2. For reference, LDL levels should be between 1.7 and 3.5 to avoid the risk of clogging arteries.
According to charity hearts4heart, who Chris is an ambassador for, high cholesterol is a contributing factor to almost one in four deaths overall in Australia.
Chris was instructed to start taking statins to lower his cholesterol and make some serious lifestyle changes if he wanted to avoid the same fate as his friend. But he says due to a combination of factors including renovating a house and the demands of a young family, he lost motivation for his new regime and stopped taking his medication.
“It was in one ear and out the other,” Chris says. It was a decision he would come to regret.
Paying the price
A few months later, Chris says he began to feel unwell, really unwell. He visited his GP again, who read him the riot act when he told him he hadn’t been taking his medication.
“My body was telling me already that it wasn’t happy and I wasn’t in a good situation,” Chris says.
“My sleep patterns were really poor, heart palpitations, pains in the chest, numbness in the forearms when I was walking.
The doctor ordered an angiogram for Chris. This is a minimally invasive procedure where a camera on a wire is fed through veins in your wrist or leg to get an inside view of your heart without having to cut your chest open.
It was not good news.
“They said we found a widow maker,” says Chris.
“I didn’t know at that time what a widow maker was, but the term means that they find a major blockage within the left anterior descending artery (LAD).”
The doctor told Chris he was just one stressor then away from a fatal heart attack.
“The doctor said, ‘We term it a widow maker because a lot of young middle-aged males, no signs of symptoms suddenly drop and there’s no reviving them,’” he says.
Along with the major blockage in the LAD, they also found two smaller blockages in other arteries and so the decision was made for Chris to have triple bypass surgery.
“That was the longest week of my life,” says Chris.
“Hardly slept and every emotion under the sun. The initial shock and being distraught and being told that you’re getting a triple bypass.”
Thankfully, the operation was a success, but he says it was long road to recovery, both physically and mentally. And now he wants to make sure others don’t end up in the same boat.
Getting the message through
Along with hearts4heart, Chris’ experiences have led him to become an ambassador for another heart charity inspired by his friend, Heartbeat of Football. Together the charities are working to raise awareness of the importance of regular heart and cholesterol check-ups even for people at the younger end of middle age.
In conjunction with the Victor Change Heart Health Check service, both charities are offering free heart health tests in local communities right around Australia inspired by Cholesterol Awareness Week.
Travelling health experts in mobile testing clinics can screen your levels of three key modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular problems: blood pressure, blood sugar and of course, cholesterol.
“They’ll then be advised by the nurses if any of those three indicators come up as high risk to go on to get CT scan,” Chris says.
They’ve been travelling around Australia visiting all kinds of different events offering free tests to the public, and were seen testing people at the Adelaide 500 Supercars race this past weekend.
You can find out when the Victor Chang Heart Check team will be in your area next here.
Heartbeat of Football also aims to take heart testing to where people may actually be in a place to hear it – when doing an activity they love.
Started by soccer journalist Andrew Paschalidis after he lost a friend in almost identical circumstances to Chris, Heartbeat of Football aims specifically to reduce heart-related deaths on the sporting field.
They also work with the Victor Chang Heart Check service to get them into sports clubs. And not just at training, Heartbeat of Football has set up testing at club presentations, registration days, and corporate events.
“For instance, at each tournament we have two nurses there from the Victor Chang Cardiac Institute who administer three heart health checks to any spectators, any players and anyone who wants to have one,” says Chris.
Of course, you can also always get your heart and cholesterol tested by your GP, but that requires setting up an appointment and remembering to ask. In other words, it takes effort on your part. Would a free pop-up test at the footy make it any easier for you?
Chris leaves us with a reminder that getting that simple test could be the defining moment of your life.
“It won’t cost you anything to go and get one, but it could cost you everything if you don’t,” he says.
Is there a history of heart problems in your family? When was the last time you had your cholesterol levels checked? Let us know in the comments section below.
Also read: What’s the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest?
