Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s announcement that he may need a heart transplant has put a spotlight on heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the United States.
Cheney, who suffers from degenerative heart disease, has a cardiac-assist device that helps his heart function and serves as a “bridge to transplant,” cardiologist Dr. Chauncey Crandall tells Newsmax Health. “Without this device, he would die.”
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Cheney has battled heart disease since he was a young man and has had three heart attacks, resulting in extensive damage to his heart muscle, says Crandall, a Newsmax Health contributor and editor of the Heart Health Report.
“Much of his heart is dead,” Crandall says, noting that Cheney’s condition is particularly aggressive. “It’s not alive, it’s not working. And when that happens, fluid builds up in the body … Vital organs start to shut down.”
Heart disease is quite common — more than 500,000 people die of heart attacks each year, Crandall says. And while genetics plays a role regarding who will suffer from it, 85 percent of the cases of heart disease is diet induced, he says.
“Lifestyle is king,” he says. “The way you live, the way you eat, your activity level will determine if you will develop heart disease.”
Fortunately, medical experts know a good deal about heart disease, particularly how to prevent it and try and reverse it if it strikes. Crandall offers three main directives:
• Get to your ideal body weight, which is usually what you weighed when you graduated from high school.
• Eat a primarily plant-based diet — lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains.
• Engage in regular physical activity. “This body was meant to be active,” Crandall says. “And today, all of us are inactive. We drive in our cars, we sit in front of the TV set. We need to become active.”
It’s never too late to take steps to reverse heart disease, he says. Studies have shown that people in their 80s and possibly 90s can become healthier by making diet and lifestyle changes.
“It’s not a disease of defeat,” he says. “If you see the right physician, read the right literature, you can have victory over this disease.”
As for Cheney’s apparent need for a new heart, Crandall says he should “march forward with the heart transplant. He will have a much better life with that.”
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