Vital Views

Cassandra Taloma 0:31
Welcome to another episode of vital views, a UNLV School of Nursing Podcast. I'm Cassandra taloma, the Director of Marketing Communications at the school today. I'm excited to be joined by Dr Yumi Tran, an associate professor here at the School of Nursing. Dr Tran joined the school of nursing in Fall 2016 and clinically has worked as a medical surgical telemetry staff nurse. Her research focuses on cardiovascular risk factors among young adults and college students. She has been featured in several peer reviewed journals, including the Journal of American College Health, Journal of cardiovascular nursing, Journal of community health and much more. She also serves as a division board president of the American Heart Association in Las Vegas. Welcome Dr Tran, thank you for being here today. Thank you for having me so February is known as American Heart Month, and your research primarily focuses on cardiovascular health. So often we refer to heart disease as the silent killer. Can you explain how this term came about and why it resonates with the realities of cardiovascular health?

Dr. Dieu-My Tran 1:32
Yes, they're called the silent killer because often time they're a non Pacific sign symptom, or sometime no sign symptom at all, so you don't know that you have it or if you need help at the moment. For instance, heart attack can have non specific symptoms that would not have linked them to heart attack at all. For example, you can have jaw pain, you can have neck pain, you can feel nauseated, the most common one that people associate heart attack is chest pain. But chest pain can be non Pacific, it can be respiratory, it could be gi so it's not just heart alone, and sometimes you don't even have chest pain. So it's very non Pacific, or no symptom at all, which makes it very hard. And for example, if you have arm pain, you don't link arm pain as heart disease. You could slept wrong at night and you feel some pain your arm or muscle ache. So it's that's the reason why it's called Silent Killer, because it's silent you don't know of it. You'll be lucky if you have a symptom that you're aware of and link it to your heart disease.

Cassandra Taloma 2:42
That's pretty scary, but really insightful. Thank you for sharing that. I wanted to share this statistic with you and get your thoughts. So according to the CDC, approximately 44% of women in the US are living with some form of heart disease. Why are women particularly susceptible to heart disease, and are there unique challenges in recognizing and treating it in women? Yes,

Dr. Dieu-My Tran 3:05
unfortunately, heart disease is the leading cost for women in the United States. And the interesting thing about heart disease is that when they're younger, men or men basically have higher risk of heart disease than women. However, as women age post pan menopausal, they switch that, and women have higher risk for heart disease than men, because premenopausal women have a protective factor, which is estrogen, because estrogen relaxes the artery and just in in general, good for the cholesterol, so they have decreased risk compared to men when they're younger, but once they hit menopause, they catch up to the male counterpart and become higher risk than them. So that's the unfortunate part. So on top of that, they have even less non Pacific symptom than male so some of the symptoms that I list previously, such as jaw pain, our arms, nausea, vomiting, fatigues, those are more in women, and even when you listen to those symptoms, you don't think they are heart attack or heart condition symptoms. So for women, they even have less of a Pacific symptom than men. And then another thing about women is that there has been study that shows that women are not taken seriously to some of their health complaints in respect to their visit to the health doctor, so they're less hurt, and therefore most of the chances are they're not treated on a timely manner compared to their male counterparts. So there's a lot of odds against them in the health condition and healthcare wise,

Cassandra Taloma 4:47
that's really interesting. And it sounds like women have to be an advocate for themselves, both for themselves, specifically and also in the medical offices to make sure that they're getting treated the. Right way. So I know you've been talking about the symptoms that we should be aware of and talk in terms of heart disease, and I know heart health is important for all of us. So are there any other key warning signs or symptoms of heart disease that we should be aware of, especially the ones that are maybe less well

Dr. Dieu-My Tran 5:18
known? So the one I've listed already angina, such as pain. Chest pain, it's really when there's less blood flow to the heart area the muscle so you experience these pains. So chest pain is one of those common ones. So if you remember a lot of televisions or movie it shows an individual, mostly white male, in their older age, grabbing their chest and kind of falling down. That's a classic that they see. But unfortunately, most of the time you don't see that. It's not that simple and not that straightforward. The one that you see sometimes are or hear about after the fact is, like I said, jar pain, arm pain. We have palpitation. We have nausea. Discover the one for women. Sometimes can be super fatigued, where they're really tired, but they can't get rid of that tire. They could rest and sleep, and it's still their excessive fatigue and excessive tiredness. So there, in general, if you ever looked it up, there's a long list, so I'm not going to go over here. But despite the non Pacific of these symptoms, the thing that you can do for yourself is really get regular physical examinations, because doing these visits, you can identify are you at risk for heart disease, and if you have an increased risk, then the provider can have a conversation with you and do diagnostic tests to share with you what to look out for, who to go to, where to go to, and when to call 911, or when to go to the emergency because, because, since these symptoms are non Pacific, you have to be able to be aware of your health and your risk factor. For example, if you have high blood pressure on top of diabetes, on top of high cholesterols, and with a family history of heart disease where they're your parents have heart attack in their older age and whatnot, these put you at increased risk for heart disease. Therefore, you want to be more mindful of symptoms that you may experience, things you may eat, things you may do that further that risk. So in a sense, it's hard to recognize, but you have to be able to be vigilant to your health. Be aware that what you have and what you don't have be treated if you do have these risk factors, and to overall, adapt a healthier lifestyle to decrease your risk and your chances. So that way, if it does show up, such as the symptoms show up and whatnot, you can seek the help right away to help yourself. So

Cassandra Taloma 7:48
preventative care is key, yes, here, because there's so many different factors coming into play. Yes. So what are a few examples that we can do to reduce our risk, maybe any lifestyle or diet changes that you would personally recommend

Dr. Dieu-My Tran 8:02
well. So this is really the generic, the overall that people always talk about, right? It's healthy lifestyle, eat, well, fruit and vegetables, exercise. Those are the one that I think everybody heard about. It's just that it's very hard to do all of it, but in general, it's just overall healthy lifestyle, and what works for you? For instance, decrease stress, because stress cause inflammations and just raise your blood pressure, reduce in alcohol consumption, no more than one. For female a day or two. For male a day. Make sure you get your lap work checked, so that way you know, are you diabetic? If you are. Make sure it's under control. You're being treated high blood pressure. It's one of the major risk factor for heart diseases, so make sure you get your blood pressure checked regularly. Even some dentist place if you don't go to a healthcare provider, often dentists, some of them do take your blood pressure to so that way you know your number. Eat fruit and vegetables. I know it's very cliche, and you you can do hours on dietary because it everybody diet is different, and what they eat and what they consume their culture. So it's very hard to have a overall dietary advice for everybody. But in general, you want to add more fruit and vegetables if you can, and decrease in your sugary beverages, sugar intakes, less saturated fat and fat in general, healthy fat. It's prefer less processed food, because you don't know what chemicals in there. So you want to avoid as much as you can. It's just our lifestyle dictate. It's kind of hard to do that more move more physical activities. So the guideline is that at least 100 minutes per week of physical activities. And that could be anything, right? It could be running for 30 minutes a day, or intensive workout one hour a day, as long as you make it to 150 Easy, but keep in mind that is just to maintain your current health and weight, if you want to lose you have to increase that number or intensity. Usually, I recommend individual to really tailor to what works for you a little bit. It's better than nothing. So if you can walk after dinner or lunch for 15 minutes, that's better than none. Okay, so or if you don't like to run or go to the gym, walk around the house, do chores around the house, as long as you move more, then it's better for you. And add as you go, it's very hard to jump from not doing anything at all, and suddenly you're super motivated and decide to go to the gym every day or run every day, as you see, that's such a big shift that's harder for you to adjust if you add things slowly and to your comfort level, it's easier for you to adapt and maintain that lifestyle, because if you jumped, it's easier to pause and just kind of give up. So it's whatever works for you and move more. Essentially,

Cassandra Taloma 11:01
I love that building healthy habits can take time, and I know some people will start either with a healthy diet or healthy movement first, before integrating both at the same time. So I like how you know you're saying, think about this, the foods that make you feel good and then also the movement that all make you feel good afterwards. So to your point, after having a big meal, take a quick 15 minute walk that'll help with your digestive system, you know, kind of help you from not just sitting there after such a huge meal and probably feeling tired or yes, you know, yes,

Dr. Dieu-My Tran 11:33
because the healthy lifestyle is to think of it as a domino effect. You're able to pick up one healthy lifestyle. You're able to easier to add on another one. So if you add slowly, it's it's easier than if you were to be too ambitious at first, and you're not used to that kind of lifestyle. So it's just one domino at a time, because when you chose and do healthy stuff, you're motivated and feel good to continue and add on. So that's easier way to do it, to transition yourself. Well, said

Cassandra Taloma 12:09
I wanted to go back to some of the numbers here that we're dealing with. So we mentioned the statistics about women and heart disease, but there's also research on cardio cardiovascular disease among young adults that is often overlooked, can you share the importance of starting conversations about heart health and heart disease early in life? Yes,

Dr. Dieu-My Tran 12:28
unfortunately, we do see younger individual having heart conditions and high risk factors than in the past, because we think of heart disease as an old kind of people all mend heart disease or problem, but preventative is very crucial to this, because it built as you go. For example, cholesterol, you may have high cholesterol, and you start to build in your artery, but you don't feel the symptom or the effect until it's about 70 ish percent clock. So it's built as you go. So to me, it's critical to have this conversation as young as you can. The unfortunate piece is that when you're too young, you won't get the information or absorb the way that it's beneficial to you. So that's why my study focus in young adult, slash college students, because this is the age where, basically, they're on their own, they're they have autonomy of their lifestyle and choices versus before they're at home, their parent basically dictate what they eat and how they live a little bit. And college students, on the other hand, get to choose their schedule, get to choose their lifestyle, choose what they eat and how they prepare their food and lifestyle. So this is a critical age to have a healthy adaptation of healthy lifestyle. Because not only is beneficial for yourself, this is also the age where they form their own family, where they're dating, getting married, having kids and whatnot. So this kind of, in a way, continue on their kind of their cycle, if you may. So to me, young adult is such a critical age. Is a perfect age to have these conversations and to have these skill set early for themselves and for their family and as they age. So it's one of those cycle. But I feel like it's the perfect interjection of that cycle. I'm

Cassandra Taloma 14:18
so glad you said that. I think that's a great way to look at it is, if you have a family, you might have a little one around the house. They're observing you all the time, and so if they see you actively moving all the time, eating well, and they're also eating the same foods that you do, it's very likely that they'll continue it in their lives too. So that's a great point. Is there anything else that you'd like to add about heart health for this month.

Dr. Dieu-My Tran 14:41
No, overall, I think it's just be conscious of our health, move more, eat healthier, make better choices, even if you slip here and there. That's okay. We want to live healthy majority of the time. And what works and fit for your schedule, the best way is tailored to you. And. And it's it works better that way than to follow a specific diet for the moment or a trend for the time being.

Cassandra Taloma 15:08
Thank you so much. Dr Tran, it's been great to have you back on the show. Thank you so much for being here with us today, of course, thank you for having me and thank you to our listeners for tuning in to another episode of vital views. You