Imagine Yourself as a Car
January 2, 2018
Many of my patients are car buffs. They range from serious collectors to people who just love to drive. So after one of my patients had a heart attack and was in the Cath Lab, he told me he felt like he was in the shop for a “tune up.”
He shared how he remembered hearing sounds familiar to him from his own garage as the interventional cardiologist and the Cath Lab team worked to open his blocked coronary artery. The difference was they used tiny tools designed for delicate work.
My male patients in particular seem to comprehend their heart issues when I use an automobile analogy. So if you were a car, your heart would be your engine. Your coronary arteries would be the fuel lines to your engine. Just like the gas line in your car, these important lines are not big. They’re slightly smaller than a drinking straw, but they carry the fuel that runs your engine; so if they go down, you go down … the car essentially sputters and dies.
As the decades go by, corrosion can build up in your fuel lines, or arteries, eventually clogging them with sludge. We cardiologists specialize in restoring blood flow in your fuel lines by using various tools that can unclog and reopen the coronaries.
You can help us keep your heart out of the shop and your arteries soft, supple and flowing freely by following a healthy diet and lifestyle, and perhaps using a few “additives” to help prevent or reverse corrosive build-up.
Heart failure is another common engine problem we see. This is what happens when the power output of your engine is diminished. It’s as if your six-cylinder engine loses function in one or two or three cylinders. This reduces the engine’s ability to generate the energy needed to run the car at full speed. We have world-class experts in heart failure who have a wide array of “additives” and tools to get your engine firing on all cylinders again. They will usually have you back to full power in no time.
Another frequent problem relates to your engine’s timing, causing missed beats or racing inappropriately at random. We have an outstanding group of cardiac electricians (EP doctors) who specialize in getting your engine back in synch, using digital-age techno-wizardry. To summarize, your heart is a machine, an amazing power plant that started working 22 days after you were conceived and will beat for 2 or 3 billion times without ever resting more than a second or two.
With 60 cardiologists in our group, we have a top expert for virtually any engine problem you might develop. Usually, we can fix the issue and get you back on the road and running smoothly again. In rare instances, we need to resort to our ace in the hole - replace the old engine with a new one. Indeed, Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute just completed its 750th heart transplant this year. We have one of the most experienced and successful heart transplant programs in the nation. It’s reassuring to know that even if all else fails, we often still have a solution to keep your motor running!
Importance of Preventive Maintenance
Warren Buffett says that when he was 16, he had just two things on his mind girls and cars. According to him, he wasn’t very good with girls, so he thought a lot about cars.
To make his point, he uses the analogy of a genie who magically appears to him at 16 and says, “Warren, I’m going to give you the car of your choice. It’ll be here tomorrow morning with a big bow tied on it. Brand-new. And it’s all yours. There’s only one catch. This is the last car you’re ever going to get in your life. So it’s got to last a lifetime.”
He says if you knew that car had to last a lifetime, you would read the manual five times and keep it garaged. If it got a scratch, you would have it fixed right away because you wouldn’t want it rusting. You would baby it because you would want it to last a lifetime.
He compares that to your health. You just receive one mind and one body, which has to last a lifetime. He says it’s easy to sit back and ignore them, but if you do, they’ll be a wreck 40 years down the road, just like that car would be. He advises it’s what you do today that will determine how your mind and body will function 10, 20 and 30 years from now, and he’s right. Preventive maintenance is key to a well-maintained car, and body!
In Good Health,
James O'Keefe, MD
