WebMD Health Discovered Podcast: Heart Failure & Women

Heart failure affects approximately 3 million women and is the leading reason for hospitalization and a major cause of death in women over age 65. What facts do women need to know about heart failure? Why is heart failure so prevalent in Black and Hispanic communities? How does premature onset heart failure impact people under the age of 65? 

 On the most recent episode of the WebMD Health Discovered Podcast, Dr. John Whyte hosted Dr. Karol E. Watson, a cardiologist from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, and Chevonne Dixon, who was diagnosed with heart failure at only 19 years old. Chevonne, who openly discusses her life with heart failure on her blog, This Well Planned Life, underwent two open heart surgeries, has a cardiac device implant, and is currently listed for a heart transplant. 

In this episode, Dr. Whyte, Dr. Watson and Chevonne discuss what heart failure is, questions to ask your doctor, treatments to consider, and the impact of social determinants of health, bias, and structural racism. Check out the full episode: Heart Failure and Women: Facts, Health Disparities and Solutions

 

Available to stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and iHeart, some highlights in the episode include: 

• 4:29 -  Pivotal moments: 
• “I literally needed surgery within a week. They said I could pass out and go into cardiac arrest at any moment because of how dire the situation was. I was terrified. And that moment was the pivotal point in my life where this was a whole new ballgame and this is now your future.” (Chevonne)
• “But the more and more I got into cardiology, I realized we could do these phenomenal procedures on patients with end-stage heart disease and often bring them back to some level of functional activity. But I said, why don’t we just try to prevent things? Maybe that would be even better. So that’s when I got into prevention. And the idea of preventing deaths just consumed me.”  (Watson)

• 7:03 - What’s wrong with the term “heart failure?” 
• “It does not describe it well… I mean, when your child is struggling in school, we don’t say they’re failing, you know, it’s struggling, and we need to help it along. And there are so many things we can do now to help it along. So the idea that something’s failing, I really don’t like it.” (Watson)
• 9:04 - The impact of health disparities:
• “But, there are also social determinants of health that make treating and diagnosing and getting into the proper therapy difficult for some people. So when I hear of a young person who develops heart failure, I think it's probably a person of color.” (Watson)
• 17:50: 
• “So, my device has kept me alive. It saved my life once and I’ve had it for about five years. I had it replaced once. And had I not researched on my own and done all of these things… maybe I wouldn’t be here. I don’t know.” (Chevonne)
• 19:22:
• “What we have to do is we all have to take this constellation of symptoms, treat it the same each and every time, whether it’s a young person, a Black person, a woman.”
• 29:30 - A big misconception: 
• “So the biggest misconception, I believe, is people feel that your life is ending or this is the end. You can still live a normal life and have fun and enjoy life with heart failure like I am doing every day. It’s scary to say ‘heart failure’, but with treatment, you can live life with heart failure.” (Chevonne)