4 ways to improve your heart health
Here are four important ways to maximize your heart health.
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Like many people, Alex Balmes doesn’t like going to the doctor. So when the 30-year-old started experiencing a myriad of symptoms, he ignored them and chalked them up to changes due to aging, anxiety, or the pressures of being a busy father.
However, the bloating, weight gain, and fatigue continued. he felt uneasy. And even though I was actively working in the construction industry, I became very short of breath and had difficulty falling asleep.
A visit to the emergency room in 2024 revealed what he actually had: end-stage heart failure.
“It was a big shock for me and my family,” Balmes said. “I was known in my family as a strong person and was the person to call when we needed to move into a new home. That surprised us.”
jitter? I’m not nervous, but my heart isn’t beating properly. Are you having trouble breathing? I’m not aging, but my lungs are leaking fluid. And all the rest – bloating, weight changes, fatigue – were other common symptoms of heart failure that many people don’t realize.
Other signs of heart failure include swelling, cough, confusion, nausea, and loss of appetite, according to the American Heart Association.
“I was able to catch this a long time ago.”
Balmes is now sharing her story to raise awareness for Heart Health Awareness Month, which is celebrated in February.
“If I had looked into this, I might have found this a long time ago,” he says. “At the end of the day, (it) may be nothing or it may be something, but it should be left to the professionals and help is always there, so why not take advantage of it?”
Balmes is not alone in putting off care. According to a survey by Orlando Health, only 1 in 10 people said they would go to a cardiologist because of these symptoms, and only half of people saw a doctor.
Even Balmes’ cardiologist, Dr. Yahaira Ortiz, says that if she were in Balmes’ shoes, “I would attribute the symptoms to everything else before considering it an actual heart condition. I think that’s human nature.”
Fortunately for Balmes, his life was saved by a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). An LVAD is a tool that helps the heart pump while waiting for a heart transplant.
But things could have ended very differently.
Before the LVAD, Balmes tried to get by with medication, but found herself in and out of the hospital for five months. Medications aimed at reducing fluid in his chest had no effect as his symptoms were in an advanced stage.
“I couldn’t sleep at night. I felt like I was drowning,” he said, adding that it took him a while to accept the diagnosis. “That’s when Dr. Ortiz told me it straight.”
“The biggest problem for him was that for the first few months after receiving this diagnosis, he was in complete denial until he realized he could no longer continue with the diagnosis,” Ortiz said. “If you continue like this, you’ll die.”
While the device has given Balmes a new chance at life – he can go to the gym and still ride his bike with his 6-year-old daughter – there are some limitations he’s adjusting to.
“You can’t go in the pool. You can’t go in the beach. You can’t go in the water, of course, because you have the battery pack and the cord,” he says. He also takes other precautions, such as not going on boats and not pushing himself with his daughter.
“You have to stop yourself and realize, ‘Hey, I have a battery pack. Let’s slow down a little bit,'” he says.
Ortiz points out that other options, such as drugs, can help those who are infected early on.
“Ideally, you want patients to see a doctor before they reach extreme conditions. And I would probably say that I met Alex during that fall. But we were lucky to be able to impact his life and to have him here today to tell his story,” Ortiz added.
Do you have heart failure or anxiety? Things to be careful about
Although it is more common in older patients, Dr. Ortiz says, “Over the past few years, I have definitely encountered younger people coming to my clinic with heart failure.”
Several factors, such as genetics, can increase the risk of heart failure, which Balmes tested for, but Ortiz said it can be difficult to determine exactly why heart failure occurs.
So how can you tell the difference between heart failure and something like anxiety? Pay attention to the frequency and severity of symptoms, explains Ortiz.
“If you feel like your heart is racing a little bit and then it goes away and you feel like it’s temporary, that can be a little worrying,” she says. “But if you feel that way all the time, which requires a lot of activity, such as trying to climb stairs or walk on flat surfaces, which drains your energy, then you are feeling extremely fatigued. This is not normal.”
The same goes for other changes.
“It’s not normal when you try to sleep and you can’t lie down, you can’t breathe, you feel like you’re suffocating,” Ortiz said, adding that it’s also not normal to feel so bloated that you lose your appetite and gain weight.
“It’s better to be evaluated, because if it’s evaluated and there are no problems, at least you can feel safe,” she says. “But the worst thing to do is to ignore it and not seek medical attention.”
