Participants: Daniel Miller (Host), James Marcum
Series Code: WM
Program Code: WM000364
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00:01 The following program presents principles
00:03 designed to promote good health 00:04 and is not intended to take the place of 00:05 personalized professional care. 00:08 The opinions and ideas expressed 00:10 are those of the speaker. 00:11 Viewers are encouraged to draw their own 00:13 conclusions about the information presented. 00:35 Praise God for I am fearfully 00:37 and wonderfully made. This is a glorious 00:40 text found in the Psalms that just brightens 00:43 my spirit. I wanna thank each one of you 00:45 for joining us on Wonderfully Made today. 00:47 Thank you for taking the time out of your busy 00:50 schedules wherever you might be throughout 00:52 the world to learn about your bodies, 00:55 the body is actually are gifts from God 00:57 and how we take care of it is very, 00:59 very important because if I gave you a good 01:02 Cadillac you certainly take good care of that. 01:04 Today's topic is gonna be on 01:06 valvular heart disease. And I wanna welcome 01:10 Mr. Daniel Miller here today to join us, 01:13 he is a businessman from Chattanooga 01:15 who is also a heart consumer and Dan, 01:18 what are you doing on a healthcare center? 01:21 A business coming, what's your, 01:23 you know what interest do you have in the 01:25 valvular heart disease? Well, that's a good 01:29 question at my age, soon or later everyone 01:32 starts wondering and asking themselves 01:35 how do you want your quality of life to be 01:37 as you get older. And that's, that's one of 01:41 the reasons why I'm here. 01:43 Well, have you notice that as your body ages 01:46 and I'm not saying you're old, 01:47 but as the body ages you notice more abnormalities 01:51 or things that don't feel quite as right. 01:53 Yeah. What are the some of the first things 01:55 you notice? Just getting out of bed though, 01:58 okay. You know as when we're younger 02:01 we don't realize the effects on our bodies that 02:04 we have as we live our lives and as when 02:08 we're younger obviously we're harder 02:10 on our systems, one of the effects that 02:14 I have are more joint pains you have more 02:19 shortness of breath, you have different things 02:21 like that, that do make you kind of wonder 02:24 about how you're doing it. 02:26 Well, one of the things that I tell my patients 02:28 is you know you only get one body 02:31 and the body is a machine and you know mostly 02:34 I don't know how you are but, but most men 02:36 especially men seem to be more guilty 02:38 than women. Most men take better care 02:41 of their cars, your right, 02:43 then they do their bodies. I mean when was the 02:45 last time you had a physical? 02:46 Put you on the spot here. 02:48 That's been about 3 months, 3 months. 02:50 Well, that's better than most, 02:51 I have some people mainly men they will come, 02:54 they will come when something breaks down. 02:57 But I want to talk to our audience around 02:59 the world it is very important to get 03:00 health maintenance as well. Now, do you, 03:03 you know we talked a little bit about being 03:05 a steward, a lot of people don't see their 03:07 bodies as gifts and their stewards in responsible 03:10 for taking care of this gift, right. 03:13 Do you think as you get older you see yourself 03:15 more as a steward of a gift that's been given 03:17 and why do we abuse it so much when we're younger, 03:20 why do we, it seems we take it for granted 03:22 or just mature. Well, as either steward two 03:26 or three different things as you're, 03:27 when you're younger for one you feel like 03:29 you're invincible. You know, you're out 03:32 jumping off from cliffs, you know diving 03:34 into lakes. You know go parachuting 03:37 and you don't think about the parachute 03:38 not opening, yeah. As you get older you start 03:43 thinking about these things more 03:45 and I would assume that that's probably 03:49 some of the reasons for that. 03:52 Well, I want our audience today to keep that 03:54 in mind that our bodies are a gift from God, 03:57 right, and it's one of the greatest gift 03:59 you know we have the gift of time, 04:01 the gift of our bodies, the gift of our resources 04:05 and jobs and I'm glad you're interested 04:07 about your body and I'm glad you joined us 04:09 here today Dan. Well, what we've been doing 04:12 is we collect questions in the Heartwise Ministers 04:15 from all over the world about people that are 04:17 interested in their hearts and want to know more 04:21 and the next thing we do is we try to group 04:23 these on a specific subject and today's subject 04:26 we're gonna answer questions from all over 04:28 in regard to valvular heart disease, right. 04:31 So with that introduction let's get on with some 04:34 questions here, okay. Our first question Jim 04:37 is from Calvin in Mississippi. 04:40 He writes, the doctor told me I have a 04:43 leaky heart valve, what does this mean? 04:47 Okay, a leaky heart valve in your heart between 04:52 the chambers of your heart you have 04:54 little fiber structures that open and close. 04:57 And there is one that comes in from the right 04:59 side of the heart that's called a tricuspid valve 05:02 because it has three leaflets that open 05:04 and close then the blood goes into the lungs 05:08 through another valve called the pulmonic valve 05:11 then it gets oxygen inside the lung 05:13 then it comes back to the left side of the heart 05:15 and goes through another valve called 05:16 the mitral valve, then it goes into the big 05:19 pumping chamber called the left ventricle 05:21 then its pumped out through another valve 05:23 called the Aortic valve. All of these valves open 05:27 and shut. Now the reason the valves open 05:29 and shut is we don't want blood to go backwards, 05:33 we want it to be moving forward with oxygen, 05:34 right. If it was all moving backwards we wouldn't 05:37 accomplish very much. The blood that moves 05:40 backwards this is not a good situation 05:42 and when it moves backwards sometimes 05:44 we say you have a leaky heart valve, 05:47 another name for that is called regurgitation, 05:51 right. If you have a leaky heart valve Dan, 05:54 if you had a leaky valve that, 05:55 let's say you have faucet leaks what would be 05:58 the first thing you would do for a faucet 06:00 that leaks, making, making noises. 06:02 You know things are going in the wrong direction. 06:05 Well, the first thing we do probably would be called 06:07 a plumber, that's what I would do, 06:09 is call a plumber, I'm not good at that. 06:10 Well, I'm glad you bought that up. 06:11 Okay, call a plumber and the second thing 06:14 I think would be to have him replace the valve. 06:17 Exactly, and sometimes when the leak gets 06:20 so bad that it bothers us so much we have 06:22 to replace a valve and you know 06:24 we don't just jump into that, 06:26 I mean it's something we consider very closely 06:28 and that's some of the things we're gonna 06:30 talk about. Let's bring up our first graphic 06:32 today on leaky heart valve. 06:35 Here's our you know, we talk about a leaky 06:37 heart valve, what can cause a heart valve 06:40 to leak or the blood move backwards 06:43 in the wrong direction. Well, one of them is 06:45 called high blood pressure and the way 06:48 high blood pressure does is it stretches 06:50 things out in the heart and sometimes 06:52 it actually stretches the valve to where 06:54 it closes and that closing point 06:56 is called coaptation. If it closes this point 06:59 sometimes the blood can leak backwards, 07:02 also sometimes you can have infections on 07:04 your heart valve and of course this damages 07:06 it from the infections another thing is that 07:08 valves need the blood supply and oxygen 07:11 to open and close, so if you don't get a good 07:12 blood supply of oxygen from a 07:14 coronary heart disease, the valve can also leak. 07:17 Another condition that can cause it is actually 07:19 when your heart gets weak, when your heart 07:21 gets weak the valve can't close like 07:23 it normally would, 'cause it's pulled apart 07:25 because the heart tries to adapt 07:27 and then the valve leaks anymore. 07:28 So that's some of the causes of a 07:31 leaky heart valve. Now, back to Calvin 07:33 and I hope that explain what the leaky heart 07:36 valve means. Unfortunately Calvin 07:38 most people have leaky heart valves to a 07:41 certain degree and that's not a major 07:44 problem just having a little leak. 07:45 Let me ask you this, what kind of tests 07:48 are conducted to? Excellent question, 07:51 well the most, the most basic test 07:53 is a stethoscope, okay and I'm sure you've seen 07:56 it when you go to doctors, 07:57 you can actually hear the blood flow going 08:00 in the wrong direction, it sounds 08:03 as a swishing sound, you might hear, 08:06 normally the valves open and close when you hear 08:08 a swishing sound sometimes that can be a 08:11 sign that the heart valve is not leaking 08:12 or not working well, right, because that's what 08:14 actually what cardiologists listen to, 08:16 the opening and closing of the valve that's 08:18 the lub-dub that you hear in the heart. 08:22 Another thing that we wanted, 08:23 that we look at heart valves with is a fancy 08:25 machine called an echocardiogram 08:28 where we make sound wave twitches 08:29 and we can bounce them off the heart valves, 08:32 right, and we can create a visualization 08:34 of the valve opening and closing, 08:36 we also have fancy maneuvers and equations 08:39 where we can quantitate how much blood 08:42 is leaking back or forward so this might 08:43 give us a clue on to whether the valve leaks, 08:46 so that's how we find out, but usually a patient 08:48 comes to us if its bad they have a symptom, 08:51 right. Let me ask you this does stress 08:53 add to that? It could if it raises your blood 08:56 pressure cause of it, it usually stress itself 08:58 won't damage the valve primarily but it might 09:01 do it secondarily, right. Okay, you're right. 09:04 And then a person would have a symptom 09:06 and the most common symptom I see when 09:07 the heart valves are leakage is shortness 09:09 of breath, people can't breathe very well. 09:12 Okay, let's go what's the next question here? 09:15 Okay, question number 2, is from 09:17 Margaret in Connecticut and she writes, 09:21 I had a heart valve surgery and I have to 09:25 take Coumadin. Okay, however I have a friend 09:29 who also had a valve replaced, who doesn't 09:32 take Coumadin. We were recently at a women's 09:36 meeting and got into a big discussion about 09:38 whether she should be taking Coumadin or not, 09:42 I'm usually right about health care issues, 09:45 my friends wanted me to ask you to settle 09:47 the debate. Well, now there you can either 09:51 solidify that friendship or, okay well they're 09:54 having a big discussion I hope that big discussion 09:57 was not an argument Margaret about 09:59 who should be taking Coumadin or not, 10:01 I hope that you know both people could be right. 10:05 How do you like that for middle of the road answer. 10:08 I think both people could be right, 10:09 let me explain a little bit when you have a 10:13 heart valve that's been replaced we have different 10:15 types of heart valves that go in there 10:17 and the decision is made based on numerous 10:19 factors well one type of valve is stainless steel 10:22 we call that a metallic heart valve, right. 10:25 That's not normal for a person to have a metallic 10:27 heart valve, so that type of patients sometimes 10:29 can get clots on the valves, that patient, 10:32 if a clot go on the valve that would not be good 10:35 'cause it can be pumped up 10:36 and it can cause an occlusion of a 10:37 blood vessel. Those type of patients would 10:40 definitely need to be placed on Coumadin. 10:43 Now, in other instances we decide to put a 10:47 tissue valve or a valve or a tissue from, 10:50 sometimes we get them from a pig, right. 10:52 Sometimes we can get it from a cow, 10:54 sometimes we get it from the outside lining 10:57 of a heart of cadaver, right. 10:59 And those tissue valves can sometimes 11:01 be put into the heart valve position. 11:04 Some people cannot take Coumadin. 11:07 Woman of childbearing years you have to be very 11:09 careful with Coumadin, because Coumadin 11:11 can damage the baby if you were to become 11:13 pregnant, right. So those people would be 11:15 you know we got to really consider whether 11:17 we put on Coumadin and some patients bleed a lot, 11:21 right and in that situation Dan we would want 11:25 to keep people away from Coumadin which 11:27 could make them bleed more. 11:29 I am thinking about that situation some people 11:31 have diseases of the bone marrow 11:33 where the bone marrow doesn't make 11:34 red blood cells and they are more probably 11:37 just a simple car you know an accident 11:39 I don't want to say simple if you cut yourself 11:42 and you're anemic and you have lots of bleeding 11:44 that would put you at a very high risk of being 11:47 on Coumadin and in those situations 11:50 we might decide to put in a valve that's not 11:54 metallic either one of these pig valves 11:56 or a cow valve, cow valve or even a 11:59 pericardial valve. And let's put up our 12:01 second graphic here talking about Coumadin 12:04 a little bit, our second graphic is and 12:07 who needs Coumadin. Now I think that's the part 12:09 of Margaret's question here. 12:11 These patients definitely with metallic valves need 12:14 to be placed on Coumadin to prevent the risk 12:18 of blood clotting, another group that 12:19 needs it is a group that has atrial fibrillation, 12:21 that's where the top part of the heart beats 12:24 asynchronous with the bottom. 12:26 In this situation regardless of what type 12:28 of valve you have you're gonna need on to be 12:29 on Coumadin anyway if you can. 12:31 So in these type of patients we say well 12:33 let's go ahead a put a metallic valve. 12:35 Then the third situation is any other situation 12:38 where you have a blood clots in your body, 12:39 right. Sometimes blood clots gets in the legs 12:42 and they then go to the lungs those type 12:44 of situations were need to be on Coumadin as well. 12:47 A situation where a blood clot gets in the 12:49 lung is called a pulmonary embolism. 12:51 I don't know if you remember that reporter 12:54 that was in overseas a few months ago, 12:58 that he was in Iraq and I think he was in a tank 13:00 and he couldn't move his legs and we couldn't 13:03 move his legs he got a blood clot there that 13:06 blood clot dislodged, so inactivity brought in on. 13:09 Exactly and then being the same 13:10 and it went all the way into his lungs 13:12 and he had a pulmonary embolism 13:14 and that was a fatal event for him. 13:16 So does exercise then prevent. 13:19 Yes, this kind of situation, 13:21 I mean that's why in a airplane if you're going 13:23 on a long trip you know they say you should 13:24 get up and move your legs every, 13:26 every so many hours if you're in a long car trip, 13:29 in fact if we sit down here too much we might 13:31 want to stand up so we don't have a chance 13:33 of having our venous system get a clot, 13:36 but if you did have a clot on that system 13:39 and it did go to your lungs and it wasn't fatal 13:41 you would, that would be another candidate 13:43 that would be, need to be on Coumadin, right. 13:46 Margaret, I hope we answered your question 13:48 here today, I hope it didn't cause you too 13:50 much problems with your friend but 13:53 in your situation it's possible that 13:55 you're both right. Now, how is that for a 13:57 diplomatic answer to that question? 13:59 Okay, Jim here's our, here's our third question, 14:03 this question comes from Rasmus in Norway. 14:06 How does an infection get on a heart valve? 14:10 Rasmus, that is a very insightful question. 14:14 A lot of people don't even realize that infections 14:17 can get on heart valves, one of the more common 14:20 ways that an infection gets on a heart valve 14:22 is through some type of germ that invades 14:25 the blood system. The most common, 14:28 one of the most common dirty places where germs 14:31 live is our mouths and frequently 14:34 and not frequently but sometimes we have an 14:36 infection or a tooth gets pulled 14:38 or we have some mouth procedure 14:40 or a dental procedure and a bug that's in our 14:43 mouth gains access to our bloodstream, 14:46 that bug gets in the bloodstream and floats 14:49 around in the bloodstream. Sometimes even in a 14:52 perfectly normal heart valve that bacteria 14:55 can get on that heart valves and it just sticks 14:57 there and guess what bacteria love to eat? 15:00 Blood, right, it's just they love that blood, 15:03 it's just like a constant food source to them 15:05 so they grow and they set up shop there 15:07 and before you know they have a family 15:08 there and they keep in and all of a sudden 15:10 they start munching on that valve and it destroys 15:12 the valve. But also people are prone to get 15:16 heart infections that if you have valves 15:19 that are abnormal to begin with, right. 15:21 If you're born with a congenial abnormality 15:23 of the valve or the valve is not right then 15:26 it sees the bacteria and they're more prone 15:28 to stick on these valves and it causes 15:30 an infection. So, that's one of the ways 15:33 an infection gets on a heart valve 15:35 and the another one is through the skin. 15:37 And sometimes in hospitals we see people 15:39 that have IVs, that's when a vice that goes 15:42 into a vein if that gets an infection or dirty 15:45 or its been in a long time, that's another way 15:48 that bacteria from the skin gain access 15:51 through the bloodstream and that same process 15:53 can occur, right. Now they're different types 15:56 of infections? Oh! Yeah. There's different, 15:58 most of the serious infections on the heart 16:00 tend to be bacteria infections, right. 16:03 And one of the most serious ones one called 16:05 staph and another is called strep, 16:08 these are types of bacteria, 16:09 and there's numerous bacterias that can gain 16:11 access through the bloodstream, 16:12 but any pathogen or abnormal bug that gets 16:16 in the blood would be a fungus, bacteria, 16:19 some viruses, anything that gains access 16:22 that can start living on these valves can 16:25 potentially get on it and destroy your heart valve. 16:28 So basically what you've been saying is that 16:30 bad oral hygiene can affect it or bring it on. 16:35 Let me ask you this, how about body piercings? 16:38 Oh! That is an excellent thing to bring up Dan, 16:40 more and more people now are getting 16:43 body piercings. They're getting pierced 16:45 in the nose, in the ears, in the belly button, 16:48 but the one I saw this is not too long ago 16:50 I saw a piercing in the tongue and that piercing 16:54 was right in the middle of the tongue 16:55 and the person would eat lots of food. 16:57 Now, this was someone in their 20's, 16:59 right and that tend to be, and it got infected 17:02 and I don't know whether it was from food 17:04 or because of the hygiene or it might be 17:06 the person that pierced it wasn't sterile. 17:08 That got infected, a bacteria had access 17:11 to the bloodstream the next thing that 17:14 happened was they deposit it on a heart valve 17:17 and this is a took time and four, five months 17:19 later and this patient was fatigued and tired, 17:22 they came in, we heard a rip-roaring heart 17:24 murmur because the valve couldn't close 17:27 anymore because it had a big old hole 17:28 where those bacteria just munched away. 17:30 Right. Big leakage, we did an echocardiogram 17:33 and we could see the growing bacteria 17:35 on the valve and at that point it was in a place 17:38 we couldn't treat it with antibiotics, 17:40 that's what we do if it was small, 17:41 it was leaking so bad that, 17:43 that in this 24-year-old we had to place a metallic 17:46 heart valve, right. And guess what else 17:48 I asked her to do? Besides put her face 17:51 in the valve, take her piercing out, exactly, 17:53 correct and that was the hardest thing 17:55 I think for her is because these piercing 17:56 are so popular, but these piercing do have 17:59 there consequences especially if they're, 18:01 if they could cause an infection that 18:03 could gain access to the bloodstream. 18:05 Would you put tattooing in that same column? 18:08 I would put anything that is done, 18:11 that is unsterile right, insterile where you know 18:13 we have to, we have access of bugs to gain 18:16 access to the blood system and 18:18 there are certain people that are at much 18:19 greater risk and we know that people 18:21 that are diabetic, you know people that 18:23 have immune systems that are weak, right. 18:25 Now, some people can get a bacteria in the blood 18:27 and just throw it off. We know that people 18:29 would bad heart valves to begin with that risk. 18:32 And these are people and we know that 18:33 people that have HIV infection are at higher 18:36 risk of getting these affects because 18:37 their immune systems are damaged, right. 18:39 So, is there any one certain age group 18:42 where it occurs more? No, it can well it can 18:45 happen in any age group, but the ones 18:47 I see it most in are usually the middle age 18:49 people and it usually happens from some 18:51 infection on the blood. You know when I saw 18:54 not too long ago, is a person had an infection 18:57 on the leg that never healed. 18:59 And they didn't go to the doctor, 19:01 they didn't get antibiotics 19:02 and it got worse and worse and worse 19:03 and soon that the infection got on 19:05 the blood. Does all infections end up 19:08 in the blood on the heart valves, 19:09 no it doesn't. And actually it's sort of rare 19:13 that this would happen but if it does 19:14 it's devastating, correct. So, I hope that 19:18 and you think that answers your question? 19:20 But, let's see we've discussed the different 19:23 types of infections, we've discussed the different 19:25 ways that you can get those infections, 19:29 what are some of the different treatments? 19:31 Okay. That's, that's good to talk about that, 19:34 if the infection is so bad that the valve 19:37 is destroyed, and the patents having severe 19:39 symptoms, there is nothing to do but replace 19:42 the valve. And we've talked about the 19:44 different valves the metal valves, 19:46 the pig valves, depending on the situation 19:48 the bleeding problems. Sometimes infection 19:51 is not so bad, it catches it early on, 19:53 the symptoms are minimal. And in those cases we can 19:56 treat them with long term IV antibiotics, right, 20:00 to help to kill the bacteria. 20:02 But, usually even though you put them on long 20:04 term antibiotics, usually the bacteria damages 20:07 the valve to some extent. 20:09 Because it's lived there for a while, right. 20:11 But, in some instances we can get six or eight 20:13 weeks of IV antibiotics. Specific to that bacteria 20:17 or whatever it is and we can knock it out 20:19 that way, right. Alright, let's go on to 20:24 question number 4, this comes from 20:28 Frances in Orlando, Florida. 20:30 And she says that her heart valve 20:34 does not open well. And now getting short 20:38 of breath and might need a new heart valve. 20:42 I live alone on a fixed income, 20:45 I have no family nearby, 20:50 can you give me any advice? 20:52 Well Frances from your question I'm not exactly 20:55 sure what exactly what's going on here. 21:01 If you might need a new heart valve, 21:03 if you're an elderly person the most common heart 21:05 valve that needs to be replaced is the 21:07 Aortic valve. And some people just through 21:10 the process of aging, that valve, 21:13 the aortic valve, that's the one that leads out 21:14 of the heart just gets calcified, 21:16 so it doesn't open. I think if it Dan like 21:19 rusting, you know you just rust, 21:22 doesn't open good, an old house, an old house. 21:26 Now we're not saying Frances that 21:27 you're in a old house, but the valve, 21:29 no not at all. The valve might not be opening 21:31 like it should, correct. If this is the case 21:33 you have to decide whether this, you know 21:36 whether your quality of life would want a new 21:38 valve replacement. And a valve replacement 21:42 now we're doing it very common and what I told 21:45 my elderly people according to how old 21:47 they are, and I'll give you an example 21:48 I had someone come in the other day that was 87. 21:51 And she had this Aortic Stenosis and she says, 21:54 I've lived my life, I'm right with God. 21:59 I prefer just live out my life and she was having 22:03 symptoms you know, right you know short 22:05 of breath was the most common one we see, 22:07 she choose that and everything you know 22:10 that was a good decision for her 22:11 and she didn't have any problems with that. 22:15 Other people say no I have a lot to accomplish, 22:18 I'm very active, I don't have a lot of other 22:19 medical problems and I've replaced heart valves 22:22 in people up to 90 years older times, 22:25 we show them to the surgeons and they've had 22:27 good outcomes. However the older 22:29 we get the more chances of us having a 22:32 surgical complication. And recovering from any 22:36 heart surgery is difficult, so without 22:38 a family nearby you know that could be 22:41 a little bit tough, living alone so this is a. 22:44 The reason why more friends 22:46 and people that you know. 22:48 You know I've would Frances, 22:50 I would just give this a lot of thought 22:51 and talk to your family and a lot of prayer, 22:53 right. Prayer in this situation. 22:57 Alright, number 5 is from Ashley in California. 23:02 And she writes, I'm 22 years old, 23:05 and have been told I have mitral valve prolapse, 23:08 okay. I like high intensity aerobic classes, 23:13 will this slow me down? 23:17 Ashley, it should not slow you down at all. 23:19 Mitral valve prolapse is a condition that 23:22 we have diagnosed commonly and that's simply 23:26 where the valve, the mitral valve doesn't shut 23:29 where it should, it shuts a little bit further back. 23:32 And in some cases the valve doesn't leak, 23:35 and in some patients its leaks a little bit. 23:37 Some times this valve can be thickened 23:39 and we give that term called myxomatous. 23:42 And if that valve is myxomatous it tends to 23:45 leak more, so the key is not so much having 23:47 the mitral valve prolapse is whether 23:49 it's the valve is not closing well so it leaks, 23:53 right. So, that's the main thing we follow Ashley 23:56 is it leaking very much. On the test 23:59 we've already talked about that we do that 24:01 with is echocardiogram which tells us how much 24:03 it's leaking. Now this valve is not a 24:06 perfect valve, so in a patient like you Ashley, 24:08 I would say if you've mitral valve prolapse 24:11 and the valve leaks you have to very careful 24:14 around un-sterile procedures. 24:16 Like dental procedures, anything unsterile, 24:19 you would want to take some antibiotics 24:21 before that procedure. Just to cover in case 24:23 of bacteria could gain access 24:25 to your bloodstream. Because in this type of 24:26 valve it could join up with a valve 24:29 and cause an infection, right. 24:31 That is medication, is medication an option 24:35 for that situation? Usually you don't need 24:36 medications for this. Some people with mitral valve 24:39 prolapse do have a lot of palpitations 24:41 or the skip beats. If you have a lot of palpitations 24:45 or the skip beats and we can't treat it with 24:47 natural measures, such as exercise, 24:51 low stress, we could put them on a medication 24:54 that would block the skip beats. 24:56 And those are called the beta-blockers, 24:58 but for you Ashley I think you're already doing 25:00 the most important thing and that's the 25:01 high intensity aerobics, right, because that 25:03 helping your system more, but you should take 25:05 antibiotics if you have unsterile procedure. 25:07 And we call that, let me go one, 25:09 we call that dental prophylaxis usually 25:11 because the most procedures are done 25:13 in the mouth. So, I would tell your dentist 25:14 every time that I have this and he will give 25:17 you an antibiotic before the procedure. 25:19 Now is there anything in her life for instance 25:22 that she can't do, let's say go to Pike's Peak, 25:25 different attitude, no. Skin, scuba diving, 25:29 anything like that. No, she can do all of that 25:31 as long as the valve is not leaking too severely, 25:34 right. And most of cases it's not, 25:36 it's not leaking too severely and 25:37 they can do whatever. In rare cases though 25:39 it is leaking severely and in that case it would 25:42 need to go on. Now there is no infection 25:45 in this valve, this valve is just not working well. 25:47 In these instances the valve at some cases 25:49 need to replaced. Right. 25:52 Alright, our sixth question Jim is from 25:57 Maxwell in England. His friend told him that 26:01 he has four artificial heart valves, 26:05 he thinks he is exaggerating. 26:08 Can you have this many bad heart valves, 26:11 that's a good question. 26:12 Wow! We talked early about the valves 26:15 in the heart. And we identified the 26:17 tricuspid valve, the pulmonic valve, 26:19 the mitral valve and the aortic valve. 26:23 I think Maxwell your friend is exaggerating. 26:26 I've never seen anyone that had four 26:28 heart valves replaced. I have seen one valve 26:32 very common, sometimes I see two heart valves 26:36 replaced and usually these people have 26:37 rheumatic heart fevers. 26:40 Jim, what is rheumatic heart fevers? 26:42 Rheumatic heart fever is a condition, 26:45 usually it's been years ago and people use 26:48 to not get antibiotics for certain infections 26:51 and then usually people would get infections 26:53 not get treated with antibiotics, 26:55 the infections would gain access to the 26:57 bloodstream, subsequently the bacterial bugs 27:01 would get on the valves and damage them. 27:04 And in the healing process these valves become 27:06 thickened and it didn't work correctly, 27:09 we call that a rheumatic heart valve, right. 27:11 And these type of infections could get on 27:12 multiple valves and I've had seen people with up 27:15 to three valves affected with rheumatic heart fever. 27:18 But, Maxwell, I've never seen four artificial 27:21 heart valves. In fact I've only seen two 27:24 with the repaired one. The most common valves 27:26 that we you know have surgery on is the 27:29 aortic valve, the mitral valve, rarely, 27:31 rarely do you have a tricuspid valve, 27:33 and the pulmonic valve that usually have other 27:35 methods to help that valve when it gets bad. 27:39 And so I hope that answers your question 27:41 Maxwell and if you really wanted to know for sure, 27:43 you could look at friend's medical records, 27:45 or he could do, have one of these tests called 27:46 an echocardiogram. We've covered a lot of ground 27:49 today about heart valve disease, 27:51 we talked of leaky valves, whether a person 27:53 should take Coumadin or not, we've talked about 27:55 infections and one of the things I wanna leave 27:58 with everyone today is make sure you're clean 28:00 especially with regards to your bloodstream 28:03 because we don't want an infection to gain access 28:05 to your heart. Thank you for joining us today 28:08 for Wonderfully Made and may God richly 28:10 bless you as you live close to Him. |
Revised 2014-12-17