Dr. Liana Spano Shares Risk Factors for Heart Disease

Steve Adubato sits down with Caridologist, Dr. Liana Spano, from Summit Medical Group to talk about educating women and men about the risk factors and signs of heart disease.

10/26/16 #1914

Excerpt:

"We're now joined by Doctor Liana Spano who is a cardiologist with the Summit Medical Group. How are you doing? I'm doing well, thank you. The field of Cardiology changed dramatically in the last ten years? Absolutely. How so? Yeah. Well, I think that cardiology in general has one of the quickest paces when it comes to changing and knowledge and information. Cardiology is a field that provides a lot of scientific data. It's a lot of clinical trials that go through cardiology and we've learned a lot about cholesterol and lipids in the last ten years. Statins have been developed in the last ten to fifteen years. Stents over the last twenty to thirty years. So it's just really quickly changing and there's a lot to offer in cardiology now that there wasn't many years ago. But still, heart disease, the number one killer of women. Yes. Yes. Always the case or more recent, or what? Always the case. What happens is... so, heart disease is the number one killer in general so... of all comers. Men, women, black, white, hispanic. People don't realize that. That heart disease is such a big... a big... it's such a large amount of people that are effected and it is the number one cause of death in this country. The number one cause. Across the board. Men and women. Men, women, all races. So, so let me play devils advocate here. I was just saying to you that in our family, there is a history. Alright, my grandfather, who I never knew, passed at a very young age. At the age of 44. My father's brother passed at a very young age. My dad's had issues. But I've always said to myself, because I exercise, because I don't smoke, blah blah blah blah blah. I've convinced myself... That you're safe. Yes. Yeah. So unfortunately I wish... Tell me I'm not. I wish I could say that that was always the truth and in general, regardless of your risk factors, we always strive to achieve healthy lifestyle and do all the right things because, you know, you would be much worse off if you didn't. But there are some people who are at higher risk than others. And primary prevention is the key. So what it comes down to is preventing disease before you become affected. And that's called "Primary Prevention". So I try to see most of my patients before there's an event. Unfortunately, we meet a lot of people after they've been sent to the cardiologist because they've had an event. So they won't go... Most... Most, many won't go until something has happened. Many, yes. But the smarter thing to do... Mmm hmm... Is to get ahead of it. Right. Either an internist or your family doctor or a cardiologist..."