“A Strong and Steady Pulse: Stories from a Cardiologist”
Author: Gregory D. Chapman, MD
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Pages: 192
Price: $29.95 (Cloth)
UAB Cardiologist Tells Stories With Lessons
Of course I approached this book with doubts and hesitation. A book about heart disease and heart surgeries did not present as an attractive or entertaining read.
But, as often happens, I was wrong.
Distinguished UAB cardiologist Dr. Gregory Chapman has a smooth conversational writing style, a good sense of humor and is himself obviously a person who has read widely and well. The book, a collection of 26 stories, is laced with literary references from Greek mythology to “Huckleberry Finn.”
Of course there are many polysyllabic medical terms but one can breeze over them, and Chapman provides a glossary in case you want to be certain of their meanings.
In the chapter, “Marathon Training,” Chapman begins by reminding the reader that Alabamians rank forty-sixth in the nation for obesity, forty-eighth for diabetes, and forty-ninth for hypertension. (In case you are uncertain, last place is 50th.) A cardiac surgeon keeps busy here.
Exercise is obviously called for, but should people take up marathon running? Dr. Chapman did, and he describes his own process. He had no family history of cardiac conditions. He read up on the subject, and trained carefully, increasing mileage over time.
Even so, when he finished his first marathon he had a stress fracture in his left foot and four toenails turned blue and fell off. He should have worn shoes one size larger than usual.
As an aside, he tells the reader that the length of a marathon had always been 25 miles, the distance Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens, but King Edward VII during the 1908 Summer Olympics wanted the race to end beneath his balcony at Buckingham Palace.
He was the king. It was made so. And the race became 26.2 miles.
He closes the chapter by reminding us that a 15-minute walk daily “reduces all causes of death by 11 percent.”
In the chapter “Would Narcissus Wear an Apple Watch?” he concludes, yes, “but should he?” Becoming obsessed with your own heart rate and checking multiple times a day is itself unhealthy and can create anxiety and a rash of unnecessary testing and cardiac consults.
It is important that the medical advice you receive is from physicians, not lawyers.
He tells of a patient who was doing fine, taking Xarelto, a blood thinner, once a day until he saw on television an ad with an 800 number to join a class action lawsuit against Xarelto. He got scared, quit taking his medicine and had a severe stroke.
My friends and I are all interested in whether alcohol is poison or, one hopes, might actually be good for you. Chapman reports: “Observational studies do indicate that Americans who have one or two drinks a day live longer than those who drink none….” Red wine may be good for you. Of course, alcohol abuse can cause a host of ailments.
Cocaine, in case you were wondering, may “cause a flow-inhibiting spasm of a coronary artery” that results in a tear or clotting,
So, NO.
About smoking—the patient in that story was having a heart transplant.
Overeating will not exactly cause a heart attack, but Chapman had a patient who ate so much at a Nashville motel “all you can eat breakfast” that his distended stomach caused a repaired artery to come loose, and he nearly bled to death internally.
Several chapters are specifically about the patient/physician relationship.
Recently, doctors are urged to spend more time with patients and listen more.
Perhaps, the patient, knowing his own body, will tell the doctor what is wrong.
Of course the patient must give consent for all procedures but when the procedure is clearly necessary, the conversation should be such as to persuade him.
Yes, a patient can die of a “broken heart.” It is called Takotsubo syndrome and occurs after sudden emotional stress or shock. Chronic stress over time is also injurious to our health.
Our hearts, Chapman reminds us, beat approximately 38 million times per year, but we should remember they pump and relax, pump and relax, and in our everyday lives, so should we.
Don Noble’s newest book is Alabama Noir, a collection of original stories by Winston Groom, Ace Atkins, Carolyn Haines, Brad Watson, and eleven other Alabama authors.