Page 62 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2015

HEALTHY LIVING from the heart
HEART
Early detection is key for men’s heart health
Hstory by Susan Ruddiman photos courtesy of Singing River Health System and Todd Trenchard
HEALTHY
eart disease does not him on a hectic schedule. He recently happen overnight. volunteered for an AHA fundraiser.
Richard S. Eubanks, “I was reading one of the pamphlets M.D., described the that said everyone needs a checkup. onset of heart disease as My father died at age 56 of a sudden slow and insidious. He cardiac arrest,” Trenchard said. “Then
is a thoracic surgeon at the Center of I felt discomfort at the top of my
Cardiovascular Surgery, Singing River Health System.
“It’s not like touching a hot stove and getting burnt because you know right away something is wrong. Oftentimes you don’t feel the negative aspects of heart problems until it’s too late,” he said.
For many, it takes a heart attack before they realize they have heart issues such as coronary artery disease, which narrows or hardens the arteries around the heart, or atherosclerosis, which produces artery-blocking clots, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
Todd Trenchard, 57, of Ocean Springs was unaware he had heart disease, but took action in time before having a heart attack. As the executive director of the Bacot-McCarty Foundation,
he serves as a community volunteer on numerous boards which keeps
stomach area after jogging. I first thought it was more bronchial and not heart related.”
These small coincidences led him to make an appointment with a cardiologist in August.
“Todd was proactive, which is good. Men sometimes will be stoic and ignore their body signals. Todd was having shortness of breath while running, and his father did have early heart disease,” Eubanks said. “He had risk factors that couldn’t be ignored.”
After obtaining family history and listening to Trenchard’s description
of discomfort during exercise and his feelings of fatigue, his cardiologist ordered a heart catheterization. This procedure allowed the cardiologist to view and determine the blood flow in the arteries and blood pressure in the heart’s chambers. What he found were blocked arteries.
Richard S. Eubanks, M.D., from the Center of Cardiovascular Surgery, Singing River Health System.
62 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • November 2015
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