February focuses on heart month

This February marks the 57th observance of American Heart Month. The goal is to raise awareness of the nation’s number one killer: heart disease.

Some people may not even know they have any heart problems until they are referred to a cardiologist. This was the case with Lakesha Fleming.

While under the care of St. Vincent’s endocrinologist, Dr. Maria Prelipicean, Fleming was diagnosed with a benign pituitary tumor in December 2019. The medicine she was prescribed to help shrink the tumor could also have an effect on her heart, so she was referred to cardiologist Dr. Spencer Gaskin.

“I started seeing Dr. Gaskin in January 2019 at St. Vincent’s One Nineteen,” Fleming said. “He did an echocardiogram since we were already concerned about a leaky valve. He actually sat down with me and explained to me it was going to be okay and the results made mefeel reassured.”

She said she felt that Gaskin knew everything about her at her first appointment and she could tell he was a doctor that really cared.

With her heart issues under control, Fleming now has yearly checkups with Gaskin to keep a check on how things are progressing. She lives in Helena and travels to St. Vincent’s One Nineteen in Greystone for her appointments, as Gaskin sees patients there one day a week as a cardiologist with Ascension St. Vincent’s.

After finding out about her own issues, Fleming later learned that her mother also had heart issues, and she wants her husband to get checked as well.

“Having that connection has made me feel reassured,” she said. “I’m not worried and glad I caught it in my 40s.”

Gaskin said that heart problems are a relatively individualized issue and the majority of cardiac disease happens later in life. However, sometimes people die unexpectedly due to sudden cardiac deaths.

“It’s hard to predict who’s going to have those,” Gaskin said. “It could be something genetic that can run in families. For the general population, it’s not a bad idea to see a doctor around age 50. The more family issues, the more concern I’d have to do things sooner.”

Symptoms of concern include heart palpitations, shortness of breath and chest pains. Gaskin said he recommends people to err on the side of caution. Even without a family history, there is always a first person in the family to have cardiac issues.

“If someone is concerned enough to make a phone call to get an appointment, I think they should do that, especially if they’ve never had a cardiac evaluation,” he said. “I do non-invasive testing and have someone wear a heart monitor or run tests like EKGs and echocardiograms that will give us good information and let us know if we need to do other testing. These are all things we can do at the One Nineteen office.”

Cardiac services offered at One Nineteen include: nuclear stress test, plain stress test, echocardiogram, cardiac monitors, EKGs, ABI (ankle brachial index), carotid artery ultrasound, venous Doppler and arterial Doppler.

Gaskin said diet and exercise are the best medicine: walking four to five days a week, and eating a diet that includes fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and roasted nuts. Having a relationship with a primary care doctor is also important, so they can refer patients to specialists if needed.

Thanks to medication and regular check-ups with echocardiograms, Fleming has been able to manage her heart issues without invasive measures.