Four years ago, Rosana Ramírez, a Colombian mother and teacher living in Monroe, went to a doctor's appointment because she was experiencing difficulty breathing. What she never imagined was that after she had several tests done, the results showed that she had heart failure.
“The doctors told me that my heart was working at 30% and that I was about to have a heart attack,” Ramírez told Enlace Latino NC .
Since then, Ramírez's life took a 180 degree turn, and his health has been greatly affected, as he has had to undergo several surgeries to keep his heart working.
This 53-year-old teacher is one of thousands of people in the United States, including a high percentage of Hispanics, affected by a Cardiovascular disease (CVD), which in 2021 caused the death of 931,578 people.
Agree, with the American Heart Association (AHA), for that year heart disease and cardiovascular accident (stroke) claimed more lives than cancer and chronic respiratory diseases combined.
More than half of Latino men die from coronary heart disease
Un report published in June 2022 by “National Library of Medicine indicates that cardiovascular diseases (CVD) affect the 42.7% of women Hispanic and 52.3% of men Hispanics in this country. More than 62 million Hispanics live in the United States (18% of the national population).
As the leading cause of death among Hispanics in the U.S., cardiovascular disease causes significant morbidity and mortality in this group, the report states. Also noted, “the overall prevalence of CVD, including coronary artery disease, angina, and myocardial infarction among Hispanics in the US is 8.2%.”
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In North Carolina it is the second cause of death among Hispanics
As is the case in the country, the leading cause of death in North Carolina is coronary heart disease, above cancer, diabetes, pneumonia, and chronic respiratory diseases.
Census data indicates that for 2021 North Carolina had a total of 10,5521,162 inhabitants of which 1,078,224 were Hispanic (10.2%).
The Center for State Health Statistics of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), shows a chart with statistics of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, which indicates that 161.1 people died from heart disease in 2021.
Of these, 25.9 people died from an acute myocardial infarction, 58.3 from another ischemic heart disease, and 44 died from a stroke.
In the case of Hispanics , coronary heart diseases are the second cause of death in the state, with 67.2 people (per 100,00) dying from coronary heart disease, 12 from acute myocardial infarction, 21.9 from other ischemic heart disease, and 24 from a cardiovascular accident.
Among Hispanics, the main cause of death is cancer, with 80.5 people (per 100,000).
Many Hispanics attribute symptoms to other things
Dr. Carlos Rish , with more than 40 years of experience, is the owner of the Latino Medical Center , where it has served the Latino community for 20 years at its three locations in Charlotte and Monroe.
“Coronary artery disease is widely observed, which is a condition that puts you at risk of suffering a heart attack, called myocardial infarction, and other forms of heart disease that supply blood to the heart and are blocked by fatty deposits that we know as cholesterol, which form plaques in the arteries that block blood,” Dr. Rish explained to Enlace Latino NC.
The doctor mentioned that heart diseases can present various symptoms, which can vary depending on the person, but sometimes there are no symptoms.
“This is the case that I see in the Latin community, that many people do not have symptoms, they do not have any difficulties, and according to them they are healthy, so the disease goes unnoticed by the Latin community that does not go for general check-ups.” This is what Dr. Rish stated.
According to the doctor, many suffer some type of pain, discomfort or pressure in the center of the chest, or feel strange tingling in the upper part of the body, arms and back, stomach or jaw, sometimes shortness of breath or have episodes of excessively fast heartbeats such as tachycardia, which are sometimes accompanied by lightheadedness and sweating.
“But they don't pay much attention to these symptoms, and they generally attribute them to other things,” the doctor said.
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Hispanics don't take care of themselves
Dr. Rish says that in the Hispanic community they smoke too much, and eat a lot of food with saturated fats, they do not exercise and consequently the biggest problem is obesity, followed by diabetes, high blood pressure, which is It is called the “silent enemy” because it does not cause many symptoms.
“Many times these coronary diseases manifest themselves simply in a heart attack or myocardial infarction, and thus many people lose their lives, or result in other types of cardiovascular problems, such as strokes,” he explained.
“I think the problem in the Latin community has been the lack of care. “Those who have diabetes do not take care of themselves, those who are overweight do not lose it, and those with cholesterol do not change their habits and do not take the medicines that we prescribe,” he added.
Another problem is that Hispanics go to the doctor when there is a serious symptom, or for a routine check-up.
“Sometimes they already have changes in kidney function, which makes the problem worse, because they begin to retain water, and the heart is not pumping normally, and we do an electrocardiogram and in many cases we see that they already have damage to the heart” , he indicated.
Risk factors in Hispanics
Recent studies have shown that high rates of traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in Hispanic individuals include obesity, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and other risk factors such as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, psychological stress, and occupational exposures. .
This group also has high rates of other types of CVD, including stroke (2.4% prevalence among men, 1.7% among women), heart failure (HF) (2.4% prevalence among men, 1.7% % among women) and peripheral artery disease (lifetime risk 22%).
“These conditions are associated with significant health care expenditures in this group, with a cost estimated of $6,025 per person each year. Therefore, mitigating the risk of CVD among Hispanics is important to curb the increase in morbidity, mortality, and health care expenditures,” states the studio published by "National Library of Medicine.
Overall heart disease cost the country $239.900 billion each year between 2018 and 2019. This included the cost of medical services, medications, and lost productivity due to death.
Hispanics have high rates of obesity, hypertension and cigarette consumption
This study quotes, updated 2021 data from the American Heart Association (AHA), indicating that Hispanic men and women have higher rates of obesity (44% and 46.2% prevalence, respectively) compared to their white counterparts (40.7% and 38.7% prevalence, respectively).
Similarly, they have high rates of hypertension (50.6% prevalence among Hispanic men, 40.8% among Hispanic women), hyperlipidemia (33.5% prevalence among Hispanic men, 23.8% among Hispanic women), and diagnosed diabetes (15.1% prevalence among Hispanic men, 14.1% among Hispanic women) .
Hispanics in the US also have high rates of cigarette consumption . The average prevalence of cigarette smoking was 25.7% among Hispanic men and 15.2% among Hispanic women, with significant variation by country of origin.
While about a third of Puerto Rican adults in this study reported smoking cigarettes, only 11% of Dominican adults did so.
Barriers to medical access could underestimate risk factors
Importantly, because many Hispanic patients disproportionately face barriers to accessing routine health care and underdiagnosis, these data may be underestimating rates of traditional CVD risk factors in the U.S. Hispanic population. .
“Limited access to health care among Hispanic adults is reflected in evidence showing low rates of awareness of risk factors such as hypercholesterolemia (50.7%), high blood pressure (52%), and diabetes (58.7%)” . This is what the study.
In fact, Hispanic men and women have lower rates of hypertension awareness, treatment, and control than white individuals, highlighting the additive risk and health inequity present in this population due to poor understanding and management of hypertension. predisposing conditions.
Consistent with this, the study found that Hispanic adults have poor control of cardiovascular disease risk factors, especially those with three or more major CVD risk factors.
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