Why Preventive Care?

Preventive Care.

We spend everyday working hard to convince people that preventive care is critical to their future. 95% of those people look at us as though we are insane so let me try a new approach.

17 years ago my mom was diagnosed with HCM- heart disease which the heart muscle (mycocardium) becomes abnormally thick. This disease is often referred to as 'athlete's heart.' In my mom's case, the disease is inherited. I remember that day like it was yesterday and every 3-5 years I'm reminded because I have to get tested for it.

17 years ago, the doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN put my mom on HCM medication and told her medication would push heart surgery back 7-10 years. They gave her a long list of lifestyle adjustments to make in the meantime to make the eventually necessary heart surgery more successful and create an easier recovery.

• No caffeine


• No alcohol


• walk at least 4x per week


• eat right


• maintain healthy weight


• no chocolate


• no smoking

My mom has done all that for the past 17 years. Yes, it has been 17 years since she has tasted chocolate! New HCM research shows moderate dark chocolate and white wine is encouraged because it helps the heart.

Last Friday Mom had that eventually necessary heart surgery in Rochester. Everything went well and we're headed home soon.

If I had a dollar for every time the doctors, nurses, and volunteers have said 'Wow! Your recovery is going amazingly great! You made the right decision to get your heart back to normal--you're an ideal patient! Excellent health makes recovery so much quicker' I would be rich!

Those preventative healthy decisions mom made gave an extra 7 years for the following to work towards her advantage:

• More HCM research


• More HCM education


• More experience for surgeons and medical staff


• Time for the Mayo Clinic to hire and keep the world's best HCM surgeon who did my mom's surgery

The moral of the story here is TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY AND IN RETURN YOUR BODY WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU!

Health promotion is the first step towards creating healthier people so I encourage you to share this story with others and ask them to join you in your mission of taking care of your body so in the future it takes good care of you!