Are Americans Headed for Heart Failure?

Like tens of millions of Americans Vice President Dick Cheney is plagued with heart problems.

Most recently it was an irregular heartbeat, but his cardio problems range almost as widely as they do with the public.
Appearances are Deceptive

In discussions last week with Middle Eastern leaders, the vice president appeared fit. But hours before, his physicians found an atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat. That can cause a stroke.

The problem lead quickly to a medical procedure called electric shock that resulted in a normal heart rhythm.

This was the latest in multiple procedures Cheney has faced in the last thirty years.

So is Cheney one step away from heart failure and thus a heart transplant?

To be a transplant candidate, Cheney would have to have a heart muscle so weakened that it couldn't deliver blood to much of the body.

Normally a heart pumps out about 55 percent of the blood it holds per heart beat.

The last time it was announced, Cheney's heart was putting out 40 percent. To be eligible for a transplant, you have to be below 20 percent.

Sadly, many teens have such awful lifestyles that they are heading for heart problems as bad as Cheney's.

Unlike most teens, Cheney watches his diet strictly and exercises vigorously several times a week.

So the future health of the nation may depend on today's generation adopting what Cheney may wish he had done in his teens and twenties.

Teens and Health

"We're seeing high cholesterol, hypertension - patients developing heart failure in their teens," Pediatric Weight Specialist Ann Scheimann, M.D. said.

That appears to result from obesity driven by bad habits such as "drinking sweetened beverages like soda, pop or sweetened fruit juices, physical inactivity and skipping breakfast," said Richaed Miech, Ph.D., of John Hopkins University.