From heart disease to
the NYC Marathon
Linda Feingold as she approaches the fi nish line of the NYC Marathon on
Nov. 3rd, 2019. American Heart Association
Caribbean Life, February 7-13, 2020 3
Every Valentine’s Day homes and
businesses dress up their decor with
cupids and hearts to celebrate a day
all about love and affection. The heart
shape has been used to symbolically
represent the human heart as the
center of emotion and romantic love.
Hearts symbolizing love can be traced
back to the Middle Ages.
Those familiar with human anatomy
realize that an actual heart
bares very little resemblance to the
ideographic heart shape used in art
and imagery. Similarly, the human
heart really has nothing to do with
human emotions. Despite this, there
are many interesting components of
the heart, and a man or woman truly
cannot love or live without one.
The heart as an organ is relatively
small in size. It is roughly the size
of a fist and weighs only 11 ounces
on average. Although diminutive,
the heart is responsible for pumping
2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000
miles of blood vessels each day. It
accomplishes this by beating 72 times
a minute in a healthy adult. All of the
cells in the body receive blood except
for the corneas in the eye.
The heart works harder than any
other muscle in the body. In a fetus,
it begins beating at four weeks after
conception and will not stop until a
person’s time of death. Even then,
sometimes the heart can be revived.
A heart can also continue to beat
outside of the body provided it has an
adequate oxygen supply.
Although many people refer to all
of the blood vessels in their body as
“veins,” they’re actually a combination
of veins and arteries. Veins carry
fresh, oxygenated blood to the body
through arteries. The main artery
leaving the left heart ventricle is
called the aorta, while the main artery
leaving the right ventricle is known as
the pulmonary artery. Blood traveling
back to the heart flows through veins
after it has passed the lungs to pick
up oxygen. The thumping noise that
is heard while the heart is beating is
actually the chambers of the heart
closing and opening as blood flows
through.
By Linda Feingold
My name is Linda Feingold, MEd,
MS, RDN and during my twentieth
year as a registered dietitian and personal
trainer teaching others how
to eat and exercise properly in order
to prevent heart disease, I ended up
becoming a cardiac patient myself.
Being in the health education business
for so long, I literally forgot that in
some people, a family history of heart
disease can override healthy habits. So
when I started developing back pain
that would sometimes radiate into my
chest during my long runs while training
for the NYC Marathon in 2018, I
didn’t assume I had a heart problem.
Especially since only a few weeks prior
I had my annual physical and was told
my “ten year risk factor for heart disease
was .5-percent”. But I couldn’t
ignore the fact that my dad had a massive
heart attack and went into cardiac
arrest when he was around my age. So
I asked my primary doctor if she could
order me a stress test and she referred
me to a cardiologist.
Nine days after my 18-mile training
run I was in a cardiologist’s office
learning for the first time that I had
something very wrong with my heart.
I underwent a slew of tests and exactly
one month after that first appointment
I learned I had coronary artery
disease (CAD). One week later I was
in the cath lab undergoing my first
stent placement for my “widow maker”
artery which was 99% blocked. I was
too sick to undergo the second stent
placement I needed for another significantly
blocked artery and had to
wait an additional five weeks for that
procedure.
I could have let all this beat me up
emotionally but I refused to do so. I
was weak from four months of being
completely inactive but I picked myself
up, wiped the tears of fear and frustration,
and powered through. I’m pretty
sure I’m the only person who has ever
signed up for a half-marathon in the
middle of a cardiac rehab class (If
you don’t sign up immediately for the
Brooklyn Half you’re not getting in!).
I ran that half-marathon six weeks
after graduating from cardiac rehab
only 41 seconds slower than I did the
year before. And my dream of running
the NYC Marathon finally came
true on November 3rd, 2019 at 4:28:05
(my seventh NYC attempt and second
marathon ever in 23 years!). In addition,
in 2019 I earned a personal best
in my 1M, 5K, 4M, 10K and marathon
times. I guess it’s true what they say
— the comeback is always greater than
the setback.
In 2020 and beyond, I plan to continue
to educate others in eating healthfully
and exercising, with an additional
emphasis on being in tune with the
body and knowing when something
isn’t right. I plan on being as active if
not more so than before. Most importantly,
I look forward to more sunrises
and sunsets, and more time with
friends and family.
Amazing facts
about the
human heart