CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Tick tock, tick tock. In the next eighty seconds, two people in the United States will die of heart disease; on average it kills 2,200 Americans each day. I put my heart to the test -- a test that could save your life.
The test will show me the inside of my heart, specifically, what’s in my arteries. But first, why I’m doing this? Why do I think you should see it? Why should insurance companies consider paying for it?
“My father died of a sudden heart attack in his mid-40’s, and I witnessed it, and I saw what a man’s heart attack looks like. A woman’s heart attack doesn’t look like that” said Christine O’Boyle.
At the same stage of life as her dad, Christine, then in her mid-40’s, a woman who didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, ate well and exercised --had a heart attack too. It began during an afternoon walk, and the symptoms lingered.
“I had nausea, I was sweating, I had shoulder and back pain, and indigestion I had, that’s a big thing among women,” Christine said.
Christine’s husband recognized what was happening and insisted on going to the emergency room. He was right. Heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women, more than all cancers combined. In fact, it will kill one in three adults.
That brings me back to this test called the calcium scoring. At 51-years-old, it’ll show how much plaque I have in my arteries and help determine my risk of a heart attack or stroke.
This test is $150 and not covered by insurance. Why not? It’s preventative, just like mammograms, pap smears and colonoscopies.
By the numbers, it makes sense. The all in cost for a heart attack can be $750,000 or more. If insurance covered the $150 for the calcium scoring, it means 5,067 people could see and learn their risk and maybe avoid a deadly cardiac event.
My test took only 10 minutes at Novant. My result?
“There is a small fleck of calcium in one of your arteries in your heart so that gives a calcium score of not zero; it implies a certain amount of cardiovascular risk, but in this case, the risk is very normal for your age” said Dr. Erik Insko, MD, PhD who is the diagnostic radiology specialist at Novant.
I’m not 100% in the clear, but I now know. It’s well worth $150 and some piece of mind. If you are interested in learning your score, talk to your doctor.