Why a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude doesn’t cut it when it comes to heart disease
September, 2021
In the lead up to this year’s Run & Walk for Your Heart event, we heard from a number of ‘Wellness Warriors’ hoping to inspire others in the community to commit to leading healthier lifestyles.
Here is Dr Dan Lack’s message.
General practitioners see people every day, for a range of different medical needs.
But too often than not, patients present with the symptoms of a serious heart condition or event that requires them to be immediately directed to an emergency department.
This is the experience of Launceston GP Dr Dan Lack, who estimates that up to 75 per cent of patients who visit him with chest pain, end up requiring urgent care.
Being aware of the warning signs of heart disease, and taking steps to prevent its onset are among the key messages Dr Lack would like to share ahead of this year’s Run and Walk for Your Heart event.
Based at the Launceston Health Hub, Dr Lack said his main concern was the “she’ll be right” approach often taken when it comes to heart health.
“As a GP, we see lots of patients every day. But pretty often every week we will see patients that will come in that have had chest pain for a couple of days and they think – ‘oh I thought it would just disappear’,” he said.
“I think most people recognise that if you have a pain in your chest, or a pain in your jaw ... your shoulder or your arm, it probably needs to be investigated, it needs to be looked into.
“But there’s still a lot of people who think it’s going to pass.
“So I really think the biggest concern is people who feel like they’re maybe burdening us with their chest pain, and we can actually figure it our really quickly if it’s a problem.”
In Australia, heart disease kills one person every 18 minutes, with about 79 people dying of heart disease every day, on average.
This equates to nearly one in five of all deaths, while someone is hospitalised for heart disease every 80 seconds.
Dr Lack said encouraging people to act on any potential heart disease symptoms was one of the best things we as a community could do to prevent its onset and its deadly cost.
“I think one of the best things we can do is number one, encourage people to act on those symptoms, if they have them. But even before that, recognising that it is a problem in the community and that it affects a lot of people,” he said.
“There are very simple preventative things, that sometimes we think aren’t easy ... that it’s too hard to spare an extra 10 minutes at the end of the day ... to go out for a bit of exercise.
“But that’s probably one of the most important things we can all do. And encouraging everyone around us that it’s normal, to help our heart, I think is really important.”
The Clifford Craig Foundation has been funding medical research, training and life-saving medical equipment for the Launceston General Hospital since 1992.
Now in its 14th year, the Run and Walk for Your Heart is an annual event aimed at raising awareness for heart disease.
The five kilometre event will return to UTAS Stadium on Sunday, October 3.