from Alliance for Aging Research
Are you aware of heart valve disease? A
public opinion survey by the Alliance for
Aging Research shows at least one-half
of us have never heard of it and even
fewer know much about it. That’s a
worry, since heart valve disease affects
more than five million Americans.
Because symptoms are often difficult to
detect, Susan Peschin, president of the
Alliance, calls this a classic case of what
you don’t know can hurt you. Heart
valve disease involves damage to one or
more of the heart valves disrupting
blood flow by not opening or closing
properly. Sometimes that is not serious,
but other cases can lead to major
complications including death. Nearly
two-thirds of people in the survey only
learned they had heart valve disease
because of a regular medical checkup.