By T’Neil Gooden
Many Brooklyn College Health-based communities came together to bring awareness to Feb. as American Heart Health Month. The collaboration organizations, the Brooklyn College’s Women’s Center (WOC), the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANAPISI) Project (BCAP), and the Health Programs Immunization Requirements Office (BCHPIRO), created an event to shine a bright light on heart health and the steps needed to protect it.
Dr. Lisa Millsaps-Graham, the assistant director of BCHPIRO, and Cynthia Cummings, a registered respiratory therapist, led the conference with questions for the educational leaders within the call, which included Alice Blair, a registered nurse, and Suzette Graham-Hill, an internal medicine doctor.
“Without your heart, you cannot function. You need your heart to survive day to day,” Hill told the audience. “If you have problems with heart disease, it will interrupt your entire life.”
Students learned the importance of exercise, movement, and taking care of their bodies. They also listened to educators speak on the importance of diets, stress, and blood pressure in understanding our hearts.
“We can experience a heart attack. We can experience a stroke. The number one killer for all adults in the United States is heart disease,” Hill told the audience. “We have to realize that if we don’t control our blood pressure, if we don’t watch our diet, if we don’t exercise, we don’t try to take down the stress, and we don’t start it early, we can feel the repercussions of an elevated blood pressure, which is a heart attack or stroke.”
Educators not only spoke about the implications that follow high blood pressure, but students also learned about the damage that smoking and stress can cause to many parts of our bodies, especially our hearts.
“Get smoking sensation, get patches, see the doctors. Most hospitals: Kings County and Woodhull, offer free medication to help you to quit smoking,” Cummings told the audience. “So it’s very important that we educate folks and we let them know that the stress, as Dr. Graham says, stress is another thing that impacts the heart.”
Cummings continued to explain the lasting effects that smoking has on young students’ bodies as they continue to smoke first or secondhand.
“We do this pulmonary function testing and 20-year-olds lungs are performing like 60-year-old’s lungs. It’s very important and we’re educating them on smoking, whether it be vaping, whether it be marijuana or a cigarette, they are all harmful substances that you’re introducing into your lungs,” Cummings stated. “So I think education, most definitely education. It’s very important to make sure that we continue to stress the importance of heart health and lung health.”
Educators explained to students that they could positively impact the length of their lives by speaking to family members about heart problems and perfecting their diets.
“We need to send the message. Let’s drink water instead of soda. And if you can get your friends and family to drink two bottles of water versus that soda that they’re buying, that’s what I want people to start doing,” Blair told the audience. “Leave the sweets and the carbonated drinks alone.”
According to the CDC, students should understand that heart problems are not only due to smoking or stress but can be genetic, brought down by family members, and problems in other areas of our bodies. Heart problems can stem from problems that already occur in our kidneys, liver, and many other organs.
“If you have any sort of history, of hypertension, diabetes, stroke,” Hill told the audience. “If you have any family history of hypertension or diabetes. Anything that you have that can possibly be cardiac related, you need to get it checked out.”
For students who are interested in learning more about their heart health, you can access the Comprehensive Care that is in our community. Students can contact the Coalition of Concerned Medical Professionals at 1542 Remsen Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11236 or (718) 469-5817.