Some 4,600 residents in 10 counties and parishes in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi are going to be tested for heart disease — testing that will save many of their lives.
I say that because similar testing I had in the 1990s has helped me reach age 90. It was my wife’s cardiologist’s suggestion that I get a pet scan, and he said it showed I was headed for a major heart attack. He put me on the same diet, exercise and medication program my wife was on and it did the job.
The Associated Press reported that public health experts from some of the nation’s leading research institutions have deployed a massive medical trailer to rural parts of the South that will test the 4,600 individuals..
The South was selected because that is where heart disease is rampant. The goal of the testing is to understand why the rates of heart and lung disease are dramatically higher in the South than in other parts of the U.S.
Dr. Vasan Ramachandran, a leader of the testing project, said, “This rural health disadvantage, it doesn’t matter whether you’re White or Black, it hurts you. No race is spared, although people of color fare worse.”