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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to infect millions of people around the world, researchers are learning more about how the virus affects various organs in the body. While initially thought to be a respiratory disease, it is now clear that it attacks much more than the lungs. Doctors are particularly concerned about how this can impact the heart. Dr Jennifer Haythe, intensive care cardiologist at Columbia University Center and member of the PEOPLE Health Squad, shares what experts know about the impact of COVID-19 on the cardiovascular system.
RELATED: Three-quarters of recovered coronavirus patients have heart damage months later, study finds
Dale may Dr. Jennifer Haden Haythe
What is the impact of COVID-19 on the heart?
One of the effects of COVID on the heart is that it can cause myocarditis or inflammation of the heart muscle, which can cause different types of symptoms, including chest pain, abnormal heart rhythms, and even reduced heart function.
Another way we see COVID affecting the heart is by causing severe arrhythmias. People come in with heart rhythms that cause their blood pressure to drop, or make them feel palpitations, or even cause them to require CPR.
The third is heart failure syndrome. COVID can affect the heart cells themselves and cause decreased heart function, so people experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, fluid in the lungs, and swelling in the feet.
What is the biggest concern of people with known heart problems if they are diagnosed with COVID?
People with underlying heart disease or an impaired vascular system – which means they have pre-existing diabetes, high blood pressure, or obesity – these people are at increased risk. They should be careful of chest pain, shortness of breath, feeling dizzy, feeling like they’re about to pass out or pass out. These are things that should warrant going to the emergency room, or definitely calling your doctor.
COVID has become a virus that really affects the body’s blood vessels – and obviously the heart is sort of the biggest blood vessel of all. We know that it affects the blood vessels in the brain and causes strokes and clots in the blood vessels of the lungs. It causes rashes in the hands of people due to the clotting of the small blood vessels in the skin. It causes renal failure by the same mechanism affecting the vascular system of the kidneys. And the heart is the same.
What’s the biggest misconception people have about COVID and heart health?
People think if they have any heart disease they will die from COVID. And I want to reassure people that this is not the case. So if you’ve had heart surgery or valve replacement, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to die from COVID. What this does mean, however, is that you may have certain risk factors that could lead to more serious COVID. We think it’s probably because COVID is causing this abnormal inflammation of the blood vessels. And so you should take a COVID infection more seriously, but don’t panic.
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One of the first Americans with COVID spent 64 days in a hospital with ‘1% chance of survival’
Gregg Garfield suffered from collapsed lungs, sepsis and was placed on a ventilator while battling the coronavirus
What was your COVID experience on the frontlines?
I work at the Columbia ICU – which is part of the New York Presbyterian Hospital – and basically our entire hospital was mostly COVID patients. In the intensive care unit, we were doubling our rooms. Normally an intensive care room is one patient per room, so we had to put two patients in one room, and all of the operating rooms were full of COVID patients. It was really very overwhelming and very disturbing to everyone, scary and stressful, and a lot of patients died. He came all of a sudden very suddenly. Now the COVID experience is different. We know a little better how to treat it. People have better PPE and some people are vaccinated.
Getty Healthcare worker woman wearing highly protective, heart-shaped, motivating coveralls.
How is it different treating COVID patients now compared to when they arrived in the United States last year?
The hospital feels like it still functions as a hospital, whereas before it was closed and only dealt with COVID. Now, we still see our heart patients, and we keep doing elective procedures, and we keep doing surgery. And the fear factor has gone a bit.
But I think there is a weariness in what people are feeling. There are still many young, middle-aged people on breathing tubes who are dying in the intensive care unit. And it’s stressful for everyone and it takes its toll.
What more should readers know about heart health for American Heart Month?
For women, heart disease is the number one cause of death in this country. But 85% of heart disease is probably preventable with good early management. When you are between the ages of 18 and 40, if you eat really healthy, avoid toxins, exercise and stay in shape, you can reduce heart disease in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 60s and 80s. . Even if you are now between 40 and 60 years old, there are still many things you can do to reverse your risk and lower your risk of heart disease, like seeing your doctor every year and getting tested for risk factors.
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