Screen heart now, live longer…

25-hundred Americans die from heart disease each day.

If you have a family history of this condition, you’re at an increased risk for developing it.

One Louisiana woman chose not to take any chances on letting heart disease go undetected.

As the youngest of ten children, Teresa Nunez began seeing health issues plague her family years before she had her first scare, saying her family members had, “High blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes.“

Dr. Michael Turner says because of Teresa’s strong family history of heart disease, she was at a greater risk for having it herself.

“Her father had had a bypass at 50, a sister had a stent in her 30’s and a brother had had heart disease diagnosed in his 50’s,“ Dr. Michael Turner, a cardiologist, said.

When Teresa began feeling chest pains last fall, she knew she needed to have it checked out.

“Everybody’s nervous about it, you don’t know what the problem is because you can’t read the inside of your body,“ Teresa said.

So Teresa underwent a scan of her heart using a cardiac c-t scan.

“We have a lot of tests in medicine that tell us when heart disease is present but there is no test in medicine that is as good as cardiac CT in telling us if people do not have heart disease,“ Dr. Michael Turner said.

Although Teresa’s treadmill test came back negative, with her chest pain and risk factors for a cardiac episode, Dr. Turner had her undergo the cardiac c-t scan before she was given a clean bill of health.

“It was for my peace of mind to make sure that everything’s okay with my heart,“ Teresa said.

“A negative cardiac CT scan means that a person doesn’t have heart disease 99 percent of the time,“ explained Dr. Michael Turner.

And for Teresa, the news was good. As Dr. Turner showed Teresa her scan he said, “This is an actual image of the coronary artery that takes blood to the heart muscle. There’s no calcium or plaque formation in this artery.“

With that information, Teresa has put the worrying behind her, and is now able to focus on making her future as healthy as possible.