Hope for the Holidays: The Gift of Extra Time Post Myocardial Bridging Surgery
Hey Heart Friends. I sit down with previous guest, Jeff Holden, to explore the profound changes heart surgery brings into one's life. Jeff recaps his own battle against myocardial bridging, recounting the gratitude he feels every day. From open-heart surgery to life-altering dreams, Jeff unpacks the layers of his experiences, revealing how overcoming a near-fatal condition has fueled his passion for advocacy and storytelling. Curious about the life-changing dream Jeff had after surgery? Tune in to understand why this dream has become the cornerstone of his new mission and find out how he’s making a difference in the field of cardiology. Plus, discover the significance of a simple bracelet—a daily reminder to appreciate life’s small blessings.
Listen to Jeff's original episode here. You can find his podcast, My Imperfect Heart, anywhere you get your podcasts.
Join the Patreon Community! The Joyful Beat zoom group is where you'll find connection and hope that you aren't alone in your journey.
If you just want to support the show as a one-time gift (thank you), go here.
**I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Be sure to check in with your care team about all the next right steps for you and your heart.**
How to connect with Boots
Email: Boots@theheartchamberpodcast.com
Instagram: @openheartsurgerywithboots or @boots.knighton
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/boots-knighton
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Transcript
Getting to spend another day on the planet, to have my feet hit the ground
Speaker:when I roll out of bed, to take that breath in the morning and open
Speaker:my eyes. And I will say, over time, it's still
Speaker:easy to forget the reality of what's
Speaker:been done for us, any of us that have had the surgery,
Speaker:that we get to spend this extra time, hopefully doing
Speaker:something engaging with a greater degree of
Speaker:appreciation, with a more grateful
Speaker:nature. Hello. Boots Knighton here.
Speaker:Welcome back to another episode of Open Heart
Speaker:Surgery with Boots. Today is a
Speaker:very special episode for me. I
Speaker:am excited to bring you Jeff Holden
Speaker:for our third installment of Hope for the Holidays.
Speaker:But let me tell you a little bit about Jeff. So
Speaker:Jeff and I have met through a Facebook
Speaker:group for myocardial bridging patients,
Speaker:and Jeff was the very first
Speaker:interview I did for this podcast.
Speaker:Bless this man. Up, down, left, and right for
Speaker:putting up with me in my first ever
Speaker:interview. And I'm like, my face is hurting because I'm
Speaker:smiling so big. Because, first of all, Jeff, you said
Speaker:yes to this, like, person who had never podcasted a day
Speaker:in Her Light. You own your own studio, and we've
Speaker:become friends. Like, I'm always so excited
Speaker:just to, like, talk to you. You were so generous with
Speaker:your time then, and you're generous with your time now.
Speaker:And the other thing I absolutely love about you is how you're just like, I
Speaker:am a Chicago native. I have never met anyone from
Speaker:Chicago who was so proud to be from Chicago,
Speaker:and I have got to go visit that city just because you are so proud
Speaker:of it. So, of course, you live in California now,
Speaker:and you were absolutely thriving and kicking butt
Speaker:at making myocardial bridging
Speaker:more well known, more talked about in the field
Speaker:of cardiology. There's so much for us to unpack with
Speaker:your very positive update for Hope for the Holidays. But
Speaker:mostly, thank you for being my fellow heart buddy. Well, first of all,
Speaker:Boots, the. The first episode was a blast to do because it's fun to see
Speaker:somebody else get into podcasting and have a passion for it and have a
Speaker:passion for what the mission of the podcast is as
Speaker:well. So congratulations on your program and all
Speaker:that you're doing for people with open heart surgery, because I think they really do
Speaker:appreciate it. There's so much misinformation out there and disinformation
Speaker:and confusion when we get into, you know, any of these things concerning our
Speaker:hearts. So congratulations there. And, yes, it is a pleasure to
Speaker:say you are a friend. We've met at some of the Other podcast
Speaker:meetups. And it's so wonderful to be able
Speaker:to actually see and touch and get in the environment
Speaker:of somebody when you only have a virtual experience
Speaker:for the introduction. So congratulations on all of that.
Speaker:Thank you. Thank you. Let me give you a high level view of
Speaker:how we connected. So obviously we're both
Speaker:myocardial bridge patients. We've both had our surgery. We
Speaker:met on the Facebook group, and in my case, a little bit different. I'm a
Speaker:little bit after you. I'm about two and a half years, a little more than
Speaker:two and a half years out from my surgery. Similar situation. We go through the
Speaker:misdiagnosis, the challenges of getting diagnosed. I'm a little bit
Speaker:older. My whole situation happened a little bit faster. I had that
Speaker:heart attack that caused all these uncertainties of what was going on
Speaker:and how it could have happened when I was in great shape at the time.
Speaker:And it eventually led me to Stanford, where I actually had the privilege
Speaker:of meeting Dr. Trimmel. I didn't meet Dr. Schnicker at first. I
Speaker:met her after my surgery because I came in the back door through the emergency
Speaker:room and met with Dr. Boyd. Boyd performed my surgery
Speaker:a little bit different than most in that I also had a bypass, a
Speaker:Lima bypass. So I've got a myocardial bridge on
Speaker:roofing as well as the Lima bypass. And as a
Speaker:result of that, there was an epiphany for me in the
Speaker:process of the surgery, post surgery recovery,
Speaker:where I had quite the dream. And I
Speaker:will say the dream was a life changing dream
Speaker:because even to this day, it's still as vivid as it was the
Speaker:day that I had it, the day that I woke up after experiencing it and
Speaker:sharing it with my wife and just a tearful reunion when she came in the
Speaker:room. But it made me realize that a lot of different things
Speaker:that maybe I'd just been thinking about and they all came out and manifested themselves
Speaker:through this dream after the surgery. Maybe it was the drugs, maybe it was lack
Speaker:of sleep, I don't know. But whatever it is, I am so grateful for
Speaker:it. And you've heard me say many times on our program that
Speaker:these things don't happen to us, they happen for us. And as long as
Speaker:we keep the perspective of the fact that these
Speaker:things, almost everything happens for us. So, you know, we
Speaker:look at it and if we try to find the reasons and the positivity out
Speaker:of it, how we're going to cope, what we're going to do, what the adjustments
Speaker:are as a result of the situation, Whatever that
Speaker:situation be, in this case, for us, it was the myocardial bridge. For others, it's
Speaker:open heart surgery, it's bypass, it's all sorts of heart
Speaker:conditions that can be remedied through surgery.
Speaker:That there's a gratefulness that comes out of it.
Speaker:And certainly in my case, you know, that gratitude at 65
Speaker:years old, having lived a life and a career and a variety
Speaker:of experiences really took a turn
Speaker:to where there was an absolute necessity to do a better job of giving
Speaker:back and making sure that the people who have this condition
Speaker:have a better understanding of it. And as I was exiting the hospital on
Speaker:my release, my discharge day, Dr. Boyd came in. It
Speaker:was a Saturday. And I remember looking at him and saying, hey, I need you
Speaker:to do me a favor. I do podcasts for a living. I tell stories. I
Speaker:help people tell stories. I'm a communicator. I connect people.
Speaker:If this didn't happen this way
Speaker:to me, somebody who does podcasts and communicates and shares
Speaker:information, what else am I meant to do? I mean,
Speaker:that's about as clear an indication, at least in my mind, that this
Speaker:program is a necessity in the fabric of my life and my profession,
Speaker:what I'm going to do going forward. And I said, I need, Dr. Boyd, I
Speaker:need for you to be one of my first guests because
Speaker:you performed the surgery that so many people are uncertain about.
Speaker:They. They call it controversial, yet so many of us are
Speaker:benefited as a result of the surgery. And he said, absolutely. So
Speaker:as I was walking out of that room, I knew right away, this is going
Speaker:to be, you know, one of the things that we do. And again, as a
Speaker:result of the dream, which is a result of the surgery, which is a result
Speaker:of the condition, we do an incredible amount of
Speaker:programming for nonprofit organizations. And
Speaker:the nonprofit podcast network is another one of our
Speaker:vertical productions that we do from the studio. All born out
Speaker:of that dream. And that dream was, it was an
Speaker:epiphany to say, you need to do some things differently, and you need to really
Speaker:get your arms around what you do. And, you know, to say, I'm a
Speaker:grateful patient is really an under way, an
Speaker:underestimate of just the experience of
Speaker:getting to spend another day on the planet. To have, you know, my feet hit
Speaker:the ground when I roll out of bed, to take that breath in the morning
Speaker:and open my eyes, and I will say, you know, over time, it's
Speaker:still easy to forget the reality of what's
Speaker:been done for us. Any of us that have had the surgery
Speaker:that, you know, we get to spend this extra time, hopefully doing
Speaker:something engaging with a greater degree of
Speaker:appreciation, with a more grateful
Speaker:nature. And because we're looking at a month of
Speaker:gratitude, November. I appreciate what you're doing and
Speaker:the ability to say thank you and to
Speaker:recognize the people who have made our lives better as a
Speaker:result on any given day and to be able to share that with
Speaker:somebody, you know, whether it's, you know, a hello or hi, how you
Speaker:doing? With sincerity, you know, not just the, you know, the flippant,
Speaker:everything's good. Because we know that gratitude
Speaker:expressed with sincerity is a visceral reaction.
Speaker:It changes the. It literally changes the synapsis in the
Speaker:brain as a positive. And they do
Speaker:establish a memory. So the more you're grateful, the more you
Speaker:express the gratitude, the more likely you will continue to express it because the
Speaker:brain says, hey, this is a good thing. Let's keep doing it. And we had
Speaker:the good fortune of having a gratitude
Speaker:psychologist on the program last year right around the holiday.
Speaker:And we'll repurpose it again this year. Dr. Peggy
Speaker:Delong. And who would think there'd be a gratitude
Speaker:psychologist out there? But that is what she specializes in, right? I
Speaker:want her job. Right. That's
Speaker:cool. It really is. And she does a lot of public speaking,
Speaker:and it's obviously all on the nature of gratitude. Ironically, she
Speaker:had a heart condition scare. So she could relate
Speaker:to some degree to what we go through with our
Speaker:situation. Although she didn't need surgery, it was easily remedied.
Speaker:But I recall and I wear to this day. I don't know if
Speaker:you can see this. There's a black bracelet here and there's a little
Speaker:silver bead on it. She sent it to me after the program. She does these
Speaker:as her outlet therapy of sorts. She makes
Speaker:bracelets. This is the gratitude bracelet. And the little silver bead
Speaker:on there is a reminder to be grateful for something.
Speaker:Every time you look at that bracelet. Every time I look at that bracelet and
Speaker:I see that little piece of silver, it's like, hey, dope, don't. It's not that
Speaker:bad a day. Everything's good. You're still here. Be grateful for something. What is
Speaker:it? And it just reminds me to recognize,
Speaker:you know, the people, the places, the passions that I get to perform
Speaker:and things I get to do in my life that make
Speaker:it wonderful, you know, every. Every single day.
Speaker:So from, from that perspective, what a
Speaker:wonderful thing to put a series together of people saying thank you
Speaker:who have experienced, you know, a life threatening or a life challenging
Speaker:situation to where they can step back. And I know people
Speaker:say step back, smell the roses, do things differently. I certainly do.
Speaker:You know, if I'm out doing my exercise, which in my case is
Speaker:cycling, I would always blow by everything because I'm trying to just
Speaker:pace a little bit better or perform a little bit better today. I'll
Speaker:stop if I see something really cool. I'll take a picture of it, you know,
Speaker:and post it on that particular ride or send it to somebody and say, hey,
Speaker:check out what I saw on the trail today. Or, you know, this
Speaker:experience. Whereas, God, that never would have happened
Speaker:before. So many nuggets in there that I have question
Speaker:marks about. And thank you for sharing all of that. My
Speaker:biggest question that I continue to
Speaker:ponder is I know I could not be
Speaker:where I'm at now with my gratitude
Speaker:and my love for life without my heart
Speaker:surgery. Like I am just such an experiential
Speaker:learner. I could not have learned the perspective I
Speaker:have now through a book or a place of worship. Do
Speaker:you think what you and I have been gifted is
Speaker:attainable through teaching? I
Speaker:mean, it just seems like we are
Speaker:the lucky ones. Yeah, no,
Speaker:I don't think you can teach it. I think you have to experience it.
Speaker:We can profess it. I have a great deal of faith. I certainly
Speaker:do believe in a higher power. And I thank God every night
Speaker:and often during the day that I get to do what I get to do
Speaker:as a result of what could have been really either debilitating
Speaker:or death. I don't think it's something
Speaker:we can share and express without the experience.
Speaker:I think people can get close, they can understand
Speaker:and comprehend, but the experience of it changes
Speaker:that dynamic. It's not to say somebody else can't be grateful and express
Speaker:gratitude by any means. Absolutely, yes you can.
Speaker:But when there's that significant
Speaker:threat of loss of significant
Speaker:loss and possibly loss of life, life of loss of any ability to
Speaker:do anything any longer, and loss to
Speaker:the community you serve, loss to the people around you. And when you start to
Speaker:really think that through, which I didn't prior to,
Speaker:but post, I certainly do. And I'm more grateful
Speaker:for them than ever that I'm still here to get to see them,
Speaker:you know, whether it's, you know, our kids or our grandkids, you know, certainly
Speaker:my spouse, the people I work with every
Speaker:day is, is just that reminder when you do see them
Speaker:that you've been given this gift, don't
Speaker:squander it and make the most of it. Do what you can with
Speaker:it. In spite of all the other stuff that you're going to deal with, in
Speaker:spite of all the other crap that's going to come up, because that's reality of
Speaker:just living. But to recognize nothing
Speaker:is as important as the ability to
Speaker:live a life fulfilled, you know, a grateful life,
Speaker:and one that you're giving back to somebody. To say
Speaker:that there was a benefit of that relationship, that
Speaker:association, even if it's just that contact with somebody
Speaker:in a casual sense. Yeah, yeah. I've
Speaker:been saying lately, I feel like the world needs heart surgery.
Speaker:You know, we. We had the benefit of a meetup
Speaker:and there were about 12 of us. 12 of us, which
Speaker:I can't. Maybe the biggest gathering of anybody with
Speaker:myocardial bridges together in one space. Not all
Speaker:surgically unroofed, but certainly the two that were in the room that
Speaker:weren't, were still very appreciative of where they were in
Speaker:their journey. And that's significant because they
Speaker:understood they are either moving down the path to recovery
Speaker:and surgery, or they've gotten to a point in their
Speaker:process where what they're doing is working.
Speaker:And hopefully for them, it will continue.
Speaker:You know, we know typically it deteriorates over
Speaker:time. Yeah. But again, depending on the severity.
Speaker:But that, that appreciation. And this was mostly couples, so they were
Speaker:with their significant others or spouses. And it was really wonderful
Speaker:to see the gratitude both ways, you know, from the
Speaker:spouse to the patient, the patient to the spouse, knowing
Speaker:everybody saying that there's no way I could do this without my significant
Speaker:other. And that in itself is an
Speaker:expression of gratitude. And you are doing
Speaker:incredible things with your studio. You had mentioned the
Speaker:nonprofit network. But then tell us about Imperfect
Speaker:Heart Podcast. Yeah, Imperfect Heart Podcast,
Speaker:available wherever you seek. Your podcast out is a
Speaker:program that was specifically designed for people with myocardial bridges.
Speaker:And what we do is we try to alternate the episodes.
Speaker:Patient, possibly on a journey, still there. They're not
Speaker:on roof. They haven't had their surgery yet. Or patients
Speaker:who have had their surgery, could be six months, could be a year out, could
Speaker:be five years out. As one of the longest term people that we've
Speaker:interviewed, and it's the expression of all that
Speaker:activity. What did it take? What were their conditions? What were the symptoms they
Speaker:were experiencing? How did they get to where they got. Did they have insurance issues?
Speaker:So it covers a gamut of their experience. Because the thing that we
Speaker:can't stress enough, and I'm sure you see it with everybody you speak with, there
Speaker:are no two alike. There are no two symptomatic.
Speaker:Experiences that are alike, similar, but not the same. And there are no
Speaker:two unroofing procedures that are like everybody's bridge is different. It's shorter,
Speaker:it's longer, it's deeper, it's obfuscated by something.
Speaker:So the nature of those stories, each one is
Speaker:unique to that individual. And each of the surgeons does the
Speaker:surgery a little bit differently. So we don't quite yet
Speaker:have, nor maybe we never will, a specific
Speaker:protocol that exactly do it this way. And I hope we get to
Speaker:a point where we know that there is an absolute best practice. But this is
Speaker:still new, and these unroofing procedures are still
Speaker:very fresh in the surgical
Speaker:world, having been done maybe 10, 12 years. I think Dr.
Speaker:Boyd probably still is the leader in terms of the numbers he's done. And it's
Speaker:only about 250 over the course of 12 years. So that's wild.
Speaker:Take your surgeon who's probably done 5, 6, 8, 10, maybe,
Speaker:you know, the robotic guys who have done the most, they've done maybe 30,
Speaker:40, 50. You know, we're not talking about thousands. No,
Speaker:you know, it's an aggregation of. And so the purpose of the program is
Speaker:really to give people that spirit of hope, to know you're not
Speaker:alone, that there are a lot of us out there who
Speaker:are experiencing the same thing, and to learn about proper
Speaker:procedure and diagnostics and what to look for, what to
Speaker:expect, what to get your head around in
Speaker:terms of what you're experiencing. And also, our
Speaker:objective is to find a doctor in each state that is
Speaker:performing the surgery. Now, we have some states where we have multiples, others
Speaker:where we have none, but we're working toward
Speaker:that goal of one in each state so that whomever is in wherever they are
Speaker:in the United States, we've got a place for you to go. We've got a
Speaker:gentleman that just finished his surgery about three weeks ago. To the best of
Speaker:our knowledge, the place he had to go. It was their first
Speaker:unroofing procedure, and he used all the tools from
Speaker:the podcast and the Facebook group to share with them. He's an
Speaker:engineer, so he was very specific in terms of what needs to be done. And
Speaker:they said, we think we can do this. They obviously do surgeries, and they do
Speaker:bypass surgeries, and they do aortic surgeries. And our surgery isn't the
Speaker:most complex. It's just novel, and
Speaker:so far, so good. Incredible. Look at all the good work you're
Speaker:doing. We have a surgeon in Sedona. We've got some really
Speaker:Cool episodes coming up from, you know, people that have traveled abroad.
Speaker:And we have a gentleman that he's from Perth, Australia,
Speaker:and he had his surgery done in all places
Speaker:Pakistan, because he had no money and he needed to go someplace.
Speaker:And there was a doctor in Pakistan that said, we can do it. And
Speaker:so he went there and got it done. And he's in great
Speaker:shape right now. So amazing. I mean, I just have to
Speaker:clap that. And this is the beauty of podcasting,
Speaker:because we get to hear about all this and
Speaker:our media isn't necessarily covering all that. And
Speaker:this is the good news. This is. This is the good in the
Speaker:world. This is the miracles in the world. And this is
Speaker:the beauty of living in the year 2024,
Speaker:going into 2025, when we can find each other
Speaker:across oceans and help each other. You know, I have to
Speaker:share. We just. One of the women who were at the
Speaker:meetup has a daughter who's a nurse who is a
Speaker:contributing editor to a digital
Speaker:magazine called Next Avenue, that's a PBS
Speaker:production, Public Broadcasting System production. And because of her
Speaker:mom's condition, she wanted to do an article on it, and they said yes,
Speaker:and it just got published. And they mentioned
Speaker:the podcast in there because it's a great resource.
Speaker:So I'm excited to say that people are starting to
Speaker:recognize the value of the communication of
Speaker:this often dismissed condition, you know, often
Speaker:misdiagnosed. And there is a big clinical
Speaker:trial being done, as you're aware, out of Yale. Dr.
Speaker:Sameet Shah is performing that clinical trial with 500
Speaker:cohorts, and he's got the majority now of
Speaker:the major clinics, Stanford, Cleveland Clinic,
Speaker:Mayo, UPMC in Pennsylvania,
Speaker:Houston. And they're all involved on this in
Speaker:attempting to set protocol for proper diagnosis
Speaker:not only of myocardial bridges, but any of the conditions that present with
Speaker:no apparent occlusion, no blockage.
Speaker:And he's, he's getting there, you know, so that's a step in the right direction
Speaker:if we can get to where people are saying, oh, yeah, this is a condition.
Speaker:We need to address this. How do we properly diagnose?
Speaker:Great. And they're using the Stanford protocol for testing, which is the
Speaker:provocative test that is definitive. And then of course,
Speaker:CT angiograms for anybody that has this condition is the noninvasive
Speaker:test that is the gold standard without having to go into a
Speaker:catheterization. So we're making progress. It's all too
Speaker:slow. I firmly believe people are dying from the condition,
Speaker:and it presents itself as just a coronary blockage. He Died, the
Speaker:widowmaker was blocked. She died, the widowmaker was blocked. But I think if they
Speaker:were to do autopsies on each of these people, that they would
Speaker:find that probably what it is in the population. One in four of
Speaker:them had a myocardial bridge. And okay, say I'm
Speaker:wrong. Call it 10%. There's 700,000 people a year that die
Speaker:from, you know, heart disease. That's 70,000 people.
Speaker:And let's say I'm wrong there and it's, it's 1%. That's
Speaker:7,000 people. So what can we do to
Speaker:improve that proper diagnostic and make the
Speaker:medical community more aware to look for this condition when somebody
Speaker:presents with something that doesn't make sense? Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:again, we're the lucky ones. Over and over. I mean,
Speaker:I'm just awestruck at. Even though
Speaker:the road has been really hard at times, incredibly
Speaker:hard, I'm still awestruck at how
Speaker:fortunate I feel on a daily basis. And I know you do too.
Speaker:Yeah. And I'm one of the blessed few who post
Speaker:surgery. Nothing. I've been fine. And that's what I wanted to
Speaker:ask you about is like, how, how did, how are you thriving?
Speaker:What is the secret sauce? I think back to
Speaker:the earlier part of the conversation. Everybody's unique. You know, I went into it
Speaker:in good shape, so that's a plus. But it's, it's
Speaker:a chemistry issue, it's an environmental issue, it's a mental
Speaker:issue. I think it's just all of these things combined, we just don't
Speaker:know. And everybody's going to have a different journey through the process.
Speaker:Some people are a hundred percent. We've probably got 50,
Speaker:60% of the people that we've interviewed are 100% back. Everything's fine.
Speaker:Some have some symptoms and, but, but nothing
Speaker:anywhere near what they had. And others, a
Speaker:very small percentage, have some other issues that
Speaker:have presented themselves, but they would have been pre existing, just
Speaker:unknown. So they're dealing with stuff now that they didn't realize that they had. And
Speaker:they have to get through that process in the next part of their, their unique
Speaker:medical journey to finish us off here. What is something
Speaker:that you just wish you could yell from the mountaintop
Speaker:to heart patients that will come after you because there will
Speaker:be folks that come after you and I. Right. That's why we both host our
Speaker:podcast. So what's that one burning piece of like,
Speaker:advice that you just need everyone, every heart patient to
Speaker:know? I'm going to expand that to the population at
Speaker:large because there's this big
Speaker:thing. It's called denial. And when we
Speaker:experience something, and it's men and women,
Speaker:I don't think it's impacted any greater on either side, because women will do it
Speaker:to protect because they have other stuff to do, and they want to continue to,
Speaker:you know, serve their family and do what they need to do, because in many
Speaker:cases, they're relied upon for that. So they'll suffer this
Speaker:chest pain and they'll recognize, oh, something's not right, it's angina,
Speaker:it hurts, but it goes away. Or, you know, I'm short of breath,
Speaker:but I just got to get this stuff done. Guys are, you know,
Speaker:macho. Stuff can't be wrong. I'm not going to go to the doctor. All that
Speaker:stuff is important. If you experience chest pain and shortness
Speaker:of breath, there's something wrong. And I don't
Speaker:recall your story in terms of, oh, yes, I do now. It just came to
Speaker:me. We all do it. You were climbing mountaintops and
Speaker:total exhaustion and going, no, I'll be fine. I'll just suck it up at the
Speaker:top. When I. I don't know what's wrong with me, but it's fine. And your
Speaker:husband's going, no, no, this is something should be easy for you to do.
Speaker:Same here. I mean, I went on five more rides when I was experiencing
Speaker:incredible chest pain that I couldn't have been a heart attack because
Speaker:I was in good shape. Couldn't have been my heart, you should say it manifested
Speaker:itself in a heart attack, but it's denial.
Speaker:So I say it to the population at large because the more of us
Speaker:that go into the medical community with the condition,
Speaker:the more they'll recognize that. That many more people are symptomatic.
Speaker:And if these people keep. If we as the people keep coming in and saying
Speaker:something's wrong and they can't find it, something's wrong and they can't find it, and
Speaker:they recognize, oh, this person has a myocardial bridge. I
Speaker:need. This person has a myocardial bridge. This person, they're going to say, oh, these
Speaker:things are symptomatic and they are
Speaker:relatively prolific. And, oh, my gosh, if we start treating
Speaker:these, how much better off we'll be. But when they
Speaker:say 1% of the population is
Speaker:symptomatic, meaning 25% of us have them, but only 1% is
Speaker:symptomatic, I say, BS man. That's not true. You're
Speaker:only hearing from 1%. We're the 1% that are coming to
Speaker:you and saying, we have a problem, we need to get it addressed and or
Speaker:you're dismissing the rest of them as anxiety and
Speaker:stress and out of shape, right?
Speaker:Women especially. Yes. Yep, yep. Women especially.
Speaker:It's mind boggling. Jeff, I could talk
Speaker:to you for the rest of the day. It's just so good to see
Speaker:you and thank you for all the light you bring to my
Speaker:life to other heart patients through your
Speaker:podcast studio. And I will make sure to put in the
Speaker:show notes how to find your podcast, how to find you.
Speaker:You are doing so many important things for
Speaker:the heart community and I could not be more grateful.
Speaker:Well, Boots, thank you. Just the opportunity to share this conversation
Speaker:with you on your podcast itself is a huge deal and
Speaker:it's an expression of opportunity. And let me
Speaker:say, I am grateful for you, for the ability
Speaker:to do this and get it out to your audience as well. Thank you.
Speaker:Well, you've heard it here folks. Thanks to Jeff Holden and
Speaker:thank you for being part of this podcast.
Speaker:Do let me know how you're doing. I always love hearing from
Speaker:listeners. You can get in touch with me in the
Speaker:DMS on Instagram. I definitely respond there.
Speaker:You can send me an email bootsheartchamber
Speaker:podcast.com I just
Speaker:absolutely adore all my listeners and I am here for you
Speaker:and I will not let you ever feel alone. You
Speaker:do not have to walk this journey alone. So be
Speaker:sure to join the community. Go to Patreon, follow me on
Speaker:Instagram, you can find me on LinkedIn. And remember that I love
Speaker:you, your heart is your best friend and you matter
Speaker:in this world. So you deserve to be the CEO of your
Speaker:health and keep advocating for being the
Speaker:best person you can be in this world. Come back next
Speaker:week for our last episode of Hope for the Holidays.
