It’s not a disease; it’s a condition.
So says my fantastic doctor, Dr. Margo Minissian. She said it in just the right way, too. Not downplaying it, instead, focusing on the positive.
After all, when you have a ‘disease’, you sound so, well….sick!
Let’s compare.
1.) Disease: an impairment of the normal state that interrupts or modifies the performance of the vital functions.
2.) Condition: a usually defective state of health.
Both definitions have a certain amount of right to them. After all, who among us would argue that chest pain et al ‘impairs our normal state; or impairs our functioning.” And, clearly, who would argue that our state of health is ‘defective’.
Semantics
It feels more like a matter of he said/she said. Take your pick; Heart Disease or Heart Condition. Now, say it aloud. Which sounds better to you? I’m leaning towards condition. It sounds like something I can fix. Something that might go away in time. Something that won’t kill me.
The Hear and Now
Asking you, dear reader, to say both aloud may seem a bit odd. But listen to the words as you speak them.
Heart Disease.
Heart Condition.
Decide which is better and incorporate it into your vernacular. Who knows, saying it aloud might make it go away after all.
Hello Rebecca and thanks for this thought-provoking essay.
I have a slightly different take on this ‘disease/condition’ dilemma.
I have observed that many of us heart attack survivors tend to equate our cardiac events with acute medicine, in which something goes wrong (say, for example, your appendix!), you go get it fixed, you go home, and then you never give your appendix a moment’s thought for the rest of your life. Ditto for a broken leg, a sinus infection, a bad cut that needs stitches.
The difference: when a cardiac event happens, it’s the end result of a chronic, progressive disease process. Our docs can bypass us, stent us, squish our blockages, zap our electrical circuits, replace/repair the faulty bits – but these are merely life-saving band-aid solutions that do nothing to address what caused the cardiac event in the first place (often something that happened 20-30 years earlier).
Don’t get me wrong – like you, I do believe that optimism is hugely important in improving both outcomes and quality of life for heart patients, but no amount of semantic wrangling will change the reality.
In fact, I believe that NOT accepting the reality is precisely why some heart patients leave the hospital still smoking. It’s why we don’t make appropriate lifestyle changes in diet or exercise. It’s why we aren’t “compliant” (how I hate that word!) in taking the fistfull of cardiac meds our docs order for us.
It’s because we just don’t “get it” yet. Women especially are known for minimizing our physical problems, which is why we engage in classic ‘treatment-seeking delay’ behaviours that actually endanger our survival in the first place (see: “Knowing & Going: Get Help Fast When Heart Attack Symptoms Hit” – http://myheartsisters.org/2009/05/22/know-and-go-during-heart-attack/ )
So we tend to deny our symptoms when they first appear, and then we tend to deny the reality of our diagnoses afterwards!
Love your site – keep up the good work!
XOXOXO
I like your positive attitude! I agree with you! Happiness and optimism always improve any situation. 🙂
Thank you Susie!! I get my optimism from you!!!