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“They told my husband, basically, go find a plot, say goodbye, they called him once in the middle of the night to come say goodbye,” says Cynthia Link. 53 year old Cynthia stared death in the face. Thirteen years ago, she was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. It’s a rare lung disease that’s often misdiagnosed and strikes mainly women in the prime of their lives. The condition left Cynthia fighting for her life.
“The problem with pulmonary hypertension is the pressure per se may go on for an extended of time before someone realizes the symptoms and the symptoms really come out of the high blood pressure in the lungs, eventually puts extra work on the right of the heart and in essence what happens is the right side of the heart just gets tired,” explains Dr. Robin J. Barst, New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Pulmonary hypertension, also known as PAH, affects the pulmonary arteries connecting the right side of the heart to the lungs, leading to extra stress on the heart and lungs, and ultimately heart failure. Patients usually feel breathless, exerting even the least amount of energy.
“The heart tries to increase, but it can’t because it’s unable to pump against the high blood pressure in the lungs and so the patient feels breathless and that’s how their symptoms start, they’re fine at rest but when they get up they’re very out of breath,” says Dr. Barst.
Dr. Barst explains that in part, genetics play a role in developing PAH, but, weight loss products have also been a culprit. “There was a surge of pulmonary hypertension in the 1990’s due to the diet pill, the fen-phen combination of the dex phenfloramine, which is Redox, even though those products were taken off the market by the Food and Drug Administration in 1997, ten years later now, we’re still seeing new patients who are being diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, which we believe was due to taking the diet pills five and ten years ago, often it takes a number of years for the symptoms to develop,” says Dr Barst.
While there is no cure, early diagnosis and treatment can make a huge difference. With the help of medicine, Cynthia says she has gotten her life back. “I can walk further, I can breathe better, I’m not as tired, not as breathless.”
Pulmonary hypertension has also been tied to general heart disease and scleroderma- a connective tissue disorder.
Including shortness of breath, other symptoms include fatigue, dizzy spells, fainting, chest pain, swollen legs and ankles.
More info at www.phassociation.org
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