Medicine and Music for the Heart
Can you guess what this is? It is the most serious health issue facing Americans and, in one form or another, causes fifty percent of deaths in the US. Here’s another clue: a woman’s risk of dying from this disease is five times greater than her risk of dying from breast cancer. No, it isn’t a new disorder, a cancer, or a viral infection, but it certainly is pandemic. Furthermore, treatment of this disorder is costing us $1 billion every day of the year and we still have no way to make it go away.
The issue is cardiovascular disease, clearly the greatest health risk facing all American’s today. It reveals itself in the form of heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, and heart defects. It claims more lives than the seven other leading causes of death combined.
Part of the problem is that cardiovascular disease develops without us knowing about it. We can feel good while it silently progresses. In fact, high blood pressure got its nickname as ‘the silent killer’ for that very reason.
We have all been lectured about eating heart-healthy diets, exercising daily, and managing stress to ward off this disease. But none of the above activities, nor taking medications, cures the problem.
The good news is that research is beginning to reveal the root causes. And it isn’t what we might have guessed. The most recent findings show that cardiovascular disease begins very early in life. In fact, it begins during fetal development.
You may know that through the placenta the developing fetus derives nutrients for growth. It also receives developmental cues about its future world based on the mother’s diet, her body’s level of fitness, and her environment. To prepare itself for life outside of the womb it develops its cardiovascular system based on these signals.
The finding that a mother’s diet and muscle mass during pregnancy directly influence these critical developmental programs is one of the most promising pieces of evidence for understanding how to reduce, and possibly eliminate, cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Jeffrey Pentecost is a Portland physician who studied the genetics of cardiovascular development beginning in 1994 at the Heart Research Center at Oregon Health and Science University. In 2005 he realized that if we are to make headway toward cures the public needed to be made more aware of the facts and that more money need to be brought directly to bench-top science.
According to Pentecost, too few resources are directed toward understanding the cause of the problem and too many resources are spent on treating its effects. He believes that greater public awareness is needed to help direct resources toward basic science where finding a cure is possible.
In 2005 he decided it was time for a new tack. He handed off his research to colleagues and put his clinical practice on hold to launch “Music for the Heart”. An amateur pianist, Pentecost recognizes that the basic elements of music speak to the primal core of each human being. “Whether we realize it or not”, Pentecost says, “Music very efficiently reaches each of us every day. Since nothing else seems to be sufficiently grabbing attention, I want to utilize the natural efficiency of music to draw attention to this problem and raise more money for research”.
To-date, his organization has produced five annual benefit concerts and donated over $100K to heart research. Guest musical artists have included world-class artists such as Dave Brubeck and The Vienna Boys’ Choir. Their next big concert features 15-time Grammy winner and his new all-star quartet, Chick Corea Freedom Band at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Friday, September 17th.
“Whether it’s medicine or music”, says Pentecost, “every beat counts”!
