Bernie Sanders’s Heart Attack: Should He Stay in the Race?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/opinion/letters/bernie-sanders-heart-attack.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Sanders Had Heart Attack, Aides Confirm” (front page, Oct. 5):

Twenty-seven years ago, when I was 56 years old, I had a cardiac arrest, was defibrillated and had an angioplasty to relieve a coronary artery blockage. After this my aim was to prevent a second heart incident.

There is unanimous medical agreement about what to do: Avoid emotional and physical stress, eat well, sleep at least eight hours a day, keep your weight in check, exercise on a regular basis, adjust your lifestyle and take medications as needed to keep your cholesterol and blood pressure under control.

My advice to 78-year-old Bernie Sanders comes from my heart. Stop now your efforts to become president so you can preserve your health and remain a stalwart figure for your country.

David S. CantorLos AngelesThe writer is a retired gastroenterologist.

To the Editor:

Patients who have chest pain at rest, have coronary stents placed and then spend three days in the hospital have usually had an acute coronary syndrome. I had wondered if and when Bernie Sanders and his team would disclose what actually happened. Such decisions have historical precedence and consequences.

During World War II, Winston Churchill was at the White House when he had severe chest pain at rest. His personal physician, Lord Moran, decided not to share his diagnosis of heart attack with the press, or even with Churchill himself, because of concerns about how that might negatively affect the Allied war effort. In 1955 President Dwight Eisenhower, a four-pack-a-day smoker, had a heart attack. He decided to share that information, and the stock market had a $14 billion drop.

President Trump, like Mr. Sanders, reportedly takes a daily statin drug for high cholesterol. Patients like Mr. Sanders, who are on medication and an appropriate food plan, and who exercise, have a generally good prognosis. Churchill, by the way, had none of our current cardiac treatments available, and he lived to 90.

Mr. Sanders’s heart attack should be a nonissue.

Gregory D. ChapmanBirmingham, Ala.The writer is a professor of medicine/cardiovascular disease at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.