What if My Engine Seizes…My Heart Stops?

I am a software engineer and I see my heart as an engineering marvel, a medical device with complex hardware components & an embedded software system.

Heart is the ‘motor pump’ which works tirelessly every day, every minute nay every second, for the entire duration of our lives, day after day, month after month, year after year. It does not ask for a break on weekends, casual leaves, and vacation. In fact even if our heart misses a single beat, we feel scared & think as to what happened.

Heart has  the most  efficient motor pump working relentlessly to keep our lives going on, to maintain the circulation incessant all our lives. The pacemaker and the nerves are similar to the ‘switch and the electrical wiring system’ of a medical device. Any disturbances or short circuit will cause rhythm upset ‘misfiring engine’ or cardiac arrest that is ‘engine seize’ making the machine to stop working.

Heart’s fuel supply is by the coronary arteries, this is similar to the multi-point-fuel injection of cars that keeps the engine running. Any partial blockage makes the engine to strain & get damaged, while complete blockage may switch off the pistons & the pump stops working.

The blood flow direction is maintained by ‘heart valves’ which work like non-return valves of an engine. They could get tight or loose due to infections/ heart disease that’s like the valves getting spoiled which may need replacement.

In software engineering we do ‘code reviews’ diligently so that the software doesn’t throw errors, this leads us to & ensures that timely action can be taken & preventive maintenance of the server can be done to keep the application running. The same can be done by us undergoing genetic/molecular testing to understand our DNA codes of the heart. Necessary life style changes; reduce weight, cut down salt, moderate fat intake, relaxation techniques have to be adopted so that we are proactive in our heart matters and not reactive implying, to take action only when we get hospitalized. These days’ young individuals even below the age of 30’s, are suffering from heart diseases and few very unfortunate ones are succumbing to sudden deaths at work places, at home, on the sports field.

We need to keep our hearts in a healthy state for it to keep pumping efficiently & effectively. We are so punctual with our car servicing schedule but we never bother about our Heart’s servicing and maintenance. We don’t take adequate preventive measures to ease its burden. The following are few of the preventive maintenance I can think of:

• We need to keep our weights in check so that

        o there is no ‘engine overload’.

• We need to keep our cholesterol in acceptable levels so that

        o our fuel supply system is not choked.

• We need to keep our blood pressure normal, eat less salt so that

        o ‘resistance’ of the system is optimal.

• We need to keep our lungs healthy, avoid smoking, do aerobic exercise so that

        o ‘air filters’ don’t get blocked.

Let us Take Care of our Hearts……for fear that it should not stop …

... then a heart shaped wreath will be placed on our chests.

Shiny John, Project Manager