Even for outwardly healthy, tests can bring a surprise

Hereditary risk can be stronger than lifestyle, Cindy Torquati was told.
By TRACEY D'ASTOLFO
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
Cindy Torquati, a nurse, knew she ran a higher risk of heart disease than other women her age.
She had high cholesterol and a family history of heart disease: Her mother had died of a heart attack at age 55, and her father had required two open-heart surgeries during his life.
Knowing these risk factors, Torquati lived a sensible, healthy lifestyle in an attempt to forestall any health problems. She ate healthily, giving up all meat except fish in 1990 and completely abstaining from sweets and junk food. An avid runner, she exercised regularly, running and lifting weights, and she didn't smoke.
When Torquati's employer needed a healthy specimen to take a stress test for a research project for a pacemaker company, he thought she would be the perfect choice, given her healthy lifestyle.
Surprise results
When the stress test came back abnormal, Torquati was surprised. A subsequent heart catheterization showing a major blockage in one of the arteries of her heart was a complete shock.
"I was never thinking that. I mean, come on, I was 39 and in good shape," she said.
Torquati, who never experienced any symptoms of heart disease, was wise to assess her risk factors and take measures to prevent heart disease, although heredity is a factor that is impossible to control.
"That's one thing they told me at the Cleveland Clinic: You can control your diet, you can exercise, you can stop smoking, but you can't take away your genes. That's what everybody says to me: You're just a girl with bad genes," Torquati said.
"I always had high cholesterol, and I was trying to prevent this from happening. But the doctor at the Cleveland Clinic told me this could have started when I was in my teens, because heart disease doesn't start later in life when it's a familial thing; it starts in your teens, and that's probably what happened," she said.
Torquati was sent to the Cleveland Clinic where it was decided it would be best to avoid surgery. Torquati is now taking five different medications, including blood thinners, beta blockers and a high dose of Lipitor to lower her cholesterol. She has annual stress tests, walks 5 miles a day and will be on the medication for the rest of her life.
"It was a shock to both my husband and I, but ... we were just so relieved because if I hadn't found out about this, who knows where I would have been today," she said.