Musings of the Heart

I’m far from the perfect husband. Exhibit #1: In a cardiac emergency, my wife—with twenty years’ experience as an educator in life-saving techniques—might well save me (should she choose).  With our roles reversed, she’d likely be out of luck. That was the substance of our recent conversation over lunch at Atkins Farms Country Market in Amherst. Atkins is next door to the upscale Applewood of Amherst Retirement Community. In other words, the store and its café have more than their share of patrons over 70. “You know," my wife confessed, “in 20 years, I’ve never had to save a life.” My response: “Just keep on having lunches at Atkins.”

To make amends, I recently bought my designated lifesaver Sandeep Jauhar’s 2018 book, Heart: A History (Farrar, Straus and Giroux ).  Gracefully and urgently written, its author, an American cardiologist, surveys the last hundred years of game-changing technologies and treatments in his field. Part science narrative, part memoir, and part public health tract, Heart explores the development and impact of foundational innovations like electrocardiography, catheterization, and human-to-human cross-circulation. It notes path-breaking epidemiological initiatives like the Framingham Study, which shifted sensibilities toward prevention. And it chronicles the development and roles of angioplasty, defibrillators, pacemakers, and transplants of hearts and arteries--real and artificial.

No less healer than technologist, the author gives ample emphasis to lifestyle factors including diet, stress, and exercise. And he reveals profound empathy for all patients. “Innovation and expertise are earned on patients and unfortunately there is always a learning curve,” he confesses. Compared with some agonizing, extended patient journeys, a decisive terminal attack can prove a worthy alternative, he observes. “Yes,” he affirms, “the heart can snuff out your life, but when the pressure of existence builds up, this organ—prime mover and citadel—is also a safety valve that can facilitate a quick and humane end.”

The cafe scene at Atkins