Everyone has a story. What's yours?

It's not often that I find someone who doesn't know someone else who has been affected by heart disease or stroke. Almost everyone can name somebody who has died of a heart related illness, or whose life was forever changed due to a stroke. I hate that these disease have to be a part of our daily lives but I love to listen to the stories from survivors or family members. It's these stories that remind me why I get out of bed every morning and drive to work.

In preparation for the upcoming legislative session I want to hear what your story is. I can talk to lawmakers all day about the importance of reducing heart attacks in our state but its stories from constituents that help me push them over the edge and convince them to vote in our favor.

So, what's your story? I would love to hear it.

(You can send your story to marilyn.davidson@heart.org. Please remember that I may use this story when promoting legislation at the capitol.)

Heart attack rates drop after smoking bans, continue downward over time

Please take a look this story about a recent study on smoke-free air laws. We have known that smoke-free laws reduce exposure to secondhand smoke and that will reduce heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer over the long term. However, more and more studies are showing that communities that pass smoke-free laws are seeing an immediate and significant reduction in heart attacks after the laws go into effect.

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DALLAS, Sept. 21, 2009 — One year after passing smoking bans, communities in North America and Europe had 17 percent fewer heart attacks compared to communities without smoking restrictions, and the number of heart attacks kept decreasing with time, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The report is a meta-analysis of 13 studies in which researchers examined changes in heart attack rates after smoking bans were enacted in communities in the United States, Canada and Europe. The researchers found that heart attack rates started to drop immediately following implementation of the law, reaching 17 percent after one year, then continuing to decline over time, with about a 36 percent drop three years after enacting the restrictions.

“While we obviously won’t bring heart attack rates to zero, these findings give us evidence that in the short- to medium-term, smoking bans will prevent a lot of heart attacks,” said James M. Lightwood, Ph.D., co-author of the study and assistant adjunct professor in the department of clinical pharmacy at the University of California–San Francisco. “The studies on this issue now have long enough follow-up periods so that we can see exactly how big the effect is.”

Lightwood also noted that the community effect is consistent with probable individual risk and exposure scenarios.

For example, according to the American Heart Association’s Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2009 Update, non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work have a 25 percent to 30 percent increased risk of developing heart disease. This new research suggests that the individual increased risk may be higher, said Lightwood.

“This study adds to the already strong evidence that secondhand smoke causes heart attacks, and that passing 100 percent smoke-free laws in all workplaces and public places is something we can do to protect the public,” Lightwood said. “Now we have a better understanding of how you can predict what will happen if you impose a smoking-free law.”

David Goff, M.D., Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Prevention and Professor of Public Health Sciences and Internal Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, and an American Heart Association national spokesperson said the paper provides strong support for the contention that smoke free laws will improve public health. “This is good evidence that the benefits are realistic and consistent with reasonable estimates of the harm imposed by secondhand smoke,” Goff said.

“It is important to move forward now with widespread implementation of smoke-free laws,” he added. “At a time of great concern over the financial sustainability of our healthcare system, smoke free laws represent an inexpensive approach to reducing heart attacks, and, probably, other cardiovascular conditions.”

Historic Day For Public Health

In an historic moment for public health and tobacco control, President Obama at 2 pm today will sign into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the bill to give the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products. The signing ceremony will be held in the White House Rose Garden and is scheduled to be carried live on C-Span 3 and CNN.

You can also watch on the web at: http://www.cspan.org/Watch/C-SPAN_wm.aspx.

The American Heart Association would like to thank all of their You're the Cure networkers for the phone calls, emails and letters of support. We would not be celebrating this victory if it weren't for you.

SB745-AED Good Samaritan passes House Judiciary

Yesterday afternoon SB745 passed the Oklahoma House of Represenatives Judiciary committee meeting 10-0. It will now go to the full House for a vote. Click here and tell your House member to vote YES!

Senate Bill 745 which would amend the current Good Samaritan law to allow for immunity of anyone who, in good faith, uses an AED on another person. By the passing Senate Bill 745, this will encourage Oklahomans to use AEDs and would reduce the number of cardiovascular deaths in our state.

It’s important to know that the new generations of AEDs require minimal training to use. They automatically diagnose the heart rhythm and determine if a shock is needed and prevent the user from overriding a "no shock" advisory. Their ease of use is increased by an electronic voice to prompt users through each step; all AEDs approved for use in the United States use a voice prompt.

You don’t have to be a hero to save a life, just someone who will pick up an AED and listen to the instructions. If you would like to take action on this or other legislation being supported by the American Heart Association please visit www.yourethecure.org and sign up today.

Click HERE to view a demonstration on how easy it is to use an AED.

OKC AHA Board Member Uses and AED to Save a Life

This past Friday while traveling to Denver an AHA board member and OKC physician was called to the aid of a passenger who was suffering a cardiac arrest. She responded by using her medical training and the plane's AED to save the man's life. You can read the full story here.

It's stories like these that remind me why I get out of bed every morning. Right now the AHA is working hard to pass Senate Bill 745 which would provide immunity to anyone who uses an AED in an attempt to save a person's life.

As you may know, AEDs are extremely important because:

• If an AED is used within three minutes of a sudden cardiac arrest, the victim has an 80 percent chance of survival.
• Every minute that passes before returning the heart to a normal rhythm after a cardiac arrest causes the chance of survival to fall by 10 percent.
• Each year, more than 250,000 people suffer cardiac arrest, usually away from a hospital. More than 95 percent of them will die, in many cases because defibrillation occurs too late to reverse the cardiac arrest.
• The new generations of AED's require minimal training to use. They automatically diagnose the heart rhythm, determine if a shock is needed, and prevent the user from overriding a "no shock" advisory. Their ease of use is increased by an electronic voice to prompt users through each step; all AED's approved for use in the United States use a voice prompt.

Without legislation we fear that individuals will hesitate before using an AED and those few seconds could mean life or death for the person needing care.

Would like to find out how you can show your support for this important piece of legislation? Then sign up for our You're The Cure network here.