(Nora Underwood/ Everything Zoomer) — Jackie Ratz woke up one morning and felt terrible. She had severe nausea, was sweating profusely and had crushing fatigue, which lasted for days. Because she’d had cancer when she was in her 20s, Ratz was worried that it had returned. But an EKG told a different story: Ratz, then 45, was in heart failure.
Currently, about 750,000 Canadians have heart failure. Every year, about 100,000 people in this country are diagnosed with the condition, and the numbers are growing.
“It’s one of the leading causes of hospitalizations and repeat hospitalizations in Canada,” says Dr. Christine Pacheco, a cardiologist at both Pierre-Boucher Hospital and the University of Montreal Health Centre. “And it’s not something we can cure.” (…)