SPECIAL HEALTH

Black Women, Heart Health & COVID-19

A Q&A with Dr. Jayne Morgan

By Adia R. Louden

Research from the CDC shows that people with heart conditions, such as heart failure and coronary artery disease, are at an increased risk of hospitalization for intensive care and respiratory support due to the COVID-19 virus. In addition, the virus could also cause heart damage in people, even when symptoms are not severe. Unfortunately, racial minorities, including Black Americans, are more likely to be affected by COVID-19 due to a higher prevalence of underlying health conditions, such as uncontrolled high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as being more likely to die from heart disease. In this Q&A, Dr. Jayne Morgan shares how COVID-19 disproportionately affects the heart health of Black women and how women can manage and/or cope with their health, with or without the virus. The Creator of Pilates with Dr. Jayne and Stairwell Chronicles, Dr. Jayne Morgan, M.D. is a Cardiologist and the Clinical Director of the Covid Task Force at the Piedmont Healthcare Corporation in Atlanta, GA.

Could you spend some time explaining the work you do with the American Heart Association and how it affects Black women directly? Even though I’m leading the COVID Task Force, I’m a trained cardiologist, and not only do I have the background and training in cardiology, I have always had an interest in women’s health. Therefore, I advocate for what we need to do to stay healthy. As we talk about the heart and all the ways to keep your heart healthy, it becomes important for Black women to keep a very good diet, a regular form of exercise as well as not smoking. Furthermore, if you’ve got chronic medical conditions, be sure to control them. Make sure your diabetes is controlled if you have it. Make sure your blood pressure is controlled if needed. Make sure your cholesterol and your triglyceride levels are controlled. If you are prescribed medications, it is so important that you take them. If you have follow-up appointments with your doctor, go. Go to those appointments. Get yourself checked out so that you can reset.

As a physician, have you found that many Black women don’t even know that they are at a higher risk for COVID-19? How do you respond to this? Absolutely! I think that we don’t think we’re at high risk. But mostly, we don’t trust the system. We don’t trust that the healthcare system, research, and even the United States government are going to do anything for our benefit. For example, here’s this vaccine that is coming from all three areas. Therefore, we, as Black people and Black women think, “we probably shouldn’t do that.” We don’t say “No” to be difficult. We have learned to say “No” over generations to protect ourselves. We have to say “No” because saying “Yes” generally means that harm will come to us. So our “No” is always our first position because that’s the one that protects us.

But now, we find we’re saying “No” to something that could actually save us. This is why I’ve really taken the initiative to develop a series called the “Stairwell Chronicles”, where I literally sit on the steps. I don’t have a white coat on or anything. I’m just like your sister, your neighbor, your friend. I’m whoever you want me to be. My aim is to really just demystify science and try to give people information in very short, succinct segments, 60 seconds or less. Just a short amount of information about COVID and about the vaccines. Not such that you can run out and get the vaccine, but just enough so that Black women can start to hear the information and have some place where they can get information that’s not from their buddies, their friends, co-worker or some social media rabbit hole that you run down with thousands of other rabbits all there circling around.

How does the COVID-19 virus directly affect the heart? We’re starting to understand that this disease is primarily an endothelial disease, meaning one of the ways it affects the heart is by affecting the lining of the inside of your arteries. Affecting the lining of the arteries, the virus can cause people to have heart attacks or strokes because of blood clots developed in this endothelial lining, especially in those who already have these chronic medical conditions. The other ways the virus can directly affect the heart that we know of are pericarditis, a fluid-like gathering around the heart, or simply inflammation of the heart due to the virus process itself.

What are some of the warning signs Black women should watch for as it relates to heart disease, a heart attack, etc.? A good question as sometimes the warning symptoms for women can be different from men. You might not have crushing chest pain and then call 911, like all the dramas you see on television. What we’re finding is women can have more symptoms. You could just be tired with one or several of the million reasons Black women have to be tired. You might just have a kind of mild jaw or back pain that could be due to anything, especially back pain. Aspirin helps to take care of it, so you might not think to do anything else about it. Right? But, those could all be signs of a heart attack in a woman. Those signs are subtle, and we just don’t advertise them. So be sure to take care of your overall health and keep watch for anything unusual that starts. Z

For more information about Dr. Jayne Morgan, visit gabio.org/about/board-of-directors/jayne-morgan/.