Taylor Swift shared recently that her father, Scott Swift, was out of the woods after doctors found several dangerous blockages in his heart during a stress test.
Taylor told the New Heights podcast that finding the problem early can sometimes mean simple treatments like medicine or stents instead of big surgeries.
A stress test shows how well blood flows to your heart when it’s working harder. This can be done by having you walk on a treadmill or ride a bike.
“We prefer, if we can, to do an exercise stress test with imaging,” says Melissa Tracy, MD, professor of medicine and heart doctor at Rush. “Exercise raises your heart rate and blood pressure, and we can see how your heart reacts. When we add pictures of the heart, we get the best information being able to see if the blood supply to the heart muscle is normal or reduced.”
If you can’t exercise, doctors can give you medicine that makes your heart act like it’s exercising. Regadenoson (brand name Lexiscan) can “trick” the heart that it is exercising and identify areas of poor flow.
“Normal blood vessels open. Diseased vessels don’t,” Tracy explains. “That’s how we can spot trouble that a regular checkup might miss.” Scott Swift’s problem wasn’t found during his regular checkups. But his stress test showed five blocked arteries — requiring quintuple bypass surgery. That’s a scenario heart doctors know all too well.
“If he had the medicine stress test, he may have shown high-risk signs — like symptoms during the test, or poor blood flow in many areas,” Tracy says. “That often means surgery is the safest choice.”
Don’t wait
Call your doctor or 911 right away if you notice:
- Chest pressure, tightness, or pain (especially with activity)
- Shortness of breath that’s worse than normal
- Unexplained tiredness, dizziness, or fainting
- Pain in the jaw, neck, shoulder, back, or arm when you’re active
“We don’t do stress tests just because you have risk factors or family history,” Tracy says. “We do them when you have symptoms. The most important thing is not to ignore warning signs.” Without timely care, damage to the heart muscle can be permanent — or fatal.
Should you ask about a stress test?
Ask your doctor if you have:
- Symptoms during activity, even if they seem small. These symptoms may go away with rest.
- Risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, older age, overweight, or family history of heart disease
- Abnormal results from another heart test
If you don’t have symptoms or high risk, a stress test isn’t usually needed. But Tracy says there are other good checks you can do:
“A coronary calcium score is quick, safe, and tells us if you have plaque in your heart arteries. I also recommend everyone have their lipoprotein(a) checked at least once — it’s a type of cholesterol that’s genetic and can raise your risk.”
You’re not on your own, kid
A heart block, or five, in Swift’s case, will have you down bad.
“Know your family history. Know your risk factors. Exercise. Eat healthy. And please — don’t smoke or vape,” Tracy says. “There is nothing safe or sexy about it. So Swifties, please don’t do it.”
Schedule a check-in or a stress test if your clinician recommends it.
