After Clinton Experience, Many Rush To Get Hearts Checked

[Kadie]

After Clinton Experience, Many Rush To Get Hearts Checked
Hospitals See Surge In Nervous Middle-Aged Men

POSTED: 3:11 pm EDT September 10, 2004

Hospitals around the country are seeing an epidemic of "Clinton syndrome" as worried, middle-aged men take the former president's heart problems to heart and rush to get their own tickers checked.

Some, like Gary Haden, are scared enough to pay $400 out of their own pockets for a heart scan at a private center that will get them in the same day they call.

"I had not planned to do it, but I had all the symptoms he had, and he was doing all the things I was doing," like eating lots of fast food, the 56-year-old truck driver from Elk Grove, Ill., said of Bill Clinton.

Chest pains a month ago had frightened Haden into quitting his 40-year smoking habit. Clinton's Labor Day quadruple bypass prompted Haden to seek the scan, which revealed only mild blockage in one artery.

more...

http://www.thekcrachannel.com/health/3721995/detail.html

[bushwakker]

1. i've had a heart scan once a year for 3 years

i'm in my mid 30's with no negative factors (smoking, high bp, cholesterol) but have a very bad family history in this area. the heart scan measures the amount of calcium in the artery which is SUPPOSED to be an indication of blockage. i've been paying out of pocket for it as my insurance will not yet cover it.