Paul Szmal: FLX Morning continues, it is 8.39, sunny and chilly at 46. Our friends from UR Medicine Finger Lakes Health are in studio with us now, starting with Kim Malacqua. Kim, good morning. How are you this morning?
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: Good morning, Paul. How are you?
Paul Szmal: Good. Good. And I understand flu vaccines.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: Yeah, tis the season. Yes, it's that time of year, so I just want to do a reminder that all of our primary care practices offer flu vaccines for current patients, but also our three urgent care centers in Geneva, Penan, and Seneca Falls offer flu vaccines for walk-ins, so we just encourage everyone to get out and get their flu vaccine.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. And would you like to introduce our guest for today?
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: Yes, we have a first-time guest with us here today. We have board-certified and fellowship-trained cardiologist, Dr. Rawas Sargi. She practices with Geneva General Cardiology Associates, seeing patients in both Geneva and in Penan. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for having me on the show.
Paul Szmal: Yes, much appreciated. Thank you. What drew you first into the field of medicine and specifically into cardiology?
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: Well, I knew that I wanted to go into medical school and really go toward medical field ever since I was a tiny child. I had one of my cousins died from congenital heart disease, which really made a huge impact on my life. And then specifically cardiology, when I was going through my, what we call cardiology clerkships in medical school, I was with a wonderful resident who was a cardiologist in England and really drew me toward the field and really presented real interesting case vignettes to me. So I knew right away that I wanted to be a cardiologist.
Paul Szmal: How many years have you been with the UR Medicine Finger Lakes Health family now?
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: I just joined about six weeks ago.
Paul Szmal: Oh, so you're—
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: So pretty recent.
Paul Szmal: Pretty recent. How's the experience been so far?
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: So far so good. We love it here. It's a small community, but feels like family already.
Paul Szmal: Tell me a little bit about the field of cardiology because the term, I think, draws to mind for most people, oh, this is the person you see if you're worried about having a heart attack. But it's really so much more than that.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: You're exactly correct. It's a broad term that encompasses quite a bit of different fields, including not only our hearts, but our vascular system. So we see a wide variety of patients for high blood pressure, patients with history of strokes, patients that are at risk for cardiovascular disease that have high family, like a very concerning family history, and those that have also history of heart attacks, heart failure, and wide variety of arrhythmias as well.
Paul Szmal: And we find that heart disease and different types of cardiovascular diseases, unfortunately, I feel like they've become more commonplace. I think not necessarily. I wouldn't say commonplace, but really there's been a lot of awareness that has been raised over the last few decades through various venues, such as like this morning, as well as American Heart Association. There's so much awareness, so we are more aware of the presence and the overwhelming impact of cardiology disease and heart disease on our everyday lives.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: So tell me what a cardiology practice usually treats, or specifically, now that you're with Geneva General and practicing there, tell me about some of the services that are offered.
Paul Szmal: Well, we offer a wide variety of services. We, of course, see patients on an outpatient basis, as well as inpatients when they're hospitalized. We see patients for a variety of different ailments, such as, let's just say if they have high blood pressure, that's difficult to control, palpitations, tachycardia, heart failure, chest pain, variety of symptoms, like I said, concerning family history, or a lot of risk factors that need to be addressed. So we can see anyone with any of these concerns.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: And what are some of the different treatment options that are available for things like arrhythmias or heart palpitations or things of that nature, the things that maybe don't necessarily come to top of mind for people?
Paul Szmal: Well, first and foremost is trying to identify the etiology, so coming up with a diagnosis. So we have a variety of tools in our armatarium that we can use to diagnose what the issue is, and then there's a variety of medications and lifestyle measures that can help with these issues.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: I have to think, too, that technology has grown by leaps and bounds, even from the time when you were interning to the time that you're at now.
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. Even when I finished my fellowship a little over 13 years ago, things have changed so much and everything is just progressing at such a high pace. With regards to medical therapy, device therapy for our heart patients, as well as impact on overall outcome and quality of life. So there's been so many positive impact in the field of cardiology.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: Speaking just in general overall terms for overall heart health, are there two or three things, and I think I know what the answers are going to be to this, but it's worth stating again, are there two or three things that people can do to maximize the potential of having heart health and minimize the potential of having issues like heart attacks or strokes or things of that nature?
Paul Szmal: Sure. Yes. There's, number one, being proactive is extremely important. So knowing your numbers, so know what your blood pressure is, what your cholesterol is, what your weight is, are you at a healthy weight, what other risk factors you have. Because you can curtail those risk factors to improve your overall outcome and chances of developing heart disease.
Number two, being active. So having an active lifestyle is extremely important. So exercising, walking, goal is to do a minimum of 30 minutes a day, about five to seven days a week. This has a huge, there's so much data on outcome with regards to being active.
Number three, eating healthy. So having a well-balanced diet that's high in fruits and vegetables and low in saturated fats plays dividends with regards to overall outcomes as well.
And number four, if you have concerning symptoms, don't ignore them. Seek your, you know, your healthcare provider, see us. So and these symptoms can vary depending on, you know, different people. So not everybody presents with the same type of symptoms. People are different. Chest pain, shortness of breath, palpitations, sweating profusely, these are, you know, warning signs that you need to get checked out.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: I think that in terms of eating healthy, you really put your finger on an important one, which is the saturated fats because cholesterol does lead to cardiology issues if you have high bad cholesterol numbers.
Paul Szmal: That's correct. So really, we have to think about implementing a diet that's low in saturated fats, low in processed foods, and high in good quality proteins. If we can go with plant-based proteins, that's one of the better ways, or doing lean meats such as lean beef, chicken breast, turkey breast, fish, those are extremely important. And then increasing nuts, non-salted of course, legumes are extremely healthy, and cutting out butter, cutting out whole milk, and whole fat dairy products as much as possible.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: Yeah, we're talking about real food here. Protein bars as a shortcut, although I think a lot of people look at those and go, oh well, I can get my protein from that, but that falls into that processed food category that we're talking about.
Paul Szmal: That's correct. So that's kind of like a quick, easy way for people to get protein, but really if you have a well-balanced diet, that's far more important.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: How important is quitting smoking?
Paul Szmal: Extremely important. So smoking impacts our hearts significantly, leads to a significant amount of atherosclerosis, which is plaque buildup in our arteries and blood vessels. So it's extremely important to quit smoking, and it's never too late to quit. And not only does it impact our hearts, but impacts lots of organs in our body, including our lungs, our skin, and our gums, our teeth, our dentition. So quitting smoking is extremely important.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: And those benefits are kind of reaped down the road more in a medium to long-term scenario in terms of, shall we say, undoing the damage?
Paul Szmal: Correct. So like I said, it's never too late to quit, and quitting smoking will yield really good results, both short-term as well as long-term in terms of overall impact on our health.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: All right. Well, Doctor, I appreciate you being here with us this morning, and if people want to find out more about the cardiology practice that you work at at Geneva General, how do they do that?
Paul Szmal: They can call 315-787-4204 to make an appointment with Dr. Sargi, and as I mentioned, CC's patients both in Geneva and in Penny End.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: All right. Dr. Sargi, thank you very much, and continued success in your new journey here with UR Medicine and Finger Lake South.
Paul Szmal: Well, thank you so much. Thanks for having me this morning.
Kim Ilaqua, Rawa Sarji: Absolutely. It is 849 on FLX Morning.
