heart failure

The untimely deaths of Internet stars Auntie Fee and Q Worldstar are a reminder that heart disease is the number 1 killer of men and women in the U.S.

Q Worldstar, real name Lee O’Denat, 43, died of natural causes related to coronary heart disease. Auntie Fee’s family confirmed the Youtube cooking sensation suffered a massive heart attack days before she passed away on Friday, March 17. She was 59.

In the video below, Auntie Fee showed signs and symptoms of heart disease. If you look closely, you can see jugular vein distention, caused by right side heart failure.

Notice she’s breathing with difficulty and she has to lean on the counter because the exertion from speaking is making her weak. At one point, she says “Ooh, lawd, I’m out of breath.”

Patients experience difficulty breathing and painful respirations (Dyspnea) because blood returning to the heart backs up, causing fluid to build up in the lungs.

heart diagram

Jugular vein distention (JVD) is one of the signs of heart disease or heart failure. Jugular vein distention usually presents as a rope like bulge on the side of the neck (see photo above). The jugular vein is distended because of increased venous pressure in the large veins going to the right side of the heart.

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