LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Pastor F. Bruce Williams is the voice for his congregation in Smoketown. After surviving a major health scare, he's using that same voice to help save lives.
"I've been in the church where I am for 37 years as a Pastor, and I have earned their trust at the church and in the community," Williams said.
Bates Memorial Baptist Church sits in a historically Black neighborhood on Lampton Street, just off of downtown Louisville.
"Historically, for a number of reason, clergy has had influence in the Black community," Williams said.
What he had to say to the congregation one particular Sunday in 2020 may have turned into one of the most personal sermons he's ever given — and one of the most impactful.
Without any warning, and no noticeable symptoms, Williams had gone into heart failure.
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He is a former athlete who was taking his daily blood pressure medication as prescribed, so it came as a surprise to his entire congregation, except for one longtime church member.
"Initially, his heart muscle was weak, down to the 35-30% range. On good medical therapy, it came back to a normal range of 55%," Dr. Kelly McCants, executive director of the Norton Institute for Health Equity, said.
The diagnosis came with confusion for the Pastor.
"You're in heart failure is what he said. I didn't know what that meant. I was waiting for him to explain to me why I'm in heart failure. What does that mean? Does it mean I gotta get a heart transplant? Or are you about to tell me, I'm sorry, you got about six months? I had no idea," Williams explained.
McCants prescribed Williams a daily medication that would stop the further deterioration of his heart. One that would not force him to change his active lifestyle.
"For Pastor, and many like him, when you have high blood pressure for years the heart muscle becomes weak. If you don't take the right prescribed medications to reverse that, it can be pretty dramatic," McCants said.
Williams recalls being told that the medication could do such a good job, his heart might be better than it was before.
"And had I not gone to my primary care physician, I might never have. I probably would [have] never detected it and would have, as a consequence, been victimized by the consequences of having a bad heart," he said.
Today, Williams' heart function is back inside a normal range. But the potential life saving impact of his story is far reaching.
"If [Williams] can serve as that education piece, as that advocate, then we've won. He can touch thousands. It will take me a lot of clinic days to touch thousands," McCantis said.
"Given my life as a Pastor, I probably would not have been able to discern between fatigue from my job and fatigue from this condition. So it was important and imperative that I go regularly to a doctor," Williams said. "My issue now, and what I promote to my congregation, friends, and others, especially Black men, is go to the doctor."
Five facts you need to know about heart health
The heart is cardiac muscle, not a skeletal muscle. It does not get stronger with exercise. You should exercise because it lowers your blood pressure and affects your heart rate variability. It doesn’t make your heart muscle improve in terms of the ejection or pumping ability. That only happens with medical therapy.
Exercise at least 30 minutes three to five times a week. That can lower your blood pressure.
For every pound you lose, your blood pressure drops about two points. (Unless you are underweight, weight modification would not be the ideal strategy.)
Check your blood pressure regularly. Be consistent. Same time each time. It doesn’t matter if you take it before or after your medication, just as long as you do it the same way each time.
Heart failure was a disease of a white men over the age of 65. But for African Americans with the onset of hypertension, that disease onset is almost two decades earlier. So now you have someone in their forties who has a diagnosis of heart failure that has been unrecognized. Be sure to spread the word.
For more information about heart health, please click here.
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