Listen to What Your Heart Says

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] On this week’s episode of The Best of Johnston County podcast, our guest is Keith Branch, and this time he’s here to talk to us a little bit about the American Heart Association and what he’s doing to try to raise money for them. He tells us a little bit about his story of going through a heart attack and stents and all of that, and why you should always listen to your body and pay attention to your family history, and what you can do to help the American Heart Association help eliminate heart disease worldwide.

So listen in.

Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Best of Johnston County [00:01:00] podcast.

I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today’s episode, we have Keith Branch back again. He was on with us a few months ago when he was running for county commissioner and that race didn’t work out for him, but he’s back here talking about something far more important. We’re gonna talk about heart health, heart disease, and what he’s doing to help raise money for the American Heart Association, and how you can help the American Heart Association and raise awareness of heart disease, which is the number one killer of men and women worldwide by far.

So anyway, but before we get to that, I’d like to ask you to like, follow, subscribe to this podcast wherever you see it, whether it be on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, or any of the other social media channels of Best Johnston County Podcast. The Best Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday, and has now for just under three years.

So go back and listen to some of our previous episodes. We’ve had the vast majority of the county commissioners. We had now Congressman Brad Knott. We had local IT services, Woody Bailey. We had Just Dog People talking about dog food and dog [00:02:00] toys and dog training. We had the Soler Effect, K9 dog training as well.

So I love animals, so I’ve had several pet episodes. If you love Johnston County as much as I do, this is the podcast for you. Welcome, Keith.

Keith Branch: Thank you. Glad to be here.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. So anyway, before we get into the hard thing, we’ll just start. Who you are, what do you do? I know you’re retired now. We’ve been friends a long time.

Keith Branch: Okay. All right. So, Keith Branch, Was long time involved in Clayton as a business owner, elected official for nine and a half years. And now I’m pretty much retired. Work just a little bit, but for the most part retired and just enjoying life with my bride and traveling and just having fun.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s great. That’s great. That’s great. And I know you ran for county commissioner and you, that was a lot closer race than I think people thought it was gonna be. So anyway, so let’s talk a little bit about, you’re here today because you have been recognized by the American Heart Association, and I don’t exactly know what it’s called, but I know they’ve bestowed upon you an award and what you’re gonna do.

Keith Branch: Okay. Well, basically, I was nominated as a Leader of Impact, and this is a [00:03:00] campaign that starts actually on September the 17th, which is tomorrow. I know this will be released a little bit later, but it starts tomorrow. And basically, it runs from September 17th to November 4th. During that period of time, there’s six others in addition to me for the Triangle American Heart Association, and we’ve been selected to go out and educate the public about heart disease and all the things that come along with it.

And then also to campaign and try to raise money. What’s fun about it’s a competition, you know how competitive I am, and so, you know, you actually have the opportunity to win the State of North Carolina if you raise the most, win the Southeast, and it’s actually a national event that’s going on all over the country at the same time.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And what got you involved with the American Heart Association? I know you, you had a scare.

Keith Branch: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: So, I remember.

Keith Branch: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: It was scary

Keith Branch: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: for your friends and family. I was worried ’cause there for, I don’t know, a couple weeks, I wasn’t real sure what was gonna happen.

Keith Branch: Yeah. Yeah, and in [00:04:00] 2018, as you know, I have a family history of heart disease. My dad died with a heart attack at his age of 42, my age of 13, so had a family history. I have 11 family members that are either still living or not living that have had heart disease. So, and it hit me in 2018 at the age of 54. I had noticed the day before just a little slight tingling down my left arm.

It was very slight, and you could see where somebody would ignore it. But it was in the back of my mind because I knew my dad’s you know, history. The next morning, I woke up, and when I woke up, I had a hot flash from head to toe, and I just thought that was really weird. So, I immediately got in my car, drove to my doctor’s office, Dr. Khusayem, Clayton Internal Medicine, which I always say that man saved my life. I didn’t have an appointment. He immediately took me in, immediately called the rescue squad to come get me. That was on August the 30th. On September 4th, I was having quadruple bypass.

Four weeks after my quadruple [00:05:00] bypass, I’m at home rehabbing, laying in the recliner, and I have an extreme chest pain. And to make a long story short, I had a heart attack due to a surgical error. So I was taken back to the hospital and a stent was placed for that. And then over the period, it seemed like there for a little while, it was every few months, but from then to actually a year to the date of my heart surgery, I had five stents.

So in a period of a year, I had quadruple bypass, a heart attack, five stents. During that period of time, I actually had seven heart caths. So it was a crazy ride for sure. But I feel like I was given a second chance in life. My widow maker was 98% blocked. They couldn’t believe I hadn’t had a major heart attack.

And so I feel like it’s my duty and my role to educate the general public and to make sure people understand to listen to their body, go to the doctor, have your cholesterol checked. [00:06:00] Be cognizant of your genetics and your family history and just pay attention to their hearts

Jonathan Breeden: So yeah, and, and at that point, I mean, you, you know, people that have known you, like, you used to be a little, you used to weigh a little more than what you weigh now- Mm

but you had already lost 30 or 40 pounds before you had this heart problem. Right. You know, you just reminded me of that- Yeah … ’cause I thought, well, I mean, you were, you were, you know, we, you were overweight, I was overweight, you know, I mean, but this was after three, four years after you’d lost

Keith Branch: Yeah

Jonathan Breeden: what, like 40, 50 pounds?

Keith Branch: Yeah, I’d actually lost about 50 pounds.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. Okay.

Keith Branch: And I had kept my weight off since 2012. This happened in 2018, so it’d been six years. But my doctor, Dr. Ben Atkeson, who’s a personal friend of mine as well, so we started in business about the same time, he reminded me several times, not only did I have the genetic factor, but also those bad eating habits you have from years past don’t just leave your body ’cause you lose the weight.

It would be no different than if [00:07:00] you’re a smoker or tobacco user. And you know, one statistic I saw just this week is one out of 12 kids in high school, one out of every 12 has tried smoking or vaping already, which is kind of scary. But you know, I had a lot of relatives over the years that smoked because that was kind of what they did.

Well, those, those, the, that damage does not just leave your body. So, you know, that’s kind of one of the things that attributed in addition to, you know, mainly being just the genetics.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Well, I mean, had you had any, prior to this one tingling and this hot flash, had you had any symptoms at all?

Keith Branch: None at all. None at all.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Keith Branch: I was walking a average of three miles every day, Since I lost all that weight, I still today I walk, I drink about 110-115 ounces of water every day. I eat like I’m supposed to, hardly ever eat any red meat. So I’m very cognizant of what I do, and I was already doing that.

So, yeah, no symptoms, it just happened. You know, after the fact, I kind of thought [00:08:00] back about things and I remembered I was working in the mountains, and I was walking on a trail up in the Asheville area, and I was noticing some shortness of breath, but I honestly thought it was the, you know, the altitude.

So that might have been, you know, a sign that I didn’t know. And that’s what’s scary about all this is you know, my wife’s first husband passed away. He had played golf the day before. He had come home and mowed the grass, and then on Sunday he had a heart attack and he passed away. And, you know, it’s just. I mean, it really is a silent killer. And so that’s why it’s so important, especially if you have a family history, to go to the doctor, have your cholesterol checked, have your blood work done and see if you’re a diabetic or not.

I read just this week again, that over 50% of US adults are have diabetes or pre-diabetes, and less than 25% of them are taking the medications and having their cholesterol checked and their blood sugar checked as they should.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, well, you’re right.

Have family law questions? [00:09:00] Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: And, you know, it was interesting I didn’t know that stat until I saw it on a billboard on I-95 near Florence, South Carolina, driving to Charleston, South Carolina about three years ago. And I don’t know if that billboard’s still there. But I thought, man, that’s a. And I think it was a billboard done by the American Heart Association.

Keith Branch: Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And I was like, man, that is a really, you know, A1C, I think if you’re considered pre-diabetic, if it’s 5.7 to 6.4- Mm. Yeah … and if it’s more than 6.4, you, you’re diabetic, and you really wanna be in the lower fives if you can be. I know that, you know, one thing that has been really helpful [00:10:00] is these GLP-1s

Keith Branch: Right

Jonathan Breeden: That are out there, people taking them and, and losing, you know, substantial weight and it’s really knocking those A1Cs down. It’s, it’s making the liver numbers better, you know, and, and hopefully that is going to help people live longer and have less heart disease.

Keith Branch: Right. Yeah, and the problem with a lot of that is just the expense of it.

I know my wife actually in her career was involved in insurance and, you know, the ex- the, the expense of all that’s a lot of times more than folks, you know, can afford, and a lot of times, you know, that’s the problem. I know one of the things that I would love to see happen you know, in, in the state of North Carolina, hope we- hopefully we can lobby through the legislature, but I’d love to see it happen where, you know, you don’t have to have symptoms in order to go in and get a stress test.

You know, if you got a family history of heart disease like I do, you know, you should be able to go and have a stress test on a regular basi- basis just like a, a lady would go and have a mammogram. And so those are some of the [00:11:00] preventive things I would like, you know, to see happen. I mean, it’s really scary.

One of the things the American Heart Association does that’s really beneficial is training people on CPR. And I don’t know if you realize it or not, but 75% of cardiac arrest events actually happen in the presence of your family.

Jonathan Breeden: I didn’t know that.

Keith Branch: Yeah. And so.

Jonathan Breeden: I did not know that.

Keith Branch: And so if your family members don’t know CPR, they can’t help you. And another statistic is if you are away from a medical facility and you have a cardiac arrest, you have a 10% chance of survival and understand cardiac arrest means is that your heart stops.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Keith Branch: That’s different than a heart attack, which means you’re not getting the proper blood flow.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Keith Branch: So it’s two different things. So, but anyway, I mean, that’s the importance of what we’re doing trying to raise monies through these, this Leader of Impact, is monies to educate you know, people in our schools you know, people in businesses. You know, [00:12:00] right here in Johnston County, we have a greenway walking opportunities all over the County, and people of all ages use these greenways.

There’s no you know, AEDs, which is basically an automated electronic defibrillator available if something was to happen. And I understand a lot of other countries have been much more proactive than we have in the United States as far as making sure that those are accessible.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I know that the American Heart Association, I think you worked on this, lobbied the legislature this year to get $4 million to put AEDs in every single school in North Carolina.

Keith Branch: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: Because not all the schools had them. And I think now as part of that same funding, somebody there at every school has to be trained on how to use it. So talk a little bit about that.

Keith Branch: Yeah. Yeah. So, basically one of the things that I’ve been doing is I serve on the North Carolina State Advocacy Committee for American Heart Association, and what that role is helping their staff person lobby the legislature for different initiatives.

And this past year, the [00:13:00] initiative was, as you said, was to get funding and have mandates that require every school in the state of North Carolina to have processes in place and have the defibrillators. And there were several school systems that didn’t have defibrillators at all, and there was only one school system in the whole state of North Carolina that actually met the guidelines as being, I’m not sure what the term is, but basically meant they were adequately prepared if an event happened, and that was Roanoke uh, I think it was Roanoke County.

But anyway and I might be wrong on that. I actually did talk to our superintendent, David Pierce, and, and Johnston County was in pretty good shape itself as a county as far as, you know, having defibrillators in each school. So, but basically, you know, there’s gonna be, you know, training done as mandated, and if something occurs, a heart event on campus, then they have a team that’s responsible for, you know, knowing what to do, and everybody has particular assignments that they’re supposed to follow through to hopefully save that, that child [00:14:00] or that teacher’s life.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. So how can people learn more about heart disease and contribute to this fundraising campaign that you’re doing.

Keith Branch: Okay. Well, again, it starts tomorrow, so I don’t even have the link yet, but what I’ll do, if it’s okay, is when this podcast gets released, I’ll attach the link to the podcast. And then also you can actually go to the American Heart Association website and starting tomorrow, and go to their Leader of Impact list. You’ll see me listed as one of the nominees, and starting tomorrow there’ll be a donate link. It’s not.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Keith Branch: It’s not live right now because it is a competition, so they try to keep it fair.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Keith Branch: It goes live in the morning at 9:00.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So by the time this episode runs, it will be live.

Keith Branch: It will be live.

Jonathan Breeden: You can absolutely go. So what is the website for the American Heart Association?

Keith Branch: Okay, the website’s heart.org but just to make sure that it’s clear, I’m a Leader of Impact with the Triangle American Heart Association. So, you would go to the Triangle Heart Association part of that [00:15:00] website, and then there’s Leaders of Impact, and it says Meet The Nominees.

You click on Meet The Nominee, and then I’m one of the nominees.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Keith Branch: You click on my picture, and it’ll take you to my page and allow you to donate to my campaign.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. Well, that would be great. That would be great, and we all know all the great things the American Heart Association is doing. So what would be one of the last things. I mean, if there were three things that you could tell anybody, having lived through what you’ve lived through, and while you’re doing this now, what are three things that they should be looking for or thinking about?

Keith Branch: Okay. First of all, listen to your body you know, honestly I have a hard time believing based on what happened with me that if somebody has a major heart event that they didn’t have symptoms, they probably just didn’t know it.

So listen to your body. As you know, I, still write life insurance. You’d be amazed at especially the men that never go to the doctor. Go to the doctor, have an annual checkup. If you are a person, male or female, that [00:16:00] has a family history, then you definitely need to go to your doctor, have your cholesterol levels checked and those type things blood work done to see if you’re diabetic.

So you know, those are the type of things I think are important. But, you know, really what I’m trying to educate people on more than anything is listen to your body. If, you know, it’s okay to go to the doctor if something’s not right. And so that would probably be, you know, my number one and then just being cognize of your family history.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you. All right, last question we ask everybody, what do you love about Johnston County?

Keith Branch: You know, what I love about Johnston County is, like I always say, is the people. You know, my campaign was not successful running for County Commissioner, but I know I’m gonna have a successful campaign with Leader of Impact American Heart Association because of the people of Johnston County, how they support you. And I know that because just being out in the field when I was campaigning for county commissioner it was just so much fun, you know, seeing people again and reconnecting.

You know, I’d been gone about six and a half years, so just reconnecting. And I was [00:17:00] really blown away by the amount of support I got. You know, being gone that length of time and still getting the support I had really meant a lot to me. And the people in Johnston County are just great. It’s a great place to live.

You know, and a lot of changes, but I love all of it.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s great. That’s great. Well, we’d like to thank Keith Branch for coming back and being our guest again, a second time on the Best of Johnston County Podcast, and all that he’s doing for the American Heart Association. As he mentioned earlier, go to heart.org, find his page, donate.

Or even if you don’t find his page, donate to the American Heart Association. Make yourself aware of heart disease and all the different symptoms. Listen to your body. It is the number one killer of human beings in the world by far, and it is always preventable if you will take the proper steps. Until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us [00:18:00] today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.