When people say “heart disease,” they most often mean atherosclerosis — which is not actually a disease of the heart itself, but of the blood vessels. A much more literal form of heart disease is caused by amyloids that deposit in the aging heart. These amyloids are chains of malformed units of the transport protein transthyretin (TTR) or several other proteins, which twist out of shape, bind together in chains, and infiltrate into the gaps between the heart muscle cells. These deposits then physically get in the way of the heart muscle’s attempts to expand and contract as it needs to do to keep the precious blood of life flowing to our tissues. They also often interfere with the nerves that control the heart’s beating, causing it to spasm at the wrong time. People suffering from heart failure get short of breath when they exercise, with the limits of their endurance slowly closing tighter and tighter around them; their ankles swell, followed by their livers and other parts of the body; their hearts may beat too quickly or with episodes of dangerous erratic beats. Eventually, they die when their heart simply can’t do its job well enough, or because a clot forms in the blood that pools in the failing heart’s chambers and triggers a stroke or a pulmonary embolism. Support AmyloSENS so all our hearts can beat strong!