Why country star Carly Pearce is opening up about her heart condition

Yahoo

01-05-2025

Carly Pearce vividly remembers the intense chest pain.
An avid runner, she even had trouble walking up a hill. She was young and ate a healthy diet. Pearce never imagined she could have heart disease.
But she did.
Now, the Grammy-winning country star is opening up about her struggles with recurrent pericarditis to help kick off a national disease awareness campaign.
"I got a lot of relief when I was bent over like this," the 35-year-old said, bending forward during a video interview with The Tennessean. "It got more severe when I was lying down."
Pearce − whose hit songs include "Never Wanted To Be That Girl" and "What He Didn't Do" − began suffering the chest pains in the summer of 2020.
"It's funny to look back at all of the things that I've learned," she said. "I was doing everything wrong at the time. I was running on it, while I was hurting."
Not long after her first flare, she sought help.
"I went to see a doctor, who dismissed me, told me it was anxiety, told me that people have chest pain all the time and that my vitals were fine and sent me on my way," Pearce said.
Pearce encourages women and men to be their own advocates and to seek out specialists. She is teaming with Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, for Wednesday's launch of a national disease state awareness campaign, Life DisRPted.
The singer-songwriter first went public last year after suffering a pericarditis flare while touring with country start Tim McGraw.
"It was very difficult," Pearce said. "I was trying to monitor my physical exertion yet also trying to put on a show that was up to my standards."
Pericarditis is an inflammation of the pericardium − a thin, two-layered sac filled with fluid that covers the outer surface of the heart. The condition usually develops suddenly and may last for weeks or several months, but sometimes attacks can come and go for years, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
An estimated 40,000 Americans are treated annually for recurrent pericarditis, a severe and debilitating chronic autoinflammatory disease.
The number of people who have it could be much higher because many are repeatedly misdiagnosed, said cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Salik, who runs the pericarditis disease program at Massachusetts General Hospital.
"A lot of patients go many years without the right diagnosis," said Salik, an instructor at Harvard Medical School. "There's good data that an average patient needs to see at least three specialists before getting the right diagnosis."
Acute pericarditis begins suddenly and can be mistaken with the pain of a heart attack or can mimic signs of a lung condition, according to the Mayo Clinic.
An estimated 5% of patients treated in the emergency room for nonischemic chest pain − caused by something other than a blockage to the heart muscle −are suffering from pericarditis, according to the Pericarditis Alliance, an advocacy and awareness nonprofit comprised of patients, researchers and healthcare providers.
Pearce ended up in the emergency room in 2020.
"I ended up fainting at a restaurant," Pearce said. When she came to, "the only breath that I can get that is tolerable with the pain that's going on is like almost through a straw, just very short, little tiny shallow breaths."
She went to an area hospital, where she first heard the word pericarditis.
She continued to experience flares, something that happens with about 30% of patients with pericarditis, Salik said. Sometimes Pearce suffers a dull ache near her sternum or pain that would start near her rib. At its worse, it feels like a sharp, stabbing in her chest.
She learned she had recurrent pericarditis, more common in women, after extensive tests. That included an EKG or electrocardiogram, which records the electrical activity of the heart. She has learned to manage her condition with medicine, but she still suffers flares.
Last week, Pearce performed during three shows while hiding the pain from a flare.
Sometimes people confuse it with myocarditis, which is another type of inflammation in the heart but is located in the heart muscle. Both are often caused by a virus and both can cause chest pain, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Patients with myocarditis usually feel tired and weak, while patients with pericarditis should feel better when they sit up and lean forward.
"If you have chest pain that is worse when breathing, it is a good idea to get immediate evaluation," said Dr. Nishtha Sareen, the founder and medical director of Women Heart Program at Ascension Saint Thomas.
"More recently, we have great imaging testing to diagnose the condition and also a huge selection of medication we can use," Sareen said. "Women who have pericarditis are more likely to have some form of systemic autoimmune disease."
Pearce said she still gets anxious about her illness and the flares that can come without warning.
She wonders: "When is it going to happen? Am I going to be on stage? Am I going to be on an airplane? Am I going to be able to get to a hospital?
"I've canceled writing retreats that were in the middle of nowhere," she said.
Pearce said she can't run as fast as she used to or run for as many miles, but she remains active and continues the career she loves. She hopes to encourage others to press on to find a knowledgeable specialist and to adapt to the condition.
"I'm living a fulfilled life," she said.
The website for the Life DisRPted campaign offers information and resources.
The Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic offer overviews about pericarditis, including details on causes and symptoms as well as diagnosis and treatment.
Ideas on giving time or money to benefit the Pericarditis Alliance are available on its website's "Support" page.
The Alliance also offers tips for patients and caregivers.
Beth Warren covers health care and can be reached at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville's Carly Pearce discusses pericarditis, heart disease