We have all heard the startling fact that heart disease is the number one killer of both men and women.  For me and millions others, that is not only a statistic, it is also a fact we know first hand.  For me, my father died of a massive heart attack back in 1981 at the age of only 48.

Let's get something straight right off the bat: Men do not like visiting a doctor as a whole.  And I'm no different, especially when one of those doctors wants to look at you from the inside out.

So here I am sitting there preparing to have my chest chopped up into hundreds of virtual images.  At the same time, I'm unable to shake a chilling thought…the countless number of people who live with heart issues day in and day out.

"It's still the number one killer…  More than all the cancers combined, chances are you are going to die from a vascular event."

That's a bold statement.  Now that I think about, it scares me to death, no pun intended.

Dr. Robert Foster works with the Birmingham Heart Clinic.  He tells me one of the biggest misunderstandings about heart ailments is a real killer: heart attacks.

Dr. Foster says many victims suffering an arrest never make it to treatment in the first place.

"When people have a heart attack, only 30% make it the hospital.  Only 30% make it to us.  One in three die in the field and don't even make it to us.”

All the more reason to see how my ticker's running, which is why I went to the Birmingham clinic ready to get a 64 slice CTA.  My part's pretty easy.  The medical staff hooked me up to an IV; the machine does the rest of the work.

The whole thing took just a few minutes.  Within a couple of days, I will learn everything I ever wanted to know about my heart.

"This is my heart.  This is your heart.  And it looks ok…  You've got a good heart."

I'm relieved, no longer dreadful as I was in the beginning.

"The walls are nice and thin, which is very good.  You don't have high blood pressure."

To further prove his point, Dr. Foster showed me more amazing images of my heart.

"Here's another view and this is just taking your heart and slicing it like a loaf of bread.  We can look at it from top to bottom all the segments of the heart."

I have to tell you, there's no better feeling then getting a promising diagnosis.

"Your risk of having a heart attack is essentially zero over the next five years."