by Mell P<\/p>\n
She goes by Dr. Icy and the name fits. Calm, precise, and clear-eyed about the stakes, Dr. Icilma Fergus is a cardiologist whose career has been shaped not only by science, but by personal loss. When she was in college, her aunt died while waiting for an upgraded pacemaker. Born with congenital heart block, her aunt had the condition managed for years, but access to timely care failed her at the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat inspired me to keep on doing more,\u201d Dr. Fergus says. \u201cAnd really to go into cardiology itself, to address the issues that we as people of color have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Decades later, that mission has not dimmed. It has only expanded.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are in denial. They\u2019re afraid to know something is wrong with their heart. And because of that, it really limits their conversations about their health, until something happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ask Dr. Fergus what the biggest barrier to heart health is, and she does not hesitate. Fear. Denial. The quiet assumption that heart disease only happens to the very old, the very unwell, never to someone you know, never to someone like you.<\/p>\n
She recalls a recent patient who came in rattled: a 54-year-old colleague had just died of a heart attack after driving himself toward an emergency room he never reached.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just wasn\u2019t feeling right,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd he didn\u2019t want to go see a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n
When someone dies suddenly like that, she explains, the cause is almost always the heart. And yet, in most cases, it did not have to happen. Heart disease, she stresses, is up to 80 percent preventable. Blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, weight, smoking \u2014 these are manageable. These are addressable. But only if people are willing to look.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing ahead of time that there\u2019s a little polyp could mean you\u2019ve caught colon cancer,\u201d she adds, drawing a wider point about preventative screening. \u201cThese days,\u00a0if you start early, there are treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Fergus has spent years taking her message beyond clinic walls, into senior\u00a0centers, sororities, fraternities, and churches. She works with organizations across the community, from D9 Greek-letter groups to The Links, from Real Dads programs to virtual lecture series. She has appeared on television to speak about heart health. She meets people where they are, in spaces where they feel safe enough to ask the questions they would never ask a doctor in a white coat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you raise the question in a non-clinical setting, people listen,\u201d she says. \u201cThey ask themselves questions. And then\u00a0they decide to come in.\u201d More than once,\u00a0if you start early, there are treatments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Fergus has spent years taking her days.<\/p>\n
Her advice to anyone who wonders whether they are really as healthy as they feel: push yourself a little.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Climb the subway stairs. Try to run. If you are winded when you should not be, something may already be brewing. A\u00a0simple blood test, checking blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, kidney function, thyroid, can give you the picture. \u201cIf the blood test is good and you\u2019re feeling okay,\u201d she says, \u201cchances are you\u2019re probably healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same instinct that sends Dr. Fergus into community halls also led her, over several years of quiet research and formulation, to launch a new brand: Fiaro Essentials. The name is personal. Fiaro is built from the initials of herself, her children, and her husband.<\/p>\n
The pivot from medicine to wellness products was not a departure. It was a continuation. For years, Dr. Fergus had been watching patients arrive with shopping bags full of supplements and skincare products, some of them genuinely harmful, some canceling each other out, none of them vetted by anyone with a medical background.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had five hundred dollars\u2019 worth of products from some guy you couldn\u2019t verify,\u201d Dr. Fergus recalls of one patient whose blood pressure had gone haywire.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She also began connecting the dots\u00a0between certain topical products and\u00a0serious health effects: alopecia, skin rashes,\u00a0disrupted blood pressure and kidney\u00a0function from absorbed toxins.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the wake-up call,\u201d she says. \u201cTake what you\u2019re doing, which was a hobby, and really get it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything put into the skin gets absorbed. Some of what people are buying, it\u2019s not helping them. It\u2019s hurting them,\u201d says Dr. Fergus on the inspiration for Fiaro Essentials.<\/p>\n
Fiaro Essentials launches on May 23rd at the Apollo Stage inside the Renaissance Hotel on 125th Street in Harlem, from\u00a03 pm to 7 p.m. The line features natural body butters blended with shea, almond, mango, and avocado and infused with essential oils such as lavender, eucalyptus,\u00a0and peppermint.<\/p>\n
There are hair oils, face moisturizers, salves for psoriasis and dry skin, beard formulas, and a curated loungewear component to match the lifestyle ethos the brand embodies. No preservatives. No synthetic\u00a0additives. Safe enough, Dr. Fergus says, for a newborn and effective enough for the elderly.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now I don\u2019t even have on any makeup,\u201d she says, gesturing toward her skin. \u201cBut I have a moisturizer cream that helps your face.\u201d She speaks with the understated confidence of someone who has been using, and quietly giving away samples of her own products for years.<\/p>\n