Comments on: “Women’s Heart Attack Myth”? Revisiting the controversial Canadian study

By: HA in Malibu

HA in Malibu — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 12:47:16 +0000

I just found this article today as a link from your new post this week. Your own distressed reaction at the time was EXACTLY how I felt too when I first read about this study a couple years ago (who could miss it? these 'heart attack myth' headlines were EVERYWHERE). WHF?!?

By: Romana

Romana — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 22:59:41 +0000

The media headline should NOT conclude anything at all about women’s symptoms during a HEART ATTACK being different from men’s symptoms, but only that women’s symptoms during that one small moment during a CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION procedure when the angio balloon is fully expanded inside the coronary artery. As Dr. Hays says here, not all heart attacks involve a fully blocked artery so the researcher’s conclusion is essentially meaningless.

By: Women’s Health

Women’s Health — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:01:24 +0000

We have included a link to this article from our website story: Has Your Health Improved or Declined in the Past Decade? — Heart Attack Myth? Media coverage of a study presented at the annual Canadian Cardiovascular Congress last month has [...]

By: canadian

canadian — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:41:35 +0000

This DOES seem controversial to me, too, because on one hand we have all this information out there telling us, for example, that a large number 40% of women having a heart attack do NOT experience chest pain, yet we have this study now saying that men and women experience chest pain as THE heart attack sign. Confusing and certainly not conclusive, as the mayo clinic doc correctly reminds us. Thanks for helping to clarify this issue.

By: Ambulance Chick

Ambulance Chick — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 00:27:16 +0000

I really don't see the 'controversy' here. It seems simple: if almost half of women have zero chest symptoms during a heart attack, then we all need to know what it might feel like when a heart attack hits. You have a must-read essay on this site (How Does It Feel To Have A Heart Attack?) that all women should be forwarding to their doctors, and all Emerg.Room doctors should memorize. Stop focusing on cardiac CHEST PAIN and let's help inform women about ALL potential danger signs, all of them, and your most important message: listen to that little voice inside that tells you when something is not right - and then get help immediately.

By: Dr. Jill

Dr. Jill — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:43:55 +0000

Well, I’m glad to finally find an intelligent reaction to this study and the questionable interpretation of its ‘results’. The original media coverage even included cardiology and academic newsletters that just continued to pass on the original ‘myth’ headlines, thus muddying the waters and confusing the already-confused. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to ‘undo the damage’ by posting more balanced coverage of this and other confusing research in our practice public areas. I will add a copy of this essay to our patient board. Thank you.

By: RN in NM

RN in NM — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:55:02 +0000

The media coverage of this study has been VERY unfortunate, really tragic in my opinion. Such a missed opportunity to educate and inform; especially since the REAL news here – women experience “significantly higher” rates of throat neck jaw pain during a heart attack – is buried at the end of the story, or not even mentioned. This is criminal. The study authors should be issuing a media bulletin to correct this misinformation.

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:13:09 +0000

Media coverage of this study interests me. You can’t necessarily blame the researcher Ms McKay for this misleading headline about her “news”.

By: Anon.

Anon. — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:49:14 +0000

Yes, it may be accurate that 60% of women have some kind of chest symptom, but it’s hard enough as it is to get this group to seek immediate care, which is why we MUST continue to stress ALL potential Heart Attack symptoms and keep hammering this “40% have no chest pain” message home to women, which is regrettably what this study failed to do.

By: Irene

Irene — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:08:10 +0000

While it is true that 40% of women may experience no chest pain during a HA, that still means 60% of women DO have chest pain so it remains the most common cardiac symptom for both men AND women. This canadian study however misses the boat when it comes to educating all women about some of the other “signficant” symptoms more commonly seen in women like the throat and jaw and neck discomfort, and this just means that those of us who work in women’s health have more work to do in raising awareness. It’s hard enough to convince women that heart disease isn’t just for men.

By: Lab Rat

Lab Rat — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:49:19 +0000

I agree with your assessment. So much of “research” is wide open to subtle or profound bias, methodology flaws, tainted assumptions. Sometimes a published trials abstract will even quote the lead author as saying, “We were disappointed in these results…” which flat out tells you about his bias even going in. I suspect in this angioplasty ‘study’, however, that the study author’s motives may have been pure science, but the media picked up the unfortunate ‘heart attack myth’ headline and ran amok with it. Pity…

By: Marie-Claire

Marie-Claire — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:41:41 +0000

I saw these news on Reuters and I too was also surprised by ‘headlines’. In Europe we have not heard this myth from docteurs so very surprising. Thanks you for this new information it makes sense to what we know already about heart attacks and the women: chest pain perhaps, but not all times.

By: Womens Health Partners

Womens Health Partners — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:50:28 +0000

Our staff and patients brought this to our attention in October, and we too were discouraged by the misleading black and white ‘heart attack myth’ headlines. Few if any women in our practice do not know what chest pain might mean, but our concern with this study, and worse, the accompanying flurry of “news” headlines covering it, is that women are no more educated than ever now about OTHER important warning signs that could also spell a cardiac event, such as the ‘NECK, THROAT, JAW’ symptoms that are significantly higher for women than for men during an M.I. In fact, women are likely more confused now than ever thanks to this “study” and its resulting publicity. As Dr. Hayes of Mayo sums it up: “not conclusive – more studies needed”.

Thank you also for confirming the important and well-documented reality that up to 40% of women experience no chest symptoms of any kind (this includes pain, tightness, heaviness, etc.). Our counsel to patients is that inexplicable or distressing symptoms of any kind should be considered cardiac in nature until proven otherwise.

Our clinic is hosting an annual Women’s Health Education Day in the New Year and we would like your permission to reprint and incorporate your essays, along with the original study news release, as part of our teaching curriculum to point out how careful women as consumers must be when it comes to interpreting health news they see or hear in the media.

Thank you for helping us and other clinicians in our efforts to convince women to PAY ATTENTION to their bodies’ early warning signals.

L. Brown, MD

By: NYC Cardiac Rehab

NYC Cardiac Rehab — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:31:06 +0000

My staff and I were also dismayed by the clever ‘Heart Attack myth’ headlines but not really surprised by the wide ‘media pickup’ with a headline like that. I wasn’t sure if it was the study’s actual intent, or just a creative newspaper editor who came up with that misleading phrase because it attracts wider readership than the actual minimal findings would, which as Dr. Hayes correctly points out, are not conclusive. We consider it extremely unfortunate here that women’s “significant” neck, throat and jaw symptoms were not prominently featured in the headlines instead of the inaccurate word “myth”.

We’ve had hundreds of women survivors coming through our hospital-based rehab program, after the fact, who tell us that they hadn’t known at all that their early jaw or neck symptoms were even remotely associated with a heart attack. Thank you for helping to educate all women about ALL potential MI symptoms – not just chest pain.

By: Cheryl Relf

Cheryl Relf — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:43:01 +0000

Thank you once more Carolyn for keeping us informed! I read and listened to the ‘myth’ with surprise………….and am so glad that you have cleared this up for me. YOU are awesome and I love your website.