Archive | June, 2010

Chicken nuggets: tasty treat, cardiac nightmare

27 Jun

Here’s a news flash for you.  Those deep-fried chicken nuggets your kids love have “minimal nutritional value”, according to a new investigation by Consumer Reports Health.  UK chef and food activist Jamie Oliver justifiably calls these chicken nuggets “fake food” – a creepy concoction of mechanically processed carcass, chicken skin and bread crumbs. Watch Jamie explain to a group of school children just what’s inside chicken nuggets in this must-see two-minute video.

Whether purchased in frozen packages at the grocery store or hot from fast food chains like McDonald’s, chicken nuggets pack a wallop of coronary artery-damaging fat and sodium, Consumer Reports Health says in a news release about their study.  And the brand of nuggets that ranked lowest in fat and sodium ( ‘Health is Wealth’) rated dead last in taste.

What’s more, many brands make claims that are misleading, using terms like “whole grain,” “all natural,” or “organic” -  a trick that makes some people think of the little chicken bites as healthy dinner choices, the report says.   Continue reading →

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Does getting older mean getting happier?

23 Jun

It is inevitable. The muscles weaken. Hearing and vision fade. We get wrinkled and stooped. We can’t run, or even walk, as fast as we used to. We have aches and pains in parts of our bodies we never even noticed before.  We develop chronic, progressive illnesses like heart disease.  We get old.

It sounds miserable, but apparently it is not. According to the New York Times, a large U.S. survey of over 340,000 people aged 18-85 has found that by almost any measure, people get happier as they get older, and researchers are not sure why.

The Times reported that in the study’s global measure of well-being, people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves.  But then, apparently, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal, and people keep getting happier as they age. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than they were at 18.  Continue reading →

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14 reasons to be glad you’re a man when you’re having a heart attack

19 Jun

I just finished reading a truly weird rant on another website written by a man decrying the ”sexism” of our society because all of our male doctors are now focused only on women’s heart disease – while apparently ignoring men completely.

It would surely be the fantasy dream of every woman heart attack survivor if this man were actually telling the truth about all that attention women’s #1 killer is allegedly attracting.  The frightening reality instead is that since 1984, more women than men have died each year from heart disease. In fact, the gap between men and women’s cardiac survival continues to widen.

In the interests of enlightening the unconscious among us about All Things Cardiac, I am happy to point out an asssortment of gender differences if you find yourself having a heart attack:  Continue reading →

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Last chance to apply for the WomenHeart Symposium at Mayo Clinic

15 Jun

 Are you a woman who has survived a cardiac event, and is at least six months past your last hospitalization? Do you have a burning desire to learn more about heart disease – our #1 killer – and then to help educate others about their own heart health? If your answers are YES, then I urge you to apply to attend this once-in-a-lifetime training opportunity for women at the world famous Mayo Clinic.  This year’s application deadline has passed (June 18th) but please consider applying for next year’s training.  Here are the basics:

  • Who:    Women diagnosed with any form of heart disease
  • What:  Annual WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium
  • When:  October (around the Columbus Day / Canadian Thanksgiving weekend)
  • Where:  Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, U.S.A.
  • Why:  To educate and empower each woman heart patient participant to take charge of her own heart health and to train her as a community educator, outreach specialist, and spokeswoman for WomenHeart

 Here’s the application for 2010 from WomenHeart with everything you need to know about the Symposium. 

Questions? Contact the always-helpful and charming Joanna Eisman at WomenHeart: The National Coalition For Women With Heart Disease, either by e-mail at  jeisman@womenheart.org or by telephone at (202) 464-8741.  And tell her that Carolyn Thomas sent you!

See also Going To Mayo Clinic for more about my own life-altering experience at the fabulous 2008 WomenHeart Symposium – what I like to call part world-class cardiology training and part community activism bootcamp!  And WomenHeart’s Mayo Clinic Symposium Featured In Time Magazine.

And please forward this on to any women you know who might qualify for this amazing adventure at Mayo Clinic.

 

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The topic that doctors don’t want to talk about with female heart patients

11 Jun

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

There’s a touchy topic that many doctors apparently don’t want to bring up with their heart patients  – particularly with their female patients.

A study reported in Washington, DC at the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association found that  fewer than 20% of women had a talk about sex with their physicians during the first year following their heart attacks – half the rate reported by male heart attack survivors.

This is significant, because sexual activity declines in the year following a heart attack for patients who do not receive specific advice on this topic from their doctors, the study showed. And fewer than half of all patients questioned in this study reported receiving any guidance on sexual activity – with women even less likely than men to get such information. Continue reading →

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Have you ever had dreams that accurately predicted illness or healing?

7 Jun

 

Dr. Steve Parker of Alaska tells this story of a chilling dream he had nine years ago:

“An airplane with a red, four-cylinder engine is leaking oil, and smoke is coming from the engine. The plane takes off, but then immediately crashes. I wake bolt upright at 5 a.m. and the first words in my head are: ‘I’m having heart trouble!’”

Although he says that he had no heart symptoms at the time of this plane crash dream, it turned out to be a far more accurate warning than he could have even imagined. He now believes that this dream actually foreshadowed his own severe heart attack:

He’s not only a survivor, he’s also a cardiac psychologist and author of the book Heart Attack and Soul: In the Labyrinth of Healing. He’ll be sharing the story of this dream – and maybe yours as well – when he speaks at the conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams later this month.   This is the story he’ll tell: Continue reading →

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