by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
The important documentary film called “A Typical Heart“ is a triumph.
It’s about the deadly disparity in diagnosis, treatment and outcomes among male and female heart patients. It packs an incredible load of unforgettable facts and quotable quotes into just 22 short minutes. . Continue reading “This documentary film pulls no punches!”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
If you’ve had as many 12-lead ECG tests as I’ve had done over the years since my heart attack, you too may marvel at how swiftly the nurse or paramedic or Stress Test Clinic tech can slap those sticky electrode patches onto your chest, arms and legs. Having observed many people slapping patches on me, I often wonder: how do they know if they’re attaching those electrocardiogram patches onto the right anatomical places? .
Continue reading “Were your 12-lead ECG electrodes placed where they should be?”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
The directors of the 85-year long multi-generation Harvard Study of Adult Development have a new book out called The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.* In it, authors conclude that most of us “underestimate the beneficial effects of human connection.”
One of their key findings about fostering these connections seems directly aimed at those with chronic medical diagnoses like heart disease – especially as we get older: . Continue reading “Sharing our health struggles: too much, or not enough?”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Internal Medicine specialist Dr. Ann Hester’s new book is called Patient Empowerment 101 – but its subtitle is “More than a Book – It’s an Adventure!” The adventure of Chapter 1 includes this:
“While physicians and medical professionals devote many years to studying medicine, patients simply don’t have a comparable Patient School to learn how to effectively navigate the healthcare system.” .
Continue reading “Med School is for doctors, but there is no ‘Patient School’ for us”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Well, we’re into the New Year now. For some of us, that’s almost enough time to notice small cracks beginning to appear in the boldly announced resolutions made in the midst of all those post-Christmas excess guilt pangs. When I was one of the volunteer run leaders at our local Y Marathon Clinic during the last century, we’d often hear such resolutions from the first-timers starting our training workouts at this time of year – something like “This is the year I’m finally going to quit smoking, lose 20 pounds and run a marathon!”
“Honey,” I would gently say to them: “Pick one!” . Continue reading “New Year’s resolutions for those who hate resolutions”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
A number of my readers contacted me recently to make sure I’d seen Gretchen Reynolds’ new Washington Post article (THANK YOU, dear heart sisters, for thinking of me!) For those who missed it, I want to revisit some key messages from a tragic story about Gretchen’s friend, Anne – her hiking/mountain biking/distance running (also non-drinking and non-smoking) buddy. Gretchen described 61-year old Anne as “kind and capable, modest and fit”. She died suddenly last month. Anne’s cause of death, as Gretchen wrote in her regular column in the Post, was “a bolt-of-lightning heart attack” : .
Continue reading “Too fit and healthy to worry about heart disease?”
Heart Sisters 