Cardiac research: more fun facts

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Do you have a book in your life that you keep opening just for the pure delight of reading it again? I am that obsessed with the book called The Exquisite Machine:  The New Science of the Heart, published by MIT Press. In fact, I keep this book beside my favourite red chair so it’s always handy for re-reading random chapters. I’ve been doing this ever since veteran cardiac researcher Dr. Sian Harding wrote the book in 2022, and I can also say I haven’t felt this way about other books I love.  So I can’t resist sharing with you some fun facts about our hearts and the research I’ve learned about from Dr. Harding’s work:    .

First, let me quickly assure you that, unlike most books about cardiology I’ve read, this book is a patient-friendly reading experience from start to finish. And even though I’ve already read the entire book, I somehow feel like I’m always discovering something new with each fresh read.

Because her entire 40-year career was spent in academic research, Dr. Harding says she likes to compare notes with what she calls “vast and sensitive data resources in science.”  Sensitive data just means surprising facts to the rest of us.

So sensitive, in fact, that she reminds us that researchers can now report the following:

♥ The performance of a cardiac surgeon on the day after their birthday is measurably worse than on any other day of the year (Kato et al, 2020, BMJ)

♥ A male cardiologist who has worked with female colleagues will have a markedly better survival rate among his female patients (Greenwood et al, 2018, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

♥ In both healthy research volunteers and those living with heart disease, a  2-hour walk along busy downtown streets creates clear damage to the heart, while the same walk in a nearby leafy park increases lung capacity and improves your heart health (Sinharay et al, 2018, The Lancet)

♥ Also in that study, researchers found that cardiac harm from the environment is much wider than air pollution alone. The rate of premature deaths worldwide due to pollution are estimated to be higher than war, murders, malnutrition or vehicle accidents. And noise levels, for example, significantly affected the health of blood vessels in both healthy people and those in the heart disease group. Airplane noise is now known to increase blood pressure if you live directly under a busy flight path. (Sinharay et al, 2018, The Lancet)

♥ You might believe that ultra-fit endurance athletes like competitive cyclists are healthier than the rest of us – which is partly true. They do live about 17 per cent longer than the general population. But a 2020 study found that a significant number (in fact, over half) of endurance cyclists studied developed heart abnormalities and rhythm problems – like atrial fibrillation. As Dr. Harding concludes: “Extreme exercise saves lives in an emergency, but is risky as a modern lifestyle choice!”  (Wundersitz et al, 2020. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases 63)   * Scroll to the end for much more on this topic in the excellent book The Haywire Heart.

♥ The last time Germany hosted the World Cup, the incidence of cardiac emergencies in football fans watching was three times higher than the average rate – regardless of the final score. The effect was the same whether the favoured team won or lost, a result attributed to the “tension of the game.” (Lampen et al, 2008, New England Journal of Medicine)

♥ The famous Framingham Heart Study began in 1948, motivated by the massive stroke that had killed four-time U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dr. Harding notes that his blood pressure was reported to be an astonishing 300/195). But back then, both doctors and patients alike were profoundly ignorant about the causes of cardiovascular disease. Death from heart disease was accepted as a natural consequence of aging. So cardiac researchers enrolled 2/3 of the adult population of the town of Framingham, Massachusetts town (more than 5,200 men and women, ages 30-62 years, mostly middle-class, urban and white).  So far, three generations related to that original research group have also been studied. Framingham researchers introduced the new concept of cardiovascular risk factors into the medical vocabulary in a landmark paper in 1961. But ironically, Framingham’s actual accuracy in predicting future cardiac problems – especially in low-income/high risk populations – has been controversial. (Gray et al. 2009, British Journal of Cardiology)

After decades of authoring scientific papers for medical journals, Dr. Harding hung up her lab coat for the last time in 2022 – coincidentally, the year her book was published. In a later interview with Hospital Healthcare Europe, she explained the difference between writing journal articles and writing The Exquisite Machine:

“As a scientist, you must write in a very specific controlled way. You can’t use vivid language, and I wanted to learn how to write differently.”

Not surprisingly, she still has a keen interest in All Things Cardiac, as you can immediately tell a few pages into her book. She even wrote two sections titled The Invisible Woman and The Hysterical Woman (and if you’ve ever had cardiac symptoms misdiagnosed or dismissed as I have, you can probably guess what kind of not-fun facts you’ll find there!)

As Dr. Harding wrote: 

“As well as being misdiagnosed, women are less likely to be treated quickly, less likely to get the best surgical treatment, and less likely to be discharged with the optimum set of heart drugs. None of this is excusable.”

Heart image: The Digital Artist, Pixabay

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Q:  Have you ever had the experience of reading and re-reading something you’ve kept around since the first read?

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NOTE FROM CAROLYN:   I wrote more about cardiac research in A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease  (published by Johns Hopkins University Press). You can ask for this book at your local library or favourite bookstores (please support your local independent booksellers!)  or order it online (paperback, hardcover or e-book) at Amazon – or order it directly from Johns Hopkins University Press (use their code HTWN to save 30% off the list price when you order).

See also:

♥ Heart Sisters posts  that include Dr. Sian Harding’s research

♥ The Haywire Heart: *  (an interesting book about the link between endurance sports and heart disease by cardiologist/athlete/AFib patient Dr. John Mandrola with journalist Chris Case and cyclist Leonard Zinn)

 

May