Author: Carolyn Thomas

1 in 5 have this genetic risk factor for heart disease – but don’t know it

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 22 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Sandra Revill Tremulis was a healthy, fit woman who had a heart attack at the age of 39 despite an apparent lack of any cardiac risk factors. She’d never smoked, had a healthy diet, normal weight, normal cholesterol/blood pressure – and had run a marathon just the year before. So Sandra’s doctor ordered advanced blood tests and discovered that she had inherited a genetic abnormality that causes early heart disease. One in five people carry this gene, yet most are completely unaware that they do.

Continue reading “1 in 5 have this genetic risk factor for heart disease – but don’t know it” →

No blockages: Living with non-obstructive heart disease

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 42 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Annette PompaAnnette Pompa of Pennsylvania lives with a cardiac diagnosis I’d never even heard of until I, too, was diagnosed with it several months after surviving a heart attack. It’s called Coronary Microvascular Disease (MVD) or Small Vessel Disease. Unlike the classic Hollywood Heart Attack I’d initially experienced – which is typically caused by a significantly blocked major coronary artery – those of us diagnosed with MVD or coronary spasm disorders have few if any detectable blockages obstructing flow in the major blood vessels feeding the heart muscle. Yet we can experience the same distressing symptoms of a heart attack. Annette is a former art teacher who was barely 41 years old when MVD “came barging into my life”, as she explains. With her permission, I’m reprinting this transcript of an American Heart Association presentation that Annette gave recently about living with a non-obstructive heart condition.

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“This is my story. I represent an often misunderstood population living with a very different type of heart disease. Sadly, there are many more like me with MVD who are simply not being recognized – and indeed even dismissed. Symptoms often persist even without any visible blockage or reason for the angina, shortness of breath and fatigue which often accompany the condition. It is crazy, right? Here I was seemingly healthy – yet ended up battling heart disease.  Continue reading “No blockages: Living with non-obstructive heart disease” →

A beating heart frozen in time

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥    @HeartSisters

This amazing image is this year’s winner of the British Heart Foundation’s “Reflections of Research” medical image competition, an annual celebration of the U.K. charity’s groundbreaking research into cardiovascular diseases. This is not a painting – it’s a real image of the blood flowing within an adult heart, frozen in time.  Continue reading “A beating heart frozen in time” →

How not to be an audience troll

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥   @HeartSisters

I’ve had a number of opportunities to witness this kind of audience question oneupmanship first hand, especially when speaking to large audiences. As the chart above suggests, sometimes the audience member who raises a hand to ask a question of a guest speaker doesn’t actually have a question at all – but instead seeks to interject his own story to shift all eyes towards himself.  To find out if you are in danger of becoming “that guy”, consider this flowchart question, for example:    Continue reading “How not to be an audience troll” →