Author: Carolyn Thomas

ISCHEMIA study: that blockage isn’t a time bomb in your chest

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters  

If you’re a heart patient living with stable angina, the ISCHEMIA clinical trial presented at the 2019 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions is all about you. Cardiologist Dr. John Mandrola described the impact of this study in his Medscape column like this:

“CARDIOLOGY CHANGES TODAY!”      .

But realistically, does one study have the power to actually change the practice of cardiology?      .
 Continue reading “ISCHEMIA study: that blockage isn’t a time bomb in your chest” →

Bed rest and other kinds of cardiac overtreatment

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 10 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters  

UPDATE:  I’m very sad to say that Dr. Bernard Lown, pioneering cardiologist, humanitarian, and founder of the Lown Institute, died on February 16, 2021 at the age of 99, pre-deceased by Louise, his wife of 73 years, survived by three children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

♥

“From my earliest days in medicine, I have struggled against the prevailing model of health care” is how the pioneering cardiologist Dr. Bernard Lown summed up his long and impressive career as a rebel.

Dr. Lown was Professor of Cardiology Emeritus at Harvard, but to me he was always the physician I loved to quote here on Heart Sisters – as in my blog post title, “Why Aren’t More Doctors Like Dr. Bernard Lown?“         . Continue reading “Bed rest and other kinds of cardiac overtreatment” →

“There is no gender bias in medicine. Because I said so…”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters 

When my heart sister Katherine Leon was featured in The New York Times earlier this year, I was thrilled. Katherine, like me, is a graduate of the WomenHeart Science & Leadership patient advocacy training at Mayo Clinic. She told the Times of undergoing emergency coronary bypass surgery at age 38, several days after her textbook cardiac symptoms had first been dismissed by doctors who told her, “There’s nothing wrong with you.”     .
 Continue reading ““There is no gender bias in medicine. Because I said so…”” →

30-Minute Heart Healthy Cookbook: a review

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 35 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

One of the first places that a cardiac diagnosis starts to change the lives of women who have it is in the kitchen. Suddenly, it can seem that everything you now choose to eat will either help your heart, or kill you dead. After my daughter Larissa flew home after my own heart attack, for example, she created a hand-written list (still up on my fridge door, by the way) sternly dictating, among many, many other food rules, things like: “From now on, only low-fat cheese, <20% fat!”

This was a problem for me at the time. Have you ever actually tasted low-fat cheese? It is a hideous food-like product. I pictured a dreary future learning to live on lentils and kale smoothies and other foods I do not want to eat. . .     . Continue reading “30-Minute Heart Healthy Cookbook: a review” →