Is it enough to have “enough” women in cardiac studies?

by Carolyn Thomas      @HeartSisters

Did you hear the one about the Harvard study on the effects of aspirin in preventing heart attack? Over 22,000 men participated, but the researchers did not recruit even one woman.1

But that is not a joke.            .  .   Continue reading “Is it enough to have “enough” women in cardiac studies?”

Women’s cardiac care: how do you think we’re doing?

by Carolyn Thomas     @HeartSisters

In their landmark review, Canadian heart researchers Dr. Karin Humphries and Dr. Louise Pilote answered this important question(1):

“Why are we examining women’s cardiovascular health in this issue of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology?”      .

Why indeed?  Some of their answers may surprise you. . .     .
Continue reading “Women’s cardiac care: how do you think we’re doing?”

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

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

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”