Category: Cardiology 101

posts here focus on a variety of topics all about the heart and how it works

Four questions about heart disease you’ve always wanted to ask

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

Dr. Marvin Lipman and the editors of Consumer Reports on Health have come out with a useful little book called The Best of Health: 275 Questions You’ve Always Wanted To Ask Your Doctor.

Let’s take a look at their Q&A page about cardiovascular disorders.

Q:  Are my heart palpitations a sign of heart disease?

 A:  “Palpitations” is a non-medical term for any heart rhythm that feels abnormal. This can include extra beats, dropped beats, forceful beats, rapid beats, or irregular beats.  For proper diagnosis, the abnormality must first be captured on an EKG test or on a 24-hour heartbeat recording called a Holter monitor. Heart palpitations can be caused by:

  • emotional stress
  • an overactive thyroid
  • certain medications
  • diseases of the coronary arteries, heart muscle, or heart valves

Sometimes there is no detectable cause. First, try eliminating a few things on your own: caffeine (coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, soda), nasal decongestants, appetite suppressants – and see if that makes a difference.  Continue reading “Four questions about heart disease you’ve always wanted to ask” →

14 reasons to be glad you’re a man when you’re having a heart attack

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 19 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  ♥ Updated May 1, 2022

I just finished reading a truly weird rant on another website, written by a man decrying the “sexism” of society because all of our male doctors are now focused only on women’s heart disease – while apparently ignoring men completely.  It turns out he’s not alone in his misinformation: see also Women’s Heart Health: Why it’s NOT a Zero Sum Game.

It would surely be the fantasy dream of every female heart attack survivor if this man were actually correct about all that attention women’s heart disease is allegedly attracting.  The frightening reality instead is that since 1984, the differences between men and women’s cardiac diagnoses, treatments and outcomes has continued to grow.

In the interests of enlightening the unconscious among us about All Things Cardiac, I am happy to point out an assortment of gender differences if you find yourself having a heart attack:  Continue reading “14 reasons to be glad you’re a man when you’re having a heart attack” →

Have you ever had dreams that accurately predicted illness or healing?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

 dream night rainby Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Dr. Steve Parker of Alaska tells this story of a chilling dream he had nine years ago:

“An airplane with a red, four-cylinder engine is leaking oil, and smoke is coming from the engine. The plane takes off, but then immediately crashes. I wake bolt upright at 5 a.m. and the first words in my head are: ‘I’m having heart trouble!'”

Although he says that he had no heart symptoms at the time of this plane crash dream, it turned out to be a far more accurate warning than he could have even imagined. He now believes that this dream actually foreshadowed his own severe heart attack.

He’s not only a survivor, he’s also a cardiac psychologist and author of the book Heart Attack and Soul: In the Labyrinth of Healing. He’ll be sharing the story of this dream – and maybe yours as well – when he speaks at the conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams later this month.   This is the story he’ll tell: Continue reading “Have you ever had dreams that accurately predicted illness or healing?” →

How women can have heart attacks without having any blocked arteries

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 99 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Turns out that the kind of heart attack that I had (caused by a 95% blockage in the big left anterior descending coronary artery) – the so-called widowmaker heart attack – may actually be relatively uncommon  in women. You might guess that fact by its nickname.  It’s not, after all, called the “widower-maker”.

While cardiologists warn that heart disease can’t be divided into male and female forms, there are some surprising differences. Cardiologist Dr. Amir Lerman at the world famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told the Los Angeles Times recently:

“When it comes to acute heart attacks and sudden death from cardiac arrest, women have these kinds of events much more often without any obstructions in their coronary arteries.”

Instead, it appears that a significant portion of women suffer from another form of heart disease altogether. It affects not the superhighway coronary arteries but rather the smaller arteries, called microvessels. These tiny arteries deliver blood directly to the heart muscle.

Ironically, I can now boast two diagnoses for the price of one – first, the widowmaker heart attack caused by a fully occluded coronary artery back in 2008, and then, after several months of puzzling, ongoing cardiac symptoms – like chest pain, shortness of breath, and crushing fatigue – a second diagnosis of inoperable coronary microvascular disease. Continue reading “How women can have heart attacks without having any blocked arteries” →