Category: Cardiology 101

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

Bypassing bypass surgery by growing new arteries

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 86 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

The human body is endlessly fascinating, isn’t it? Consider how humans get started in the first place – only after one tiny sperm, one of hundreds of millions, has somehow negotiated its way past the lethal acid coating the vagina and made its long journey up to the waiting egg.  The odds are stupefyingly against that one brave little sperm. How did any of us even get born?

Also, consider the heart.

Before my heart attack, I had never heard of the heart’s little collateral arteries. These are small, normally closed arteries that, in times of dire need (like a blocked coronary artery that can lead to a heart attack) can “wake up” and enlarge enough to form a kind of detour around the blockage, thus providing an alternate route of blood supply to feed the oxygen-starved heart muscle. Do-it-yourself bypass surgery! Continue reading “Bypassing bypass surgery by growing new arteries” →

How does it really feel to have a heart attack? Women survivors answer that question

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 93 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

Having a heart attack felt nothing like I thought it would feel.   For one thing, unlike sudden cardiac arrest, in which the heart stops beating and you stop breathing, during my heart attack (myocardial infarction), my heart continued beating, and I was walking, talking and conscious throughout despite horrific symptoms – so how could I possibly be having a heart attack?

Like most women, I’d never really thought about my heart – except maybe when running up that killer Quadra Street hill with my running group. Yet heart disease kills six times more women than breast cancer each year (in fact, it kills more women than all forms of cancer combined).

Women need to know all the potential symptoms of a heart attack – both typical and atypical. And by the way, I’ve stopped using the word “atypical“ to describe any non-chest pain symptom that women experience during a heart attack, because as paramedic and documentary filmmaker (“A Typical Heart“) Cristina D’Alessandro likes to say: 

“Why are our cardiac symptoms called ‘atypical’ when women are more than half the population?”

I asked some female survivors to share their very first symptoms. Their heart attack stories may surprise you. If you need help translating some of the heart jargon, visit my patient-friendly jargon-free glossary of cardiology terms and abbreviations.

Read their stories

Medical journalism watchdog slams cardiac ‘polypill’ news hype

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ Leave a comment

woman reading hanging around

 by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

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What news headlines around the world said:

“Single Pill Combining Five Heart Drugs Appears Safe.”

What the journalists said:

“Imagine if people at risk of heart disease could take a single pill that would contain all the medications they need to reduce their heart risk.  Such a pill is already a reality and now new research suggests it’s safe and effective.  It’s called a polypill and could soon become a cheap, simple way to prevent both heart disease and stroke.” CTV News

What journalism watchdog Media Doctor Canada said:

 “This story delivers a hyped conclusion on the basis of very poor evidence, yet it calls this a ‘lifesaving’ drug. The published paper and study results reveal that this was a double-blind study that followed patients for only 12 weeks.  How can this drug be called ‘safe and effective’ if it’s taken over many years?

“The concept of mixing different compounds into one pill is very poor medicine. It doesn’t permit physicians to customize the dose for specific patients depending on the patient’s specific risk factors.”   Continue reading “Medical journalism watchdog slams cardiac ‘polypill’ news hype” →

Is sudden cardiac arrest the same thing as a heart attack?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 10 Comments

red heart on black

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

One of the reasons that I believed the Emergency physician who had misdiagnosed me with acid reflux during my heart attack was my very inaccurate perception of what a heart attack looks like.

I used to think that heart attacks happen mostly to men.  Old men.  Old fat men who are out-of-shape-chain smokers and heavy drinkers.  Old fat out-of-shape smoking drinking men who one day out on the golf course suddenly clutch their chests and keel over, unconscious.  CPR.  911. Ambulance sirens screaming. Paramedics. Defibrillator paddles. That’s a heart attack, right?

Wrong, my dear heart sisters. Continue reading “Is sudden cardiac arrest the same thing as a heart attack?” →