Category: Health care

Hospital food: the best reason to keep your heart healthy and avoid hospitalization

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 25 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

The first real food served to me in the hospital’s Coronary Care Unit after my heart attack was a cold roast beef sandwich on doughy white bread.  I was surprised (this is what they servie to heart patients?) but also hungry, so I managed to scarf it down.

In August, I was back in hospital for another cardiac procedure, and again my first meal afterwards was another sandwich: this time, a single unadorned, slimy, food-style processed cheese slice on that same doughy white bread.

What are hospital administrators thinking?  Continue reading “Hospital food: the best reason to keep your heart healthy and avoid hospitalization” →

What do you call your doctor?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 19 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Physician Dr. Anne Marie Valinoti, writing in the New York Times, explored the subject of exam room etiquette between doctor and patient, and specifically how they address each other.

“Since my early career, I have always been addressed as ‘Dr. Valinoti’. Freshly minted MDs, some as young as 25, get a title of respect – while seasoned nurses in the hospital are just Betty, Kaye or Nancy.

“I remembered the absurdity of this situation when, as a young intern, I was addressing critical care nurses with decades of experience by their first names, while they deferentially called me ‘Doctor.’  These were women who had started their careers when I was still playing with Barbie dolls, yet where were their professional titles?

“Like most things in medical training, I got used to it, and it became second nature.

“One thing I am still getting used to, though, is when patients call me by my first name. There seems to be a void in this area of etiquette: How does one address one’s physician? Continue reading “What do you call your doctor?” →

Why you should have your heart attack in Canada

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

As much as I’ve tried so far to keep my nose out of the health care reform circus that’s happening with our dear neighbours to the south, I can’t resist sharing a wee dose of reality from Canada (also known to some Americans as “Commie Pinko Land of Socialized Medicine”).

A piece in the Washington Post reminded me this week that, in other democracies of the developed world, patients are somehow receiving medical care that is not only universal, it’s actually considered better and cheaper than care in America.

In fact, the World Health Organization now ranks the U.S. 37th in the world in terms of quality health care access. American infant mortality rates (an oft-quoted criterion for how well countries are caring for their citizens) are double those of most Western countries. Almost all advanced countries have better national health statistics than the United States does.

The U.S. health care system forces over 700,000 Americans to declare bankruptcy every year.  In France, the number of medical bankruptcies is zero. Britain: zero. Japan: zero. Germany: zero. Canada: zero. Yet I’ve actually read warnings from U.S. health reform opponents that reform will somehow mean a slippery slope towards the ‘horrors of Canadian medicine”. Seriously. Continue reading “Why you should have your heart attack in Canada” →

Doctors on the take: a patient’s guide to fine print in research

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

I was doing a little light reading in the Archives of Internal Medicine the other day. A study reported there looked at what researchers have dubbed the Eco-Atkins Diet, which replaces the low-carb, high-saturated fat meat protein of the old Atkins Diet with low-carb, low saturated fat vegetable-based protein – such as soybeans, legumes and nuts.(1)

The more I read, the better I liked what I was reading. The study showed that the vegetable-based protein-eating participants not only successfully lost weight on this new Eco-Atkins Diet, but they showed greater reductions in their LDL (bad) cholesterol levels than the control group.

Isn’t this fabulous news for those of us wanting to lose weight as well as improve our heart health?

Well, maybe not.   Read more