Category: Heart Sisters

– posts here focus on general topics about women and heart disease

Germ warfare for heart patients during flu season

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

hands soap-waterby Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

Did you know that eating refined sweets puts your body into an acidic state, just the way all those nasty pathogens and flu bugs like it?  Sugar can apparently weaken your immunity by suppressing the immune system’s macrophage cells, which act as an important defense shield by helping to remove unwanted substances from your blood  – like harmful bacteria and viruses.

handshaking buttonAnd speaking of harmful bacteria and viruses, shaking hands is a good way to spread those bugs from person to person. Although it’s a cultural no-no to refuse to shake hands, you can’t tell if those you’re shaking hands with have washed their hands properly after sneezing or coughing into them – or at all. Try a big smile instead.

With seasonal flu season in full swing, I was glad to find more healthy tips for fighting off viral attacks and surviving flu season from Janelle Sorenson, a senior writer at Healthy Child, Healthy World.  Her advice is not only good for children, but also for those – like heart patients – at high risk for serious health complications as a result of influenza.  A sampling here of just one of her 10 tips, Declare Germ Warfare:    Continue reading “Germ warfare for heart patients during flu season” →

What if other parts of life were like health care?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ Leave a comment

 

life collage 

Dr. Robert Lamberts is a doc whose Musings of a Distractible Mind: Thoughts of a Moderately Strange Primary Care Physician offers an insider’s view into the day-to-day life of a doctor who wears a size 10 1/2 shoe and does not like spinach.  What if, he wonders, other parts of our lives were run like our medical care is?  Starting from the time when school kids wake up in the morning, Dr. Lamberts and his distractible mind start musing:

“The first thing that happens in your day is that your alarm fails to go off,” he begins. “Although you have major things happening, nobody ever has explained to you exactly what you are supposed to do and when. You watch the morning TV show and it seems that some experts say you should go to school while others say you should avoid school at all cost.  You call a friend who says that she knows someone who went to school and it destroyed her liver.  Another friend goes to school every day and is just fine.  Continue reading “What if other parts of life were like health care?” →

Should heart patients get the flu vaccine?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

flu sneezeby Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

People with heart disease have a harder time coping with the flu than people without heart disease. This is because the influenza virus produces significant stress on the cardiovascular system – breathing difficulty, changes in blood pressure, rapid heart rate, and even direct effects on the heart – that make this illness particularly difficult and even dangerous for anyone who has heart disease.

That’s why I went for my flu vaccine this morning at my local health clinic. In fact, I had two flu shots today, one in each arm: one for the pandemic H1N1 influenza, and one for Influenza A&B, the ‘normal’ seasonal flu.  I was assessed as a high priority flu shot recipient because I’m under the age of 65 with a heart condition – just barely ahead of the NHL’s Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs hockey teams whose players are apparently (who knew?) in a very high risk and high priority group, too, right up there with heart attack survivors.

Whoever we are, getting hit by the flu is no picnic, as described in this love letter from your flu bug:

“I want you.
I shall seek and find you.
I shall take you to bed and have my way with you.
I will make you ache, shake and sweat till you moan and groan.
I will make you beg for mercy.
I will exhaust you to the point that you will be relieved when I’m finished with you, and you will be weak for days.”

All my love, 

H1N1

The strongest evidence for protection from a flu shot in those with heart disease comes from the Flu Vaccination in Acute Coronary Syndromes study. Researchers followed patients who had been hospitalized for either a heart attack or a planned angioplasty, half of whom were randomly assigned to receive a flu vaccine and half remained unvaccinated. Over the next year, twice as many of the unvaccinated group (23%) died of heart disease, had a non-fatal heart attack, or developed severe ischemia (insufficient blood supply to the heart tissue), compared with those who were vaccinated (11%).   Continue reading “Should heart patients get the flu vaccine?” →

The Heart Truth: what’s that little red dress all about?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters 

I’ve worked in public relations for decades, and I have to say that, from a PR perspective, those folks over in Breast Cancer are doing a fabulous job of raising awareness about their cause. It’s a world of PINK out there!  Yet the same women who are raising awareness and funds in support of breast cancer research may be unaware that heart disease – not breast cancer – is actually women’s biggest health threat. This year, heart disease will kill six times more women than breast cancer will.  In fact, heart disease will kill more women than all forms of cancer combined.

These frightening stats are just one of the reasons Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation launched The Heart Truth, a campaign to help fund research about women’s heart disease, and to educate women about the risk factors, symptoms and especially prevention of our #1 health threat.

heart truth logoThe Red Dress is the official symbol of this campaign. As the Heart and Stroke Foundation describes it:  “It’s feminine, strong and confident, capturing the spirit of the cause in a symbol that women across Canada can identify with and feel proud of. The Red Dress represents women’s courage and passion as they raise awareness about our heart health.”

And the inaugural 2008 Heart Truth campaign launch nearly doubled Canadians’ awareness (from 13% to over 23%) that heart disease is the #1 killer of Canadian women. But we still have a long way to go.   Continue reading “The Heart Truth: what’s that little red dress all about?” →