Category: Living with heart disease

posts here focus on the “new normal” you’ll discover once you get home from hospital and the reality starts to sink in

Mayo Clinic’s ‘WomenHeart Science and Leadership Symposium’ featured in Time magazine

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Two organizations very dear to my heart – literally – were featured last month in Time magazine’s Women and Health series. Both the world-famous Mayo Clinic and the not-for-profit organization called WomenHeart: The National Coalition For Women With Heart Disease were singled out because of a unique and life-altering program they host for women heart disease survivors. As a 2008 graduate of the annual WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium at the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, I was thrilled to see these two pioneering advocates for women’s heart health acknowledged by Time.

Each year, Mayo’s leading heart specialists welcome 50 heart disease survivors attending this 4-5-day Symposium.  I like to describe it as part world class cardiology training, and part community activism bootcamp.   Time magazine describes it like this:

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“The idea is to educate women and empower them to spread their newfound knowledge about women and heart disease in their home communities. That’s the point, says the Symposium’s leader, Dr. Sharonne Hayes, director of the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic.

“When she and three heart disease patients came up with the original idea for the Symposium back in 2002, they had one goal: to awaken patients and doctors to the impact heart disease has on the 42 million North American women currently living with it — and the families of the millions more who did not survive.   Continue reading “Mayo Clinic’s ‘WomenHeart Science and Leadership Symposium’ featured in Time magazine” →

The simple tool that predicts how well you’ll do after discharge from hospital

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

After I was discharged from the Coronary Care Unit following my heart attack, I felt overwhelmed because, other than some reading material about heart-healthy eating and wound control, I was pretty well booted out the door with virtually no follow-up care plan once I got home.

So when my friend Viv’s daughter Kate phoned me a few days later (Kate happens to be a  cardiac nurse), I had an endless list of panicky questions for her about my surprisingly distressing ongoing chest pains along with dozens of other issues.  I was convinced that another heart attack was imminent – an extremely terrifying prospect for a freshly diagnosed heart patient. She was able to answer my questions (“Sounds like what we call post-stent stretching pain – very common!”) and reassured me that I just might live through another day.

Canadian researchers in Ottawa have developed a simple tool for hospital staff to predict the probability that patients like me, discharged directly from hospital back to the community, will be readmitted – or die – within 30 days.

The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, could help identify patients who may benefit from closer monitoring and care so that serious health problems can be prevented. Continue reading “The simple tool that predicts how well you’ll do after discharge from hospital” →

Women’s heart health advice: “Walk often, walk far!”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

If you are one of those misguided sods who still believe in the exercise axiom: “No pain, no gain”  – you can stop reading right now.  The rest of you – rejoice!  According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, taking a long daily walk may be a better way to improve heart health, lose weight and feel better compared to shorter periods of more strenuous  exercise.

A randomized controlled clinical trial funded by the NHLBI compared two exercise programs for heart attack survivors:

  • 1.  Standard cardiac rehab exercise:  25-40 minutes of exercise three times per week at approximately 65-75% peak aerobic capacity. This included 25 minutes of treadmill walking and 8 minutes on 2 to 3 ergometers: cycle, rowing, or arm.
  • 2.  High-calorie expenditure exercise: longer duration but lower intensity,  more frequent exercise (45-60 minute sessions, but at just 50-60% peak aerobic capacity, 5-7 times per week).

Walking, rather than weight-supported exercises (such as cycling or rowing), was preferred to maximize calorie expenditure, which was targeted at 3,000-3,500 calories per week. The protocol was essentially to “walk often and walk far.”  All heart patients studied were considered overweight before starting the program. Each subject  also received 16 hours of group dietary counseling, and were given a target goal of consuming 500 calories per day less than their predicted maintenance calories.

What did their results show?  Continue reading “Women’s heart health advice: “Walk often, walk far!”” →

‘Women-only’ cardiac rehabilitation curbs depression for heart attack survivors

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

On any given day, women are vastly outnumbered by men at cardiac rehabilitation – when they show up at all. Female heart patients who do attend while recovering from a cardiac event often say they don’t like working out in the cardiac rehab gym alongside so many men – in fact, there’s usually a one-to-five ratio of women to men. To address this concern and attract more women heart attack survivors, some programs are now offering female-only cardiac rehab sessions.

This is a good thing, as we know that a cardiac rehab program can help survivors improve their physical fitness, learn about nutrition, meet other heart patients, and get support to quit smoking, lose weight or make other heart-healthy lifestyle changes to improve heart health. In fact, completing a course of cardiac rehabilitation can result in a 26%-40% reduction in cardiac mortality over the following five years.

But those improved odds are only possible if physicians actually refer their heart patients to rehab.

Yet referral rates remain shockingly low – it’s estimated that only 20% of all eligible patients are referred by their physicians.  See also: Failure to refer: why are doctors ignoring cardiac rehab?

Depression is another factor that can keep us away from cardiac rehab. 

Depression often follows a heart disease diagnosis (Mayo Clinic cardiologists tell us that up to 65% of survivors suffer depression, yet fewer than 10% are appropriately diagnosed).  Depression is also in general twice as likely to affect women as men. Depression interferes with how well we can stick with important lifestyle modifications following a cardiac event,  as well as our willingness to even bother showing up for cardiac rehabilitation.

It turns out that a major benefit of attending and completing a cardiac rehab program after a heart attack is that symptoms of depression actually improved among women who participated in a motivationally-enhanced cardiac rehabilitation program exclusively for women, according to a presentation at November’s American Heart Association’s annual scientific meetings.  Continue reading “‘Women-only’ cardiac rehabilitation curbs depression for heart attack survivors” →