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

Marriage triples our bypass surgery survival rates – but only if it’s happy

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

While the recent headlines about this new cardiac study suggest that a happy marriage can triple (and even quadruple!) your longterm survival chances after heart bypass surgery, there’s more behind this story than the wedded bliss angle.

Researchers from the University of Rochester tell us that happily married people who undergo coronary bypass surgery are three times more likely to be alive 15 years later compared to their unmarried counterparts. For happily married women, those odds can actually jump to four times higher.

But buried in the good news hype is another important fact: that for women who do not rate their marriage as happy, survival stats are virtually identical to those for unmarried women.  Continue reading “Marriage triples our bypass surgery survival rates – but only if it’s happy” →

Why are so many patients dissatisfied with their doctors?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

If you sometimes feel like you don’t get enough respect from your physician, you may not be alone. In fact, two new global studies* from 23 countries show that two-thirds of patients around the world feel disrespected by their physicians – no matter which country they call home. For example, about one-quarter of patients surveyed complained that their physicians don’t answer questions, don’t involve them in treatment decisions, and use medical jargon with no explanation.

This appears to be a direct outcome of doctors not spending enough time with patients (44%).  About a third of patients also believe doctors show disrespect by not being punctual for appointments.  Continue reading “Why are so many patients dissatisfied with their doctors?” →

Heart disease = most costly condition for women

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 1 Comment

by Carolyn Thomas

The cost of treating women for heart disease leads a list of the top 10 most expensive conditions for women, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The analysis by this American agency reveals that the top 10 most costly conditions in terms of health care expenditures for women were:

  • heart disease (over $43.6 billion)
  • cancer
  • mental disorders
  • trauma-related disorders
  • osteoarthritis
  • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma
  • hypertension (high blood pressure)
  • Diabetes
  • back problems
  • hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol levels)

The first few thoughts that hit me while reading this list were:  Continue reading “Heart disease = most costly condition for women” →

What prevents heart disease “better than any drug”?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

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by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

It doesn’t come in a pill bottle, nor is it supported by multi-million dollar marketing campaigns. It’s affordable, and often even completely free. It has few if any harmful side effects. It’s appropriate for both young and old alike. And just like the fistful of  cardiac medications I now take every day since my own heart attack, I keep careful track of it (as evidenced by the stickers on my exercise calendar). It is exercise.

And it helps to prevent heart disease “better than any drug”, says Mario Mitkov of the University of California at Davis.   Continue reading “What prevents heart disease “better than any drug”?” →