Category: Women and heart attacks

– posts here focus on warning signs and symptoms women experience during a cardiac event

On Call With Dr. Dave: my interview about women & heart disease

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters   

You can tell from watching this interview how much fun it was to chat with Dr. David D’Agate about women’s heart disease. Dr. Dave is a preventive cardiologist in Long Island, New York,  board-certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, and nuclear cardiology – and probably best described by this personal testimonial from one of his heart patients: “extremely knowledgeable, kind and funny.”  My favourite kind of physician.         . .           .          . Continue reading “On Call With Dr. Dave: my interview about women & heart disease” →

When a red dress just isn’t enough to raise awareness

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

“A decade of lost ground“  is how the official commentary from the American Heart Association bluntly described the stunningly awful results of its own 2019 National Survey on women’s heart disease awareness reported last month. I wrote about my own stunned reaction to this survey in Women’s Heart Disease: an Awareness Campaign Fail?

The results were astonishing.  They suggested that women not only had a low awareness of even the most basic facts about heart disease – the #1 killer of women worldwide – but awareness levels were significantly lower than an AHA awareness survey had found 10 years earlier.    .        .    .    .   Continue reading “When a red dress just isn’t enough to raise awareness” →

Women’s heart disease: an awareness campaign fail?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 25 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥    @HeartSisters

I’ve been thinking a lot about awareness-raising lately because of a bombshell report  from the 2019 American Heart Association National Survey released this month.(1)  Among other completely demoralizing findings, this report found that women’s awareness of their most common heart attack risks and symptoms has significantly declined from a prior survey done 10 years earlier. How is that even possible?   .      .     .  Continue reading “Women’s heart disease: an awareness campaign fail?” →

Dear Carolyn: “I went into labour during my heart attack”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Nicole Nickerson always knew that she had a significant history of heart disease in her family: her mother had a heart attack at age 30 (due to a congenital heart defect that had been missed at birth), and her father had quadruple bypass surgery at age 40 (likely due to stress and smoking). But it was only after her 25-year old sister died of a heart attack six years ago that Nicole’s heart was checked, too.

In the ninth of our occasional Heart Sisters series called Dear Carolyn, Nicole’s letter reminds us of an under-reported and shocking reality: young women with serious heart disease:        .   Continue reading “Dear Carolyn: “I went into labour during my heart attack”” →