Category: Women and heart attacks

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

Getting help during a heart attack: ‘delayers’ vs ‘survivors’

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥   @HeartSisters

If you thought you were having a heart attack, would part of you worry about being embarrassed if it turned out your symptoms weren’t that serious after all? Would you dread the attention of an ambulance coming to your home?  If so, you might be considered a “delayer”.

On the other hand, would you likely call 911 immediately because you believe that embarrassment passes quickly and without long-term damage, while a heart attack does not? If so, you’d be considered a “survivor”.

Check this chart to see which category you belong in – and then take whatever steps are required to move yourself immediately from delaying to surviving.   Continue reading “Getting help during a heart attack: ‘delayers’ vs ‘survivors’” →

Heart disease: “You’ve come a long way, baby!” – or have you?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

Over the past decade, studies have suggested that almost twice as many women are now aware that heart disease is our leading cause of death. But awareness of this fact is still disturbingly low. For example, when cardiologist Dr. Lori Mosca of Columbia University Medical Center surveyed 2,300 women to measure their awareness of heart disease risk and to evaluate awareness trends since 1997, her results showed:

  • although awareness of heart disease has improved since 1997, one-third of women are still unaware that it is the leading cause of death in females
  • many women continue to believe that unproven therapies will reduce their heart disease risk
  • only about one-half of women said they would call 911 if they thought they were having symptoms of a heart attack, which Mosca said was “incredibly discouraging.” Continue reading “Heart disease: “You’ve come a long way, baby!” – or have you?” →

Study: statin drugs overprescribed for healthy adults

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

A study from Johns Hopkins Hospital may be very bad news for drug companies that make statin drugs for cholesterol management.(1)  Statins, of course, are considered the darlings of Big Pharma. I’ve heard cardiologists joke (at least, I think they were joking) that statins are so fabulous at lowering our LDL (bad) cholesterol that we should be putting the drugs into our drinking water.

Virtually all heart attack survivors are now routinely prescribed statins (whether they have high cholesterol or not) and there’s a major marketing push for docs to prescribe statins as cardiovascular preventive therapy for virtually all adults, particularly to reduce blood levels of the inflammatory byproducts called C-reactive protein. But the Johns Hopkins study lead investigator Dr. Michael Blaha has this important new warning:   Continue reading “Study: statin drugs overprescribed for healthy adults” →

What does a girl have to do to get her heart attack noticed?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters   

Once upon a time, some famous female cardiologists gathered at a New York City heart health media event and wryly suggested it might be helpful if only women in mid-heart attack could clutch their chests, turn pale, and fall to the ground in dramatic defeat, in typical “Hollywood Heart Attack” fashion.

I wish I’d been there in person.

Kentucky cardiologist Dr. Melissa Walton-Shirley was there, though, and wrote about this event, In The Prime Of Her Life.

She described the prestigious health care professionals who gathered to participate in the event’s panel discussions as the “rock stars of cardiology”, each one specializing in the treatment of women’s heart disease.   Continue reading “What does a girl have to do to get her heart attack noticed?” →