Category: Women and heart attacks

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

Did you underestimate your cardiac risk?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

GREEHEARTI was once asked by a U.S. publisher to review a new book written by a heart patient, a memoir about her surprising diagnosis.  But about 12 pages in, she mentioned that she had been a chain-smoker for three decades before her “surprising” cardiac diagnosis.  I had to re-read that line. How could a person who had been chain smoking for decades possibly be “surprised” by this predictable outcome? Didn’t this clearly intelligent, educated woman know that smoking is a dangerous risk factor for heart disease (and a whole bunch of other nasty health issues)?   I thought of this book recently when a new study from Harvard researcher Dr. Catherine Kreatsoulas reported that women are in fact more likely than men to underestimate their own risk of heart disease.    .        .       .       .         .         . Continue reading “Did you underestimate your cardiac risk?” →

How could YOU – of all people! – have a heart attack?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 16 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

I’ve come to learn that a common reaction to a heart attack is others’ utter shock that this could happen to “YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE!”  Women in particular report reactions like this because, generally speaking, we’re used to being the strong glue that holds our family life and relationships together.

How dare we get sick. . .      .          .          .     Continue reading “How could YOU – of all people! – have a heart attack?” →

Change your story, change the storyteller

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/11800/womans-guide-living-heart-disease

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Women’s heart attacks (still!) more likely misdiagnosed than men’s

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 35 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters   

My interest in women’s misdiagnosed heart attacks began after my own misdiagnosed heart attack. Despite textbook cardiac symptoms of central chest pain, nausea, profuse sweating and pain down my left arm, I was confidently told: “You’re in the right demographic for acid reflux!” – and sent home from the Emergency Department. 

I know that, had I been appropriately diagnosed and treated on that fateful day, I’d have little interest in this topic. But I wasn’t. So I do.     .         .    Continue reading “Women’s heart attacks (still!) more likely misdiagnosed than men’s” →