Category: Women's cardiac risk factors

– posts here focus on how to address your risk factors to help prevent heart disease

In praise of slow in a speeded-up life

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Many years ago, when I worked in corporate public relations, I was on a plane at least two mornings a week, flying off to Very Important Meetings with Very Important People to discuss their Very Important Projects. At the Vancouver airport bookshop one day, I picked up what I thought would be just the perfect thing for somebody as busy as I was: an audiobook of one of those ‘Ten Best Business Books Condensed’.  What a great idea!  I could save time cramming the Ten Best Business Books into my overstuffed brain while driving out to the airport and back! 

But something hit me – a “Eureka!” moment, somewhere between Total Quality Management and Seven Habits:

“This is exactly what’s wrong with my life!” 

Continue reading “In praise of slow in a speeded-up life” →

Note to self: tell med students about women’s unique cardiac risk factors!

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

There’s an old saying about public speaking that I like: every planned presentation actually consists of three different talks:

  • 1. the talk we plan to give
  • 2. the one we actually give
  • 3. the perfect one we give in the car on the way home

That’s how I felt as soon as I ended my recent one-hour Zoom session about women and heart disease for New York medical school students. It was only after our recorded session ended that it hit me: “Oh, no!  I didn’t mention pregnancy complications!”    

This is a known cardiac risk factor that’s unique to women – and in my case, was likely the culprit behind my own heart attack.       .    Continue reading “Note to self: tell med students about women’s unique cardiac risk factors!” →

Nine lessons about women’s heart disease that future doctors will learn in med school

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

A cardiologist who teaches medical students at a prominent medical school was asked if his students were learning about the known disparities in cardiac research, diagnostics, treatment and outcomes in female heart patients compared to our male counterparts. His answer basically was: “If we start taking up time to talk about women, we’d have to stop teaching one of the equally important subjects in our curriculum.”  See also: Women’s Heart Health: Why it’s NOT a Zero Sum Game

That reluctant conversation-stopper may help to explain what cardiac researchers keep reminding us:  physicians now in practice likely received little if any specific med school training in women’s health aside from reproductive health issues. And as Emergency physician Dr. Alyson McGregor at Brown University reminds her colleagues:

“Women are NOT just men with boobs and tubes.”   

Continue reading “Nine lessons about women’s heart disease that future doctors will learn in med school” →

Cardiac arrest: when it happens in the bathroom

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 22 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

Ponder this study the next time you are sitting on your toilet – particularly if you are already a heart patient. Most people spend a relatively short time per day in the bathroom (estimated at about 30-45 minutes total, much of that spent using the toilet) yet it appears that the bathroom is a location where sudden cardiac arrest occurs with disproportionately high frequency. According to Japanese researchers, about 8–10 per cent of all cardiac arrests occur in the bathroom.(1)         .         .     Continue reading “Cardiac arrest: when it happens in the bathroom” →