Category: Women's cardiac risk factors

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

How flexible work hours can lower your blood pressure

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

All working mothers already know this intuitively, but now we have some British academics who confirm what we’ve always suspected: flexible work schedules have a positive effect on our health.  In fact, researchers at Durham University report that just being able to self-schedule working hours was found to have positive impacts on a number of health outcomes including blood pressure, sleep and mental health.

All three outcomes can be important risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease, so this research has important ramifications for women interested in improving heart health by reducing day to day stress.

Stress is often defined as a fight-or-flight response: a moment when your body produces stress hormones in preparation for fighting your stress or running away from it. This stress response was quite useful for people thousands of years ago when facing those sabre-toothed tigers or other deadly threats.

Today, your body responds to stress and perceived danger in much the same way. But instead of confronting wild animals, women may face ongoing stressful events such as trying to get the whole family up and out the door on time every morning, being stuck in rush hour traffic, or juggling household management To Do lists.  Continue reading “How flexible work hours can lower your blood pressure” →

Are you the quarterback of your own heart health team?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

Karla Marburger is a self-described “Type A computer geek”, a Nebraska woman who is also a survivor of both congestive heart failure and acute renal failure at the age of 43.

I first met Karla along with 45 of our heart sister companions when we attended the 2008 WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium for Women with Heart Disease at the world-famous Mayo Clinic. Exactly one year after that amazing training experience, she announced:

“Today, I’m going to a bridal shower — my bridal shower. Two weeks from today, I am getting married to John!“

When she first met John, she reported that she was concerned about how he would feel about dating someone with heart problems, someone with dietary restrictions that make it hard to go out to eat, someone who sleeps with oxygen every night, someone who is stubborn about protecting her workout time – and someone who was still healing emotionally from this experience.

“After 2-3 dates of watching me order my meals and scheduling our dates around my workouts, John started commenting on my healthy lifestyle. Not yet ready to trust him with the whole picture, I alluded to a ‘major lifestyle change’, but left it at that.”

But as their relationship turned serious, Karla knew that she had to talk to him about the full picture of her heart condition. She explained:

“He handled the conversation very positively. For John, my heart disease is not a blot on my future. Instead, he treats it as part of my life that has shaped the woman that I am today. And, we help each other by cooking and eating right.”

Karla has become a true expert in cooking and eating right, by the way.  Since her hospitalization in 2007, she has lost over 100 pounds as part of her heart-healthy lifestyle makeover.   Continue reading “Are you the quarterback of your own heart health team?” →

Eggs: good or bad for your heart?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 5 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥  @HeartSisters

“I cannot lay an egg, but I am a good judge of omelettes.”

George Bernard Shaw

Eggs were once vilified for their high cholesterol content and were thought to be a major contributor to heart disease.

According to Harvard University’s Harvard Heart Letter, however, it is not the cholesterol in eggs or other food that’s a major culprit. It’s saturated and trans fats (which our bodies may convert to artery-clogging cholesterol). Here’s how Harvard cardiologists unscramble the dietary facts and myths about the egg.

Fact: Eggs are a good source of nutrients. One egg contains six grams of protein and some healthful unsaturated fats. Eggs are also a good source of choline, which has been linked with preserving memory, and lutein and zeaxanthin, which may protect against vision loss.

Myth: Eating eggs is bad for your heart. The only large study to look at the impact on heart disease of eating up to six eggs per week (reported in the April 2008 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition) found no connection between the two. In people with diabetes, though, egg-a-day eaters were slightly more likely to have developed heart disease than diabetics who rarely ate eggs.  (Ed. note: Quelle surprise . . . this study was done on men only). UPDATE January 2015: A new study (Katz et al) on egg consumption in heart patients also found no significant link between eating eggs and heart disease; Quelle surprise . . . study was funded by the American Egg Board (a minor improvement: this study included six women!) Continue reading “Eggs: good or bad for your heart?” →

How does your province rank among heart-healthy Canadians?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

 

Well, since February is Heart Month, I was pretty darned chuffed to read that my own westernmost province of British Columbia has placed first overall in the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s annual Canadian report card this year. We were also first in the Smoke Free and Healthy Weight categories. We took second place in Physical Activity  just behind those rugged fitness freaks of the Yukon, and we tied for second with Alberta in the Fruit & Veggie Consumption category (the Quebecois ranked first here, despite that poutine et tarte au sucre stereotype!)  

And who fared worse?  Alas, the 30,000+ citizens of Nunavut, Canada’s largest territory high in the Arctic, were 13th overall out of 13 combined health behaviours, including 13th in Smoke-Free, Physical Activity and Fruits & Veggies.   This is a very serious concern for health care professionals, and here’s why:

The Heart and Stroke Foundation warns that this report card is a “perfect storm” of heart disease looming on our horizon, not only for Nunavut but for all Canadians.

“In a very short time, the face of heart disease in Canada has changed to include groups that have historically been immune to the threats of heart disease,” says Dr. Beth Abramson, cardiologist and spokesperson for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. “But the combination of new groups at-risk of heart disease and the explosion of unhealthy habits across Canada have accelerated the impact of these threats which are now converging and erasing the progress we’ve made in treating heart disease over the last 50 years.”   Continue reading “How does your province rank among heart-healthy Canadians?” →