“God punishes bad children!” – or, why you have heart disease

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 12 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

When I was a little girl growing up in a rabidly catholic family of seven, my mother had a standard response to anything bad that happened to her children (like even just stubbing a toe on the coffee table leg as we skipped across the living room floor):

“See? God punishes bad children!”

Under her tutelage, my siblings and I learned a couple of important life lessons:

1.  that we were basically bad children (this fits right in with the catholic church’s doctrine of original sin, so likely made perfect sense to us at the time), and

2. that God must be very, very busy keeping track of every opportunity to personally administer the punishment that my sibs and I so richly deserved.

When children like us grow up and get diagnosed with, oh, let’s say –  heart disease, it’s proof positive that we’re just getting what we had coming.   Continue reading ““God punishes bad children!” – or, why you have heart disease” →

Marriage triples our bypass surgery survival rates – but only if it’s happy

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

While the recent headlines about this new cardiac study suggest that a happy marriage can triple (and even quadruple!) your longterm survival chances after heart bypass surgery, there’s more behind this story than the wedded bliss angle.

Researchers from the University of Rochester tell us that happily married people who undergo coronary bypass surgery are three times more likely to be alive 15 years later compared to their unmarried counterparts. For happily married women, those odds can actually jump to four times higher.

But buried in the good news hype is another important fact: that for women who do not rate their marriage as happy, survival stats are virtually identical to those for unmarried women.  Continue reading “Marriage triples our bypass surgery survival rates – but only if it’s happy” →

Why are so many patients dissatisfied with their doctors?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

If you sometimes feel like you don’t get enough respect from your physician, you may not be alone. In fact, two new global studies* from 23 countries show that two-thirds of patients around the world feel disrespected by their physicians – no matter which country they call home. For example, about one-quarter of patients surveyed complained that their physicians don’t answer questions, don’t involve them in treatment decisions, and use medical jargon with no explanation.

This appears to be a direct outcome of doctors not spending enough time with patients (44%).  About a third of patients also believe doctors show disrespect by not being punctual for appointments.  Continue reading “Why are so many patients dissatisfied with their doctors?” →

Heart disease = most costly condition for women

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 1 Comment

by Carolyn Thomas

The cost of treating women for heart disease leads a list of the top 10 most expensive conditions for women, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The analysis by this American agency reveals that the top 10 most costly conditions in terms of health care expenditures for women were:

  • heart disease (over $43.6 billion)
  • cancer
  • mental disorders
  • trauma-related disorders
  • osteoarthritis
  • chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma
  • hypertension (high blood pressure)
  • Diabetes
  • back problems
  • hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol levels)

The first few thoughts that hit me while reading this list were:  Continue reading “Heart disease = most costly condition for women” →