Why your heart needs work – not rest! – after a heart attack

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters

After surviving a heart attack, I couldn’t wait to start my 3-month cardiac rehabilitation program so I would just start feeling “normal” again. But when I showed up for my first assessment, I was disappointed by the cardiac nurse’s recommendation that, because of ongoing issues, I should wait two months until I felt much stronger before starting. A Canadian study from the University of Alberta now suggests, however, that earlier might just be better for many.

For best results in most clinically stable patients after a heart attack, these new findings suggest that early exercise as well as prolonged exercise may well be the key to the best post-heart attack outcomes.  Continue reading “Why your heart needs work – not rest! – after a heart attack” →

Ranking the prestige of diseases: guess what’s #1?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

In a compelling article called Are Some Diseases More Prestigious Than Others? the always-interesting medical historian Dr. Jan Henderson ran an overview ranking the prestige of a number of medical diseases. And WOOOO HOOOO, my heart sisters!  We won! Those of us who have survived a myocardial infarction (heart attack) are right up there at the top. Studies from Norway report that the more highly ranked medical specialties and diseases all involve vital organs, and, let’s face it – what organ is more vital than our hearts?

So why don’t I feel even a tiny bit better about “beating out” 37 other important diagnoses? On this, my 300th posting here on Heart Sisters, let’s check out what Dr. Jan had to say about this Norwegian research: Continue reading “Ranking the prestige of diseases: guess what’s #1?” →

Are you a ‘health seeker’ or a ‘disease seeker’?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

I recently wrote about a woman who has few if any cardiac symptoms, no definitive test results, and very little if any reason to believe she might have a heart condition. Yet she is so utterly convinced of her extreme risk for having a heart attack that she actually describes feeling like a “ticking time bomb”.

Her conviction may have something to do with the increasing media coverage of atypical signs of heart disease in women (= a good thing).  Or it may have something to do with the possibility that she is “catastrophizing” by looking to snag an attention-getting heart disease diagnosis (= a bad thing).

I’ve recently subscribed to medical historian Dr. Jan Henderson‘s fascinating blog called The Health Culture, and that’s where I was once again reminded of a book that may actually help to inform this woman’s case. Continue reading “Are you a ‘health seeker’ or a ‘disease seeker’?” →

Do you think too much? How ruminating hurts your heart

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Before my heart attack, I was a champion ruminator. Give me an ugly little problem to worry about, and I’d thrash it to death before finally flinging it aside in a fit of exhaustion, usually after some sleepless nights, a few extra grey hairs, and incalculable damage to my poor coronary arteries.

The late Yale University professor Dr. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema’s research(1) has revealed some interesting facts about ruminating:

“When people ruminate about problems, they remember more negative things that have happened to them in the past, they interpret situations in their current lives more negatively, and they are more hopeless about the future.”

Research also links the habit of rumination with dangerously high levels of the body’s artery-damaging stress hormones like cortisol.      .       .
 Continue reading “Do you think too much? How ruminating hurts your heart” →