How much do you know about heart attacks? Take this quiz

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

True or false? Nausea is a symptom of a heart attack. A heart attack doesn’t start doing damage until a few hours after the onset of symptoms. Men tend to do worse after a heart attack than women.

How much do you really know about heart attacks?

Test your own heart smarts by visiting the excellent website of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’s new heart attack awareness campaign called Make the Call: Don’t Miss A Beat. And then take this quiz and see how you do.

UPDATE: Sadly, this quiz is no longer available on the USDHHS site.

February is Heart Month!

Find out more about women’s #1 killer at The Heart Truth.

Melissa Mia Hall, who couldn’t afford health insurance, dies of heart attack

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 15 Comments
by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Melissa Mia Hall, 1954-2011

Melissa Mia Hall’s book-reviewing dog, Daisy

Texas author, artist and book industry journalist Melissa Mia Hall once wrote: “When I need help writing book reviews, my dog Daisy is always eager to lend a paw.” After trying to lift Daisy recently, Melissa felt an odd pain in her chest. She told her editor at Publishers Weekly that she had pulled a muscle. She later emailed a friend:

“Right now really hurting. Hurt my chest/back last night lifting Daisy wrong.  She’s too heavy and I pulled a muscle, I guess. I thought at first I was having a heart attack it was so awful. Tonight I’m really hurting still. Ibuprofen’s not helping much. Using heating pad. It’s been a long painful day and hard to concentrate on much. Why now?  Sigh… xoxo” Continue reading “Melissa Mia Hall, who couldn’t afford health insurance, dies of heart attack” →

The myth of the “Hollywood Heart Attack” for women

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments
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Of course you know what a heart attack looks like:
  • The victim stops what they’re doing.
  • Their eyes open wide.
  • They clutch their chest, make some funny noises, and then they collapse to the floor. Right?

Wrong. (Don’t believe everything you see on TV!)  That scenario describes sudden cardiac arrest, not heart attack. The two are not the same thing at all. The heart attack awareness campaign called “Make The Call – Don’t Miss a Beat” tells us how symptoms of the classic  “Hollywood Heart Attack” can differ from the actual reality for most women.   Continue reading “The myth of the “Hollywood Heart Attack” for women” →

‘Heart Sisters’ featured in More magazine’s February issue

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥   @HeartSisters

I’m thrilled to celebrate having Heart Sisters featured in the February issue of More magazine (“Canada’s Magazine Celebrating Women Over 40”). It’s included in a Body+Mind piece called Health Bloggers You’ll Love – highlighting four Canadian women who have launched health-related blogs “not only to better themselves, but also to inspire others along the way”. Writer Sydney Loney interviewed me a few months ago for this profile – it’s great to see the magazine finally in the newsstand!  Here’s what she had to say:   Continue reading “‘Heart Sisters’ featured in More magazine’s February issue” →