How a woman’s heart is different from a man’s

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 16 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥  @HeartSisters

In many ways, the fact that my cardiac treadmill stress test results appeared “normal” was not a surprise, despite my textbook heart attack symptoms of crushing chest pain, nausea, sweating and pain radiating down my left arm. What we now know is that single-vessel heart disease, which is more common in women than in men, may be less likely to be picked up at all on a treadmill test.

Even though my left anterior descending coronary artery was 95% blocked, this didn’t show up. Similarly, for other women non-obstructive heart disease (again, more common in women) is harder to identify given our existing diagnostics. Women are more likely to suffer from coronary microvascular disease affecting the smallest blood vessels of the heart. And spasm conditions like Prinzmetal’s variant angina are difficult to catch at the best of times, but women can be just as dead after a heart attack caused by undiagnosed Prinzmetal’s as they would be due to fully-occluded coronary arteries.   Continue reading “How a woman’s heart is different from a man’s” →

Disregard that internet chain letter about “Cough CPR”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 10 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Since my heart attack, my friends and family like to forward me every heart-related email going around, usually with the subject line: “Have you seen this one yet?!?!” A particularly persistent one that just won’t go away is entitled “How to Survive a Heart Attack when Alone.” Have you seen this one yet? It recommends that people who think they are having a heart attack should start coughing, long, deeply and frequently. The email claims that coughing will improve blood circulation to the heart, keeping you alive until emergency services arrive. 

Does this work?  

In a word: NO!  Here’s why:

Continue reading “Disregard that internet chain letter about “Cough CPR”” →

Vegetarian-friendly religions

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 10 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas 

The well-known Mediterranean Diet recommended for optimal heart health calls for eating very little meat. Here in Canada, although our meat consumption is steadily decreasing according to Statistics Canada, we still average about 23.4 kilograms (about 52 pounds) of red meat per person per year. That puts us well behind the United States, Hungary, and Australia in total meat consumption.

But if you break it down into types of meat, people in Denmark eat more pork than anybody else in the world, Hong Kong leads chicken consumption, and, to nobody’s surprise, the Argentinians eat more beef.

So a heart-smart vegetarian in Buenos Aires might feel quite outnumbered, but elsewhere on earth would be among the majority.  An Apple A Day recently took a unique look at international vegetarianism and came up with some widespread religion-based connections.  Continue reading “Vegetarian-friendly religions” →

Top 10 Tips on How To Treat Patients – my guest post on ‘Better Health’

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

This Heart Sisters original article was reprinted today as a guest post on the website BETTER HEALTH

 

hospital

An open letter to all hospital employees,

After a particularly bizarre experience undergoing a treadmill stress echocardiogram at your hospital recently, I decided to do something that I have never done before. I called the Cardiology Department manager to complain about her staff. Incidentally, a recent survey of international tourists found that Canadians were #1 in only one category:

“Least likely to complain when things go wrong”

So you can appreciate that lodging an official complaint is a fairly Big Deal up here!
 Continue reading “Top 10 Tips on How To Treat Patients – my guest post on ‘Better Health’” →