Four questions about heart disease you’ve always wanted to ask

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 4 Comments

Dr. Marvin Lipman and the editors of Consumer Reports on Health have come out with a useful little book called The Best of Health: 275 Questions You’ve Always Wanted To Ask Your Doctor.

Let’s take a look at their Q&A page about cardiovascular disorders.

Q:  Are my heart palpitations a sign of heart disease?

 A:  “Palpitations” is a non-medical term for any heart rhythm that feels abnormal. This can include extra beats, dropped beats, forceful beats, rapid beats, or irregular beats.  For proper diagnosis, the abnormality must first be captured on an EKG test or on a 24-hour heartbeat recording called a Holter monitor. Heart palpitations can be caused by:

  • emotional stress
  • an overactive thyroid
  • certain medications
  • diseases of the coronary arteries, heart muscle, or heart valves

Sometimes there is no detectable cause. First, try eliminating a few things on your own: caffeine (coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, soda), nasal decongestants, appetite suppressants – and see if that makes a difference.  Continue reading “Four questions about heart disease you’ve always wanted to ask” →

Chicken nuggets: tasty treat, cardiac nightmare

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

Here’s a news flash for you.  Those deep-fried chicken nuggets your kids love have “minimal nutritional value”, according to a new investigation by Consumer Reports Health.  UK chef and food activist Jamie Oliver justifiably calls these chicken nuggets “fake food” – a creepy concoction of mechanically processed carcass, chicken skin and bread crumbs. Watch Jamie explain to a group of school children just what’s inside chicken nuggets in this must-see two-minute video.

Whether purchased in frozen packages at the grocery store or hot from fast food chains like McDonald’s, chicken nuggets pack a wallop of coronary artery-damaging fat and sodium, Consumer Reports Health says in a news release about their study.  And the brand of nuggets that ranked lowest in fat and sodium ( ‘Health is Wealth’) rated dead last in taste.

What’s more, many brands make claims that are misleading, using terms like “whole grain,” “all natural,” or “organic” –  a trick that makes some people think of the little chicken bites as healthy dinner choices, the report says.   Continue reading “Chicken nuggets: tasty treat, cardiac nightmare” →

Does getting older mean getting happier?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

It is inevitable. The muscles weaken. Hearing and vision fade. We get wrinkled and stooped. We can’t run, or even walk, as fast as we used to. We have aches and pains in parts of our bodies we never even noticed before.  We develop chronic, progressive illnesses like heart disease.  We get old.

It sounds miserable, but apparently it is not. According to the New York Times, a large U.S. survey of over 340,000 people aged 18-85 has found that by almost any measure, people get happier as they get older, and researchers are not sure why.

The Times reported that in the study’s global measure of well-being, people start out at age 18 feeling pretty good about themselves.  But then, apparently, life begins to throw curve balls. They feel worse and worse until they hit 50. At that point, there is a sharp reversal, and people keep getting happier as they age. By the time they are 85, they are even more satisfied with themselves than they were at 18.  Continue reading “Does getting older mean getting happier?” →

14 reasons to be glad you’re a man when you’re having a heart attack

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 19 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters  ♥ Updated May 1, 2022

I just finished reading a truly weird rant on another website, written by a man decrying the “sexism” of society because all of our male doctors are now focused only on women’s heart disease – while apparently ignoring men completely.  It turns out he’s not alone in his misinformation: see also Women’s Heart Health: Why it’s NOT a Zero Sum Game.

It would surely be the fantasy dream of every female heart attack survivor if this man were actually correct about all that attention women’s heart disease is allegedly attracting.  The frightening reality instead is that since 1984, the differences between men and women’s cardiac diagnoses, treatments and outcomes has continued to grow.

In the interests of enlightening the unconscious among us about All Things Cardiac, I am happy to point out an assortment of gender differences if you find yourself having a heart attack:  Continue reading “14 reasons to be glad you’re a man when you’re having a heart attack” →