by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
When I was at my WomenHeart Science & Leadership training at Mayo Clinic, we watched a short film about women and heart disease. A 40-something woman onscreen told the interviewer that ever since her heart attack had happened, she was afraid to go to sleep every night, because now she wasn’t sure that she would ever wake up.
I began to weep when I heard her say this.
Continue reading “Not just for soldiers anymore: PTSD in heart patients”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
For the past two years, the Cleveland Clinic has refused to hire smokers. This non-profit American research and treatment health centre (consistently rated as the #1 heart institute in North America) introduced this groundbreaking no-smoking hiring initiative as a way to walk the talk about the health and wellness of not only the 50,000 patients admitted each year, but of its 1,800 employees.
But now the head of the Cleveland Clinic says he wants to take this bold hiring policy one step further – and some are saying this would be going too far. Dr. Delos (Toby) Cosgrove, the heart surgeon who is the Clinic’s CEO, told the New York Times that if it were up to him, he would not only stop hiring smokers. He would also stop hiring overweight people. Continue reading “Cardiologist’s plan: “Fat people need not apply for jobs at Cleveland Clinic””
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
These days, whenever I tell my audiences about the hours leading up to my hospitalization for a heart attack last year, I ask them to guess what I would have done had those horrific cardiac symptoms been happening to my daughter (or my next-door neighbour, or even a perfect stranger) during that endless cross-country flight back home to the West Coast. Would I have patted her grim, sweaty face and whispered:
“Just try to hang on, honey. We’ll be home in nine hours…”
.
No, my Heart Sisters, I would have been screaming bloody murder for the Air Canada crew to get help immediately, even if it meant turning the damned plane around. But since these attacks were happening to me, and not to somebody else, I chose instead the unwise and potentially fatal option of just slinking down in my seat, very still, hour after hour, trying not to die. Continue reading “Could ‘goodism’ and self-sacrifice be linked to women’s heart disease outcomes?”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Here’s a quick way to start eating in a more heart-healthy way literally overnight: do a pantry makeover. Start by getting rid of every food item in your kitchen that has either of these two characteristics: too little nutritional value (fibre, vitamins, minerals, protein) or too much fat, sodium or sugar. This includes all junk food of course, but also almost all processed foods in your pantry.
When I first got home from hospital after my heart attack, for example, I became an obsessive grocery label reader. I couldn’t believe the sodium content in a can of refried beans! That stuff will kill you.
If you put unhealthy food in your grocery cart, you’ll eat it. If you don’t, you won’t. Very simple.
When you go shopping, bring a list. Don’t shop on an empty stomach. Choose most foods from around the perimeter of the grocery store, where the healthiest food tends to be located. And most important – read those labels. But meanwhile, if you’re feeling ruthless, start tossing out anything in your pantry right now that fits those two criteria – and then let’s look at re-stocking basic heart-healthy pantry must-haves:
Continue reading “De-junk your kitchen to start heart-smart eating”
Heart Sisters 