Heart attack – or an attack of heartburn?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 31 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

I was sent home from the Emergency Room with a misdiagnosis of heartburn (despite presenting with textbook heart attack symptoms like chest pain, sweating, nausea and pain radiating down my left arm). This was just two weeks before finally being hospitalized with a newly revised diagnosis of  “significant heart disease” and myocardial infarction (heart attack) caused by a fully occluded left anterior descending coronary artery – the so-called “widowmaker” heart attack.

Heartburn has nothing to do with your heart; it’s a digestive problem. Acidic liquid from your stomach can back up into your esophagus where it inflames the lining. But symptoms can appear confusingly similar.

How to tell if you’re having a heart attack or just an attack of simple heartburn?

Here’s how heartburn may be markedly different from a cardiac event:

keep reading…

Women & heart disease: is obesity contagious?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

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by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Having a tough time losing weight as part of your heart-healthy lifestyle? Take a look at your friends.

Close friends can influence your weight even more than genes or your family members, say researchers reporting in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study, co-authored by longtime collaborators Dr. Nicholas Christakis and Dr. James Fowler suggests that obesity isn’t just spreading – it may be as contagious between close friends as the common cold.

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Are you a priority in your own life?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 23 Comments

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by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Five months after surviving a misdiagnosed “widow maker” heart attack, I attended the WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium for Women With Heart Disease at Mayo Clinic.  Cardiologist Dr. Sharonne Hayes (founder of the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic) told us about a study on women’s life priorities called Hierarchy of Female Concerns that asked its female participants this one question:

“What is most important to you?”

Now, when I do presentations about women’s heart health, I like to ask my audiences to guess in advance the correct order of this study’s top six answers, just for fun.

These rankings are surprising, in an amusing-yet-oddly-pathetic way.  The order of our reported priorities may also help to explain why, even when women are experiencing dangerous cardiac symptoms, they are significantly more likely than our male counterparts to delay seeking treatment if something ‘more important’ crops up.

‘More important?‘ What could possibly be more important when you’re having a heart attack? Check out the terrific 3-minute Elizabeth Banks film “Just a Little Heart Attack” for a brilliant example of this classic  treatment-seeking delay behaviour.

And then see if this list of women’s reported priorities matches the answers that you might give, too: keep reading…

‘Time equals muscle’ during women’s heart attacks

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

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by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

Here’s why it’s so important to call for an ambulance immediately if you think you might be having a heart attack. A heart attack (or myocardial infarction) is the death of heart muscle from the sudden blockage of a coronary artery.

This blockage deprives your heart muscle – or myocardium – of blood and oxygen. If blood flow is not restored to your heart muscle within 20-40 minutes, irreversible death of the muscle will begin to occur. Muscle continues to die for 6-8 hours, at which time your heart attack will be described as ‘complete’.  Depending on how much heart muscle is damaged, disability or death can result.

But if you actually do live through this, your dead heart muscle will eventually be replaced by scar tissue. So as you can imagine, every minute counts.

Time equals muscle.   click to continue reading …