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
I’ve been ruminating (something that female heart patients apparently tend to do when feeling depressed) about the writing of Dr. Martin Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of the excellent book, Learned Optimism. He writes:
“Optimism is not about ignoring what’s real, but becoming aware of your thoughts about why things happen.”
What’s really at the heart of optimism, Dr. Seligman adds, is how you explain negative experiences to yourself. When something bad happens to a pessimist, she’s likely to get into a sort of dark and hopeless mental muttering that has her thinking things like:
“Why me? Ain’t it awful? It’s permanent and everything is ruined and it’s all their fault.” Continue reading “Even heart patients can learn to be optimists”
.by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Women suffering from depression have higher risks of developing heart disease, and women with heart disease have higher risks of becoming depressed. I find this reality a bit depressing…
I was stunned to find myself in that latter group within weeks of my own heart attack. With no personal experience of depression, I knew something was terribly wrong with me, but I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what that might be. I had just survived a massive heart attack – shouldn’t I be feeling fabulous and grateful? Continue reading “Depressing news about depression and women’s heart disease”
by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
Did you know that men who are married – happily or not – are generally far healthier than their unmarried buddies? A man’s physical health apparently benefits simply from the state of being married, whether or not he rates it as a good marriage.
But a woman’s overall health can be significantly threatened by trouble at home, according to researchers at the University of Utah.(1) Women respond to unhappy marriages by being three times more likely to develop metabolic syndrome – a cluster of serious cardiac risk factors that can lead to heart disease. click here to continue reading
Heart Sisters 