Tag: Dr. Graeme Smith

The sad reality of women’s heart disease hits home

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

I’m nicely settled back home now after a few days across the pond in beautiful Vancouver, where I was covering the 64th Annual Canadian Cardiovascular Congress there for Heart Sisters readers.

My favourite things about this trip: the weather, walking the Vancouver sea wall, the mountains, the divine heart-smart food, the fabulously helpful Heart and Stroke Foundation staff at the Media Centre, and the fact that I somehow managed to p-a-c-e myself most days while trying to take care of my heart.

My least favourite thing: out of over 700 scientific papers presented at this conference, I could count on one hand those that focused even remotely on women’s heart disease. My question is: why? Continue reading “The sad reality of women’s heart disease hits home” →

Pregnancy complications strongly linked to heart disease

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments
My pre-eclampsia baby Ben with his Mum

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

When I was about eight months pregnant with Ben, my first baby, I was diagnosed with something called preeclampsia. This is a serious condition affecting about 5% of pregnant women, identified by symptoms like sudden spikes in blood pressure, protein in the urine, severe swelling, and headaches or vision problems. It’s also women’s third leading pregnancy-related cause of death. Preeclampsia is clinically described as:

“…a disorder of widespread vascular endothelial malfunction and vasospasm that occurs after 20 weeks’ gestation”.

Whenever you see the words “vascular” or “endothelial” or “vasospasm” in the same sentence, you know you’re likely talking about the heart. And although preeclampsia typically goes away after pregnancy, its diagnosis may well be an early indicator of underlying heart conditions that may simmer for decades. In fact, studies now show that pregnant women who develop preeclampsia have more than twice the risk of having a heart attack or stroke later in life.

And that is what happened to me.   Continue reading “Pregnancy complications strongly linked to heart disease” →

Heart attack: did you bring this on yourself?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 11 Comments

food junk

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

In the early hours, days and weeks following my heart attack, many conversations with family and friends started the same way: “How could this have happened to YOU?” – followed by an expectant pause during which I was supposed to explain myself.  If only I’d been a chain-smoker, or had been living with diabetes, or hadn’t been a distance runner for almost 20 years.   It would have somehow seemed more comforting to them, because it might mean that my heart disease was self-inflicted, that something like this could never touch them.  Continue reading “Heart attack: did you bring this on yourself?” →