Tag: ejection fraction

Two years spent connected to her “heart lifeline”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 2 Comments

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Monica McFarlan was a runner, a mother of two young boys, and a very healthy 37-year-old woman when she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, associated with viral cardiomyopathy in January 2011.

For the next 3½ months, Monica was in and out of the hospital 11 times for over 45 days. By April, she and her family were told that she needed a heart transplant, and she was put on the transplant waiting list. But because her antibodies were elevated, she had to be taken off the transplant list because of the high risk that her body would reject any donor heart that was given to her. Continue reading “Two years spent connected to her “heart lifeline”” →

What prevents heart disease “better than any drug”?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 8 Comments

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by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

It doesn’t come in a pill bottle, nor is it supported by multi-million dollar marketing campaigns. It’s affordable, and often even completely free. It has few if any harmful side effects. It’s appropriate for both young and old alike. And just like the fistful of  cardiac medications I now take every day since my own heart attack, I keep careful track of it (as evidenced by the stickers on my exercise calendar). It is exercise.

And it helps to prevent heart disease “better than any drug”, says Mario Mitkov of the University of California at Davis.   Continue reading “What prevents heart disease “better than any drug”?” →