Cardiac care: more good news for young, healthy white men

May 19, 2024May 19, 2024 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 10 Comments

Being misdiagnosed with acid reflux and sent home from Emergency in mid-heart attack was when I learned that certain heart patients will be appropriately cared for, while other patients will not. I’ve been writing and speaking about what polite academics call under-served heart patient populations ever since since my own “widow maker” heart attack in 2008. And now a new international Commission has formed to “address the persistent disparities in cardiovascular health.”

What the term “persistent disparities” specifically means is that the quality of care you’ll receive during your cardiac event varies depending on your age, your skin colour, your mental health and whether you’re a man or a woman.
Continue reading “Cardiac care: more good news for young, healthy white men” →

Heart Month awareness: doing the same thing, yet expecting different results

February 27, 2022February 7, 2023 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 33 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

February is our shortest month of the year and also the month officially acknowledged almost everywhere as Heart Health Awareness Month. Then we all turn the calendar page and glide over to March, the official month of Liver Health Awareness, Disability Awareness, Ovarian Cancer Awareness, Red Cross Awareness worldwide – and many other causes. My niggling question remains: do these assorted official days/weeks/months of awareness-raising actually help to raise awareness out there? Continue reading “Heart Month awareness: doing the same thing, yet expecting different results” →

The weirdest stuff I’ve learned about women’s heart disease

February 7, 2021November 22, 2022 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 18 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

You know it’s Heart Month when scary facts about the dangers of heart disease start flooding our screens. But that kind of Heart Month messaging is so pre-COVID – and before we learned the shocking results of the American Heart Association’s national survey. This survey found that women’s awareness of heart disease has actually declined over the past decade – NOT improved at all! despite all the inspiring Red Dress-awareness-raising-Go-Red-for-Women campaign efforts out there.

So instead of repeating more scary statistics as if I hadn’t read that survey’s results, I’m once again simply offering some weird stuff I’ve learned over the years about women and heart disease: . . Continue reading “The weirdest stuff I’ve learned about women’s heart disease” →

The Martha and Carolyn Show!

January 22, 2017June 22, 2018 ~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 20 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters

Dr. Martha Gulati is an internationally recognized expert on women’s heart disease. She’s Professor of Medicine and Chief of Cardiology at The University of Arizona in Phoenix, where she is creating a centre specifically for Women’s Cardiovascular Health. The best-selling co-author with Sherry Torkos of the book, Saving Women’s Hearts, Dr. Martha is also the Editor-in-Chief of the American College of Cardiology’s CardioSmart, a Scientific Advisory Board member of WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, and a board member of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology, the Phoenix American Heart Association and other notable organizations.