Tag: Framingham Heart Study

Cardiac research: more fun facts

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Do you have a book in your life that you keep opening just for the pure delight of reading it again? I am that obsessed with the book called The Exquisite Machine:  The New Science of the Heart, published by MIT Press. In fact, I keep this book beside my favourite red chair so it’s always handy for re-reading random chapters. I’ve been doing this ever since veteran cardiac researcher Dr. Sian Harding wrote the book in 2022, and I can also say I haven’t felt this way about other books I love.  So I can’t resist sharing with you some fun facts about our hearts and the research I’ve learned about from Dr. Harding’s work:    . Continue reading “Cardiac research: more fun facts” →

The myth of the menopause link

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

Image via RSCby Carolyn Thomas

We know that women’s heart disease rates seem to take a big jump as we get older. For decades, early studies have reported, for example, that our post-menopausal cardiac event incidence rates are more than double those in pre-menopausal years.* And even more recent studies seem to target menopause as the likely culprit in explaining these stats; women who go into early menopause (before their 46th birthday) are twice as likely to suffer from coronary heart disease and stroke, according to Johns Hopkins-led research published in the October issue of the journal Menopause.**

So imagine the fuss when Vancouver’s Dr. Jerilynn Prior, a professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of British Columbia and also scientific director of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research, declared:

“It is a myth that estrogen deficiency associated with menopause causes heart disease in women.”

Here’s how she further elaborated this claim in an article about women’s risks for cardiovascular disease:   Continue reading “The myth of the menopause link” →