Tag: health

Do low iron stores protect women from heart attacks?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Women are somewhat protected from developing heart disease – until we hit menopause, that is.

Many cardiologists believe that the hormone estrogen is women’s secret cardioprotective weapon, until our production of estrogen tapers off and our heart attack rates rise dramatically at menopause to surpass men’s rates. That’s an increasingly  controversial theory, however.

Researchers from Finland, for example, now question this estrogen theory in light of a remarkable study that appears to link iron depletion with protection of heart health. This hypothesis has actually been kicked around by scientists since 1981, when they first observed that the lower rate of heart attacks in menstruating women was associated with relatively low levels of stored iron.   click to continue reading

Are you a priority in your own life?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 23 Comments

red shoes collage

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Five months after surviving a misdiagnosed “widow maker” heart attack, I attended the WomenHeart Science & Leadership Symposium for Women With Heart Disease at Mayo Clinic.  Cardiologist Dr. Sharonne Hayes (founder of the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic) told us about a study on women’s life priorities called Hierarchy of Female Concerns that asked its female participants this one question:

“What is most important to you?”

Now, when I do presentations about women’s heart health, I like to ask my audiences to guess in advance the correct order of this study’s top six answers, just for fun.

These rankings are surprising, in an amusing-yet-oddly-pathetic way.  The order of our reported priorities may also help to explain why, even when women are experiencing dangerous cardiac symptoms, they are significantly more likely than our male counterparts to delay seeking treatment if something ‘more important’ crops up.

‘More important?‘ What could possibly be more important when you’re having a heart attack? Check out the terrific 3-minute Elizabeth Banks film “Just a Little Heart Attack” for a brilliant example of this classic  treatment-seeking delay behaviour.

And then see if this list of women’s reported priorities matches the answers that you might give, too: keep reading…

Women fatally unaware of heart attack symptoms

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 6 Comments

woman dixie thinking

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

“Women spend more time thinking about their weight than they do about their hearts.”

Honey, if you experience a sudden upset stomach, crushing fatigue and shortness of breath, put down your phone. You could be having a heart attack.

Barely one third of Canadian women are aware that pain in the chest, arm, neck, jaw or back are not always the most common symptoms for a woman suffering a heart attack – the #1 killer of women in Canada.

In fact, 43% of women report unusual fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting during a cardiac event – but NOT chest pain.(1)

A 2008 Canadian study of women over 40 called the LIPSTICK Survey reported that women spend more time thinking about their weight than they do about their hearts. Only 10% of women surveyed knew their personal LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol levels, versus the 64% of women who know how much they weighed in high school.  Continue reading “Women fatally unaware of heart attack symptoms” →

The ‘bikini approach’ to women’s health research

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas

We know that, until very recently, cardiac research for the past three decades has been done either exclusively on men, or with women represented in statistically insignificant numbers. Medical researchers have largely taken a ‘bikini approach’ to women’s health care – in which women’s health research focuses on breasts and the reproductive system.

In a recent WomenHeart interview, Mayo Clinic cardiologist Dr. Sharonne Hayes, founder of the Mayo Women’s Heart Clinic in Rochester, MN, explains:

“In the 1960s, erroneous assertions that heart disease was a man’s disease were widely spread to the medical community and to the public.  This led to research almost exclusively focused on cardiovascular disease in men.  Many clinical trials in the 70s and 80s excluded women or simply didn’t make an effort to enroll women in sufficient numbers to draw sex-based conclusions.” Continue reading “The ‘bikini approach’ to women’s health research” →