Tag: Laura Haywood-Cory

Note to self: tell med students about women’s unique cardiac risk factors!

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

There’s an old saying about public speaking that I like: every planned presentation actually consists of three different talks:

  • 1. the talk we plan to give
  • 2. the one we actually give
  • 3. the perfect one we give in the car on the way home

That’s how I felt as soon as I ended my recent one-hour Zoom session about women and heart disease for New York medical school students. It was only after our recorded session ended that it hit me: “Oh, no!  I didn’t mention pregnancy complications!”    

This is a known cardiac risk factor that’s unique to women – and in my case, was likely the culprit behind my own heart attack.       .    Continue reading “Note to self: tell med students about women’s unique cardiac risk factors!” →

Women’s heart attacks (still!) more likely misdiagnosed than men’s

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 35 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥   @HeartSisters   

My interest in women’s misdiagnosed heart attacks began after my own misdiagnosed heart attack. Despite textbook cardiac symptoms of central chest pain, nausea, profuse sweating and pain down my left arm, I was confidently told: “You’re in the right demographic for acid reflux!” – and sent home from the Emergency Department. 

I know that, had I been appropriately diagnosed and treated on that fateful day, I’d have little interest in this topic. But I wasn’t. So I do.     .         .    Continue reading “Women’s heart attacks (still!) more likely misdiagnosed than men’s” →

Cardiac research and the mystery of the missing facts

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Over the years, I’ve had to teach myself the bare bone basics of interpreting cardiac studies. I’m certainly no research scientist (although I did spend 20 years of my life with one – does that count at all?) but I can tell you that one good place I like to start is the methodology section of any study.

Wait!  Don’t leave yet!   I know, I know, this may seem crushingly dull. But the methods info is how I learned, for example, that out of over 5,000 participants recruited for the $100 million ISCHEMIA study in 2019, only 23 per cent were women. At the time, I offered a helpful editing suggestion to the Washington Post about their sensational coverage of ISCHEMIA (“Stents and Bypass Surgery are No More Effective Than Drugs!!” ) by requesting this important clarifier added to the end of that headline: “FOR MEN!”       .        .     Continue reading “Cardiac research and the mystery of the missing facts” →

When a red dress just isn’t enough to raise awareness

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

“A decade of lost ground“  is how the official commentary from the American Heart Association bluntly described the stunningly awful results of its own 2019 National Survey on women’s heart disease awareness reported last month. I wrote about my own stunned reaction to this survey in Women’s Heart Disease: an Awareness Campaign Fail?

The results were astonishing.  They suggested that women not only had a low awareness of even the most basic facts about heart disease – the #1 killer of women worldwide – but awareness levels were significantly lower than an AHA awareness survey had found 10 years earlier.    .        .    .    .   Continue reading “When a red dress just isn’t enough to raise awareness” →