Tag: treatment-seeking delay behaviour

How many heart patients get to the hospital by ambulance?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 9 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ❤️   Heart Sisters (on Blue Sky)

In 2010, Australia’s National Heart Foundation launched what they called a “hard-hitting” Heart Attack Warning Signs awareness campaign. Physicians and cardiac researchers were concerned that too many Australians did not know the common warning signs of a heart attack. They hoped that such an awareness campaign would encourage high-risk patients to quickly call an ambulance if they were having cardiac symptoms. Their Warning Signs campaign explained why this is so critically important: 
Continue reading “How many heart patients get to the hospital by ambulance?” →

What I wish I knew back then: “6 reasons women delay seeking help during a heart attack”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 3 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

It turns out that women like me are far more likely than men to delay seeking urgent treatment despite clear signs of a heart attack. This is a dangerously common decision pattern that contributes to the higher mortality rate among women like me. Researchers even have a name for it: treatment-seeking delay behaviour.

“What I Wish I Knew Back Then”  is a back-to-basics summer series of posts here on Heart Sisters revisiting some of the most frequently asked questions from new heart patients. Today, Part 3 continues with another basic that’s far more common in women:  “Why did I wait so long to seek help in mid-heart attack?”     .
 Continue reading “What I wish I knew back then: “6 reasons women delay seeking help during a heart attack”” →

What I wish I knew back then: “What happens to heart muscle during a heart attack?”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 7 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Researchers tell us that women wait significantly longer than our male counterparts to seek medical help – yes, even in mid-heart attack!  In fact, trying to figure out WHY women wait dangerously longer than we should has become a unique field of cardiac study on what’s known as “treatment-seeking delay behaviour“.

“What I Wish I Knew Back Then”  is a back-to-basics summer series of posts here on Heart Sisters that will revisit some of the most frequently asked questions from new heart patients. Today, Part 2 continues with another basic that often accompanies a heart attack: “What happens to heart muscle if I wait too long to get urgent help?”  Continue reading “What I wish I knew back then: “What happens to heart muscle during a heart attack?”” →

Too fit and healthy to worry about heart disease?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 10 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Anne at the 2017 Monterey Bay Half Marathon, Thomas Blog photo*

 A number of my readers contacted me recently to make sure I’d seen Gretchen Reynolds’ new Washington Post article  (THANK YOU, dear heart sisters, for thinking of me!)  For those who missed it, I want to revisit some key messages from a tragic story about Gretchen’s friend, Anne – her hiking/mountain biking/distance running (also non-drinking and non-smoking) buddy.  Gretchen described 61-year old Anne as “kind and capable, modest and fit”.  She died suddenly last month.  Anne’s  cause of death, as Gretchen wrote in her regular column in the Post, was “a bolt-of-lightning heart attack” :         . 
Continue reading “Too fit and healthy to worry about heart disease?” →