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‘Holiday Heart’ in women
Often overlooked by doctors, Paroxysmal Arial Fibrillation or 'Holiday Heart Syndrome' can be caused by sensitivity to alcohol, and can sometimes be triggered by consuming just one drink.
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If I’d had my heart attack decades ago . . .
From inventions like the cardiac pacemaker to the EKG or coronary stent, advances in the way heart patients are diagnosed and treated have changed the world of cardiology.
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Coronary Microvascular Disease: a “trash basket diagnosis”?
When I was at Mayo Clinic, cardiologists there referred to coronary microvascular disease as a "trash basket diagnosis" - not because the condition doesn't exist, but because this debilitating disorder...
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The unforgettable diagnosis: “You’re having a heart attack!”
"The young female doctor looked into my eyes and said: 'You are having a heart attack and everything from here is going to be happening very fast.' I prayed. I cried. I didn't want to die." Here's how...
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How a heart attack turned me into an “information flâneuse”
These words come from the French verb flâner, which means "to stroll". Usually the term refers to “a person who walks the city in order to experience it” - originally affectionately associated with the...
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Coping with your partner’s ICD and heart disease
This little medical device has been described as "having an E.R. in your chest", able to shock an ailing heart back into rhythm. But studies show that the spouse and family of patients who have had...
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What’s the single biggest health threat women face?
Cardiologist Dr. Noel Bairey-Merz of Cedars Sinai Medical Center tells us about the "Yentl" syndrome to help explain why women are still being under-diagnosed and under-treated when it comes to heart...
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Taking aspirin at first sign of heart attack: good or bad advice?
You've no doubt already heard about this standard protocol for those who think they might be experiencing a heart attack: "Call 911 and chew one full-strength aspirin". So why are doctors telling heart...
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Khan Academy’s crash course on heart disease
Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 with the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere". Its creator is MIT grad Sal Khan, who has...
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11 fascinating facts about your heart
Pollution hurts it, coffee helps it, grief can break it, your left lung is smaller than your right to make room for it, and it has the ability to beat 3 billion times over your lifetime. Here are some...
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Why aren’t more doctors like Dr. Bernard Lown?
His long-ago first experience with medical overtreatment involved keeping hospital patients recovering from acute heart attacks on strict bed rest for 4 to 6 weeks. It was what he now calls "a form of...
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What sudden cardiac arrest looks like
This is an actual EKG printout that belongs to a person who died of Sudden Cardiac Arrest while out on the golf course, approximately nine minutes after his heart went into a state of ventricular...
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Misdiagnosed: women’s coronary microvascular and spasm pain
Heart disease, like cancer, is not one but several disorders. And at least two of these disorders are far more likely to show up in women than in the "Hollywood Heart Attacks" of our male counterparts....
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A rock drummer’s take on atrial fibrillation
"I feel like there's a fish flopping around in my chest!" Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm condition, and it's also the most common heart-related reason for hospital admission. Find...
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How do patients know if their docs “will never be good”?
I don't know about you, heart sisters, but personally, I hate to hear cardiologists described by their peers as "knuckleheads" who perform delicate surgical procedures in "horrible ways". I'm equally...
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10 things I didn’t know about angioplasty until I read this book
The air pressure in your fully inflated car tires is about 2 atmospheres. By comparison, the high pressure used to inflate a balloon inside a coronary artery during angioplasty is between 10-20...
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“The heart is a house with four rooms”
How well you know the location (or function) of your liver or your pancreas? I'm pretty sure if we were playing 'Pin The Tail On the Major Organ', we'd lose on those categories. And what about your...
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Heart disease: women’s #1 cause of untimely death
Women's Heart Disease Summit reports: "Despite national campaigns to increase awareness and reduce cardiovascular disease mortality in women, it remains our leading cause of death, annually killing...
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What your cardiologist (should have) learned last month
At the American College of Cardiology recent annual meeting in San Francisco, cardiologist Dr. Harlan Krumholz said: "We are eager to add medicines and reluctant to take them away."
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Two years spent connected to her “heart lifeline”
Monica McFarlan was a runner, a mother of two young boys, and a very healthy 37-year-old woman when she was diagnosed last year with congestive heart failure associated with viral cardiomyopathy. Her...
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