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Sometimes I'll notice a twinge of pain in my chest. It may or may not be associated with stress, I don't know for sure, but it frightens me. Often I will notice my breathing patterns change when this happens and sometimes tension in my shoulder.

This afternoon I read an article which discussed the frequencies of chest pain in men versus women. These pains in women are more than likely to signify future problems with heart disease. That's a scary thought. Here is am less than a week from turning 27 years old and I'm feeling chest pains. Oh the life of stress. I bet June Cleaver never dealt with this issue.

The study shows women are 20% more likely than men to suffer from chest pain, known as stable angina. With stable angina, pain is predictable and present only during exertion or extreme emotional distress, disappearing with rest. Well holy mackenzie folks, where is my ding ding ding.

What Causes Angina? According to WebMD:

When blood flow to an area of the heart is decreased, it impairs the delivery of oxygen and vital nutrients to the heart muscle cells. When this happens, the heart muscle must use alternative, less efficient forms of fuel so that it can perform its function of pumping blood to the body. The byproduct of using this less efficient fuel is a compound called lactic acid that builds up in the muscle and causes pain.

I'm not going to run off to the hospital and demand an EKG but this does concern me. And I don't fancy myself an internet hypochondriac, but I bet a lot of women are feeling a little nervous right now.

In the study, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers analyzed 53 studies on stable angina involving more than 400,000 people from 31 countries.

Overall, 13,331 cases of angina were reported among women and 11,511 among men. The results showed that women consistently suffered from higher rates of stable angina than men, regardless of age or menopausal status.

Even more upsetting is the fact that women with chest pain tend to be treated less seriously than men with chest pain. This has been an ongoing issue in the news for years and it is a shame but perhaps now with this study and the stats that came from it, women will be treated more equally.

Labels: angina, heart

I'm sure you've read about how 1 in 4 teenage girls in the US have an STD. So I'm not even going to go there because it totally freaks me out!

Survivors of a heart attack are put on all sorts of regimens to keep themselves moving onward and upward when it comes to the ladder of good health. However, doctors are finding many of the patients are not following the guidelines and advice which is obviously life threatening. This finding prompted a study on whether or not reminder letters would help patients to actually do what they were told.

So 836 heart attack survivors in the US were put into a study group. Half of them got two letters, sent two months apart, about the importance of taking beta-blockers. "During the nine-month study, patients who got the reminder letters were more likely to fill their beta-blocker prescriptions. They were 17% more likely than patients in the comparison group to have their beta-blocker prescription filled at least 80% of the time."

Really? I'm not the most health conscious cat in the world and I should take better card of myself but I hardly think I'd require a reminder letter, or two, to be reminded to take my medicine after having a heart attack! I think these people need to be put in a different study, like one for depression or something because if they care so little about themselves then something's going on upstairs. Mmmkay.

SOURCE

Labels: heart

When I began reading this article I immediately thought about all the folks out there who will now become paranoid about the fact that they find themselves nodding off a lot.

Studies like this are helpful to a degree, but there are probably a whole slew of other things that are related to being THAT tired. Don't you think?
And so it is; daytime dozing also appears to raise the chance of having a heart attack or dying of a heart attack or stroke, the researchers say.

So now we have stated dozing off several times through the day can increase your risk of having a stroke or heart attack as you age. That is a frightening thought. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to explain the warning signs of such issues?

They type of "dozing" mentioned really means how often they fell asleep during specific situations: watching TV, sitting and talking to someone, or stopping in traffic. To me that is not dozing, that is severe sleep apnea. And yes that is concerning and I am sure it could lead to a variety of higher percentages of MANY health risks.

With all that being said I wanted to discuss sleep apnea in more depth. For mild sleep apnea it is possible you will only need to change your diet and lose some weight. If you are a smoker, sleep apnea is one more reason to QUIT! There are also special therapies, like Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for more severe sleep apnea issues.

CPAP brings me to my next point. Restricted airways are often the cause of sleep apnea and I feel they might really be the reason behind an increase risk of stroke or heart attack. To me it makes sense, if you have trouble breathing or stop breathing then not enough oxygen is getting to your brain or your heart. You’re forcing your body to work twice as hard to get blood flowing normally. This might be why losing weight and quitting smoking are two of the most important things you can do if sleep apnea is an issue for you.

Are you following me? I'm not a doctor obviously, but I just wish more of these research studies would break it down for you and get to the real cause of why things may or may not happen.

Labels: heart, sleep, stroke

This morning on my drive into work I heard a report on how a study was done to show that if you have a good marriage your heart is healthier and if you have a bad marriage you are 34% more likely to have heart problems.

"Those in a negative relationship were 34% more likely to have a coronary event in the 12 years of follow-up," says Roberto De Vogli, PhD, MPH, a researcher for the study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

I'm sure it's all stress related and the study could be done if you have a child who is sick or something like that, too.

But, I was thinking about it and I think it's about time someone began medically showing the connections between a "valentine" heart and your "physical" heart.

People may mentally "replay" the negative interactions, De Vogli and other researchers suspect. "It can activate emotional responses, including depression or hostility," he says, in turn boosting heart disease risk.

See to me that thought is intuitive. I am perfectly aware that a lot of things are mind over matter. You can make yourself feel one way or another in a lot of cases. If you consistently dwell on something negative and play it over and over again in your head it will naturally take a physical toll on your body in some form or another.

Interesting.

SOURCE

Labels: heart, love