A new study revealed that heart attack symptoms in women under the age of 55 get missed or dismissed. The study included 30 women who were under the age of 55, with an average age of 48, who previously had heart attacks. All of these women were interviewed within a week of leaving the hospital after their heart attacks.
In their interviews the women talked about when they initially recognized their symptoms and what they did about them. These are the problems women had in recognizing their symptoms:
- They thought they were too young to be having a heart attack.
- They had atypical symptoms that lasted for more than a day.
- They assumed their symptoms were due to other conditions not related to a heart attack.
Some of the women went for treatment right away but others did not. Some said they were too busy, uncertainty, perceived negative treatment from physicians, and a preference to self medicate.
The women also noted that health care workers didn’t always immediately recognize the fact that they were having a heart attack.
The findings were presented on May 1 in Baltimore at the American Heart Association’s Quality of Care and Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke Conference 2008.
A new study disputes the myth that active overweight women can still be healthy and not face the risk of heart disease. A recent study determined that being active can reduce heart risks for overweight women but that doesn’t make them healthy. The weight of the woman still matters according to a female heart specialist.
Participants were women aged 54 on average who filled out a questionnaire at the study’s start detailing their height, weight and amount of weekly physical activity in the past year, including walking, jogging, bicycling and swimming. They were then tracked for about 11 years. Overall 948 women developed heart disease.
Women were considered active if they followed government-recommended guidelines and got at least 30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week, including brisk walking or jogging. Women who got less exercise than that were considered inactive.
Weight was evaluated by BMI (body mass index). A BMI of 25 - 29 is considered overweight; a BMI of 30 and higher is considered obese. When compared with active healthy-weight women, the risk of the active overweight women developing heart disease was 54% higher. For active obese women the risk of developing heart disease was 87% higher.
For overweight women who are inactive, the risk increased to 88% of developing heart disease. For inactive obese women, the risk increased to 2 1/2 times more than that for the obese active women.
That is a huge difference between the active and inactive overweight women, so exercise definitely makes a big difference.
Source
Sandy Robinson also is the blogger for her own website, Fighting Fatigue and the Fighting Fatigue Forum. On the WebbleYou Network, Sandy is co-blogger for the American Idolist blog.
A recent study that was released showed that women’s life expectancy declined significantly in 180 United States counties - mostly in the deep south and Appalachia between 1983 and 1999.
The women’s life expectancy decrease was due to obesity, high blood pressure, and chronic diseases related to smoking, lung cancer and diabetes.
The decline averaged 1.3 years in the 180 counties. Men’s life expectancy declined by 1.3 years in only 11 counties.
In another 783 counties, women’s life expectancy declined by 0.5 years, but the researchers said those results were not statistically significant because those counties were relatively small.
The analysis was conducted by researchers at Harvard University, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Washington.
New research has found that the most serious form of ovarian cancer, ovarian serious carcinoma, may originate with the fallopian tube cells rather than ovarian surface cells. This new finding may help prevent ovarian cancer, earlier detection and better treatments.
Currently there are not any early diagnostic tests for ovarian cancer so approximately 80% of the cases aren’t diagnosed until the cancer has reached a very late stage.
Dr. Keren Levanon of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said:
“One fascinating fact is that when you diagnose ovarian cancer, you find massive invasive tumors on the surface of the ovary — usually the tumor does not invade the ovary — but you never find early pre-invasive in situ tumors.”
Levanon and colleagues studied a group of women at very high risk for ovarian cancer due to family history who underwent removal of their fallopian tubes and ovaries as a preventive measure.
When these women were closely evaluated, the researchers found that they had early cancerous growths — and these early growths were in the fallopian tube, not on the surface of the ovary. The growths were confined to a particular area within the fallopian tube called the fimbria, which is located close to the ovary.
A diet that the government recommends, called the DASH Diet, has proven through a 25-year study that they might actually know what they are talking about!
The purpose of the DASH eating plan is to help women keep their blood pressure lowered and can save them from heart attack and stroke.
Researchers followed more than 88,000 healthy women for almost 25 years. They examined their food choices and looked at how many had heart attacks and strokes. Those who fared best had eating habits similar to those recommended by the government to stop high blood pressure.
The DASH diet favors fruits, vegetables, whole grains, milk (low-fat), and plant based proteins instead of meat. Women who followed the DASH eating plan, or one that closely resembled it, compared to those who followed a typical American diet were 24% less likely to have a heart attack and 18% less likely to have a stroke.
Example of the DASH Diet
The choices listed below are similar to the government’s DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension).
1. More than eight total servings of fruits and vegetables daily. A serving is a half-cup of cooked vegetables or one cup raw, or a small piece of fruit.
2. One total serving daily of nuts and legumes, about a handful of peanuts or a half-cup legumes, including lentils, kidney beans and split peas.
3. At least two servings daily of whole grains. A serving is a slice of whole-grain bread or a half-cup cooked whole-grain pasta or rice, or about a cup of dry cereal.
4. Almost two daily servings of low-fat dairy products. A serving equals eight ounces of milk or one cup of yogurt.
5. A half serving daily of red or processed meats, including bacon and hot dogs. A full serving is about the size of a deck of cards. (The DASH diet does not recommend those high-fat meats. It calls for no more than two servings daily of lean meat, fish or poultry.)
Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information available out there on how Chronic Fatigue Syndrome affects pregnancy, or vice versa. Most of what is known, according to the CFIDS Association, is based on medical opinion and not facts. I guess each CFS patient who has went through pregnancy and childbirth has their “truth” as to how pregnancy affected their CFS. Each woman has to decide for herself whether or not they want to take the risk of possibly worsening their symptoms and what is to come after the child is born. While I was pregnant, I actually felt better than I did before getting pregnant for the first four to five months. After that I started going downhill and after my son’s birth I continued on a downward spiral, but my situation is not every CFS woman’s situation. Women also need to think ahead to what it will be like after the child is born and if there are already other young children in the house - how will the CFS mother get her rest? Getting enough rest is crucial for CFS patients and with motherhood getting the proper rest is hard to achieve many times.
According to the CFIDS Association, clinical experience of pregnant CFIDS patients has shown that the majority either stay the same or feel somewhat better during their pregnancy. On the other side, 1/3 of CFIDS patients experience a worsening of their symptoms (feels like a bad relapse) after giving birth. This is what happened to me.
Experts believe that the reason for this may be because of the immune system. A similar lessening of symptoms during pregnancy occurs with other autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis. The theory is that the body “turns off” parts of the immune system to prevent the woman’s body from attacking the baby as it would a virus or anything else that is not an original part of itself. The improvement is also believed to have something to do with the hormones from pregnancy also.
Clinical experience has also shown that CFS women may be at a higher risk for first trimester miscarriage but there is no formal research to back this up.
It is also not known if a mother can pass on CFS to her baby that develops later in life and there have been no formal reports to date of a baby being born with CFS.
Another concern for CFS mothers is whether to breastfeed or not. Since the origin of CFS is unknown, and it hasn’t been proven yet if it is caused by a virus, some mothers choose not to breastfeed for this reason. A virus can be given to a baby through breast milk.
New CFS mothers may spend more time in the hospital after giving birth than healthy mothers. I was admitted to the hospital on Sunday evening and wasn’t released by my doctor to come home until Wednesday evening and I had natural childbirth.
A British survey of 27 women with CFIDS showed that half spent extra time in the hospital after delivery because of their CFIDS symptoms. You should discuss this possibility with your doctor during pregnancy so he/she is prepared to advocate for you if your insurance provider denies extra time in the hospital.
For some women with CFS, knowing what is to come after the child is born is what keeps them from having children. It takes a lot of emotional and physical energy to care for a baby, toddler and young child and if there is not a lot of family support it can be even more difficult.
I previously posted this information on my Fighting Fatigue website.
For women who have went through menopause, the effects of using hormone therapy continue to mount. Now studies have found that women who use estrogen only therapy double their chances of getting non-cancerous breast lumps.
The reason there is growing concern about these on-cancerous breast lumps is not only because of the extra biopsies and worry those lumps cause, but because a particular type — called benign proliferative breast disease — is suspected of being a first step toward developing cancer 10 years or so later.Studies have already shown that the estrogen plus progestin therapy is well known for increasing risks of breast cancer. Studies had never been done on just estrogen only therapies.
Estrogen only therapies are used on women who have had hysterectomies. A study was conducted on 10,000 women using estrogen only and a placebo. Over 230 of these women had identified cases of benign proliferative breast disease. Women given the estrogen-only therapy had twice the risk of developing these abnormalities compared with women given a placebo.
Sandy Robinson also is the blogger for her own website, Fighting Fatigue and the Fighting Fatigue Forum. On the WebbleYou Network, Sandy is co-blogger for the American Idolist blog.
A leading British eating disorder expert, Professor Janet Treasure from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, reports that the size zero obsession in the fashion industry is fueling the flames for those with eating disorders. She says the size zero obsession is not only damaging to the public but to the models as well.
Professor Treasure says ‘famine then feast’ is an eating disorder where a cycle is set up when a diet is broken by the attraction of highly palatable foods, and a pattern known as “binge priming” begins.
Professor Treasure says studies on animals, which simulated periods of self-denial followed by exposure to highly palatable foods, led to binge eating and to a susceptibility to addictive behaviours - after a period of food restriction, when animals are intermittently exposed to highly palatable food, they significantly overeat.
She says this pattern continues when their weight is restored and the tendency to over consume or ‘binge’ when exposed to highly palatable foods remains several months after the period of binge priming.
She says this pattern continues when their weight is restored and the tendency to over consume or ‘binge’ when exposed to highly palatable foods remains several months after the period of binge priming.
In humans binge priming caused by irregular dieting and/or extreme food restriction, interspersed with intermittent consumption of snacks and other highly palatable food, might lead in adolescence to persistent eating problems.
Professor Treasure says people exposed to binge priming may also be more prone to substance misuse.
Researchers Elizabeth Wack and Marion Roberts say models were put at serious risk because of the culture of thinness in the fashion industry which possibly explains the increase in eating disorders seen in women born in the last half of the 20th century and may also contribute to the increase in obesity.
The researchers have called for a greater focus on reducing obsessive dieting and poor eating habits among young people.
A size-zero indicates a 22in waist the same as the average eight-year-old.
News-Medical.net
New research shows that doctors have a new method of determining if a pregnant woman will need to have a C-Section - the length of her cervix. Currently, some doctors have been determining the need for C-Sections by using age, weight and other risk factors.
The cervix closes off the uterus, where the baby is growing. Researchers in Britain say their study of more than 27,000 pregnancies found that women with the longest cervixes were more likely to need surgery to deliver their child.
Dr. Gordon Smith of Cambridge University, whose team led the study, said:
“Rates of Cesarean delivery started to rise at a cervical length of 25 millimeters and plateaued at a cervical length of 50 millimeters, approximately doubling across the range of observed values.”
The rate of C-Sections were as follows from the study (an inch = 25 mm):
- 25.7% for a woman with a cervix between 40 - 67 mm
- 21.7% for a woman with a cervix between 36 - 39 mm
- 18.4% for a woman with a cervix between 31 - 35 mm
- 16% for a woman with a cerix between 16 - 30 mm
Source
If you would like to know how you can get fit with exercising just 3 days a week, you’ve come to the right place!
You don’t have to run every day to burn off massive amounts of calories. If you do each of these exercises listed below once a week, with resting at least a day in between, Health Magazine says you can get fit! Never try an exercise routine without first consulting your physician.
Run 1: Pick Up Speed
Warm up with a slow jog for 10 - 15 minutes. Repeat this pattern 3 - 4 times; 2 minutes at a hard effort followed by 4 minutes easy running or walking to recover. finish with a 10-minute jog or walk to cool down.
Run 2: Add Hills
Jog for 10 minutes to warm up. Then run a hilly course outdoors (or if you live in a flat area, hit the treadmill at an incline of 2 - 4%) for 20 minutes. Choose hills that take 3 - 4 minutes to run up and focus on your forum. Shorten your stride, pump your arms, and don’t let your upper body slump. After you are done, jog or walk for 10 minutes to cool down.
Run 3: Go Long
During the first week, run at a slow, conversational pace for 40 minutes. Add 5 minutes to the run each week until you reach 60 minutes. If you’re new to running, power walk for two minutes every 5 - 8 minutes to increase your distance comfortably while reducing any risk of injury.
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