Women and Heart Disease

My grandmother was in the hospital two weeks ago due to a variety of health concerns that had left her on the verge of collapse.  She’s okay now (thanks to everyone who has been supportive through this!), but my family learned from her doctors that she has likely suffered a minor heart attack sometime in the past weeks.

We were shocked to hear this.  Heart attack?  There had been no signs-- no chest tightening, no irregular heartbeat, no arm pain, nothing.  

That is when the doctor informed us that women actually experience different heart attack symptoms than men.  A heart attack in a man presents itself in the ways enumerated above.  Women, however, are more likely to experience shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and dizziness as symptoms of their heart attacks.  My grandma had experienced several of these symptoms recently, but had no idea of their deeper significance.  And she's not alone-- heart attacks in women are often misdiagnosed and it is not unusual for a woman to be sent home when presenting her symptoms.  The symptoms we are taught to look for often do not appear in women at all.  In fact, 43% of women do not ever experience the primary tell-tale sign, chest pains, during a heart attack, even though many emergency room doctors still consider this the primary symptom.

This has huge implications for women's health.  Without knowing something is wrong (assuming she survives an initital undiagnosed heart attack), a woman will delay crucial treatment and lifestyle changes necessary to prevent her heart disease from progressing.  As heart disease is the number one killer of women, the importance of this cannot be underestimated.

For many years, the medical establishment didn’t believe women could even experience heart disease, because cases and symptoms were never observed or recorded.   Even after this realization, research continued to be conducted only on male subjects and women's treatment was systemically delivered less aggressively than treatment for male patients.  Unsurprisingly, women showed a much higher incidence of mortality from heart disease.  It is only within the last 10 years that the scientific community finally acknowledged and began steps to remedy the gender bias in heart disease research and treatment.

Yet, women still have a higher mortality rate from heart disease due to the lingering effects of this gender bias.  While enormous steps have been taken to close the disparity, our culture still assumes a male patient and perspective on this issue.  We need to escape this mindset if we are going to fix this problem.  It's common sense: we must research and acknowledge the unique needs, lifestyles, and biochemistry of women if we are to provide the best life outcomes for women.  

An important first step is simply to spread awareness.  I was not aware of the ways that heart attack symptoms present differently in women, and I'm sure that I am not alone.  This needs to be common knowledge, so please spread this information to the women (and men) in your life!  Let's start talking.

Framing the Issue: The Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Domestic Violence Discourse and Services

Finally acknowledging the causal links between lack of preventative care, poor health outcomes, and soaring healthcare costs, the Women’s Preventative Care Amendment of the Affordable Care Act went into effect last week.  As of August 1st, 2012 insurance companies must provide for several essential women’s services free of charge, including annual woman-care visits, gestational diabetes screenings, STI and HIV counseling, breastfeeding support, HPV DNA testing, and, that holy grail, contraception.  

As we joyously bid adieu to copays, we cannot underestimate the revolutionary significance of these provisions.  For the first time in this country, women’s mental, reproductive, and sexual health are being recognized as essential components of the overall health and well-being of women and their families.  

One among the mandated services has especially caught my attention for this reason: screening and counseling for domestic violence.

What's 'Freedom of Conscience' Got To Do With It?

There is heated controversy surrounding the Obama mandate for employers to provide no-copay birth control under the Affordable Care Act. Unsurprisingly, the mandate has caused an uproar among religious conservatives, who insist that forcing all employers, especially those of religious organizations, to provide contraception is a violation of “freedom of conscience.” Despite a compromise to address the issue, wherein the burden of conscience would shift to insurance companies rather than employers, conservatives remain firm in their opposition.  They've even gone so far as to organize a House forum entitled “Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience?” (I couldn't make this up, if I tried).  


Sadly, resistance to contraception access is part of a long historical trend.  While this remains constant, I am continually fascinated by the changes in argumentation for and against reproductive justice in this country.  Mostly, I have studied these rhetorical shifts in terms of abortion (if you would like a copy of my widely-read BA thesis, address inquiries at the bottom), but there is distinct overlap with the discourse around birth control, as well.

Let's Talk About Sex...Education

As many of you know, my side gig when I'm not being a professional blogger is teaching high school English (well, maybe it's the other way around, but let’s pretend).  The other day, as a reward for finishing their state tests, I was letting my students talk quietly in groups and do word games.  I sat next to three of my 9th graders (3 girls and a boy) and quickly joined in on their discussion.

They were talking about teenage pregnancy, noticing the high number of girls in the high school who were currently pregnant.  The tone of the conversation started playful, but the students were asking some very serious questions.  The sole male student in our group directed the following question to me:

“Yo, Miss-- who do you think is more responsible for getting pregnant-- the boy or the girl?” 

A Matter of Life and Death

Happy Holidays, readers!  Let's talk dead bodies...

Without Autopsies Hospitals Bury Their Mistakes

The above article is a part of the ongoing ProPublica/NPR/PBS Frontline investigation into American coroner and medical examiner offices (very cool information; see here).  In it, journalist Marshall Allen describes the decline of autopsies in the modern healthcare system. 


Whereas autopsies used to be routine procedures in the case of all hospital deaths, the autopsy rate has now plummeted to 5% of all hospital deaths. Among private and community hospitals--which account for 80% of hospitals--that rate hovers around 0%. While autopsy is crucial in determining disease progression, pathogen dissemination, medical mis-diagnosis, and faulty treatment, most hospitals have simply chosen not to perform them.

Go Directly to Jail: Do Not Pass Go, But Do Collect Healthcare

This is kind of one of those “WTF” stories about which I feel compelled to comment:

"Bank Robber Planned Crime and Punishment."

Before I begin, I should note that this happened several months ago, but, akin to my obsession with Mad Men or love affair with Miley Cyrus, I am a little behind the times on current events and trends. I am, however, TOTALLY up-to-date on aimless internet browsing, which is how I found about about this.

To continue, this past June, in North Carolina, James Richard Verone planned and executed a $1 bank robbery with the intention that he would be incarcerated.  Laid-off from his job of 17 years, suffering from chronic pain, unable to afford healthcare, and denied disability insurance, Verone planned his imprisonment so that he might finally be able to obtain much-needed healthcare that had been denied to him through traditional means.  

In this country, we are loathe to view healthcare as a basic human right.  In fact, we are the only industrialized nation that does not have a universal healthcare system.  This is due, in large part, to  a market culture which views healthcare as a commodity—something which is bought and sold, can accrue profit,  and the cost of which is determined by basic laws of supply and demand, however manipulated those are.   Through Verone’s case, one sees that the only way to access healthcare as a right in this country is to become part of the penal system.   Let me just say, I find it deeply ironic and symptomatic of an unjust society that a citizen gains rights by virtue of being a prisoner. Yet this is the trajectory America has been on for many years, as social welfare, which, by definition, ensures the dignity and well-being of persons, has all-but collapsed (or, as in the case of healthcare, was never properly developed in the first place).  

Dead meat? A Government Cover-up Story...

For those who know me, I am hardly the crunchy-granola-vegan-environmentalist-hippie-type. However, this  eye-opening exposé from Tom Philpott, food politics expert, has me thinking very hard about the detrimental effects of the industrial food system on public health. In sum, Philpott reports the cover-up of a USDA-contracted report on the problem of antibiotic resistance and its relation to the gratuitous use of antibiotics on factory animal farms.

Before delving into that subject, Philpott relates some essential background information on the nature of antibiotic use in industrial-scale meat production:

You see, keeping animals alive and growing fast under cramped, unsanitary conditions is tricky business. One of the industry's tried-and-true tactics is low-level, daily doses of antibiotics. The practice helps keep infections down, at least in the short term, and, for reasons no one really understands, it pushes animals to fatten to slaughter weight faster.

Animals raised to slaughter on large-scale farms (the very same that end up on your hamburger buns and in your frying pans) are fed a healthy dose of antibiotics as part of the daily routine. In fact, Philpott reports, over eighty percent of antibiotic use-- some 29 million pounds--- is used by the meat industry.

Why It's Important to Be an Ugly Middle School Kid

"Hundreds of preteen children treated for eating disorders"
I read the article above today, which left me extremely sad, although less shocked than I care to admit. Eating disorders numbers are up among girls, ages five to thirteen, according to a British report by The Telegraph. Data from over 35 hospitals in England reveals that over 2,100 patients under the age of 16 have been treated for eating disorders, although sources acknowledge that this is a gross underestimate of both hospital admittances and the overall extent of the problem.