BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

I am back. Slowly. Gently. My surgery went very well. Things removed that didn't belong. Things removed that were damaged beyond repair. My doctors are all very impressed with my excellent pathology results and how well I am doing. My (female) surgeon was shocked that I was not in a lot more pain. Prior to surgery I was told many of the findings of my tests showed my health had improved quite a bit... but not my disability. PCOS has once again felled me for a while. I am slowly getting better, walking and functioning but the large incision is painful. The doctors and especially the nurses at NYU/Tisch ICU, Post-Op and Women's Division were fantastic. I was complemented on how personally clean, well put together and intelligent I was during my recovery time. I got to educate a few people on PCOS and this time, I actually did sleep some! (and if this is what you have to do to get a room with view in Manhattan, no thanks!) Your prayers, I am positive, helped a lot as we...

Metabolic Syndrome By Steven V. Joyal, MD Dropping dead from a heart attack, being crippled by a catastrophic stroke, having limbs amputated as a result of peripheral vascular disease — these are among the frightening consequences of vascular disease, the number-one killer of Americans. Metabolic syndrome and its associated condition of insulin resistance pose a major threat to cardiovascular health that most health care practitioners do not even discuss with their patients. Remarkably, the public knows very little about this silent but deadly condition, and many affected individuals are not even aware that metabolic syndrome is inflicting severe damage to their arteries and brain cells. The news media and health care providers pay almost no attention to the epidemic of insulin resistance, the fundamental cause of metabolic syndrome. To avoid the potentially disastrous cardiovascular consequences of metabolic syndrome, you need to understand: What metabolic syndrome is and how to de...

I'm putting this one in the "Just Can't Win" file: The use of antidepressants in order to fight severe depression might lead to heart-related problems, and even to sudden cardiac death in women, according to Doctors from Columbia University in New York and the University of California in San Diego. The scientists said that the results do not necessarily mean that antidepressant drugs pose serious dangers to health. "We suspect that their use is a marker for people with worse depression," explained the main author of the study Dr. William Whang, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. He added that the increased risk can be attributed to antidepressant use, "but that use may well be a marker of more severe symptoms. " The scientist also explained that the link between depression and heart disease is considered to be more physical, rather than psychological, and said that female patients wit...

By Julie Steenhuysen Anger and other strong emotions can trigger potentially deadly heart rhythms in certain vulnerable people, U.S. researchers said on Monday. Previous studies have shown that earthquakes, war or even the loss of a World Cup Soccer match can increase rates of death from sudden cardiac arrest, in which the heart stops circulating blood. CAN YOU BE SCARED TO DEATH? CLICK HERE "It's definitely been shown in all different ways that when you put a whole population under a stressor that sudden death will increase," said Dr. Rachel Lampert of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, whose study appears in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. "Our study starts to look at how does this really affect the electrical system of the heart," Lampert said. She and colleagues studied 62 patients with heart disease and implantable heart defibrillators or ICDs that can detect dangerous heart rhythms or arrhythmias and deliver an electrical shock t...