BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

Almost everyone on my mother's side of the family dies from heart disease. I test positive for CRP (Cardio-Reactive Protein) which is an indicator of heart disease. A simple blood test can tell if you carry this risk factor. I had a cardiac "incident" during a personally traumatic event 5 1/2 years ago - after which I was hospitalized a couple times for physical symptoms relating to Complex PTSD. When I saw this article it made perfect sense to me. New Study Shows Link Between Hopelessness and Hypertension New research shows a link between harboring feelings of hopelessness and developing hypertension. The research was published in the February 17 issue of Hypertension. The study of 616 middle-aged men from eastern Finland showed that men who suffered from feelings of high hopelessness over the course of the 4-year study were 3 times more likely to develop hypertension than men who did not suffer from feelings of hopelessness as much, if at all. "This is the first...

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO HELP THOUSANDS OF WOMEN LIKE ME: PCOS AWARENESS & TREATMENT - Please Sign!! I was diagnosed in 1966 and didn't receive proper treatment until 1999!!! That's right -- 33 years of hearing that it must be me !! Despite PCOS being a KNOWN DISEASE since the 1930s! Let's include being bullied at school by students AND teachers who were clueless about this illness. PCOS robbed me of some of my womanhood, destroyed relationships I cared about, given me heart disease and added to my clinical depression and PTSD issues. And I am not the only one. More Awareness is needed now!! Please help. Thank you. PCOS and Weight Loss by Louise Parker One of the major obstacles facing women with PCOS is the weight gain that has become synonymous with it. Approximately 50 to 60% of all women with PCOS are classified as obese. One of the major reasons why obesity is common in PCOS sufferers is the body’s inability to process insulin. Insulin is a hormone that regul...

As difficult as it may be for many of us to talk about PCOS, I ask you to join other women with PCOS and their friends & families and become involved to make a difference. You could potentially help someone who is unaware that they have the syndrome. Just think how wide PCOS awareness could spread if we all took action. We ask you to share your knowledge of PCOS with others. The goal is to foster knowledge and sensitivity to those with the condition. Have you ever told someone about PCOS who has never heard of the syndrome before? Was their reaction shock, disbelief or confusion as to why they had never heard of this before, since it is so common? More information: www.pcosupport.org www.projectpcos.org/ projectpcos.org/getting_word_out/pcospetition.php pcos.insulitelabs.com/blog/index.php/living-with-pcos/september-i... SEND YOUR POSTS FOR INCLUSION TO: http://www.bloggersunite.org/event/pcos-awareness-month

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...

OFFICE STRESS IS KILLING, LITERALLY Work really can kill you, according to a study on Wednesday providing the strongest evidence yet of how on-the-job stress raises the risk of heart disease by disrupting the body’s internal systems. The findings from a long-running study involving more than 10,000 British civil servants also suggest stress-induced biological changes may play a more direct role than previously thought, said Tarani Chandola, an epidemiologist at University College London. “This is the first large-scale population study looking at the effects of stress measured from everyday working life on heart disease,” said Chandola, who led the study. “One of the problems is people have been skeptical whether work stress really affects a person biologically.” Heart disease is the world’s leading cause of death. It is caused by fatty deposits that harden and block arteries, high blood pressure which damages blood vessels, and other factors. The researchers measured stress among the c...