Women’s heart health: your questions answered
Michelle Carlson, MD & Jill Jordan, PA-C, , MMS, RD
Think men and women are just the same? No, I didn’t think so. But when it comes to heart disease, much of what the medical community talks about is focused on men’s heart health. So on the Healthy Matters radio broadcast last Sunday, we focused on women’s heart health.
I was joined in the WCCO studios by two women whose careers are focused on caring for hearts. They are Dr. Michelle Carlson, a cardiologist, and Jill Jordan, a Certified Physician Assistant with clinical practice in Cardiology. Not only are these two really knowledgeable about cardiology in general, they are particularly tuned into the health of women. Not only that, they do cool work with cancer and heart disease. And I can personally vouch that they are approachable providers with a good listening ear and wise advice for their patients.
Three things you can do to learn more:
- Listen to the podcast of the Women’s Heart Health show by clicking the logo here. It is Healthy Mattes Show #482, April 8, 2018
- Click Dr. Carlson and Jill Jordan’s pictures here for their bio and contact information, or go to the Heart Center at Hennepin Healthcare to learn more and including info on making appointments.
Michelle Carlson, MD
Jill Jordan, MMS, PA-C, RD
- Read on for brief and informative answers to listener questions that we did not have time for on the radio broadcast. Heart attack, jaw pain, ischemia, family history, varicose veins, valves, exercise, diet, yoga. It’s all here! The responses are directly from Dr. Carlson and Jill Jordan. Don’t miss the last question (scroll down!) about heart disease and cancer. Pictures and links, too!
Quick tips: Shingles and pnuemonia shots, blocked coronaries, antibiotics for dental work, HIV test
Hennepin Healthcare’s Clinic and Specialty Center
Hey, friends! Here’s another “Quick tips” post in which I answer a few of the questions posed by listeners to a recent Healthy Matters radio broadcast. As is often the case, I can’t get to all the questions, but this week’s grab bag of topics is a good one.
Read on. Or if you are aurally inclined, you can listen to the podcast recording at your leisure by clicking the banner below. The questions here are taken directly from listeners from Healthy Matters show #480, March 25, 2018.
I’m going to scatter pictures of our newly-opened Clinic and Specialty Center, which is a state-of-the-art medical facility in downtown Minneapolis. Cool to see a new medical facility that still has that “new clinic” smell – ha!
The connection between weight and heart disease
We all know that being overweight is probably not good for our health. It seems to make intuitive sense and there is ample scientific data that says losing weight is good for you in the long run. But there are many uncertainties. One of the unanswered questions is how best to measure body fat and how best to correlate being overweight with long-term disease.
This past week there was a big study published out of Europe that tried to address these issues. In this post I’m going to break it down for you and see if there is anything we can learn from this study. As always, it is important to note that this is just one observational study, which means that it simply looks at a large population of people and attempts to observe a specific medical outcome (in this case, heart disease) with a specific condition (in this case being overweight). It can’t prove cause and effect!
Consider this post a “mini-Medical School” in which I’ll walk you through a medical research study. It may get a bit nerdy. Here we go.
