New program offers comprehensive prevention services, screenings, diagnostics and treatment for the number one cause of death and illness in all women
MIAMI /PRNewswire/ — Novocardia, a value-based cardiovascular disease care platform, and My Cardiologist, a trusted provider of cardiovascular services in South Florida for more than 60 years, are pleased to announce the launch of The Women’s Heart Health Program in South Florida. The new cardiac clinical center will focus on preventing, diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease, 70% of which is preventable.
Recognizing that women face unique risk factors for heart disease, the Women’s Heart Health Program is designed to ensure that women receive expert specialty care for all their cardiovascular needs.
90% of women have at least one cardiac disease risk factor, yet heart disease in women is often overlooked.Tweet
“Over 70 percent of cardiovascular disease is preventable, and 90 percent of women have at least one cardiac disease risk factor. Yet heart disease in women is often overlooked and under-diagnosed,” says Dr. Abbe Rosenbaum, a cardiologist and nuclear cardiologist at My Cardiologist who is leading the new women’s heart program.
“By ensuring that women receive optimal cardiovascular care, we can prevent heart attacks and strokes, and help women’s hearts stay healthy and strong throughout their lives.”
My Cardiologist is a comprehensive cardiology practice with six locations in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. The program targets women over age 40 with a focus on screening for traditional and gender-specific risk factors; women of childbearing age at risk for hypertensive diseases of pregnancy; and oncology patients/breast cancer survivors.
“While strides have been made in decreasing heart disease, awareness of risk factors remains low among Hispanic, Black, and South Asian women,” Rosenbaum says. “The women’s heart program will seek to reach women from diverse communities through partnerships and outreach with churches and other community groups.”
Women’s Cardiovascular Disease Symptoms Differ from Men’s
Men and women face many similar risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity and smoking. But women may also face gender-specific risks.
These include past pregnancy complications, early menopause, breast cancer treatments, and autoimmune diseases, which affect women more often than men. Yet Rosenbaum notes that these risk factors are often not included in tools to estimate cardiovascular risk.
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Women may also experience heart disease differently. Heart attack symptoms in both men and women often include chest pain, sweating, shortness of breath, and arm, neck, jaw or back pain.
Women, however, are less likely to have some of those classic signs. Instead, they may experience extreme fatigue, lightheadedness, nausea, heart palpitations and sudden confusion. Women are also more likely to dismiss their symptoms or delay seeking care, and when they do, they are 50 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed.
The women’s heart program will include prevention services and screenings, a personalized assessment of heart disease risk and care from specialists in interventional cardiology, structural cardiology, electrophysiology, heart failure and peripheral venous and arterial disease.
“The launch of the Women’s Heart Health Program continues My Cardiologist’s longstanding commitment to bringing the highest quality cardiology care to all South Florida residents,” says Dr. Dan Blumenthal, Novocardia CEO. “This program will both help to raise awareness among women about cardiovascular disease risks and ways to prevent heart disease, and provide women with a wide range of heart conditions expert care that is specifically geared toward their needs.”
To support women in lowering their heart disease risk, the program takes a multidisciplinary, holistic approach. Services will include assistance with blood pressure control, smoking cessation, diabetes management, weight loss and exercise programs.
The clinical team will also collaborate with ob-gyns and primary care physicians to ensure the full spectrum of women’s health needs are met.
Online Women’s Heart Risk Screening Tool Now Available
To support awareness of the unique risk factors that affect women, My Cardiologist is also launching a new online cardiovascular disease assessment tool. The free virtual heart risk screening tool provides an interactive quiz that covers a wide range of questions related to their lifestyle and overall health. At the end of the short quiz, users receive a risk assessment score relative to their likelihood of developing or having heart disease. To take the free online heart risk assessment, please visit www.mycardiologist.com/heart-risk.
ABOUT NOVOCARDIA Founded in 2020, Novocardia is on a mission to transform the delivery of cardiovascular care for all by building the national cardiovascular network of choice for high-quality, high-value care. Novocardia is committed to putting cardiologists, and their patients, at the center of care by investing in our partner practices, deploying purpose-built data and analytics tools to improve patient outcomes, and enabling our partners to transition more successfully to value-based care. To learn more about Novocardia, please visit www.novocardiahealth.com.
ABOUT MY CARDIOLOGIST Founded in 1960 by Dr. Bernard Silverstein, My Cardiologist is dedicated to providing excellence in cardiac care to all patients, striving to make state-of-the-art technology accessible. Additionally, our doctors and staff pride themselves on delivering respectful and individualized care to each person, continuing the tradition of superior and personalized patient care. To learn more about My Cardiologist, please visit www.mycardiologist.com.
Writing builds resilience by changing your brain, helping you face everyday challenges
Writing builds resilience: Discover how writing changes your brain and strengthens resilience. Learn 5 science-backed writing techniques to process emotions, reduce stress, and navigate everyday challenges with clarity and purpose.
Writing builds resilience by changing your brain, helping you face everyday challenges
Emily Ronay Johnston, University of California, Merced Ordinary and universal, the act of writing changes the brain. From dashing off a heated text message to composing an op-ed, writing allows you to, at once, name your pain and create distance from it. Writing can shift your mental state from overwhelm and despair to grounded clarity — a shift that reflects resilience. Psychology, the media and the wellness industry shape public perceptions of resilience: Social scientists study it, journalists celebrate it, and wellness brands sell it. They all tell a similar story: Resilience is an individual quality that people can strengthen with effort. The American Psychological Association defines resilience as an ongoing process of personal growth through life’s challenges. News headlines routinely praise individuals who refuse to give up or find silver linings in times of hardship. The wellness industry promotes relentless self-improvement as the path to resilience. In my work as a professor of writing studies, I research how people use writing to navigate trauma and practice resilience. I have witnessed thousands of students turn to the written word to work through emotions and find a sense of belonging. Their writing habits suggest that writing fosters resilience. Insights from psychology and neuroscience can help explain how.
Writing rewires the brain
In the 1980s, psychologist James Pennebaker developed a therapeutic technique called expressive writing to help patients process trauma and psychological challenges. With this technique, continuously journaling about something painful helps create mental distance from the experience and eases its cognitive load. In other words, externalizing emotional distress through writing fosters safety. Expressive writing turns pain into a metaphorical book on a shelf, ready to be reopened with intention. It signals the brain, “You don’t need to carry this anymore.”Sometimes you can write your way through difficult emotions.Grace Cary/Moment via Getty Images Translating emotions and thoughts into words on paper is a complex mental task. It involves retrieving memories and planning what to do with them, engaging brain areas associated with memory and decision-making. It also involves putting those memories into language, activating the brain’s visual and motor systems. Writing things down supports memory consolidation — the brain’s conversion of short-term memories into long-term ones. The process of integration makes it possible for people to reframe painful experiences and manage their emotions. In essence, writing can help free the mind to be in the here and now.
Taking action through writing
The state of presence that writing can elicit is not just an abstract feeling; it reflects complex activity in the nervous system. Brain imaging studies show that putting feelings into words helps regulate emotions. Labeling emotions — whether through expletives and emojis or carefully chosen words — has multiple benefits. It calms the amygdala, a cluster of neurons that detects threat and triggers the fear response: fight, flight, freeze or fawn. It also engages the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain that supports goal-setting and problem-solving. In other words, the simple act of naming your emotions can help you shift from reaction to response. Instead of identifying with your feelings and mistaking them for facts, writing can help you simply become aware of what’s arising and prepare for deliberate action. Even mundane writing tasks like making a to-do list stimulate parts of the brain involved in reasoning and decision-making, helping you regain focus.
Making meaning through writing
Choosing to write is also choosing to make meaning. Studies suggest that having a sense of agency is both a prerequisite for, and an outcome of, writing. Researchers have long documented how writing is a cognitive activity — one that people use to communicate, yes, but also to understand the human experience. As many in the field of writing studies recognize, writing is a form of thinking — a practice that people never stop learning. With that, writing has the potential to continually reshape the mind. Writing not only expresses but actively creates identity. Writing also regulates your psychological state. And the words you write are themselves proof of regulation — the evidence of resilience. Popular coverage of human resilience often presents it as extraordinary endurance. News coverage of natural disasters implies that the more severe the trauma, the greater the personal growth. Pop psychology often equates resilience with unwavering optimism. Such representations can obscure ordinary forms of adaptation. Strategies people already use to cope with everyday life — from rage-texting to drafting a resignation letter — signify transformation.
Building resilience through writing
These research-backed tips can help you develop a writing practice conducive to resilience: 1. Write by hand whenever possible. In contrast to typing or tapping on a device, handwriting requires greater cognitive coordination. It slows your thinking, allowing you to process information, form connections and make meaning. 2. Write daily. Start small and make it regular. Even jotting brief notes about your day — what happened, what you’re feeling, what you’re planning or intending — can help you get thoughts out of your head and ease rumination. 3. Write before reacting. When strong feelings surge, write them down first. Keep a notebook within reach and make it a habit to write it before you say it. Doing so can support reflective thinking, helping you act with purpose and clarity. 4. Write a letter you never send. Don’t just write down your feelings — address them to the person or situation that’s troubling you. Even writing a letter to yourself can provide a safe space for release without the pressure of someone else’s reaction. 5. Treat writing as a process. Any time you draft something and ask for feedback on it, you practice stepping back to consider alternative perspectives. Applying that feedback through revision can strengthen self-awareness and build confidence. Resilience may be as ordinary as the journal entries people scribble, the emails they exchange, the task lists they create — even the essays students pound out for professors. The act of writing is adaptation in progress.Emily Ronay Johnston, Assistant Teaching Professor of Global Arts, Media and Writing Studies, University of California, Merced This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving! As we gather with loved ones to express gratitude and share a meal, let’s take a moment to appreciate the blessings in our lives. It’s a time to reflect on the goodness that surrounds us and cherish the moments of joy and togetherness. Whether you’re celebrating with family, friends, or even virtually, may this Thanksgiving be filled with warmth, love, and laughter. Let’s remember to extend kindness and lend a helping hand to those in need, spreading the spirit of gratitude and generosity. Enjoy the holiday and create beautiful memories. Happy Thanksgiving!
Rod: A creative force, blending words, images, and flavors. Blogger, writer, filmmaker, and photographer. Cooking enthusiast with a sci-fi vision. Passionate about his upcoming series and dedicated to TNC Network. Partnered with Rebecca Washington for a shared journey of love and art.
Don’t let food poisoning crash your Thanksgiving dinner
Safe thanksgiving dinner: Protect your Thanksgiving guests from foodborne illness with these expert food safety tips. Learn why you shouldn’t wash your turkey, how to avoid the danger zone, and essential prep strategies to prevent the 48 million annual cases of food poisoning in the U.S.
Don’t let food poisoning crash your Thanksgiving dinner
Lisa Cuchara, Quinnipiac University Thanksgiving is a time for family, friends and feasting. However, amid the joy of gathering and indulging in delicious food, it is essential to keep food safety in mind. Foodborne illnesses can quickly put a damper on your celebrations. As an immunologist and infectious disease specialist, I study how germs spread – and how to prevent them from doing so. In my courses, I teach my students how to reduce microbial risks, including those tied to activities such as hosting a big Thanksgiving gathering, without becoming germophobes. Foodborne illnesses sicken 48 million Americans – 1 in 6 people – each year. Holiday meals such as Thanksgiving pose special risks because these spreads often involve large quantities, long prep times, buffet-style serving and mingling guests. Such conditions create many opportunities for germs to spread. This, in turn, invites a slew of microbial guests such as Salmonella and Clostridium perfringens. Most people recover from infections with foodborne bacteria, but each year around 3,000 Americans die from the illnesses they cause. More routinely, these bugs can cause nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and diarrhea within hours to a couple of days after being consumed – which are no fun at a holiday celebration.
Foods most likely to cause holiday illness
Most foodborne illnesses come from raw or undercooked food and foods left in the so-called danger zone of cooking temperature – 40 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit – in which bacteria multiply rapidly. Large-batch cooking without proper reheating or storage as well as cross contamination of foods during preparation can also cause disease.Put that bird right in the oven as soon as you’ve stuffed it to keep bacteria from multiplying inside.kajakiki/E+ via Getty Images Not all dishes pose the same risk. Turkey can harbor Salmonella, Campylobacter and Clostridium perfringens. Undercooked turkey remains a leading cause of Thanksgiving-related illness. Raw turkey drippings can also easily spread bacteria onto hands, utensils and counters. And don’t forget the stuffing inside the bird. While the turkey may reach a safe internal temperature, the stuffing often does not, making it a higher-risk dish. Leftovers stored too long, reheated improperly or cooled slowly also bring hazards. If large pieces of roasted turkey aren’t divided and cooled quickly, any Clostridium perfringens they contain might have time to produce toxins. This increases the risk of getting sick from snacking on leftovers – even reheated leftovers, since these toxins are not killed by heat. Indeed, each November and December outbreaks involving this bacterium spike, often due to encounters with turkey and roast beef leftovers.
Don’t wash the turkey!
Washing anything makes it cleaner and safer, right? Not necessarily. Many people think washing their turkey will remove bacteria. However, it’s pretty much impossible to wash bacteria off a raw bird, and attempting to do so actually increases cross contamination and your risk of foodborne illness. Since 2005, federal food safety agencies have advised against washing turkey or chicken. Despite this, a 2020 survey found that 78% of people still reported rinsing their turkey before cooking – often because older recipes or family habits encourage it. When you rinse raw poultry, water can splash harmful bacteria around your kitchen, contaminating counter tops, utensils and nearby foods. If you do choose to wash turkey, it’s critical to immediately clean and disinfect the sink and surrounding area. A 2019 USDA study found that 60% of people who washed their poultry had bacteria in their sink afterward – and 14% had bacteria in the sink even after cleaning it.A few food prep precautions can help keep the holiday free of gastrointestinal distress.Drazen Zigic/iStock via Getty Images Plus
Food prep tips for a safe and healthy Thanksgiving
Wash your hands regularly. Before cooking and after touching raw meat, poultry or eggs, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Improper handwashing by people handling food is a major source of bacterial contamination with Staphylococcus aureus. This bacterium’s toxins are hard to break down, even after cooking or reheating. Thaw turkey safely. The safest way to thaw a turkey is in the refrigerator. Allow 24 hours per 4-5 pounds. There’s also a faster method, which involves submerging the turkey in cold water and changing the water every 30 minutes – but it’s not as safe because it requires constant attention to ensure the water temperature stays below 40 F in order to prevent swift bacteria growth. Stuff your turkey immediately before cooking it. Stuffing the turkey the night before is risky because it allows bacteria in the stuffing to multiply overnight. The toxins produced by those bacteria do not break down upon cooking, and the interior of the stuffing may not get hot enough to kill those bacteria. The USDA specifically warns against prestuffing. So cook stuffing separately, if possible, or if you prefer it inside the bird, stuff immediately before roasting, making sure it reaches 165 F. Cook food to the right temperature. A thermometer is your best friend – use it to ensure turkey and stuffing both reach 165 F. Check casseroles and other dishes too. It’s best not to rely on an internal pop-up thermometer, since they can be inaccurate, imprecise and could even malfunction. Avoid cross contamination. Use separate cutting boards for raw meat, vegetables and bread. Change utensils and plates after handling raw meat before using them for cooked foods. Keep food at safe temperatures.Serve hot foods immediately, and make sure hot foods are served above 140 F and cold dishes below 40 F to keep them out of the microbial danger zone. Be cautious with buffet-style serving. Limit food time on the table to two hours or less – longer than that, any bacteria present can double every 20 minutes. Provide dedicated serving utensils, and avoid letting guests serve with utensils they have eaten from. Be mindful of expiration dates. Don’t forget to check dates on food items to make sure that what you are serving isn’t expired or left from last Thanksgiving. Educate guests on food safety. Remind guests to wash their hands before preparing or serving food, and politely discourage double-dipping or tasting directly from communal dishes. Thanksgiving should be a time of gratitude, not gastrointestinal distress. By following these simple food safety tips, you can help ensure a safe and healthy holiday. Lisa Cuchara, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Quinnipiac University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.
Emily Ronay Johnston, Assistant Teaching Professor of Global Arts, Media and Writing Studies, University of California, Merced This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
