#be aware: long german sentences syndrome

[keravnous]

ok, very rather vague hcs for a young arthur edwards (pls, lets discuss them, I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THE OLD MAN™) help

born as Arthur James Edwards on a rainy night in Stepney, London; the boy learned from a young age that adapting oneself is the key to success

he was a quiet and easy child, he wasn't noisy or caused any mischief at home and had good grades, which often attracted the attention of bullies during his years in primary school

he tried his best to escape their torment (sometimes mean words, other times hurtful blows)

a week after Arthur's seventh birthday, his father left the house late at night and never returned, leaving him and his mother who worked as a cleaner with nearly no financial means

thus, they moved in with his mother's grandparents, a rather strict lower class couple, his grandfather had served as a pilot during ww2

while his mother was working multiple jobs during the day and nights, his grandfather took care of him after school, raising him with military-like drill

the years passed and instead of complaining or revolting, he quietly surrendered to his grandparents plans ("Your son should become a doctor, Katie", "Yeah, whatever ye say, pop")

very soon he would become interested in politics (finding an escape in both, the gleaming promises of local politicans and the way he just wanted to understand) and its correlation with society and economy (they barely had any money, thus he stole newspapers from doorsteps on his way to school or lingered around the kitchen, where his grandmother listened to the radio as she prepared dinner, "You useless boy, quit standin' around like that, will ya?")

the year he turned thirteen was the year his grandfather passed away but Arthur continued to study relentlessly hard, exerting the familiar drill on himself, which soon caught the attention of his teachers

growing more and more detached from his now always drunk grandmother and mostly absent mother, Arthur would snuck away to the attic or the nearby dilapidated playground during sleepless nights, downing his grandmother's cheap red wine and smoking the remaining cigarettes of his grandfather while reading the classics

with his grades excelling the ones of his classmates at the end of secondary school, Arthur enrolled for different scholarships, finally landing one at the London School of Economics and Political Science (the financal aid also allowed him to move into a small flat in Holborn, which he shared with two classmates, one being Roman Zelenko)

their flat was small, crammed with books and at least three times a week their electricty was shutting off but a nineteen year old Arthur still felt his heart burst with happiness as he read Weber or Marx in the dim candlelight

Arthur found new and formerly unknown self-confidence due to his academic success but was still very much insecure about his upbringing and continued to be the rather quiet outsider

his efforts to join a fraternity were ineffective and more than once he witnessed upper class students mocking his accent or his demeanor (he very desperately tried to change that, late at night when his flatmates were asleep and he yet again did not find any rest)

that's probably also the reason why he never raises his vocie above a that whisper/quiet tone: he's afraid his accent's gonna pop

Arthur's insomnia started during his university years, he would often go one or two days without any sleep, consequentially collapsing on his bed or in the library around noon

he rarely went out with Zelenko and the other young man, who's name he had already forgotten a year after he had moved out and been in more countries than he could've counted with both hands, but when he did, they got so drunk that he nearly fell asleep during lectures the next day

the hangovers may have been exhausting but he soon found comfort in drinking, feeling his shoulders and tongue becoming loose and an easy feeling settling in his mind, taking itself off of his studies for a couple of hours (he would later continue to reach for a glas of wine, whenever he found himself in a stressful situation)

on a warm summer night in 1989, Zelenko takes him to a dinner with his father and his father's friends at a gentlemen's club, there he meets Janus for the first time

the former constant was immediately impressed by the quiet young man who seemed to be both, intelligent and hardworking but most importantly: incredibly ambitious

during his bachelors and master's degree he often missed lectures and classes because he was either travelling with Janus or crashing at the shared flat, still suffering from restless nights and the heavy weight of his responsibilities

as his degree approached he considered to proceed a career in political consulting but Janus quickly persuaded him to join him in their shared interest - changing the world, by any means possible

[dillydedalus]

march reading

kinda forgot about this i guess. anyway feat. uh, magical ships, dubious mental health institutions (plural) & a parisian building with 99 rooms. 

the forever sea, joshua phillip johnson (forever sea #1) i firmly believe that more fantasy lit should be set on ships bc ships are inherently a sexy setting & you could have pirates which are extremely sexy. this has ships (and pirates) and also a sea made of grass? a magical plant sea on which ships sail via magical fires, so conceptually i’m very into it all. the plot is fine, but the protagonist kindred has a very bad case of Main Character Syndrome so prepare for mild annoyance throughout. also while i generally enjoy book magic vs wild magic i wish more works would treat them as two ends of a spectrum rather than ~book magic bad and boring, wild magic cool and *~natural*~. but overall i think this series has potential. 3/5

jagannath: stories, karin tidbeck ([partially?] translated from swedish by the author) really cool collection of sff stories by tidbeck, many of which veer into mild horror and some of which are influenced by swedish folklore and especially swedish fey stories. i enjoyed most of these a lot, especially the existential call centre horror story, the ‘god won’t let me die’ one, and a taxonomy of a cryptid that goes a little off the rails. 4/5

annette, ein heldinnenepos, anne weber a novel in verse about anne beaumanoir, a real person who was a résistance member during world war 2 and later supported the algerian national liberation front, for which she was sentenced to 10 years in prison (she escaped to tunisia and later algeria). she’s clearly a very impressive and interesting person & i conceptually enjoyed the idea of writing a modern hero(ine)’s epic, but i feel like the language could have been a bit more stylized to match the form. 3/5

salvage the bones, jesmyn ward (audio) bleak but ultimately hopeful novel about a black family in the days before and during hurricane katrina, although the focus is on the family dynamics, the 14-year-old narrator discovering that she is pregnant, and the kids trying to keep the puppies their dog china just had alive and well. enjoyed this, altho i did it a bit of a disservice but listening to it a lot of short chunks. 3.5/5

regeneration, pat barker (regeneration trilogy #1) set mostly at a military hospital for soldiers with shell shock during world war 1, this novel explores the existential horror of war, psychological treatment (& the horrible absurdity of treating traumatised men just enough so that you can send them straight back to Trauma Town), and the meeting between siegfried sassoon & wilfred owen. i find i don’t really have much to say about it, but it is very, very good. 4/5

how to pronounce knife, souvankham thammavongsa a short story collection mainly about refugees and migrants from laos to canada, many focusing on parent-child relationships and being forced to work in low-paid jobs, often ones that are damaging to their health. the stories are very well-observed and emotionally nuanced and detailed, but with 14 mostly very short stories, the collection as a whole felt a bit samey, which i guess is something i often experience with short story collections. 3/5

faces in the water, janet frame horrifying semi-autobiographical novel about a young woman stuck in new zealand’s mental health system, moving to different hospitals but mostly from ward to (more depressing) ward in the 40s/50s. while there is a shift in attitudes during her stay that sometimes makes the wards more tolerable, mostly the patients are neglected, abused, and the threat of electric shock therapy and lobotomy always hangs over them. 3/5

the upstairs house, julia fine fuck why did i read so many books about mental health conditions this month??? this is another entry in my casual ‘motherhood as horror’ reading project, in which a new mother develops post-partum psychosis & imagines the modernist children’s book writer she’s writing her dissertation on and her poet sometimes-lover haunting her and her child (margaret wise brown & michael strange, who are real people i was utterly unaware of). this does pretty good on the maternal horror front, but i wasn’t entirely sold on the literary haunting. 2/5

1000 serpentinen angst, olivia wenzel a very interesting novel about a woman struggling with grief over her brother’s suicide, an anxiety disorder, the (non)state of a (non)relationship and discrimination/marginalisation based on her identity as a black, east-german, bi woman (while also being, as she notes, financially privileged). much of the novel is written in a dialogue between the narrator and an unnamed (& probably internal) interlocutor, which was p effective for a novel more focused on introspection than much of a plot. 3/5

atlas: the archaeology of an imaginary city, dung kai-cheung (tr. from chinese by the author, anders hansson, bonnie mcdougall) fictitious theory about a slightly-left-of-reality version of hong kong and how maps (re)construct the city, very heavy on the postmodern poststructuralist postcolonial (and some other posts, i’m sure). in many ways my jam. unfortunately my favourite parts of this were the author’s preface and the first part (fictitious theory of mapping alternate hong kong); the rest felt very repetitive and not particularly interesting, altho i’m sure i was also just missing a lot of cultural context. 2.5/5

under the net, iris murdoch .........i liked the other two murdochs i’ve read (the sea, the sea & a severed head) quite a lot so either i was not in the mood for her very peculiar style of constructing novels and characters or, this being her first novel, she just wasn’t in full command of that peculiar style yet but man this was a slooooooooog. don’t stretch out your modern picaresque with an incredibly annoying narrator over more than 300 pages iris!!!! 2/5 bc this probably has some merit & i just wasn’t into it

the impossible revolution: making sense of the syrian tragedy, yassin al-haj saleh (tr. from arabic by i. rida mahmoud) collection of articles and essays saleh (a syrian intellectual & activist who spent 16 years in a syrian prison) wrote from 2011 to 2015, analysing the reasons for, potential and development of the revolution, as well as some background sociological discussion on the assads’ regime. very interesting, very dense, very depressing. wouldn’t necessarily recommend it as a first read on the topic tho. 3/5

angels in america: millenium approaches & perestroika, tony kushner the page to tumblr darling quote ratio in this is insane (”just mangled guts pretending” and so on) and also it just really slaps on every level. also managed to get me from 0 to crying several times. brilliant work of theatre, would love to see it staged (or filmed). 4/5

life: a user’s manual, georges perec (german tr. by eugen helmlé) 99 chapters, each corresponding with a single room in a parisian apartment block; some chapters are basically ‘here’s the room, here’s a long list of objects in the room, that’s it bye :)’, some are short insights into the lives of the people living there, some (the best, mostly) are long, absolutely wild tales that are sometimes only tangentially connected to the room in question. why are the french like this. 61/99 rooms 

sisters in hate: american women on the front lines of white nationalism, seyward darby (audio) nonfiction about women’s role in white nationalist hate movements, mainly based on the stories of three women who are or have been involved with various contemporary american alt-right/racist/neonazi hate groups, while also looking at general social trends and the history of white women’s role in white supremacy. interesting and engaging if you’re interested in this kind of thing. if you’re both politically aware and internet poisoned, it’s probably not much that is completely new to you but still worth reading. 3/5

starting in april i will be Gainfully Employed (ugh) & thus probably not read as much or read even more bc i have no energy for anything else 

[mimzy-writing-online]

Five Facts About Me

@belles-library tagged me in a game where you share five facts about yourself and tag five people. The original post is a little long so I’m separating this (because my ADHD said so).

1. I was born left handed but I’m almost completely ambidextrous at this point in life.

2. Current addictions: tea and caffeine. Yes, they’re separated even if it’s basically the same thing in my case. Previous addictions: nicotine in cigarette form. Not an addiction but you could argue it if you ignored the actual definition of an addiction: collecting mugs, collecting blankets, Sims, run-on sentences in this specific post because reasons.

3. Speaks some German, uses some Yiddish words but cannot speak it because it’s so fucking rare to find someone who does speak it natively as an actual language but the words are so common place in English!, wish I remembered any of my high school Spanish, distrust French as a language, and made up a version of Latin to use in A Witch’s Memory that I call Modern Latin. A language that basically evolved from “Old” Latin because Western witches found it more convenient for magic and it just evolved like all languages do.

4.  I’ve been accused of- being psychic (jokingly, by a family member), being a mind reader (almost seriously, by my best friend), being a mind controller (slightly more seriously, by my best friend), psychic (again, also by my best friend), having super senses (other friends, joking about blindness and super powers), being far too quiet for a normal human (every family member in my house, repeatedly), being an alien (theoretically, by my best friend), a cryptid (lovingly, by my girlfriend at the time), and others. Actual real stories, not joking. Feel free to ask about those because I love those stories.

5. May have finally figured out what the fuck is wrong with my eyes??? I have snow vision. Which is hard to diagnose because most ophthalmologists don’t even know it’s a thing, because people only became aware of what it was less than a decade ago and there’s next to no research on it. I would probably be considered a severe case. It’s genetic, my mum has a mild case of it. I have a severe case. I know exactly one person with a case as severe as mine, and their doctors, local organization for the blind, O&M instructors and support system have never heard of it.

It’s something you only get diagnosed with in the absence of any other explainable and provable condition. Kind of like chronic fatigue syndrome.

Those are some long answers but I’m in a sharing mood, what can I say. It’s also, like, 3 am and I need someone to talk to because I’m bored and a chronic insomniac, but hopefully I’ll go to bed soon.

Tagging People! Gotta tag five!

Here’s some urls I see a lot but don’t know much about and I want to change that.

@thequeenofthemultiverse @theater-girlie123 @snowblossim @maggie-wolff-writes @ishouldbewritingx

[anaemic-net]

Anaemic 3

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Related terms for 'anaemic': agoraphobic, anorexic, arthritic, autistic, brain-dead, concussed, dehydrated, diabetic, dyslexic, epileptic. Synonym.com is the web's best resource for English synonyms, antonyms, and definitions. ABSTRACT: An association of MS with different anaemic syndromes, most often pernicious and Vit. B12 deficiency anaemia has been reported in the literature. Dec 4, 2019 - ... parliamentary advisor, posted on Twitter that “the state of the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square this year [is the] most anaemic tree possible”. Sep 11, 2019 - If you have restless leg syndrome, you might be anaemic. The most insidious effect of low iron is the fact that it predisposes you to infections of ... Sep 27, 2019 - Database of the ongoing anaemia detection and awareness camps of Delhi Government revealed that 60% of Delhi college girls are anaemic. Amazon.in - Buy Beat the Iron Crisis: One in Four Children are Anaemic book online at best prices in India on Amazon.in. 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[fashiontrendin-blog]

I Found Out I Had Asperger’s at 33

http://fashion-trendin.com/i-found-out-i-had-aspergers-at-33/

I Found Out I Had Asperger’s at 33

Those with Asperger syndrome are said to sit on the “high-functioning” end of the autism spectrum. While all subtypes of autism are now technically folded into a single diagnosis (autism spectrum disorder, or ASD), the breadth of the spectrum means living with ASD looks different for everyone. 

Taylor was diagnosed with Asperger’s as an adult. The process of reflecting on her life and seeing herself through a new lens has been both scary and enlightening. When I got her on the phone to hear what that’s been like, she was chatty and friendly; I detected none of the bluntness she told me she has to keep in check.

Such are the subtleties of the Asperger’s experience — and it’s why I asked Taylor to share hers. Below is her as-told-to story. –Haley Nahman

Being diagnosed

I didn’t know that I had Asperger’s until a year ago. I was 33 when I was diagnosed. It was a long process. I think being diagnosed as an adult is a very strange experience, but it was also a massive relief. As a kid, I suffered from anxiety, but doctors diagnosed me with depression and stuffed me with drugs. Now when I look back, I think I was just struggling with Asperger’s and struggling to communicate with people.

Throughout my life, I tried to mask my social anxiety and social shortcomings by being outgoing and funny — but funny in a kind of offensive way. It sometimes made people laugh, but it also sometimes made people say that I was too much. I’ve always had a strange relationship with people and the way I communicate with them. I’m very blunt; I say whatever is on my mind. A lot of people don’t like that; they prefer the sugarcoated pleasantries. I remember during one of my first jobs in media, I was asked by my boss to add smiley faces and exclamation points to my emails because I sounded so mean in them.

I moved to Berlin in 2013. That was an interesting experience because not only was I dealing with new people, but also a new culture. German people are stereotypically very blunt, as well; they’re not big into small talk [like Americans]. In that way, it was nice for me because I felt a little more normal. But two years ago, I started getting really depressed. I was having a lot of trouble making new friends. Berlin is a very transient city, so I would meet new people and they’d move away. My friend group would fluctuate a lot, and I got to a point where I had only a handful of friends, if that.

I was super-lonely. I got really depressed thinking people didn’t invite me out because they didn’t like me, so I started looking at how I am with people and how I communicate with them. I started reading a bunch of things online, and, like any good digital native, I self-diagnosed myself on the internet. I took an online Asperger’s test and it indicated I was on the spectrum. But I thought, Okay, whatever, it’s just the internet.

Then my depression got worse, and my sister, who lives in New York, finally suggested I go talk to someone. I found a psychologist and met with her and said, “I took this Asperger’s test online and it’s probably stupid…” And she said, “Not at all — you actually have a lot of the symptoms. Let’s dive deeper into it and find out.”

The [official] test is on the computer, combined with talking to someone in person and problem-solving and stuff. It’s kind of similar to the Myers-Briggs test — that was actually a component to it, as well. Mine, INTJ, turned out to be very prone to Asperger’s. The therapist gave me a lot of literature, and we kind of went on this journey together of figuring out what it means for me as an adult. It’s been scary but also such a relief.

How it feels

It’s hard for me to explain what it feels like because I can’t speak to other people’s experiences. The spectrum is massive. Different people are plotted along it in different ways. I have a cousin who is low-functioning — he’ll never be able to live on his own — whereas I am high-functioning and you wouldn’t necessarily know I have Asperger’s if I didn’t tell you. Everyone has different quirks and different ticks.

I do think there are key commonalities, though. For one, we process information differently. For example, today was a really hard day for me because my boss sent me a two-sentence email. I had to read it 20 times, say it out loud and write it down to understand it. I was so overwhelmed I actually had to step outside for a little while. I couldn’t process this one sentence that said, “Add links to the document below and draft an email and send it.” I finally had to ask my coworker, “What does this mean?” It took me 20 minutes to figure out. The email was simple.

I think for a lot of neurotypical people, it’s much easier to pick up on tone of voice, body language or other nonverbal cues and know what they mean, whereas people with Asperger’s have trouble with that. Someone may say something to me that is bitingly sarcastic and I might leave with the impression that they’re very genuine. It’s hard. Sometimes my boyfriend will have to remind me when something’s a joke.

My brain just never feels fully comfortable. People think I’m being rude when I ask a question like, “Can you repeat yourself?” But it’s not that I’m not listening or meaning to be impolite — my brain just didn’t process what they said. It’s hard to describe how it feels exactly because other brains cannot grasp the way that my brain works. I tell people, “I don’t pick up on body language” or “I can’t look people in the eye” or “I don’t like being touched” because those things are relatable, but there are processing things that are harder to explain.

For example, your boss might send you an email saying, “Hey, I need this article finished by the end of the day,” and you would think, Okay, cool. I know exactly what she’s talking about. Whereas for me, my first thought is, Is this person angry at me? Followed by What article is she talking about? and What does she mean by finished? What if she’s not happy with it? Should I write two different versions just in case? What if they’re not the right two versions?

There’s a lot of overthinking, there’s a lot of overcomplicating. Nothing ever feels simple. I can’t trust my thoughts. I don’t think people quite understand how easy it is for neurotypical people to process information. It can be really crippling for people with Asperger’s.

I have to remind myself to smile. Even with my boyfriend sometimes, he’ll get really flustered. Sometimes I’ll think I’m being really cheeky and funny and playful, and he’ll get upset because it’s just not translating. And I’ll have to say, “I’m trying to not be too blunt! I’m trying to be subtle.” Reading people’s social cues is a tough one.

Another thing with people on the spectrum is sensory overload. Often you hear about people on the spectrum who can’t be around too many lights and sounds — mine is smell. It’s really weird. I like to know ahead of time if I’m going to be somewhere where there might be overpowering smells because they might rile me up and make me really uncomfortable.

Living with it

My entire life, I never felt like a normal person. In high school, I wasn’t unpopular — I had a lot of different social groups I hung out with — but everyone I was friends with always told me, “You’re really weird, you’re really loud, you’re really this,” etc. So I never felt that anyone really liked me. My impression was more that they just put up with me. In hindsight, I know people did like me because I have friends from childhood I’m still close with, but that’s how I felt.

My best friends now know that I have Asperger’s and can pick up on when I’m struggling. It’s helpful to have people who understand my triggers so they can give me space and give me what I need. My friends will sometimes say, “Do you just need to go outside for a minute?” They know to be supportive.

Now that I know I have trouble processing, I have even more trouble with people who are not to the point and tell me [excess] information. I cut people off because I’m either taking too long to process what they said or I’ve already processed it and I’ve gotten the most information I could possibly need out of that sentence and I’m done. I have to just shut it down sometimes.

I live in England currently, and the cultural stereotype here is to be nice and polite even if you’re pissed off, so that’s something [else] I struggle with. I try to stop before I say things and make myself say them in a nice way, which feels very unnatural.

For a while after I found out, I was worried about telling people because I didn’t know that much about it. If I said I had [Asperger’s], people immediately asked what it was or responded that they’d seen a special on BBC or something. And I’d think, You have no idea. I even made my boyfriend read so much stuff, and he’s still having a hard time understanding it. My parents would say, “You don’t have Asperger’s” because they didn’t see it. It’s taken them a while to understand it.

I think now, though, I just address it head-on. If I think someone is confused or I get the sense that they think I’m being weird, I just tell them. Sometimes I also say it up front so people know. Where I work now, I made the decision to tell them from the very beginning of the interview process. It’s funny because everyone there said, “I’m fairly certain this is the perfect place for you because all the processes that we have in the office are fairly Asperger’s-friendly.” And that just means no bullshit. They don’t want fluff. Just straightforward stuff. We’re not allowed to use Powerpoint — we just use Word documents, and that’s ideal for me because I’m able to just get things out and not have to worry about pleasantries. They like when people push back and say what they mean, too. It’s been a really good environment.

There is no treatment, just awareness. I’m still navigating it all. A lot of it is reading literature and reading about other people’s experiences as well as learning from your own experiences. You can’t be embarrassed about it. All you can do is learn more and grow with it. The diagnosis has changed the way I think about myself. I think it’s empowered me. It’s made me like myself more because when you’re constantly told by people that you’re a bitch or too blunt or too whatever, it doesn’t make you feel good. My whole life, I’ve struggled with how I’ve interacted with people, and now I finally have an answer. I’m not ashamed of it.

Collages by Emily Zirimis.

[cardiology101-blog]

The History of Heart Disease

Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States today. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that about one in four Americans die from the disease every year. This adds up to about 610,000 individuals. In addition, 735,000 people have heart attacks each year.

Heart disease is considered the top preventable disease in the United States. Some genetic factors can contribute, but the disease is largely attributed to poor lifestyle habits. Among these are poor diet, lack of regular exercise, drug or alcohol abuse, and high stress. These are issues that remain prevalent in American culture, so it’s no wonder why heart disease is a large concern.

Has this disease always plagued the human race or is our modern lifestyle to blame? A look back at the history of heart disease may surprise you.

Even Egyptian Pharaohs Had It

At the 2009 American Heart Association meeting in Florida, researchers presented study results showing that Egyptian mummies, some 3,500 years old, had evidence of heart disease — specifically atherosclerosis, which narrows the arteries. Pharaoh Merenptah, who died in the year 1203 BCE, was plagued by atherosclerosis. Nine of the 16 other mummies studied also had evidence of the disease.

How could this be possible? Researchers theorized that diet could be involved. High-status Egyptians ate a lot of fatty meats from cattle, ducks, and geese, and used a lot of salt for food preservation. Beyond that, the study brought up some interesting questions and has prompted scientists to continue their work to fully understand the condition. “The findings suggest,” said co-principal investigator on the study and clinical professor Dr. Gregory Thomas, “that we may have to look beyond modern risk factors to fully understand the disease.”

Early Discoveries of Coronary Artery Disease

To say exactly when civilization first became aware of coronary artery disease, also known as artery narrowing, is difficult. However, it’s known that Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) investigated coronary arteries.

William Harvey (1578–1657) — physician to King Charles I — is credited with discovering that the blood moves from the right ventricle of the heart through the lung and into the aorta, then the peripheral vessels, and back into the lung.

Later, Friedrich Hoffmann (1660–1742), chief professor of cardiology at the University of Halle, noted that coronary heart disease started in the “reduced passage of the blood within the coronary arteries.”

Puzzling out the Problem of Angina

Angina — tightness in the chest that’s often an indicator of heart disease — puzzled many physicians in the 18th and 19th centuries. First described in 1768, it was believed by many to have something to do with blood circulating in the coronary arteries, though others thought it was a harmless condition.

The cardiologist William Osler (1849–1919) worked extensively on angina, and was one of the first to indicate that it was a syndrome rather than a disease in itself. Later, in 1912, the American cardiologist James B. Herrick (1861­–1954) concluded that the slow, gradual narrowing of the coronary arteries could be a cause of angina. He’s also credited with inventing the term “heart attack.”

Learning to Detect Heart Disease

The 1900s mark a period of increased interest, study, and understanding of heart disease. In 1915, a group of physicians and social workers formed an organization called the Association for the Prevention and Relief of Heart Disease in New York City. In 1924, the group became the American Heart Association. These doctors were concerned about the disease because they knew little about it. The patients they typically saw with it had little hope for treatment.

Just a few years later, doctors began to experiment with exploring the coronary arteries with catheters. This would later become cardiac catherization (coronary angiogram). Today, these procedures are commonly used to evaluate or confirm the presence of coronary artery disease and to determine the need for further treatment.

Both Portuguese physician Egas Moniz (1874–1955) and German physician Werner Forssman (1904–1979) are credited as pioneers in this field. Mason Sones (1918–1985), a pediatric cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, perfected the technique for producing high-quality diagnostic images of the coronary arteries. The new test made an accurate diagnosis of coronary artery disease possible for the first time.

The Beginnings of Watching Our Diets

In 1948, researchers under the direction of the National Heart Institute (now called the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute) initiated the Framingham Heart Study, the first major study to help understand heart disease. In 1949, the term “arteriosclerosis” (known as “atherosclerosis” today) was added to the International Classification of Diseases, which caused a sharp increase in reported deaths from heart disease.

In 1950, University of California researcher John Gofman (1918–2007) and his associates identified today’s two well-known cholesterol types: low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL). He discovered that men who developed atherosclerosis had elevated levels of LDL and low levels of HDL.

Also in the 1950s, American scientist Ancel Keys (1904–2004) discovered in his travels that heart disease was rare in some Mediterranean populations where people consumed a lower fat diet. He also noted that the Japanese had low-fat diets and low rates of heart disease as well, leading him to theorize that fat was the cause of heart disease. These and other developments, including results from the Framingham Heart Study, led to the first attempts at urging Americans to change their diets for better heart health.

The Future of Heart Disease

It was in the 1960s and 1970s that treatments like bypass surgery and angioplasty were first used to help treat heart disease. In the 1980s, the use of stents to help prop open a narrowed artery became common. As a result of these treatment advances, a diagnosis of heart disease today is no longer necessarily a death sentence. In addition, in 2014 the Scripps Research Institute reported a new biopsy that can predict the onset of a heart attack in high-risk individuals.

Physicians are also looking to change some misconceptions about low-fat diets. While saturated fats and trans fats are indeed linked to heart disease, we now know that some fat is actually good for your heart. Unsaturated fats help reduce cholesterol while boosting HDL levels and overall heart health. Look for mono or polyunsaturated fats as well as omega-3 fatty acid sources. The best choices are plant oils, nuts, and fish.

Today, we know more about how to treat coronary artery disease or narrowed arteries to lengthen and improve quality of life. We also know more about how to reduce our risk of heart disease in the first place. But, as we’ve learned from the study on Egyptian mummies, we don’t yet know it all. We’re still a long way from completely erasing this disease from human history.

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