Breast cancer screenings and AI may protect against heart disease, new study suggests

Routine mammograms can “flag the risk of heart disease,” according to a new study in the European Heart Journal.

A recent story by Carolyn Y. Johnson in The Washington Post confirms that information. It also notes that radiologists for decades “have observed that breast cancer screening scans also reveal calcium deposits in the arteries woven through breast tissue, which cause the blood vessels to stiffen.”

According to Johnson, the study shows “how artificial intelligence [AI] can be used…to turn this ‘incidental finding’ into a warning system…a marker of increased risk for heart failure, heart attacks, stroke, and death.”

 

Heart disease is “the leading and often under-recognized cause of death in women,” his Post piece adds.

 

The story says that “studies have shown that many women mistakenly believe that breast cancer is the leading cause of death, and they may not take seriously the much greater risk of heart disease.”

 

Dr. Mary Cushman

Mary Cushman, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Vermont, who wasn't part of the study, is quoted to the effect that if women were educated while getting a mammogram, "it could be a game changer."

She also contends, according to an email she wrote, that “it is a clarion call that younger women [under 50] do have risk, that it can be detected, and that detection of risk should lead to interventions.”

 

By 2050, it is projected, “a third of women between the ages of 20 and 44 will have some form of heart disease,” the study says.

 

More information on cancer and heart disease can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.

Susie Wiles, Chief of Staff for Donald Trump, Reveals She Has Breast Cancer, Will Work Anyway

Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, plans to keep working while being treated for breast cancer.

Wiles did not announce those facts, the president did. Today. He said the prognosis for his longtime confidante was “beyond excellent,” according to a story by Dan Diamond in The Washington Post.

Susie Wiles

Donald Trump

Two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Post indicate she’s working on White House strategy in regard to this year’s midterm elections, “encouraging officials to focus on affordability and other messages with bipartisan appeal."

Wiles, 68, a longtime political strategist, helped Trump win the state of Florida in 2016, and then managed his 2024 presidential campaign.

The Post piece indicates she’s honing in on “priorities such as drug price cuts and [tamping] down controversies around vaccines.”

According to Diamond’s article, Trump notes on Truth Social that during the treatment period Wiles “will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me…very happy!”

Critics complained that Trump was politicizing breast cancer, just as he's politicized other difficult health and social situations in the past.

The story says that “Wiles has described her role as empowering Trump’s agenda, rather than serving as a check on his impulses, a break from some past chiefs of staff who have said that their most important role was saying no to the nation’s leader.

The piece continues: “She has also described Trump as having ‘an alcoholic’s personality,’ saying he ‘operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing,” among several comments that were published in a pair of Vanity Fair articles that drew national attention last year.

More information on political activities can be found in Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer, aVitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten aimed at male caregivers. My other books are MysteryDates — How to keep the sizzle in your relationship; The Roving I, a compilation of 70 of my newspaper columns; and Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates, a whimsical fantasy intended for 6- to 10-year-olds that I co-authored with my then 8-year-old granddaughter. Check out my website at https://woodyweingarten.com for details.