Pride Month, observed each June, is a time to celebrate LGBTQ history, community, and life through events and parades. Curiously enough, I marched in my first Pride parade years before I had the courage to come out and live authentically. While I think about that experience in San Francisco…

Throughout my son Cullen’s pulmonary hypertension and heart-lung transplant journey, it has been my impression that hospitals try to treat the whole person — body, mind, and spirit. Over the past 13 years, he has been treated at four hospitals in two states, and each facility has offered chaplaincy…

Despite a high-risk of serious complications, 10 women with moderate to severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) had a successful pregnancy and delivery, according to a single center study. The patients were managed with prostacyclin therapy in addition to PAH-specific treatments during pregnancy and specialized care. Most transitioned to oral…

A three-month unsupervised health intervention based on a commercial activity tracker and motivational texts significantly increased daily step counts and improved quality of life in adults with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to data from a single-center trial in the U.S. Since physical activity has been shown to…

I still remember sitting on the couch with my mom on the eve of my 15th birthday. We were talking about how old I was getting, and after a brief pause, she said softly, “Every year for you is a miracle, you know.” I don’t remember how I responded, but…

Do you find yourself scrolling through emails or multitasking when you sit down to rest? If you can’t seem to stop working or focusing on tasks, you are not alone. Our society has a troubling dilemma with overworking. Recently, I experienced an epiphany of sorts, and…

A new metric for assessing cardiac health, called pulmonary artery proportional pulse pressure or PAPP, could help to identify people at high risk of hospitalization or death due to pulmonary hypertension or heart failure, allowing for more timely and effective treatment, a study reported. Researchers at the University of…

Eurordis opened a campaign, called Rare 2030 Action, that is seeking to establish a European action plan for rare diseases to ensure that none of the 30 million people in Europe living with rare diseases are left behind by the start of a new decade. As part of…

Nurses are remarkable people. My respect for them has grown significantly throughout my son’s pulmonary hypertension (PH) and transplant journey. Their job requires important skills, intelligence, patience, persuasiveness, compassion, energy, emotional control, a strong stomach — the list is endless. And I can’t think of a more suitable person to…

Treatment with a single medication (monotherapy) may be sufficient to help manage people with “atypical” pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to an analysis from four clinical centers in Germany. One-year survival of adults diagnosed with “atypical” PAH — those older than 65 and with multiple risk factors for heart…