Koen Robeys

"Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assault of thought on the unthinking"

Ik deel veel rode idealen maar daarvoor hebben we blauwe middelen nodig

[Steven__lemmens @Stevenlemmens5]

Waarom zijn we zo streng voor antivax, maar wordt iemand als Sigrid en andere gedachtegenoten gewoon toegelaten tot wetenschappelijke onderwijscomité's bijvoorbeeld? (Niet Sigrid zelf dat k weet). Die tappen uit hetzelfde vaatje. Sigrid blocked me btw. So no tag.

[Afshine Emrani MD FACC @afshineemrani]

I'm a cardiologist. A 42-year-old mother of two came to my office complaining of jaw pain and crushing fatigue. She ran half-marathons. Her EKG was normal. Another doctor had sent her home with anxiety medication.
When I got her into the cath lab, I found severe microvascular disease — plaque choking the tiniest vessels of her heart, the ones standard angiograms routinely miss.
Her heart had been starving in silence while everyone told her she was stressed.
She is alive today. Too many women like her are not.
Heart disease kills more women than every cancer combined. And medicine is still diagnosing it through a male lens.
84% of cardiologists report having patients in the past year whose heart disease was misdiagnosed by another physician. Women with a STEMI heart attack have a 59% greater chance of being misdiagnosed compared to men. Women with an NSTEMI — 41% greater chance.
The reason is structural. For decades, we screened, tested, and treated women using a template built for men.
Men's heart attacks announce themselves — the crushing chest pain, the clutched fist, the Hollywood collapse. Women's hearts whisper. Crushing fatigue that feels like wearing a lead vest. Jaw pain written off as TMJ. Nausea blamed on a stomach bug. An ache between the shoulder blades blamed on a long week. Shortness of breath blamed on being out of shape.
For years, medicine called these "atypical" symptoms. They are not atypical. They are female-typical. Half of humanity is not a variant.
And the biology runs deeper than symptoms.
Women have smaller hearts and narrower coronary arteries. Plaque doesn't only clog the big highway vessels — it hides in the microvasculature, the tiny branches feeding the heart muscle itself. A woman can have a heart attack with a completely "clean" standard angiogram.
SCAD — spontaneous coronary artery dissection — occurs 90% of the time in women. Often young, fit women with zero traditional risk factors. It's the leading cause of heart attack in women under 50, accounting for roughly one quarter of all cases in that age group. Most doctors have never diagnosed one.
And some of the most dangerous cardiac risk factors are hidden in women's medical histories where no one thinks to look:
Preeclampsia or gestational hypertension doubles to quadruples lifetime heart disease and stroke risk. Pregnancy is the body's first cardiac stress test — and these complications are early warning sirens, not closed chapters.
Autoimmune disease — lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis — far more common in women, turbocharges inflammation and plaque formation at any age.
Cardiovascular disease in women aged 20-44 is projected to surge nearly 50% by 2050.
The youngest patients in my practice keep getting younger.
What every woman should ask her doctor — and what every doctor should be asking:
"Given my pregnancy history, autoimmune status, and family history — what is my full cardiovascular risk?" If they don't ask about preeclampsia or gestational diabetes, volunteer it.
"Should I have an Lp(a) test and a coronary calcium score?" Standard cholesterol panels miss too much. Lp(a) is genetic, one-time, and most women have never been tested.
"My tests came back normal but my symptoms haven't stopped — what's next?" Normal stress tests and angiograms can miss microvascular disease, spasm, and SCAD. Persistent symptoms warrant coronary CT angiography or cardiac MRI.
And if something feels wrong — say these exact words to your doctor: "I am concerned this could be my heart."
That single sentence changes the workup. Do not soften it. Do not apologize for it.
80% of heart disease is preventable. But the playbook has to be built for female biology.
Two decades ago, I wrote one of the first books warning that heart disease was the number one killer of women and that medicine was diagnosing it through a male lens. It was recognized by First Lady Laura Bush at the White House during the early years of the national conversation about women's heart health.
I'm haunted by how much of that book I could republish today unchanged.
The science has advanced. The awareness has grown. But the gap between what we know and what happens in the exam room is still costing women their lives.
Share this with every woman you love — and every doctor who treats them. READ MORE: https://t.co/4LRugiY8q2

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@zaelefty @DrMariekedOuden "(...) that from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved" (Darwin, 1859)

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@WrkClsHero @NotEvolution1 Recapitulating:

Creationist claims an "un-Darwinian phenomenon".
Truth: the phenomenon was described by Darwin himself.

Creationists hurriedly trying to change the topic.

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@Nicomp83098562 @NotEvolution1 Recapitulating:

Creationist claims an "un-Darwinian phenomenon".
Truth: the phenomenon was described by Darwin himself.

Creationists hurriedly trying to change the topic.

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@superboekhouder Nog altijd niets over "Chimpanzee Politics "?

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@ThomasRotthier @jdceulaer @freekvdvelde Het kan niet aan "jongens", eerder dan "het systeem" liggen?

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@TruthMatters64 @SEeckelaerts @sigridschollen @LBonneux @aardspin @CanielDoens @Margreetvz @SelmMerel @HogeschoolPXL Soms kan een Socratische horzel wonderen doen!

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@beatabooo @CuriosityonX And maybe it was a woman and what she grew was an apple and then she tasted it and all hell broke loose

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@beatabooo @CuriosityonX I think it started with a lot of hard work growing stuff on it, and *that* was what he had to defend.

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@HendrikBallege1 @science_dirk @wimdenolf @HogeschoolPXL @SEeckelaerts @pxl Laat me je "haastig gerust stellen: je wordt "terecht gewezen" door de zotskap die heeft uitgekraamd dat volgens biologen mensen van geslacht kunnen veranderen" en er met de staart tussen de poten ("blok") vandoor moest toen ik hem zijn monumentale onwetendheid toonde.

[Joël De Ceulaer @jdceulaer]

@wimdenolf @HogeschoolPXL Dag Wim, de "uitstekende" (jouw woorden) JDC hier. Een vraagje: wil je nu werkelijk dat @SEeckelaerts (1) ontslagen wordt, of (2) het zwijgen wordt opgelegd? Dat is behoorlijk onthutsend, moet ik zeggen.

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@wimdenolf @jdceulaer @HogeschoolPXL @SEeckelaerts Niemand "rationaliseert uitsluiting van transgenders". Maar ik zie wel mensen fascistoide technieken als bedreiging en intimiodatie gebruike. Schaam je.

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@SEeckelaerts @wimdenolf @Margreetvz @SelmMerel @Epiiiiii_ @QuestionsFromNL Je bedoelt dat ze niet willen of kunnen - dus beter gezegd: "durven" - antwoorden?

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@SEeckelaerts @wimdenolf @Margreetvz @SelmMerel @Epiiiiii_ @QuestionsFromNL Ik ben daar nog altijd toe bereid. Soms vraag ik me af: zou het volstaan mensen die het over "tolerantie" etc hebben te vragen: "besef je dat de biologie geslacht definieert in termen van grootte van de gameten?" en ook "besef je dat mensen niet van geslacht kunnen veranderen?"

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

@ThomasRotthier @LodeCossaer In mijn rol van het varken kan ik dat alleen maar bevestigen.

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

X is like inviting the village idiot to every conversation and letting the algorithm hand them the microphone.

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

After 8 billion doses (yes 8 BILLION, not a typo) Covid vaccines are at this point one of the most tested medical interventions in history and one of the safest ever

[Koen Robeys @Koenrobeys]

Ik lust ook geen bier. So?