It’s Wednesday, so I would like to tell you about some cool things I learned this past week about the science of how exercise can be used as a treatment for three common ailments. First, some background about exercise: The great thing about exercising every day that you eat is that this magic potion is […]
Category: Cycling Wed
Wednesday musings on all things cycling-related
It may seem a little formal to say this, but I would like to start by stating my goals for today’s post: Introduce the concept of the athletic heart; Touch upon the notion of sudden death of the athlete; Explain what an ECG really is, and how it may help diagnose heart disease; Review a […]
The normal number of heartbeats per minute is a frequently asked question. People, especially medical people, like well-defined lows and highs. Parameters which can be assigned an ‘L’ or ‘H’ makes life easier. Competitive cyclists immerse themselves in a sea of information. In our quest for weekend glory, we intensely study oodles of data–minutia like […]
People who exercise outdoors face a new threat. It’s unrelenting. Consistent. Inescapable. Perhaps, even more dangerous than distracted or mean motorists. It’s the heat. Gosh, is it hot. If only I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say, “Doctor M, you aren’t riding in this heat; are you?†Well…Other than the fortunate […]
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CW: 2011Tour notes…
This Wednesday, I am going to break away from medical topics. I will drop the biological vernacular, distancing myself from terms like sarcomeres, ion channels and inflammatory markers. Rather, I will pedal my thoughts on a bike racers’ biggest distraction each July: The Tour de France. Okay, that’s enough cycling-related action verbs. Sorry. But this […]
Few sporting events cause more inflammation than the Tour de France. It’s long, fast, tiring, and stressful. These facts are not news, and neither are crashes. By now, many of you have seen or heard that crashes have marred the first week of this year’s Tour. Even before the first day in the mountains, potential […]
Reports documenting the dangers of Non-Steroidal-Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) continue to generate headlines. It’s a steady stream of bad news for patients who take these widely-available pain relievers. Sorry about the repetition folks, but it’s hard to ignore my daily email updates from the American College of Cardiology when they so directly pertain to endurance athletes. […]
The Biology of Omega-3 fatty acids: (Just a little science:) When fish, flax-seeds or Brussels sprouts pass through the intestine, pancreatic enzymes transform the fat to free fatty acids. These acids are quickly taken up by the cells. Once in the cell, these fatty acids enter the mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and cytosol–places that you might […]
It’s funny how coincidence works in medicine. A number of patients, and a couple of cyclists, have recently asked me about the worthiness of omega-3 supplements. And there it was today when I checked the mail: a comprehensive review article on n-3 Fatty Acids in Cardiovascular Disease, in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine. […]
A very accomplished colleague of mine once mused—about an athletic patient with a heart problem: “John…the guy is only a cyclist…It’s not like riding a bike is that hard.” I wanted to call him to the EP lab to feel how the heart of an endurance athlete rocks the catheter that you hold in your […]
As a passionate cyclist, I really like it when someone asks for bike advice. Cycling is something I know a lot about–though probably not as much as Sal Khan. Recently, a spin class enthusiast who was considering making the gigantic leap to outdoor cycling asked me whether it’s worth spending extra dollars on a super-light […]