Categories
Cycling Wed Exercise Healthy Living

CW: Regular Exercise: An amazingly effective elixir

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 […]

Categories
Athletic heart Cycling Wed Exercise

CW: The ECG of an athlete

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 […]

Categories
Cycling Stuff Cycling Wed Exercise

What’s a normal heart rate?

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 […]

Categories
Cycling Stuff Cycling Wed Exercise

CW: A summer’s cauldron of inflammation

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 […]

Categories
Exercise General Cardiology Healthy Living

Confused on what’s healthy? Just think about our biology

Time-out! (After three days of some heavy non-fiction concerning atrial fibrillation, may I lighten up a bit, and have some fun free-lancing about health, exercise and genes?) Here goes… Good health flows from our genes. Our brains focus, eyes peer, adrenals secret, nodes depolarize, ventricles squeeze, valves open, and then close, muscles flex, and relax, bones […]

Categories
Cycling Stuff Exercise Reflection

A Saturday morning coffee video…

Enjoy. It’s only 2:17. My eighth-grade son, “you know, it raises some interesting issues…though I don’t think Cancer would disappear.” JMM h/t @Andrea_Cyr

Categories
Cycling Wed Exercise Healthy Living

CW: The heart healthiness of “real” physical fitness

My neighbor Ed was a thin man all his life. He maintained an ideal body weight by combining regular physical activity with a modest intake of calories. He was a “young” seventy year-old who looked the picture of heart health. Ed regularly read the newspaper while walking on his treadmill, he hit a golf ball […]

Categories
Cycling Wed Exercise Healthy Living inflammation

CW: That exercise has an upper limit makes perfect sense

As a bike-racing heart doctor who practices in one of America’s least healthy states, it pains me to say anything against exercise. I spend a great deal of my typical office day cajoling Kentuckians to exercise more. Sometimes, I even prescribe daily exercise rather than a medicine! “It’s OK to exercise every day that you […]

Categories
Cycling Wed Exercise Knowledge

Cycling Wednesday: The Three Rs

This Wednesday, I’d like to talk about how rodents, relationships, and riding relate to intelligence and overall wellness. This idea comes from a nicely written NY Times piece entitled, Does Loneliness Reduce the Benefits of Exercise?  Here, Ms Gretchen Reynolds reviews a few intriguing studies about how relationships may affect exercise, stress hormone levels and […]

Categories
Exercise Healthy Living

He proved his point

“Your health account is your wealth account…Long live living long” –Jack Lalanne Though many triathletes try, few succeed in registering higher on the goofiness scale than the satin-skin-suit-clad fitness guru, Jack Lalanne.  I just couldn’t help grinning while I watched tonight’s evening-news recaps of his life; his grin and energy were infectious.  Just looking at […]

Categories
Cycling Stuff Cycling Wed Exercise inflammation

CW: Improve your ‘metabolism’ with morning exercise

Doctor’s Lounge: Thursdays It’s the time of the year when dietary temptations lurk around every corner of the hospital. And since completely abstaining is not always possible, the best antidote for this holiday deluge of inflammation is obvious: exercise. No doubt, within the boundaries of common sense, all exercise is good. But is there a best […]