The most famous medical blogger once direct-messaged me this advice: “One thing I have learned from blogging is to never engage criticism.†I’m going to break this advice. The robustness of the response over the Ironman piece shocked me. As a bike racer, a cardiologist, and a happily married man, I have grown thick skin. […]
Category: Healthy Living
Before I even start, let me say this to my triathlete friends… I really like you all. And…I am sorry for how I feel about your sport’s pinnacle, the Ironman triathlon. But I was poked into writing this post. When asked the question of whether the Ironman is safe for the middle-aged heart, what was […]
How could it have happened? He was strong; do you remember how he could get uphill? He was fit; can you ever recall seeing him out of shape? His blood pressure was perfect, low even. He bragged about his exemplary cholesterol levels. He was lean and mean. Wait a minute…what was that about being mean? […]
The tweet said that experts were debating the merits of a polypill? I had to click that link. Yes. I was right; there were actually “eminent†cardiologists suggesting that a pill containing 4 different medicines (a statin, aspirin, beta-blocker and an ACE-inhibitor) “might change the face of cardiovascular medicine.” The direct quote from Dr Salim […]
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 […]
<Apologies in advance: this post is a (major) re-write of an old post.> Heart rhythm doctors are trained observers. We spend our days focusing on minute squiggles which are timed in milliseconds. It’s all a lot of observation. It’s only natural that one’s work skills might spill over to normal life. Plumbers are handy around […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
Not every Friday brings doctoring bliss. Sorry. Some Fridays, the wrongness of our healthcare approach squeezes you like a vice-grip. The medical news of the week can hit you hard. –This highly tweeted report on how Overweight is the new normal speaks to the futility of asking people to help themselves. That our strong, vibrant, […]