In the better-late-than-never category comes my shout out for World Kidney Day, which was yesterday. I love their slogan: “Protect your Kidneys, Save your Heart.” As an organ, the kidneys are a lot like offensive lineman in football; they do all the hard work but remain mostly anonymous. They sit motionless in the back of […]
Category: Healthy Living
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 […]
Readers of Cycling Wednesdays know that I am often tough on the endurance athlete crowd. Our over-indulged, egocentric lifestyles, and less-than-tranquil temperaments make great fodder for posts on inflammation. Sorry about that. But not this Wednesday, though. Today, I am putting your healthy ways up on a pedestal. I would like to invite you into […]
I recently read a story about pediatricians that refuse to see children when their parents’ decline vaccines. It was the doctoring aspect of this story that caught my attention. Specifically, I was struck by the definitive and novel way that this group of doctors are dealing with the problem of patients that make unwise personal […]
It was a tough pill to recommend. I prescribe it only in unusual cases. The patient didn’t want it, and I wished there was another option. But in this rare case, a very bitter elixir was a necessity. What therapy could be this bad? Recently, I had to tell a patient—whose life revolved around physical […]
Normally, on Wednesdays, I try to mesh cycling and health. Today, the gumbo includes cycling, politics, irony, and of course, heart-health. I’ve said before that most of the cyclists and endurance athletes I know ride expensive bikes, wear costly clothes and measure their meager power outputs with thousand-dollar, truth-telling strain gauges. Though we may moan […]
Categories
Junk food in a can
It tastes sweet. It’s pleasurably fizzy. And free of calories. What’s more, the FDA says Nutra-sweet is safe. So what’s not to like about diet soft drinks? A bunch. The ongoing debate about the healthiness of diet soft drinks reminds me of the old-adage, if something sounds to be true, it probably is. Artificially-sweetened “diet” […]
On Wednesdays I like to mesh cycling, healthy living and medicine. In this regard, the conflicts surrounding drinking alcohol work well. What other organic chemical is more debated? Here goes. Let’s start with the cyclists’ view of alcohol. Mountain-bikers’ love of beer is axiomatic. Cyclocross riders also fancy beer, this, primarily because they worship all […]
Hey Cyclists, I know. You ride a lot. You eat well. You stay thin. So you rightfully call yourself athletic. Congratulations. Now, take the time in the off-season to go get your blood pressure checked. Doing so is free in most grocery stores and pharmacies. Plus, you get to grin at that funny voice that […]
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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 […]
Today was a great day. There was a gratifying ablation, a silky-smooth BiV defibrillator implant, (evidenced-based of course), a few consults (always a few consults), and as a bonus, I even eked out some severe learning about the novel, though not yet approved, AF-drug, vernakalant. (Any time you re-learn the ion channels of the cardiac […]