He was dressed causally in jeans, a loosely collared shirt and a near perfect tan, as if it was happily acquired outdoors, not in a tanning booth. This Monday morning on GMA, Dan Buettner, a member of the crazed ultra-endurance cycling fraternity sat before millions of viewers, with the perfectly coiffed George Stephanopoulus, and proclaimed […]
Category: Healthy Living
It beats 100,000 times per day. It pumps liters of blood per minute. If it stops, you stop, in about six seconds. For the human heart to contract this reliably, without hiccups, it requires a steady stream of nutrients. A healthy heart has clean pipes. There are two ways to keep pipes clear of blockage. […]
“Hey…where did those cupcakes go?” Like a never-ending western North Carolina climb where each switchback reveals another uphill, and the finish is shielded by tall pines, the struggle to lose weight and to stay lean is incessant. In wrestling weight gain competitive cyclists share the same mat as ‘regular’ Americans. Like jockeys, all competitive bike […]
An interesting question came from another sub-specialist–via the comments section of my recent post on the practical difficulties of screening young athletes with routine ECGs. “I’m asked week-in and week-out about screening exams and tests for adult athletes. What do YOU recommend for the seemingly healthy 25-45 year old male non-elite athlete who asks about […]
Feeling sorry for the big bad insurance companies? Is this even possible? Let me explain. We stayed at a national hotel chain this weekend. I am fairly sure that the free food and sugary drinks they routinely supply, are on-the-whole a profitable venture, but on a microeconomic scale such was not likely the case this […]
As if we need more evidence that schools should bring back daily gym class. Researchers at the University of Illinois studied 9-10 year-old children with MRIs (no radiation exposure), VO2 treadmill testing, and memory evaluations. Their findings should spank those in the educational elite who give regular gym class only lip service. “Dr M, you […]
Categories
Middle-age…
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” An intermission, the curtain has closed on youth, but the next act awaits. Caring for hiccups of the heart, like atrial fibrillation for example, often throws me in front of the mirror, of middle-age that is, and sadly the reflections show imperfections. Since […]
Categories
The solution that isn’t…
I am trying to get off the topic, of fatness, that is. But just when it seems right to move on, to something less hopeless; we hear that even doctors can be felled by obesity’s resilience. To the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group of well-meaning doctors who are buying expensive TV ads blaming McDonalds […]
I have witnessed this grocery-store checkout phenomenon countless times. Haven’t you? These two paragraphs are a direct quote from the blog, 33 Charts, authored by the very famous blogger, professor, and pediatrician (Dr Bryan Vartabedian)… “So I’m in the checkout line at the grocery store. In front of me is an overweight mother and child. […]
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One year!!!
One year ago, this weekend, what started as some simple commentary on a bike race, or a ride, has morphed into opinion statements on many different aspects of what life presents to me. Since what I know the most about is electrophysiology, writing on matters of the heart seemed logical. Even after nearly two decades, […]
Say what you wish about social media. Say it is distracting, or privacy threatening, or that Facebook “friends” are not like real friends. Yes, this is true, I get the downsides of over-connectedness. Today though, I discovered a huge positive of social media, Facebook in particular. The degree of the good sensations surprised me. The […]