“What do you do for a living?” I ask this of nearly all patients, as inflammation doesn’t just come in processed food wrappers, plastic bottles of carbonated beverages or cartons of tobacco products. Artery irritating, arrhythmia triggering inflammation can also emanate from one’s occupation. Keep your eyes, ears and mind open, and it is striking […]
Category: Healthy Living
Cyclists don’t usually watch much golf. I was simply flipping channels when the commercial jumped out at me. The volume was down low when the tired looking, drilled-out middle-aged guy appears. He looks like many of my male AF patients. Â Then, next to this especially pale-skinned dumpy looking guy, the words appear… “Do you have […]
Statin drugs are in the news. The real truth is coming out. The truth that statin drugs (Zocor, Lipitor, Crestor are a few of the more recognizable names) are much more than simple cholesterol lowering agents. This very informative WSJ piece presents the thesis–first published by renowned experts in the Annals of Internal Medicine this […]
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Attitude…
Life sometimes gets in the way of daily posting. Specifically, the treadmill of life sometimes roars too fast. But, as I strolled through the hospital this morning there was this plain piece of white paper taped to the wall around the nurses station. Although, I am not overly religious, and even highly conflicted about which […]
Everyone knows that the heart health of Americans is dismal. Obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure are all on the rise. For now, technological advances in cardiac care continue to maintain, or in some cases, lower the death rate from heart disease. Squishing blockages, ablating abnormal heart tissue, and installing cardiac devices have successfully kept […]
Six hundred seventy dollars per year is the cost for my membership to the American College of Cardiology. With this comes the bimonthly Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). This May’s edition of JACC features two incredibly comment-able pieces. Exhibit A, in the better late than never category, is Dr Anthony DeMaria’s piece […]
AHA is now endorsing a video-game, for 1.5 million dollars. Â Shocking. On this nonsense one has to write fast. Â Dr Wes is in. CardioBrief is in. Even GMA whacked the AHA. It took 900 words for the AHA to explain their position. Hint: in medicine, long notes usually imply a shaky thesis. A central argument […]
The past few days, instead of the usual labors in the EP lab, I spent 48 hours as a parent chaperone on an out-of-town middle school field trip. The schedule was frantic, befitting a 13 year old much more so than a 46 year old. But that’s another story. Suffice it to say, that AF […]
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Kind words and the Grin…
I loved this fable. Kind words and grinning is good for the heart. You can just feel it. (Be forewarned, it is 15 minutes, and this I know breaks basic blog rules.) Thanks, to Chris Kaiser at CV business for sending it to me. JMM
Do doctors know whether their therapies really work? We are doctors. We know. Don’t we? Wide variations in the application of medical treatments often differ greatly, sometimes solely by adjoining county or state line. This shouldn’t be. That a place of residence, not a clinical scenario, determines one’s treatment, highlights the inherent uncertainty of medicine. […]
Spring in the Ohio valley has brought hours upon hours of gloomy rain. Â We are indoors, and reflection is on the docket. Â Seven months have passed since the blog journey began. Why do I have a blog, or some may call it a cocoon. I ask myself this question a lot. Â The EP lab and […]