Hi all. TheHeart.org | Medscape Cardiology published my picks for the top stories of 2017. Here is the link:Â Mandrola’s Top 10 Cardiology Stories of 2017 I called it the year of the medical reversal. Medical reversals occur when a superior study contradicts current practice. I love medical reversals. First, they make you think about history. […]
Category: inflammation
The European Cardiology Congress, ESC as it is called, has grown into the largest medical meeting in the world. This year, more than 31,000 attendees from 153 countries came to Barcelona. I was busy. Here is an update of the big stories: Inflammation:Â Experts agree that inflammation associates with heart disease. One of the keys […]
A new study published last week in an open heart journal changes the conversation about how patients and doctors think about and discuss preventive therapies–such as statins. Dr. Richard Lehman may be the smartest doctor on Twitter. This is what he said: This is a game-changer https://t.co/WgGdLlodbL — Richard Lehman (@RichardLehman1) March 20, 2016 Most […]
I wrote yesterday about how a broken healthcare system favors overuse of procedures. Today I will discuss rational care. Remember the goals of the Lown Institute: We think healthcare should be affordable, effective, rational and available to all. Rational means in accordance with reason or logic. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t see […]
Regular exercise is essential for health. I’ve taken to prescribing daily exercise as a drug. I’ve even written it on a prescription pad for effect. I see exercise as medicine, a safe medicine, an effective medicine. That means, like all drugs, exercise can be overdosed. The challenge is knowing the upper limit. How much is […]
I recently returned home from Milan, Italy. I was covering the 2015 European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) sessions. My favorite part of the congress, as it always is with medical meetings, was connecting with old friends, and making new friends. I had coffee, lunch or dinner with colleagues from Australia, Netherlands, France, Italy, Belgium, Frankfurt, […]
Social media is awash in news about digital health. I am a skeptic. Health is much simpler. I like this rendering from a kindergarten class. "Kindergarten teacher asked class to create rules for living healthy. Here's what they came up with" via @rickplus3 pic.twitter.com/cRmHfcfjrf — Brad Stulberg (@BStulberg) May 9, 2015 When I was a […]
The problem with AF treatment is that we do not (really) understand the underlying causes of the disease. Why does the heart fibrillate? What gets those pesky premature beats started? Why do intermittent episodes persist? Why does AF come back after shocks or ablation? AF has been thought of as its own disease. You have […]
I do not speak nor understand French. (I wish I did.) But it is not necessary to enjoy this song. I think it is as close to anti-inflammatory as a tune can get. I discovered this beautiful voice from a blog–a cycling blog at that. I have written often that success in social media comes […]
Last week, I attended the American Heart Association (AHA) 2014 Scientific Sessions in Chicago. I was there as both a learner and physician-writer for theHeart.org. Here are a few paragraphs on the meeting. The main purpose of this post is to introduce the five editorials I wrote. The links to the posts are at the […]
The election I am going to watch today is in San Francisco. On the ballot there is Proposition E, an initiative to add a 2-cent tax for every once of sugary beverage. Choose Health SF, a group supporting the tax, estimates it would raise $54 million, which would go towards, get this: “funding active recreation […]