I try to avoid posting personal stuff here. My life is not that interesting. A very funny and gregarious friend helped teach me this lesson very early in my blogging career. JT once mistakenly referred to my blog as: “My-Life-Is-So-Boring-I-Have-to-Read-About-Yours.com.” Though that made me laugh, especially with the expletives added, the concept sticks in my […]
With the permission of the editors at theHeart.org, a version of this post also appears on Trials and Fibrillations. I wasn’t going to write on this matter, but I changed my mind. You know the news: the US Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. As a doctor in the mix, it seems appropriate to […]
You make promises to yourself, right? I made a big one when starting this blog. It was a promise not to post Pollyanna-ish health advice. People can read about the importance of wearing sunscreen and getting basic vaccines anywhere–and everywhere. But tonight is different. I’m taking the risk. (Give me a chance; I’ll do my […]
There was big news this week on the much-anticipated, but yet-to-be-evaluated novel blood thinner, apixaban (Eliquis). The FDA wants more information from the ARISTOTLE trial. They have inquired about “data management and verification.” That sounds serious. I made some comments about apixaban over at Trials and Fibrillations on theHeart.org. Here’s the mystery: Apixaban boasts incredibly […]
I’m going to tell you a secret about my office practice. (Yes, procedural-based doctors spend long hard days toiling in the office.) On office days, I often play a little game with my imaginary friend. He challenges me to leave the prescription pad in the drawer for the entire day. The idea being that patients […]
The thing is: I am a real fan of ICDs. I could fill this blog with ‘good’ ICD stories. These would be vignettes that describe real people who have gained beautiful years of life because of an automatically delivered shock from a device that a former paper boy implanted. Like all things therapeutic, there are […]
I’ve got a good steer for you all this Wednesday. I discovered a nifty new cycling toy. It’s called Strava—a Swedish word that translates to ‘strive.’ (Ed Note: Thanks to commenter, Bill H for the link.) Strava isn’t food though. It’s an application (or app) that uses GPS information collected from a smartphone or Garmin […]
In medical vernacular, we call them ‘pearls’–little nuggets of wisdom. “John…Stop worrying about something you can’t control and hasn’t happened yet.” Who knew a philosophy learned as a kid would play such an important role in heart doctoring? “John…This is easy. Focus and try harder. If you can’t learn something as simple as basic Algebra…you […]
If you weren’t a doctor; you couldn’t be a doctor-blogger. That’s obvious–and obviousness is one of my themes. The trouble about being a doctor-blogger is that doctoring doesn’t always happen on a schedule. Neither does perfect health. Remember, we doctors aren’t cyborgs; we get fevers and stuff too. Wait, I always say that. Never repeat […]
Commentary on the latest nutrition and exercise science will have to wait. I just whacked my head on low-hanging fruit for Cycling Wednesday. Today’s Washington Post report on Lance Armstrong’s newest (and most serious) doping allegations has set Twitter and Facebook abuzz. Though The United States Anti-Doping Agency (or USADA) cannot bring criminal charges, their […]
The good news: Patients with heart disease have enjoyed great advances in stroke and heart attack prevention in the last few years. The bad news: most of these advances have involved novel new blood-thinning drugs. The idea of blood thinners is quite simple: Heart attacks and strokes most often stem from clotted blood. The same […]