Since it is Friday, I usually try to write about something reflective or inspiring. Cheery. Positive. Heart-healthy even. -Something that makes me forget that I had to sign (now) 5 times to do a five minute procedure. –Or that an insurance company doctor doesn’t understand why I need to do a CT scan after an […]
How should one feel about being quoted in the Wall Street Journal? Nervous. That’s how. This morning’s piece, written by award-winning medical journalist, Tom Burton centered around new reviews of the heart rythm drug, Multaq. Louisville cardiologist John Mandrola said, “I’m surprised that the drug has persisted. I don’t know any of my colleagues who […]
This week’s edition of Cycling Wednesday will be brief on science and data. It’s been a busy week for our family–in a very special way. (Disclosure: we are a cycling-mad kin.) Through some fortunate turn of events, Staci and I, and our best friends were asked to host a group of professional Belgian Cyclocross racers […]
This week’s edition of Medical Grand Rounds is now posted on the blog of Dr Ramona Bates, Suture for a Living. “Grand Rounds” is a collection of the medical blogosphere’s best writing. At least I try to submit my top-shelf stuff. Rotating medical bloggers take turns being the curator of submitted posts. I’ve done this […]
I offer this post as an olive branch to the many who find my views of over-indulgence in exercise inflammatory. It’s important not to confuse my criticism of chronically inflaming oneself in the pursuit of something lofty as personal perfection, or knowledge of, or participation in the quintessential and most healthy of sport. My passion […]
I needed some uplift. And look what I saw hanging distantly on a dusty wall of the basement: I read it, again. There was a churn, from within. Sometimes it helps to remember the basics—the bottom line, the real meaning, the forest, not the trees or the CPT codes, or the…(many) negative things that draw […]
Whenever a patient asks whether they can exercise, or go here, or there, I liken it to them asking whether they can live life. My answer is always the same…YES. The alternative seems terrible. In this regard, moving on in the face of illness, let me share with you the writings of a very famous […]
Imagine if there was an emerging epidemic of slow cyclists. It wasn’t always like this. Despite their lack of feather-light bikes, carbon-soled shoes, wind-cheating lycra, people used to go really fast on their bikes. Are you still imagining? Imagine if people spent more money on “things†that might make them faster: they buy better equipment, […]
Did you know September is AFib awareness month? As a believer in education as the first, and best treatment of AF, I think it’s great to enhance the public knowledge of this highly-misunderstood disease. By all means… Tell people about AF’s risks: stroke and heart failure. Tell them that their fatigue, poor exercise tolerance and […]
So many have written moving tributes. So many directly affected. I can only say this: I remember. And this, to my many firefighter friends… Thank you. Those decisions; you have my respect. The optimist in me also recalls how people–we are all just people–came together after the tragedy. Hope. In us, people. And our hearts. […]
The most famous medical blogger once direct-messaged me this advice: “One thing I have learned from blogging is to never engage criticism.†I’m going to break this advice. The robustness of the response over the Ironman piece shocked me. As a bike racer, a cardiologist, and a happily married man, I have grown thick skin. […]