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 […]
Year: 2012
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 […]
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How much Medicine is enough?
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 […]
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Being there…
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 […]
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I am still here…
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 […]
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Standing up for a Harvard Doctor
There was a very important article written in the NY Times today. It highlighted a common medical scenario in my world—the defibrillator (ICD) world. I am going to talk about ICDs here, but the big picture inherent in this story illustrates the important issue of how best to apply invasive therapy to elderly and sicker […]
My inbox lit up this week with links to mainstream media reports that extreme exercise causes heart damage. Sure enough, a group of US researchers published an exhaustively complete review article on the Potential Adverse Cardiovascular Effects from Excessive Endurance Exercise. (Full text available.) Though published in the modestly circulated journal, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, this […]