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AF ablation Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation

Survey for Athletes with AF

Hey Athletes: My colleague, Professor Rachel Lampert, from Yale, along with the StopAF.org patient group, seek to learn more about how atrial fibrillation (AF) and its treatments affect athletic people. If you are an athlete or if you regularly exercise vigorously, please give the Yale researchers a few moments of your time. Here is the […]

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Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation Dabigatran/Rivaroxaban/Apixaban Doctoring General Cardiology General Medicine Health Care Healthy Living Knowledge Nutrition

Statins, Like All Medicines, Are Neither Good Nor Bad

We have to talk about drugs. No, not illicit drugs, but medications used by doctors and patients. Plaintiff attorneys run ads on TV that fool people into thinking certain meds are bad. The current one I deal with is the clot-blocking drug rivaroxaban (Xarelto.) Before that, it was dabigatran (Pradaxa). If, or when, the makers […]

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Athletic heart Social Media/Writing/Blogging

Graduation Day… From Blogger to Author

Hi all, I have graduated from blogger to author. My first book is now available. It’s called the Haywire Heart. I co-wrote it with Chris Case and Lennard Zinn. VeloPress is the publisher. The book deals with one of my favorite themes: heart conditions in endurance athletes. Although exercise is a key component of health, […]

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AF ablation Athletic heart General Ablation General Cardiology

AF ablation still has a role

I have been seeing a new trend in the AF clinic. I never thought this would happen, but I’d estimate that at least once daily, often multiple times daily, a patient says they have read this blog before the visit. That is nice. Many of these patients, some who have traveled across the country, or […]

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Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation Cycling Stuff Cycling Wed Cyclocross Exercise inflammation

The cardiac dangers of excess exercise

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 […]

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AF ablation Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation Doctoring General Medicine Health Care Reform Hospice/Palliative Care ICD/Pacemaker Reflection

Update: Social justice of AF care, NOAC monitoring, population health and two new podcasts

Hi All, Here is a short update of the past week. The first thing to say is the Atrial Fibrillation Care: Put the Catheter (and Rx Pad) Down post has gotten a lot of attention. It stayed on the most popular list all week. It has over a 130 comments, and I have received many […]

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AF ablation Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation Doctoring General Medicine Health Care Healthy Living Social Media/Writing/Blogging

Athletes, AF, Anticoagulants, Statins, Peanuts, and Dishwashers

Here is an update on my recent writing. Athletes and AF: I was honored to be invited back to the Western AF symposium in Park City, Utah. Last year, I presented on social media. This year, Dr. Nassir Marrouche (University of Utah) asked me to tackle the topic of atrial fibrillation in athletes. This is […]

Categories
AF ablation Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation Healthy Living inflammation

A new way to think about curing atrial fibrillation

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 […]

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Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation Cycling Stuff Exercise inflammation Uncategorized

Endurance exercise and the heart — a mention in the New Yorker

Do you exercise a lot? Have you been at it for years? Are you the type that rides around the neighborhood to make a 98-mile ride into a century? Do you get squeamish if you can’t exercise for 24 hours? Are you curious about that beautiful machine in your chest? You know, the rhythmic coordinated […]

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AF ablation Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation Social Media/Writing/Blogging

CardioStim 2014 Recap

CardioStim is the name given to the biennial gathering of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) in the Mediterranean resort city of Nice, France. This was my first (ever) trip to France. As most of you know, I write an electrophysiology column (blog) called Trials and Fibrillations over at theHeart.org, which is now called Medscape […]

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AF ablation Athletic heart Atrial fibrillation Exercise

Exercise, over-indulgence and atrial fibrillation — seeing the obvious

If you like thinking and writing, few topics are better than the excess exercise and heart disease story. Indeed it is a matter for the curious. Two studies published last week in the British journal Heart addressed the relationship of exercise and heart disease. (See references below.) Although these studies garnered mainstream media attention they […]