It’s going to have to be brief tonight. The data from today: 7 bottles, 4 water stops, 110 degrees and 2200+ calories. (Strava proof.) Needless to say, as I type, my legs are on the brink of locking up. My brain feels as if it’s shrunk down in my head. Even this Retina screen looks […]
Category: inflammation
The headline called it “the new†science behind America’s deadliest diseases. WSJ reporter Laura Landro was talking about inflammation and its role in causing human disease. Now, you all know my reaction when a prestigious newspaper features a founding principle of this blog. Well, let’s just say it felt awfully nice. A brief Mandrola review […]
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 […]
I’m sorry. The news was really bad today. I wished it were better. (Well, maybe I don’t.) The easy-answer people were denied again. Punched in the gut, were they. The notion that a pill can do what exercise does remains a fantasy. Another member of the group of drugs that boost HDL, called CETP inhibitors, […]
A recent trial suggesting that men who drink sugary beverages increase their heart attack risk by 20% was covered extensively in the mainstream media. There’s a lot of liquid sugar consumed around here. I have two rules about drinking this stuff… My criteria for indulging: greater than three hours on the bike, or after any […]
As if on cue, after my meandering about inflammation on Cycling Wed, the famous British journal, Lancet, publishes a possible landmark study on how certain groups of genes found on the Y-chromosome may increase the risk of heart disease in men. (Think back to biology. The Y- chromosome imparts maleness and is passed from father […]
Tonight, I’d like to try to clear something up. I write a lot about inflammation. I use the term loosely and by so doing, I risk being imprecise. Sorry about that. (I’m far more precise with an ablation catheter than words on a blog.) My reason to focus on inflammation stems from my belief that […]
Yesterday, I wrote about how stem cells might some day offer heart patients a mulligan. But even the most optimistic optimist would agree that realizing this dream is futuristic. For now, and the near future, we have to play them where they lie. In real-life, do-overs for heart attacks and strokes happen only on rare […]
Imagine. Imagine the inflammation that the endurance-athletic community would have been spared? If only Pheidippides had lived. I mean, what was the rush? The battle had already been won. Athenians could have waited another few hours (or days) for the good word on the battle of Marathon. It’s not like someone was tweeting in 490 […]
Dear Endurance Athletes, Accept an apology in advance. You have endured so much from me. Sorry. Let’s at least start by agreeing that I can’t control the data. Yes, you guessed it. There is unfortunately more bad news pertaining to the deleterious effects of endurance exercise on the human heart. Again, I am sorry. Maybe […]
There was important news this month on statin drugs. As one of the world’s most effective and commonly used medications, statins provide great writing topics. Lots of people have high cholesterol–including cyclists. Lots of people are interested in avoiding our mostly deadly disease. I’d like to tell you about a recently-published (Lancet) landmark study that […]