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Cycling Wed Healthy Living inflammation

CW: The feeling human heart

How could it have happened? He was strong; do you remember how he could get uphill? He was fit; can you ever recall seeing him out of shape? His blood pressure was perfect, low even. He bragged about his exemplary cholesterol levels. He was lean and mean. Wait a minute…what was that about being mean? […]

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Cycling Stuff Cycling Wed Healthy Living inflammation

A “good” heart…

This Wednesday it will be easy to combine cycling and medicine. So it was when I saw this prescient story that linked antagonistic personality traits and cardiovascular risk. It was simply impossible to ignore, especially on a Wednesday. Low hanging fruit, no doubt. It was an NIH sponsored study which looked at the effects of antagonistic […]

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Health Care Health Care Reform Healthy Living Nutrition

Banning toxins is not socialistic: It’s just smart…

Yesterday, I wrote that doctors might need help in getting our patients to make only modest changes in their lifestyle. Could our government help? Like the fat guy climbing the hill who needs a push, our patients need help. In Louisville, we have donuts worthy of feature stories in the local paper. The banning of […]

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Exercise General Cardiology General Medicine Healthy Living

Go fast, it is good for the heart…

High intensity exercise was in the news today. Let’s do science: Don’t worry, I will make it easy. Background: It is known that exercise is good for the heart, even after stents or bypass. Historically, high intensity exercise was too scary to recommend for heart patients. Recently though, reports have suggested that high intensity exercise […]

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General Medicine Healthy Living inflammation

Be positive… It is good for the heart.

My grandfather had many grin-inducing phrases; one of the more commonly heard was, “nice guys finish last.” Maybe in a cross race, but not so much with heart disease. More interesting news from November’s AHA meeting. Here, a study showing that patients who exhibit positive attitudes in the face of stress are much less likely […]