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Coconut Oil vs. Olive Oil for Heart Health
Recently, as a cardiologist, I have been asked a lot about the heart benefits of different oils. As consumers respond to the growing array of oil options, promotion of potential health benefits of...
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Lose Weight and You May Reverse Your Heart Disease
For heart disease prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation, weight loss efforts count, but endurance wins. A number of years ago I cared for a retired football player. He was a college star and...
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3 Heart-Health Perks of Living a Life of Purpose
This week marks an anniversary of the death of a friend I lost. He was born with a disorder that slowly made his lower heart chamber break down and form scar tissue. As his heart progressively...
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This High-Fat Food Can Lower Your Cholesterol
A number of years ago during my first year of residency training, I was talking with a group of residents around 2 a.m., when the hospital employee cafeteria opened for about an hour to feed the night...
View ArticleBefore Your Workout, Watch for These Cardiac-Arrest Warning Signs
Athlete Charles “Chuck” Hughes was born on March 2, 1943. His tragic death left us a legacy we can learn from. He was a tremendous college football athlete at Texas Western College, now known as...
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How Snoring Hurts Your Heart
Most of us know somebody who has suffered from atrial fibrillation, a fast, irregular heart rhythm of the upper heart chambers with symptoms like palpitations and shortness of breath. But what you...
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Why Do Women With Atrial Fibrillation Die More Often Than Men?
An interesting new study was published this week in Circulation, regarding the higher risks of heart attack in women than men among people who have atrial fibrillation. In this column I explore...
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The Amazing Heart-Health Benefits of Saunas
A recent clinical study looked at the use of a sauna and heart-related disease and deaths in Finland, a northern country that can experience up to seven months of winter. In locations like this, where...
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Why a Botox Injection in the Heart Can Be a Good Thing
We recently concluded our annual Heart Rhythm Society professional meetings in Boston. The Heart Rhythm Society is the largest group in the world focused on the electrical system of the heart. In the...
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What One Drink Can Do to Your Heart After 65
I have had the opportunity to train and learn under some of the most gifted doctors specializing in treating heart disease, including one in particular who was an exceptional athlete and wanted to...
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Why Too Much Light in the Bedroom Is Bad for Your Heart
I remember a few years ago while I was at the Mayo Clinic as a fellow in training, we had the opportunity to learn from a distinguished world leader in cardiology. He came from one of the largest...
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Surprising Ways Dads Help Kids’ Heart Health
A few months ago, I attended the retirement celebration for my father. He had devoted more than four decades of his life to the Utah State University as a professor of science. Among the long line of...
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Does Your Blood Pressure Spike at the Doctor’s Office?
One of the biggest health problems in the United States today is high blood pressure. It is reaching epidemic proportions. Often a silent killer, high blood pressure may show no symptoms until levels...
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Feed Your Head: Mediterranean Diet to Prevent Memory Loss
This past week, my aunt died from dementia — a progressive, degenerative disease. She battled the disease for more than five years, but despite her relatively good health, the condition was...
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Standing vs. Sitting: Why Movement Boosts Our Health
At a series of physician lectures on our modern work environments, I learned why all the physicians who presented there had thrown away their office chairs and replaced them with working treadmills:...
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Change Your Diet, Change Your Risk of Heart Disease?
My father grew up in La Porte, Indiana. My grandmother was from the La Porte area, too, and my grandfather came from Georgia. A lot of my grandparents’ food choices were founded in their Southern...
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Smoking During Pregnancy Puts Baby at Risk for Atrial Fibrillation Later
A new study sheds light on how a baby’s exposure to secondhand smoke during development in utero is linked to the common heart condition atrial fibrillation later in life. This rapid, irregular rhythm...
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Music and the Heart: A Healing Influence
Music is often a large part of our lives, but what does music do for our hearts? A few weeks ago, we placed a pacemaker in an elderly cowboy who’s spent most of his life working, and very little time...
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How to Change Your Risk of Disability and Death
What if we had a time machine and could visit the future to see how we’ll all die? And what if the way we die were a consequence of decisions we make today? With that knowledge in hand, would you...
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‘Should I Take a Daily Aspirin?’ A Cardiologist’s No.1 FAQ
“Should I take a daily aspirin?” This is one of the most common questions I get as a cardiologist. In my cardiology practice, I estimate that 40 to 50 percent of my patients are already using aspirin...
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