February - 2019

What is Mitral Valve Prolapse?

What is Mitral Valve Prolapse?

One of the more challenging aspects of my practice of cardiology is having to explain to patients that a diagnosis made by their general doctor many years before may not be accurate. Many patients carry the label of mitral valve prolapse (MVP) for 20+ years, diagnosed by a primary care doctor who heard a murmur, without echocardiogram verification and labeled them as having MVP. More often than not, this label is incorrect, and impacts their psychological well-being, in addit

What Type of Exercise is Beneficial to My Heart?

In discussing exercise with my patients, I frequently need to clarify that “work” and “exercise” are not the same. Many of my patients have physically demanding jobs. They lift heavy objects, or they walk 4-5 miles a day during a 12-hour shift. They sweat all day in a warehouse that does not have air conditioning. They work on an assembly line doing repetitive tasks such as assembling a motor. But to their surprise, none of these constitute “exercise”. While work expends calo

What is a Stroke? How Can I Prevent It?

Ask a hundred people above the age of 60 what they fear, and you may be surprised by the responses. While we may assume peoples’ greatest fear is death, those who give it some thought will say “I fear being dependent on others, unable to care for myself”. The unspoken part of that response is the understood loss of dignity that accompanies it. One of the most dreaded consequences of cardiovascular disease is remaining alive but permanently injured, without use of an arm or a

What Does Stress Do to Your Heart?

We all have stress. Some of us suffer from it. Others thrive in it. It motivates us. It worries us. It causes fear. It causes anxiety. It results in wasted time dwelling on an outcome that may be out of our control. So let’s understand it better. Let’s become friends with stress, so we can better recognize it, channel it, even control it, rather than being controlled by it. There are at least three different type of stress - physical stress, mental and emotional stress. We wi

What is Angina?

Across the years, people have used many words to describe the pain that comes from blocked arteries in the heart. I have heard “acute angina”, “angina pectoris”, “angina”, “chest pain”, “chest pressure”, and many permutations of chest aching/squeezing/fullness/dullness/heaviness to describe what happens when there is inadequate circulation to the heart muscle to meet its needs. For the purpose of this discussion, we will call it “angina” and we will define it as pain originat

Is a Plant Based Diet Better for my Heart?

Much information is available on the topic of diet, and many people with an agenda try to promote their own fad diet. Sometimes the agenda is to sell you a meal plan online (Paleo, Keto, Atkins, SouthBeach, Nutrisystem, WeightWatchers) and other times it is to sell you on a cookbook or a guidebook. This makes it increasingly difficult to know who you can trust, and whether the information is valid. They may talk about macronutrients and micronutrients, calorie counting, carb

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