My Skipping Heart Journal

Help for your heart arrhythmia

  
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Driven to Help

Posted 09-14-2009 at 09:58 PM by Jeff

Some days I wish I'd been a bit more disciplined like Jodie, and become a cardiologist (Jodie's not a cardiologist, but she IS more disciplined than I am). Over the last few months I have found myself completely intrigued by ECG tracings and the vast amount of information they can provide. Every single millimeter of that squiggly line can provide valuable information about the health status of your heart.

But sometimes I'm not sure if I go too far. I'm corresponding with a single...
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Chief Busboy
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Old

PAC, PVC, PNC, PAT, Couplet, Triplet, Oh my!

Posted 08-24-2009 at 12:56 PM by Jeff
Tags arrhythmia , couplet , pac , pat , pnc , psvt , pvc , triplet

Last week I stopped into my cardiologist's office to pick up the EKGs from my event monitor back in February. I picked them up because Jsuter69 was stressing about some increases in her heart rate that I thought were due to vagus nerve activity, and I knew I had captured some of that during my monitoring. I wanted to show her to confirm for her that it was normal, and that it was OK.

Ambivalent is a good word to explain how I felt about picking up those records. I was happy to be...
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Aloe Vera and Medical Quackery

Posted 08-19-2009 at 06:04 PM by Jeff

When this site was launched I wanted to be able to have a steady flow of informative and well-referenced articles to help people wade through what's fact and what's fiction when it comes to their heart health.

But I've been bogged down lately and haven't finished a decent article in a couple weeks. Why? Getting it right takes a lot more work on some of these articles than I thought it would. For example, I'm finishing up an article about Aloe Vera and whether it can help treat palpitations....
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Old

Oh, My Jupiter

Posted 08-07-2009 at 11:21 PM by Jeff

I'm not sure there are too many benefits to having lived through years of PVCs, but if there's at least one, it's got to be finding coping mechanisms and tactics to reduce or eliminate them.

Those of you who are just experiencing your first bout with palpitations, skipped beats and extra beats, I envy you a little (because your "bad day" is probably what I'd call "Tuesday"), but my heart also goes out to you, because like you, there was a great deal of fear instilled...
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Dr. Andrea Natale, Cardiac Ablation Rock Star...And good person, too.

Posted 08-02-2009 at 09:48 AM by Jeff

I posted last night that I was sending some good vibes one person's way. Recently she had her medical file sent to Dr. Andrea Natale, an electrophysiologist that has been called a "rock star" in the field of cardiac electrophysiology for his ability to solve very complex heart rhythm problems, and for his success rates, innovations in the field and his teachings. Every year Dr. Natale spends time teaching other doctors how to use the most advanced equipment available and utilize the...
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