PHYSICIAN’S SPOTLIGHT
Letter from the
Dr. Yazan Khatib
PRESIDENT
Navigating the Health World — As a cardiologist, I see patients through the full spectrum of health every day. I see patients who are coming to adjust their risk factors so they can age as gracefully as possible. I also see patients who are coming to me as their last resort, who are nearing the loss of hope. While I am honored and privileged to care for patients on either side of the spectrum, I would like to see all of us putting an emphasis on prevention. Navigating the health world is by no means easy. Enter the grocery store and you can lose yourself in the thousands of products being marketed as healthy. Even flipping to the back of a food product and assessing the nutrition label can leave us all in a state of confusion. The internet is a double-edged sword. While it provides a myriad of resources to help build a heart healthy lifestyle, it is also filled with clashing opinions and myths. We recognize that when it comes to lifestyle education, you likely trust your doctor the most. In this issue, we aim to make the complexity and confusion around the health world just a little bit easier. Wondering if a diet is worth the hype? Flip to page 14 to read our review of several diets, including the good, bad, and ugly. Have you heard about the new food label? We break down the new label for you to make it simple to understand. We also debunk myths about your heart health on page 12. In this issue, we also welcome new faces to our practice. Check out “Behind the White Coat” on page 5 to read more about Dr. Firas El-Sabbagh, an amazing electrophysiologist whose passion stemmed from an anatomy class he took in high school. We also chat to Dr. Bruce Krieger, a board certified pulmonologist, with an incredible reputation in the Northeast Florida community and a passion for teaching. On behalf of the writers, photographers, and designers of this publication, we thank you for joining us for issue 7 of The Heart of Jacksonville. We hope to see you back for many more. Sincerely, Yazan Khatib, MD President of First Coast Cardiovascular Institute 4 THE HEART OF JACKSONVILLE | Issue 7 2020
