If you have heart disease, resting is the best thing you can do

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,

Behind the Behind the

White Coat: Dr. Firas El-Sabbagh, Electrophysiologist White Coat: Dr. Firas El-Sabbagh, Electrophysiologist

When Dr. Firas El-Sabbagh was in high school, he took an anatomy class. Little did he know that anatomy class would set the trajectory for his career.

This anatomy class awoke an interest in the heart. This interest continued throughout pre-medicine years, then medical school. Cardiology was a clear choice but the next question was what to specialize in within cardiology.

Dr. El-Sabbagh decided on electrophysiology, after he participated in research studies at Cleveland Clinic on atrial fibrillation. “Now, after practicing for more than seven years, I have no doubt I am in the right field,” says Dr. El-Sabbagh, “Electrophysiology has become a lifestyle for me and I enjoy every minute of it, whether in the lab utilizing the most advanced technology or in clinic, providing my patients the same care I would like my family to enjoy.” Now, Dr. El-Sabbagh is part of FCCI’s team of electrophysiologists. An electrophysiologist is essentially an electrician for the heart. He offers a full range of devicebased therapies, including pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) for heart failure management, as well as catheter ablation for atrial and ventricular arrhythmias.

“Wherever I practice, my staff knows my patients are VIP in my mind, and they are treated like family,” says Dr. El-Sabbagh. This treatment has not gone unnoticed.

In 2015, Dr. El-Sabbagh performed an ablation on a patient in Delaware. She did great till late 2018, when her atrial fibrillation came back. “I was in Kentucky by that time and she reached out to me and insisted to travel to me for another ablation!” says Dr. El-Sabbagh, “It is a moment like that, which reminds me of how gratifying my work is.”