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The Rhythm Report

When Is Fainting Dangerous? 5 Warning Signs You Should Never Ignore

by Dr. Krock on July 16, 2026

Most people assume that if they faint once and recover quickly, everything is probably fine. Sometimes that's true. But sometimes fainting is your body's way of warning you that something more

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High Cholesterol After 50: What You Need to Know About Your Heart Risk

by Dr. Krock on July 2, 2026

If you’re over 50 and you’ve been told your cholesterol is high, you may be wondering what it actually means for your health. Most people know about LDL and HDL cholesterol, but today’s cholesterol

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Heart Attack Symptoms in Women: Why They’re Often Missed

by Dr. Krock on May 22, 2026

Most people think they know what a heart attack looks like. Severe chest pain. Pressure. Collapse. But for women, it often doesn’t look like that at all. That difference is one of the biggest

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Heart Terms, Explained: What Your Cardiologist Wants You to Know

by Dr. Krock on April 10, 2026

By Dr. Marc Krock, Board-Certified Interventional Cardiologist Cardiology has its own language — and when your doctor starts talking about things like stents, AFib, or heart failure, it’s easy to

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The Mediterranean Diet for Heart Health: A Cardiologist’s Practical Guide

by Dr. Krock on March 28, 2026

If you are trying to eat for a healthier heart, the Mediterranean diet should be your guide. It is not a trend or a short-term plan. It is a simple, sustainable way of eating that has been studied

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Is It Stress… or Is It Your Heart?

by Dr. Krock on March 11, 2026

One of the most common conversations I have in my office starts with a patient saying: “I probably shouldn’t even be here. It’s just anxiety. I’m overreacting.”But here’s the truth: many people

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Meet Dr. Krock

North Texas's Go-To Cardiologist for Smarter, Preventive Heart Care Dr. Marc Krock is a board-certified cardiologist and interventional cardiologist

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Dual board certified cardiologist. Learn heart symptoms, risk factors, and how to catch problems early. The Heart Smart Group, North Texas.

Small daily choices add up more than any single bi Small daily choices add up more than any single big decision.
Ask your doctor which of your own morning habits are actually working for your heart.
This content is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. For personalized guidance, visit the prevention clinic with Dr. Marc Krock and the team at The Heart Smart Group.
A calcium score is not a yes or no on a blockage. A calcium score is not a yes or no on a blockage. It is a risk signal. Here is how I actually use the number.

A lot of patients want the score to be a verdict. It is not. Think of it as one risk factor, like blood pressure or family history, not proof of what is in your arteries today.

When the score comes back at zero, I tend to be less aggressive with statins and prescription cholesterol therapy, and more focused on non-prescription steps. A zero is reassuring, even though it does not rule everything out.

When the score is abnormal, say it comes back at 120 or higher, that changes my approach. Now there is real evidence of plaque developing and a higher risk profile. That makes me more aggressive about lowering cholesterol, and more inclined to look further with stress testing or imaging.

So the score does not end the conversation. It shapes it. It tells me how hard to push on cholesterol and how closely to watch you over time.
A 62-year-old came in with chest pain and walked s A 62-year-old came in with chest pain and walked straight into a cardiac catheterization.

The images showed blockages in every major vessel. For a case like this, with diabetes and involvement of the LAD (the main artery supplying the front of the heart), bypass surgery gives better long-term outcomes than stenting alone.

Not every blockage gets a stent. Sometimes the right answer is open heart surgery, and knowing the difference is the whole job.
General information only. Individual treatment decisions depend on each patient's full clinical picture.
When I was younger, I thought my job was to fix th When I was younger, I thought my job was to fix the people who were dying.

That is what I signed up for. Put in the stent. Save the life. Move to the next room. The patients with the small problems, the worried ones, the ones whose labs and tests came back fine, I would reassure them quickly and move on. There is nothing wrong. You are okay. Next.

I did not understand what I was doing.

Those patients were going home convinced something was still wrong. Convinced they were dying. Debilitated by a fear I could have lifted in five more minutes of real conversation. I just did not see it. No one told me that the reassurance itself was the medicine. That for a lot of people, the few minutes I spent making sure they actually believed they were okay would change the next 20 years of their life.

I wish someone had told me that earlier.

Now I know. The patient with nothing wrong needs me just as much as the patient in the cath lab. Sometimes more. Because the one who is dying gets fixed and goes home grateful. The one who is afraid goes home and lives smaller until someone tells them, with enough care that they believe it, that they are going to be alright.

If you have ever left a doctor's office still scared, that is not you being dramatic. That is a visit that did not finish the job.
He was having a heart attack while treating himsel He was having a heart attack while treating himself for heartburn.

This is one of the most common mimickers we see. Reflux and a heart problem can feel almost identical, which is exactly why people talk themselves out of getting checked.

Here is the difference worth knowing. Heartburn tends to come from the stomach. Angina, the pain from a blood flow problem in the heart, often gets worse with exertion and eases with rest, and it can become unstable. The biggest red flag in his case was simple. His usual reflux treatment stopped working.

He is on his way to the cath lab now so we can find the blockage and open it.

If you have reflux and your usual treatment is not touching the pain, do not wait it out. That can be your heart. Get evaluated, and treat it as an emergency if the pain is severe or comes with shortness of breath or sweating.
The FDA just approved Lipfendra, the brand name fo The FDA just approved Lipfendra, the brand name for Enlicitide, the first once daily pill in a drug class called PCSK9 inhibitors.

Here is why that matters. Statins slow down natural cholesterol production in your liver. This works differently. Enlicitide blocks a protein called PCSK9 that normally gets in the way of your liver's ability to clear LDL out of your blood. Different target, different mechanism. Not a statin.

Until now, this class of medication only came as an injection. Now there is a pill.

In the trials, patients taking it saw LDL drop by more than half compared to placebo, with meaningful drops in ApoB and Lp(a) too. Those are two markers I talk about because a standard cholesterol panel does not always tell the full story.

What we do not have yet is long term data on heart attacks and strokes. That outcomes trial is still running. What we do have is strong evidence this pill moves the numbers that matter.

This is not a replacement for statins for everyone. For some patients who cannot tolerate a statin, it may work on its own. For others, it works alongside what they are already taking.
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