Swinging Shape
While an intern, resident, and cardiology fellow at New England Medical Center (now Tufts Medical Center) and then as director of the cardiac catheterization lab at Landstuhl Medical Center in Germany during a stint in the Army, Edward Palank, M71, had little time for athletic pursuits. But when he established the New England Heart Institute at Catholic Medical Center in 1985 in Manchester, N.H., he became interested in the relationship between golf and health. Conversations with cardiac patients eager to return to the greens sparked his 1990 study, “The Benefits of Walking the Golf Course,” which showed that players who eschewed a cart could lower total cholesterol and improve their risk ratios. The oft-cited research helped cement Palank’s reputation as the “Golf Doc,” which was also the title of his 1999 book. Ahead, the longtime Golf Digest writer and PGA and USGA consultant offers tips for staying in topflight shape on the links this summer.
Read more in the Summer 2018 issue of Tufts Medicine.