Hello Sunshine, Hey bessies.
Today on the bright side, it's Wellness Wednesday, and we're tackling a topic that affects millions of women every year, heart disease. Cardiologist doctor Jennifer Haith is here to drop some truth bombs and share a few surprising tips that honestly could save your life. It's Wednesday, February twelve. I'm Simone Voice, I'm.
Danielle Robe and this is the bright side from Hello Sunshine.
All right, besties. All week we are talking love and relationships as we look forward to Valentine's Day this Friday. We hope you've got your Gallantine's Day plans in order. And for today's Wellness Wednesday, we're talking about the one thing that symbolizes all things love and romance.
Our heart be still our hearts. Okay, this is actually serious. February is American Heart Month, a time when everyone is encouraged to focus on their cardiovascular health, and for good reason. This may come as a surprise to everybody, but heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and unfortunately the leading killer of women, more so than breast cancer, and estimated one in four women will die from some form of the disease.
I mean one in four women. That is a truly shocking number. And I was also surprised to learn that even though heart disease is the leading cause of death, an estimated eighty percent of cardiovascular disease is preventable. Just to say that one more time, it's preventable, it's mind blessing.
So if you are as surprised by these statistics as we are, just know that there are a lot of things that we can actually start doing today to feel empowered on this journey of lowering our risk for her heart disease.
Absolutely, and I think it goes without saying that we all know the importance of eating well, exercising, sleeping well, and our guest today is building on that. She's sharing some lesser known ways that we can protect our hearts and improve.
Our cardiovascular health.
Doctor Jennif for Haith is a cardiologist and Columbia University professor. She specializes in heart failure, cardiac transplant, and women's cardiovascular disease. Doctor Jennifer hath Welcome to the bright Side.
Hi, thank you so much for having me.
We're really grateful for your time today.
The stats around heart disease are equal parts terrifying and empowering. We just mentioned that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women, but it's also preventable eighty percent of the time. I just want to reiterate that eighty percent of the time. Can you help us make sense of that contradiction. If heart disease is so preventable, why is it still the leading cause of death in the United States.
It's a really good question, and it's probably the most important thing we should talk about today, which is that most of heart disease is in fact preventable and also very treatable, which is part of why I picked cardiology as my profession. The reason that people develop heart disease is usually.
The combination of factors.
So there are risk factors that predispose you, and it's a lot of women and men, but women especially where since we're talking about women, don't necessarily take care of these risk factors. And so when you have unchecked diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, tobacco use, sedentary lifestyle. I mean, the list goes on high cholesterol, and you don't treat those from an early age. Those things add up and
you end up with having heart disease. But if from a young age people were paying more attention to these risk factors and modifying them, you really would see a dramatic reduction in heart disease in women.
Wow.
I also learned through researching for this interview that there's been an increase in heart attacks for women ages thirty five to fifty four. Thirty five to fifty four is very young, and that's increased over the past two decades. What does that increase about.
There's a couple of different reasons.
One is that women are now working in the workforce in a similar capacity to men, and so for a long time, you know, when women were not as much a part of the workforce, cardiac disease was more prevalent in men. Thought to be you know, in part related to stress of you know, having a job and you know, manual labor and things like that.
But women are also now falling.
Victim to the same risk factors that men have had for years.
Right.
So smoking obesity huge problem in this country, and we're seeing it younger, So women have those risk factors younger. Diabetes again goes hand in hand with obesity, so women developing insulin resistance at younger ages, higher blood pressure is a result. So all of these things are really wrapped together. And when you have a more sedentary lifestyle or you are now working more longer hours overnight shifts, not not aware that you are now at risk for diabetes, hypertension,
high cholesterol. Those things are all putting women at increased risk. Women are also at higher risk for something called SCAD, which is spontaneous cornary artery dissection. Is something you know you may read about or hear about in the news where the blood vessel wall actually splits apart and kind of causes the blood vessel to close and cause a heart attack, and that is common in women, particularly women
in the peripartum period. It's a very poorly understood phenomenon where hormones may play a role, stress may play a role. You know, we don't really know, but we know that it affects women more than men, and that it's scary because it's not so easily treated. So you know, there's a lot of different things that play But you're right, and being younger and being more aware of your risk of heart disease is so important because it's when you
start young taking care of yourself. You're really preventing so much misery down the road.
I was looking at your Instagram account and it says that you encourage people to eat using the Mediterranean diet, which I'd like to get into more. But I do think that that seems like that's something you can do at a young age. Yeah.
I mean, unfortunately, our diet is terrible in the United States, and I think we're very fixated on being very intense about different kinds of diets, and that's why there's.
Been so many diet books.
And you know, it's not sexy to just eat like a balanced, normal diet, but that's actually the best thing for you, you know. So what I tell patients is, you know Mediterranean diet, like avoid butter, use olive oil, have salads, have vegetables, have fruits, have nuts, try.
To limit meat, you know, takee.
You can have chicken, white meats, very focused on fish. It's not so hard to stick to it.
It's pretty simple.
You just have to commit to like a healthier diet, not eating fast food, fried food.
It's so part of our culture. Unfortunately.
Talk to me about genetics here. If your grandmother or your mother suffers, are you more likely to suffer.
Yeah, So genetics of heart disease is fascinating. Some of the diseases are clearly genetically based, are inherited. There's such a bigger push for genetic testing. And so not only is that helping us identify, you know, causes for some of the syndromes we're seeing, but it also helps women know that they should screen their children, or that their parents should be screened, you know, if they have something that their parents may not have known about, or their siblings should be screened.
And it's fascinating.
I mean, there's genetic associations with almost every single heart problem.
We know some more than others.
And it is crucial for women to talk about their family history with their family.
And it's interesting.
Women are embarrassed historically to talk about their heart disease. They feel like it's a man's disease, you know. I always say in the movies, you see a woman like playing tennis and then having a heart attack or having a heart attack in the middle of having sex.
Right, that's so true.
Right, And also this association with this like overweight, smoking, cheeseburger eating man, you know, and that is not the case. And there's many women who do not fit that profile. I mean even people who run marathons, who are healthy and who have maybe, like you're saying, this very strong family history of early heart attack that may have nothing to do with how much shape you're in, and maybe
entirely genetically driven, and it's important to be screened. So I tell women, talk to your mothers, talk to your siblings, like, try to talk about it with your friends.
Don't have it be embarrassing.
You know somehow it's not embarrassing to talk about breast cancer or other kinds of cancers, but heart disease feels shameful, in.
Which we as a community are really trying to reverse that.
Is there a way to override your genetic predisposition? I'm thinking obviously lifestyle facts. But can people with a family history reduce their risks significantly by doing anything?
So it depends.
So if you are inheriting a significant like autosomal dominantly inherited genetic abnormality that leads to certain kinds of heart failure syndromes like no, probably not, You're maybe predisposed like hypertrophic cardimiapathy, you are going to get hypertrophic cardomampathy. But what you can do is be screened early so that you don't miss it and have a catastrophic event. Know what you have, there are medications available like start treatment
sooner and be aware of it. It's always better to be prepared than to have something catastrophic or sudden happen. Then you're in much sicker situation. There is a huge amount you can do, though, if your genetics predispose you to more like athrosclerosis. So if your father was thirty five and drop dead, or your mother and was running and was otherwise a totally fit person, you know, that
makes you wonder there's some genetic predisposition. And there's certainly some cultures that have much earlier cornary vascular disease than other cultures. And so what I recommend for those people is, besides you know, eating healthy and taking pills for your blood pressure and taking cholesterol medication and making sure you don't smoke and exercise, you also should get screened because even if you're doing all those things, you can still progress.
And so if you catch that early and treat it, you will be okay, okay and fine.
So in addition to genetics, when we think about our anatomy as women, when we think about our hormones as women, what role does all of that play in heart disease.
So we know that women seem to be protected from athoskerotic heart disease until postmenopause, which prompted a big study, you know, over twenty years ago now where they looked at the use of hormone replacement in women as a mechanism to prevent heart disease. You know. The feeling was that there was something about estrogen that was protective and that once women went through menopause their risk for heart
disease was the same as men. And so they did that study and then they found a higher risk of cardiovascular events and the women who were taking estrogen. So after that everybody said, oh my god, we can't use hormone replacement in women. It kills women, actually gives them
heart attacks and strokes. And so for like the last twenty years, they've taken away hormone replacement for a long time, until a few vocal doctors and scientists said, well, actually the study was really misinterpreted, and yes, if you have risk factors for heart disease, strong family history, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, smoking, and then you take hormone replacement, may be increased.
But if you are a fifty five year.
Old woman who's otherwise healthy, doesn't have a lot of cardiac risk factors or any and you're suffering from horrible hot flashes and insomnia, that taking hormone replacement is totally safe. Whether or not it's going to prevent you from developing heart disease maybe still be up for some debate, but its safety is certainly clear. And that you know, I think we deprived women of hormone replacement for a long time because of sort of this misinterpreted study, and people
are recognizing that now. So you guys are a little young, but when you hit like your late forties, early fifties, you'll see, you know, my friends are all asking me, like, what do you think about hormone replaces? When you think about hormone replace and then tell them like, if you don't, you know, we go through their risk factors, and if their risk factors, okay, it's definitely okay and can cause a lot of relief from a lot of horrible symptoms of metopause.
Okay, let's talk symptoms, especially for heart attacks. This part of this conversation is so important. I've heard that women are less likely to experience some of the same symptoms as men, some of the classic symptoms that we've been trained to look for. So what should we be looking for?
So the number one symptom for a heart attack in men or women is going to be chest pain and pressure. Remember, it can be a sharp pain, but the traditional what we call angina or angenal chest pain of a heart attack is often described as like a pressure on the chest, like an elephant sitting on your chest, and it's this heaviness that you can't quite like, never felt before, but
also can have pain. So women are more likely to have these atypical symptoms, which I say they're not really atypical because women can also be typical, but they call them a typical.
So pain in your left arm radiating up to your jaw.
The reason why we always hear about that, and people always don't understand it is that the nerve bundles.
From your arm and into your jaw. They travel with the cardiac nerve bundles.
So it's not that your arm actually hurts, it's that your brain is confusing the pain from the nerves traveling from your heart with the nerves traveling from your arm and your jaw, So you're feeling a sensation of pain in your arm and your jaw, but it's really just it's originating really from the heart and it's being misinterpreted. Does that make sense, So we call it like referred pain. Women are very likely to feel short of breath. I
try to tell people. It's the kind of thing where every day, let's say you walk three blocks to get to the subway, you go down the subway stairs, you come up the subway stairs. Sometimes everyone feels a little short breath when they go upstairs. But if you start to say, like the last couple days, or when today I walked to the subway and I just couldn't catch my breath and I went up the stairs, I couldn't catch my breath, that is when I feel worried.
Take it really seriously.
Another thing that women feel more commonly is mid epigastric pain. So you know, sometimes when you're having a heart attack and a certain part of your heart, it can be referred to the mid epigastric region. So they were like, you'll hear people say, like I didn't feel well. I felt the little nauseous. I felt like this kind of like I thought I had reflux again. That's also an
atypical symptom back pain, chest pain, lightheadedness, whoa palpitations. And also this, I think this is always an interesting one, like a feeling of doom.
Which feels very strange and sort of like a little.
Bit sounds like a Sunday to me, like, yeah, Sunday scaries's.
Exactly, but there is something about this, like I feel like there's something not right with me, and I can't quite figure out what it is, but I know something's wrong.
I tell people to take those things seriously.
So if you don't feel okay, go to a doctor, and if you're not happy with what that doctor provider told you, get another opinion, or take yourself to the emmergence sea room. You know, I've seen a lot of people, women in particular, be told that they're having an anxiety attack, they're having a panic attack, and maybe some of them may be having a panic attack. But before we decide it's a panic attack, let's do an EKG and let's check your blood work, and let's do a proper evaluation.
And then only then say it's maybe anxiety or panic. Before jumping to that conclusion.
I want to double down on the anxiety part. I've done several interviews in the past about heart health, and most of the doctors or researchers that I've talked to have said, if there's one thing that you could take away from today, it's that if you feel like you are having an anxiety attack, make sure that you are also making the hospital look at your heart.
It could save your life one hundred percent. You can message of the day, yes, and not always the hospital, even if you go to your regularly. If you wait and make an appointment with your regular doctor, make sure that they're taking you seriously too well.
A lot of times they dismiss you if you ask for that because they're busy or other reasons, and it's hard to stand up for yourself in that moment, but you really I've now learned anxiety check for heart health. I've known a woman who saved her life because of.
That, and I know people who've lost their lives because they haven't done that. And it's sad and terrible, But if you don't feel right, go and see someone, and then if that person doesn't make you feel like they're really taking your symptoms seriously, or you still don't feel good after you see that person, go somewhere out go to the er, like, yeah, please call nine one one
and have them take you to the emergency room. If you're sitting in your house and you can't breathe and you're having pain and you're like nervous, just call numb one one. Put yourself first for once, you know it's really it is life or death.
Haith, I just want to underscore everything you just said with a statistic I came across that seventy two percent of women who had a heart attack waited more than ninety minutes to go to the hospital or call nine one one. In your experience, I can't imagine that all of that is shame.
Why are women not calling for help?
I think there's also fear.
I mean I think there's a you know, there is a shame part or a I don't want to bother anybody, or I have other stuff to do and I'll deal with it later. But I think people are scared, right, Like, having a heart attack is scary. And what I think is important for me to convey to your audience is that there's all different kinds of heart attacks. Right, there's really big heart attack that could chill you right on the spot, but there's also small heart attacks.
Right.
The heart has three big arteries, but there's branches of vessels off of all of those arteries, and some of them can be small and they can do damage. But I don't want people to be scared that the outcome may be that they go to the hospital and that they get a stent and that they have to take some medication, you know, for their cholesterol and a baby aspen for the rest of their life, or a few medications.
And I think there's this avoidance and denial of what those symptoms are.
And so it's really important to try to push that to the side and recognize that if you keep doing that, either you could have a catastrophic event or over time, even if it's little heart attacks, like for instance, in diabetics who may not feel this heart attack the same way as other people because of how diabetes works, that even though the heart attack may not be actually killing them on the spot, they are developing a heart failure syndrome.
And so what our goal is in taking care of people is really we want you.
To be like super healthy, healthy, exercise and then like drop dead when you're ninety five, right, like fall die in your sleep.
That would be everybody goal, right.
They don't want to suffer with some kind of chronic illness and they want to be active. I mean, another important thing that I want to tell women about being active is that it's so important to start when you're young and stay active through your life. I understand that there are times where you can't always be as active as other times, but even just practicing standing up from
a seated position in a chair. You know, we know that women and men who have more core strength and can do activities in their seventies and eighties like stand up by themselves from a chair with no hands or you know, have that inner strength, have a longer life expectancy and do better. And so that is also really, really maybe the most important thing for people to be aware of.
We've got to take a quick break, but we'll be right back to our conversation with doctor Jennifer Haith and we're back to Wellness Wednesday with doctor Jennifer Haith.
Well, I want to speak next about something that I know you get excited about talking about which is prevention, so exercise food.
Can we get into the nitty gritty of that.
Yeah, I mean, it's funny what you said before.
But like I was like one day, I was like, I think I'm going to write a book that's called like eat Less, Move More.
And then I was like, but that's kind of like that's it. I don't know what I put in the rest.
Of the book.
I don't know how many pages there are for that story.
I just I think my message for people is, well, first of all, we haven't even talked about the whole glip one, Munjaro and all of these you know, ozembic and these drugs, which, by the way, you know, I know some people feel are controversial, but from a cardiovascular perspective, the data suggests an incredible mortality morbidity benefit.
So really, yes, very.
That's wonderful to hear.
Yeah, very protective cardiovascular, so they have a lot of cardiovasterlar benefit. Weight loss, I know is very hard for people, and I think the concept of exercise is very hard for people who are overweight.
But there are ways to do it, you know.
I don't expect anyone to jump on a treadmill and do forty five minutes of running. I tell people to start really slow and try to incorporate it with something they'd like. So if you like to listen to podcasts, or if you like to listen to books on tape, or if you have a really best friend that you like to talk to, like start with just all you really need is a pair of sneakers and just start by taking a walk.
And if you're really obese or really out of shape.
It can be ten minutes and then make it, you know, fifteen minutes and it's just you got to just start somewhere and it can take a long time, but you will see a dramatic effect over time.
Does it matter how high you get your heart rate?
Well, I mean, you know, look not in the beginning, Like my goal is to first get people off the couch and just moving a little bit. If we're talking about peak fitness, you know, to twenty minus your age is supposed to be your peak heart rate during max exercise. You know, everybody has I wear this whoop. You know, everybody has a different bringing on or Apple Watch or whatever they like. And it can tell if you want to wear one of those fitbits or one of those devices.
It can check your heart rate.
So you're you said you're thirty four, so your you know, max predicted heart rate is two twenty minus thirty four. And then you know you're not supposed to stay at that the whole time. That's your max. So if you go for a run or you do a hard hit class, you want to hit that maybe a couple times, but you're probably going to settle in somewhere a little bit
lower as you're sustained, you know, high level activity. You know, the American Heart Association they want people to exercise, you know, five times a week, you know, forty five minutes.
But yeah, I was reading it said one hundred and fifteen minutes a week of moderate exercise or seventy five minutes of vigorous exercise. Which that's I mean, that's considerable. That's a commitment.
It's a commitment.
But I don't like to say that to people who are doing nothing, because I'd rather you do something and build up to that. So if you even get if you have a peloton or you want to sit and watch your favorite TV show on an exercise spoke. It doesn't even have to be a fancy one and just sit there and get on it and just like pedal for twenty minutes. That makes me happy, you know, because people actually feel so much better when they do exercise.
And my husband I always have this joke when we're talking about whether or not to work out, and I don't want to work out, I'm tired, and then we have this joke like no one ever regrets a run. You don't come back and be like, damn, I shouldn't have taken it. Yeah, it just like never happens. It always ends up where you're like, I'm so glad I did the run, you know. So I try to rewind myself of that, but you know, it's hard to motivate.
I get it. You know.
Is there a hierarchy of exercise if we're talking about the next level here and not just like trying to get up off the couch and and make a little bit happen. Is it jogging, swimming, walking? Like, what's your hierarchy cardiovascular fitness? I mean, there's a lot of different ways to get your heart rate up. There's all different philosophies about it.
You know, we want someone to have to be like in a sustained high heart rate, you know, for at least like what thirty five minutes. But it can be running, it could be swimming, it could be tennis, it could be playing basketball, it could be you know, anything where you're running around and being physically active.
It could be on the rowing machine, it could be a hit class.
It's not the same as lifting weights, right, Lifting weights is not going to make your heart rate be sustained.
Lifting weights is good for.
Core strength, but that's not as a cardiologist my main focus.
That's what I was curious about. How about frequency?
What if you are a person who doesn't like to work out during the weeks, but you go hard on the weekends.
Is does that matter for your heart?
I mean it's hard because the week it's only two But yes, I think as I would I take any exercise. I'm happy if you're doing anything, so I'm not going to judge. I think, you know, if you could get in three days a week would be great. The other thing to remember is that on the other days that you're not maybe going to the gym per se, can you stay like moving a lot? Like I work at a hospital, I don't sit at a desk. I mean I'm sitting at desk right now to talk to you.
But for the most part, I'm not at a desk. I'm like walking through the hospital. I'm seeing patients, I'm on rounds, I'm standing up. I mean, at the end of my day with doing zero exercise, I'm at like fifteen thousand steps sometimes yeah, and I haven't broke a sweat. So if I'm doing that three days a week, and then three days a week I go and ride the peloton for thirty five minutes, that's pretty good, you know.
Like I'm moving around a lot.
I don't think people need to get this is where we get into the obsessive culture.
We go like all or nothing.
It's very hard for us to stay in the middle, which is actually what's probably the best for you. Right Like eat it, eat like a normal healthy diet, and then every now and then you can have a beat that and you get on this and exercise, like.
Do thirty five minutes of exercise a couple days a week.
Instead people are like become crazy. They go, you know, they have to do fitness freaks.
You know, it's like you don't have to get so crazy.
It's time for another short break.
But we'll be right back to Wellness Wednesday with doctor Jennifer Haith, and we're back with doctor Jennifer Haith.
So, doctor Hath, my dad was a dentist.
And growing up, he would come home for dinner and we would ask him about his day, and probably about once a week or once every two weeks, he would say that he caught some form of cancer in somebody's mouth, or some indication of much larger illness. And I learned that there's actually a link between oral health and heart disease. Why is taking care of your mouth so important to your heart.
Well, there's a couple things.
One is that that gingivitis and gum disease is like a chronic problem, right, and so it's associated with a high level of inflammation, and there is a link between this chronic inflammatory state and cardiovascular disease. There may even be a link between certain bacteria that grow in your
mouth and cardiovaster disease. And also we know that when you go to the dentist, if you have existing certain kinds of heart disease, you need to take prophylactic antibiotics because when you get your teeth cleaned or have your teeth worked on, bacteria is transiently released into your bloodstream and a normal person clears that bacteria and you don't get a horrible infection. It's just to get your teeth cleaned.
There was maybe a little bacteria for a second. Your natural white blood cells take care of that and it's fine.
If you have had rheumatic heart disease, or you have a defibrillator wire, or you have a valve replacement, your doctor should have instructed you to take prophilactic antima biotics prior to getting your teeth cleaned so that when that bacteria is released into the bloodstream that the antibiotics will take care of it and it won't stick, because that bacteria can sometimes stick onto the valves and cause a condition called endocarditis, which is an infection of the heart valves.
So yeah, is there a link between alcohol and heart disease?
That is such a hard question.
As a heart failure doctor, we know that alcohol can cause heart failure syndromes. If you're an alcoholic, like if we have an alcohol use disorder, as we say now, you can develop a heart failure syndrome that can reverse if you stop using alcohol. So for heart failure perspectives, I tell patients not to drink. We also know that using a lot of alcohol leads statial fibrillation now in the Mediterranean diet, and there is a lot of data that one glass of red wine a day is okay
for you, and that it may actually be protective. So there's conflicting data. My advice, you know, rather than being a teetotaler, is to tell if you have a real heart problem. I tell you people that they shouldn't drink, but if you're otherwise healthy, I stick to the guideline recommendations and minimize excessive alcohol use.
But it's okay to have a drink.
Now in that this is not necessarily having to do with heart health.
It's more about longevity.
But I'm obsessed with this study I read years ago about centurians who were they studied their sleep, and people that lived to one hundred basically slept on average seven point twenty five hours a night. And sleep is super important for longevity. Is sleep important for your heart health? Is there a recommended number of hours?
Yes? So actually the AHA just changed this.
Yes, they want you to get like more sleep than they use to, and they will include naps in that. So sleep is now listed as one of like the big cardiovascular important risk factors that we know that lack of sleep earned some yet now general sleep is a time to repair and restore and it is really important for stress.
And you know when you wake up in the morning.
You know a lot of heart attacks happen in the early morning because as you come out of sleep, your heart rate comes up, your your cortisol levels increase, your blood pressure goes up. So when you're asleep, you're in a relaxed what we call your parasympathetic nervous system is in control.
Your heart rate is slower.
You know, people might say, like when I'm asleep, my heart rate went down to forty and like I'm like that's normal because you're like really relaxed. Or my blood your blood pressure is much lower. So all of those things are protective of your heart and important.
So the Mediterranean diet, some movement during the week, no process foods and moderation in alcohol, dessert, all those types of things, all that common sense stuff.
Is it ever too late to start.
No, definitely not too late. You can always start.
You can always go to the doctor, you can always start treating whatever your risk factors are. You can always start doing more activity and get stronger.
My grandmother at eighty nine years old, it's not too late.
For her, No, definitely not.
If anything, well, actually, her life expectancy is probably higher than it was a few years ago. So if you make it to eighty five, your life expectancy actually goes up because it's a J curve, So if you make it to a certain age, your chances of living are higher than your chances of dying in the next year. Yeah, yeah, cool, Yeah, I mean, I'll think you should put her on like a rowing machine, but depending on how fit she is.
Always walking and practicing strength exercises is good. And you know, we didn't talk about depression as a risk factor, but you know, being depressed is also a risk factor for heart disease. And actually sometimes people after they have heart disease and a diagnosis of it, or have a heart attack and become very depressed. So it's important to treat that and help people get through that.
I'm so glad you brought that up. Thank you for adding that.
I was at a health panel years ago and people were talking about the health of meat and one of the experts said something I'll never forget somebody asked what type of cows or meat do we need? Is it organic? What should we be looking for? And the expert said,
you need to eat a happy cow. And I thought that was the weirdest answer at the time, and now I understand what she means, because the happier the cow was in their life, the healthier the cow is, and then the healthier the meat is for you when you're eating it. My question for you is is a happy heart a healthy heart?
Is there a link there?
I think there is a link, and the mind heart connection is major. There is actually a condition called stress cardiomyopathy, and what it is is someone who's had a severe traumatic emotional experience, could be the death of a child, a breakup, a horrible fight with someone. They develop chest pain, their EKG looks like they're having a heart attack like the same changes.
They are rushed to the hospital.
They do a cardiac catheterization, but they don't have any blockages, but their heart has this ballooned out appearance and it's actually caused purely by stress. It usually recovers with good treatment and it doesn't stay forever.
But so yes, if breaking up.
With a significant other or having some loved one die can cause a heart failure syndrome. Then we know that there's a link, and so yes, happiness keeps your heart happy.
Doctor Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thanks for having me.
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this conversation. You're such an excellent communicator.
Well, I hope we can help women out there get what they need and get treated properly.
Doctor Jennifer Haith is a cardiologist and associate professor at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
That's it for today's show. Tomorrow, we're keeping our Week of Love going strong with writer Elana Kaplan. She joins us to talk all about the legacy of Nora Efron, aka the Queen of rom Coms, in her new book called Nora Efron at the Movies. Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side and connect with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok oh, and feel free to tag us at Simone Boyce and at Danielle Robe.
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