Heart Disease in Women: Signs, Risks and Prevention

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for women, yet the warning signs can be easy to miss or mistaken for stress, menopause or everyday fatigue. In this episode of Baptist HealthTalk, host Johanna Gomez speaks with cardiologist Dr. Andrea Vitello about the symptoms, risk factors and life stages that can affect a woman’s heart health.

They discuss:

•  Subtle heart symptoms women should not ignore, including fatigue, shortness of breath, dizziness, palpitations, jaw pain and shoulder discomfort 
•  How pregnancy complications, menopause and autoimmune conditions can influence cardiovascular risk 
•  Why family history, cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar matter earlier in life than many people realize 
•  The connection between chronic stress, poor sleep and heart health 
•  What early heart disease prevention and personalized cardiovascular care can look like 
•  Three everyday habits that can make a meaningful difference: healthy eating, quality sleep and regular exercise 
•  Why women should trust their instincts, advocate for themselves and ask questions when something does not feel right 

Dr. Vitello also explains how Baptist Health’s women’s heart program takes a comprehensive, personalized approach to evaluating cardiovascular risk across every stage of life.

Host:
Johanna Gomez
Award-Winning Host & Journalist

Guest:
Andrea Vitello, M.D. 
Cardiologist 
Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute

If you found this episode helpful, we also recommend the following:

Heart Disease in Women: Symptoms, Menopause & What You Must Know

Women and Heart Disease

Women & Heart Health

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:00:00 -> 00:00:18)

You know that constant sympathetic overdrive is really not good for your cardiovascular system. We're all capable of handling it to a certain extent, but then that chronic stress, that's where it becomes problematic. Because you know, when your, your body's revved up, your heart rate increases, your blood pressure increases, and you just have a general feeling of unwellness. Welcome

PreProduced VO (00:00:18 -> 00:00:27)

Welcome to Baptist HealthTalk,  a podcast on all things healthcare, powered by Baptist Health South Florida, your trusted source for healthcare prevention and wellness.

Johanna Gomez (00:00:28 -> 00:01:23)

Hi everyone. I'm your host, Johanna Gomez. Welcome back to a new episode of Baptist Health Talk, where we answer your most search questions on trending health topics. Heart disease is still the number one cause of death for women, but would you know the signs if they were happening to you? For women, heart trouble doesn't always look the way we expect and things we may not immediately connect to our heart. From pregnancy, complications to menopause, stress, and even sleep can affect our risk. We are joined by Dr. Andrea Vitello, cardiologist at Baptist Health, Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute. It's great to have you here. My first question is right out the gate, what is the disconnect that as women, we are not understanding the fact that it is the number one reason why women are dying and I automatically went to cancer, but it's not It's heart

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:01:23 -> 00:02:33)

Disease. Yeah. It is still heart disease, unfortunately. Thank you so much for having me here today. Yeah. Um, I think it is actually pretty profound and kind of sad still at this day and age that, uh, cardiovascular disease remains so prevalent. But a lot of that speaks to the fact that we still have a high prevalence of risk factors Okay. That may either not be adequately recognized or adequately treated. And, um, you know, let me just start off by saying that a lot of cardiovascular disease is preventable. A good portion of it. Okay. 70 to 80% is preventable. And so in such a preventable illness, it still shouldn't be as prevalent as it is today. So diabetes, for instance. Yeah. These are one of those risk factors that tends to increase risk for cardiovascular problems. The incidence of diabetes has actually been increasing over the past two decades, and we know that in women specifically, uh, that raises risk for cardiovascular problems even more than in men with diabetes. And so risk factors like diabetes are physical activity habits or dietary habits. Okay. Um, are not really changing a whole lot. And I think, you know, sometimes some of the symptoms that our patients talk with us about might not immediately be recognized as cardiac problems. And so, okay.

Johanna Gomez (00:02:33 -> 00:02:34)

So what are those symptoms?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:02:35 -> 00:02:50)

Some of those symptoms can be fairly subtle and some can be very obvious. You know, if someone said, Hey, I, I I am having chest pain, someone mightly obvious investigate the heart. But some of the other symptoms that can imply the same exact disease process can be anything as subtle as I just feel really fatigued all of a sudden.

Johanna Gomez (00:02:50 -> 00:02:54)

Okay. But that's not even fair because as women, we're always tired. We're doing so many things.

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:02:54 -> 00:03:49)

I know. And I get it. And, you know, fatigue is such a non-specific symptom. It's a, a symptom of something. Okay. Maybe it's a symptom of lack of sleep. Sure. It could be, but it's kind of this unexplained fatigue. Okay. It's not just because I'm not sleeping well at night, I just don't have any energy. The energy that I'm putting forward to just do my grocery shopping, it's taking a lot more effort than what it really has to. Okay. Um, exertional nausea, shortness of breath. I can't really do the same types of things that I used to be able to do. I used to go for the one mile walk and now I kind of can't really make it half the way. I just feel really tired, feel really winded. Um, these waves of like dizziness or palpitations, jaw pain, neck pain, shoulder discomfort, those are some, some less, well, um, I guess well-recognized symptoms. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. But they are still symptoms that can imply cardiac problems. They could imply other things too, but they can also imply cardiac disease. Right. Real organic heart problems that, you know, really shouldn't be missed.

Johanna Gomez (00:03:49 -> 00:03:59)

It's so funny you said shoulder and when you just said shoulder, I'm like perimenopause. Right. So someone, a woman that's in perimenopause menopause can think, oh, it's just frozen shoulder 'cause Right.

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:03:59 -> 00:03:59)

Exactly.

Johanna Gomez (00:03:59 -> 00:04:07)

But you're saying shoulder or an arm, is it because I, I know sometimes if you feel pain in your arm, they say it's correlated to your heart. Is that true?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:04:07 -> 00:04:47)

Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it truthfully can be organic musculoskeletal problems. Right. But that's what makes it so tricky is that, you know, I think that sometimes our patient population goes underdiagnosed for so long that maybe it's attributed to that, that jaw pain that they were having. Oh, maybe it's TMJ, maybe it's something else. Yeah. Right. That shoulder pain. Oh, what did you do? Did you injure your shoulder recently? It certainly can be, but it can also sometimes imply cardiac problems. And so it's important not to mistake that for other other symptoms and to be clear that it can still be related to heart health and maybe it warrants some additional investigation and not just brushing it off as as nothing. Do

Johanna Gomez (00:04:47 -> 00:04:55)

You think that there is enough awareness because automatically we go to it's not cardiovascular?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:04:55 -> 00:05:12)

Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Uh, in my area of expertise, yes, there is a lot of awareness. Okay. But in my patient populations, I feel like no, <laugh>, they might not be as aware as I would hope them to be. Right. You know, the, the young patient population mm-hmm <affirmative>. Who's like, now I'm fine. What do you mean I'm young? Or you look fine,

Johanna Gomez (00:05:12 -> 00:05:14)

Fine. Or you feel fine. Right.

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:05:14 -> 00:05:31)

So, yeah. Clearly there must not be anything wrong, but cardiovascular disease can develop over a lifetime of habits and family history, playing a role with how you interact with your environment and can really raise that risk over time so it's not so clean and simple. Right.

Johanna Gomez (00:05:31 -> 00:05:35)

What would you say is an early warning sign that women should not ignore?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:05:37 -> 00:05:47)

Um, some of the early warning signs, I think that, uh, females might need to be more aware of are certain changes in energy levels. Um, yeah. Yeah. That's

Johanna Gomez (00:05:47 -> 00:05:48)

A tricky one. It

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:05:48 -> 00:06:13)

Is a tricky one because, you know, a lot of changes can happen, um, with regards to stress from work with regards to how you're sleeping at home with regards to kind of what kind of daily activities, what that looks like for you and how your energy levels kind of correspond with that. Um, but I think changes in energy levels is kind of a, a might warrant some additional attention. Is it really just behavioral or is there something more to it than that? And maybe it, uh, requires some additional investigation.

Johanna Gomez (00:06:14 -> 00:06:22)

Okay. So pregnancy complications, menopause, I, I just touched on that a little bit. Autoimmune disease, it all can affect your heart health.

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:06:23 -> 00:06:24)

Indeed. It can. Yeah. So, and it

Johanna Gomez (00:06:24 -> 00:06:26)

All looks different. Mm-hmm

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:06:26 -> 00:07:05)

<affirmative>. So pregnancy complications is an interesting one because, you know, young females are having babies. They must otherwise be healthy enough to carry on a pregnancy. But yeah, you hope so certain pregnancy related issues like high blood pressure during pregnancy, gestational diabetes, preterm delivery, heart failure, that can happen during pregnancy. These are all real, uh, real problems and actually fairly dangerous, you know, if not immediately dangerous, dangerous for the long run. And that's maybe not on someone's radar, oh, hey, this happened to me, but it's fine. You know, I'm, I'm past that pregnancy now and it doesn't really go away once you're past the pregnancy. Mm-hmm. It still continues to, um, play an important role for your cardiovascular health long term. If

Johanna Gomez (00:07:05 -> 00:07:12)

You're in perimenopause menopause stage, how does that look like? What should we be aware of?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:07:14 -> 00:07:21)

I guess the biggest things that you should be aware of at any stage of your life mm-hmm <affirmative>. Is where are your risk factors. Got it. What does your family history look like?

Johanna Gomez (00:07:21 -> 00:07:22)

Not great <laugh>.

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:07:23 -> 00:07:24)

So Yeah. If you have,

Johanna Gomez (00:07:24 -> 00:07:28)

So like, let's just, yeah. So if you have family history that there is a red flag,

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:07:28 -> 00:07:56)

It's a red flag that might warrant you getting further evaluation. Got it. What does your cholesterol look like? What does your blood pressure look like? How is your blood sugar doing? And all those are just kind of an initial glimpse at what does your cardiometabolic health profile look like from the get go. You add in genetics on top of that and maybe it actually doesn't look quite so good and it might need some fine tuning or some adjusting along the way. So, uh, yeah. Perimenopausal and even before that, it actually starts a lot earlier than just perimenopause.

Johanna Gomez (00:07:56 -> 00:08:04)

So what age, because it sounds like if you're in your twenties, you should really start kind of getting on top of this. Well,

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:08:04 -> 00:08:32)

I am not a pediatric physician. I will say that we should actually be screening individuals in early adolescents for cardiovascular issues, blood pressure, blood sugars, adiposity, physical activity levels, and then cholesterol, you know, cholesterol. If you have rare conditions like familial hypercholesterolemia. It's not that rare in, in my area of expertise, but it actually is, uh, you know, it can happen to a, a number of people. That's something that you can discover early on, you know, in Right. Pre-teen years actually, and

Johanna Gomez (00:08:32 -> 00:08:33)

Right. And just be aware of it,

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:08:33 -> 00:08:40)

Just to be aware of it. It might change our behaviors over time. It might warrant you seeing a specialist sooner than, you know, maybe we're thinking mm-hmm <affirmative>.

Johanna Gomez (00:08:40 -> 00:09:02)

Oh, you brought up sleep. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Something that I think we all lack. Yes. Uh, and then there's stress also that has to do with it. And you just smiled, as I said, stress, uh, what can we do? Um, and before you go into having a, a stress fee-free life, <laugh> doesn't exist. <laugh>, yes. Let's just say that. What can we do to kind of just live a little healthier?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:09:02 -> 00:10:51)

So all of those are obviously very interrelated. Um, yes. Situations, if we are under a lot of stress, we might not be sleeping so well. It might impact our behaviors long-term. You know, how you're eating and how you're, um, how you're exercising and how you're able to show up for things on a day-to-day basis. Um, stress. I can never eliminate anyone's stress. It's gonna be there. It's gonna be there whether we like it or not. It's, or not. Yeah. Yes. Um, but I think that the ways in which you cope with stress over time might need some adjusting it. And that doesn't sound like really non-ad advice. I mean yeah. Eliminate stress from your life and, and be, you know, just, you know, happy at all times. That's obviously not gonna happen mm-hmm <affirmative>. But I think that we all might need to reflect on what am I doing to help alleviate these periods of stress in my life? And might that behavior need to change? Maybe I need to set a different bedtime. Maybe I need to take a 10 minute break periodically throughout my day to ensure that I am giving myself enough space to refocus and rethink so that I'm not always in this fight or flight mode. You know, that constant sympathetic overdrive is really not good for your cardiovascular system. We're all capable of handling it to a certain extent, but then that chronic stress, that's where it becomes problematic. Because you know, when your, your body's revved up, your heart rate increases, your blood pressure increases, and you just have a general feeling of unwellness. And some people might, uh, mitigate those, those feelings with bad behaviors. They might not sleep so well, they might not exercise. They might make the bad dietary choice. And so it all kind of plays a role on itself. So we, you know, how do you deal with stress is maybe gonna be different than how I deal with stress. Right. Um, one of the biggest things that I always ask my patients is, Hey, you know, what are you doing for exercise? Exercise can be a great way to alleviate stress. Yeah. On a consistent basis, kind of gives your, your mental space an area to just kind of clear and, and, uh, refocus on something else. Yeah. And

Johanna Gomez (00:10:51 -> 00:10:53)

It's a win-win because you're <laugh> you're doing double,

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:10:53 -> 00:11:38)

You're doing double, right. Yeah. And so you can really kind of maximize the time that you have to ensure that you're doing a good, healthy thing for your heart. Yeah. But then also trying to alleviate these stress patterns. It's only one way of alleviating stress. There can be many other ways, but, um, sleep oftentimes takes a back seat when we have excess stress. And that we know is also fairly detrimental because, you know, if we're not sleeping well, we're not getting these natural nocturnal drops in our blood pressure that we always ordinarily should physiologically experience. Well, your blood pressure stays elevated over time. That's not really not good for you either. Right. So it's really important that we examine, you know, how is stress in my life? Where is it impacting me mm-hmm <affirmative>. And are there other things that I might need to do to change those behaviors so that I can have a good, healthy outlook Yeah. On a day-to-day basis. So

Johanna Gomez (00:11:38 -> 00:11:43)

What does early heart disease prevention look like for a patient of yours?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:11:44 -> 00:13:29)

So initially we start with, you know, family history so that we understand who else in the family might be affected and at what age were these individuals affected, what types of cardiovascular problems happened? Was it stroke, was it heart attack? Was it heart failure? And sometimes those are genetically, uh, inherited conditions and preventable. And preventable. Some of them are not preventable. And, uh, you know, it's equally important to screen for those as well. But then, you know, we go into more biochemical testing. What does your cholesterol profile look like? What do your blood sugars look like? Looking at hemoglobin A1C is another marker of what the blood sugars are looking like. And then, uh, checking blood pressures. Oftentimes people don't feel any different from blood pressures that can even be slightly elevated, but not optimal. Patients will come into my office and have a blood pressure in the one forties to one fifties and say that they feel just fine, and yet we know that long term that's really not healthy for them. And so kind of giving them that feedback and rechecking, you know, having them check at home as well to ensure that it's not just a, a situation of being in an, in the doctor's office, but actually is it always elevated? Like this kind of gives the patients some feedback as well, you know, so that they know where their, their blood pressures are looking like. So biochemical profile, checking out their, you know, initial, um, statistics, like what their blood pressures are looking like, what their physical activity looks like, and kind of taking a quick dietary history, you know, especially if they may be carrying around excess weight. And so weight is kind of a, you know, an obvious, more obvious feedback that, um, some people have. But, um, some people can have, you know, the, the very rapid metabolism eat very poorly and then they can be hiding, you know? Yeah. All of this disease internally. And so kind of taking a, a bit of a, uh, an accounting of what do your dietary habits look like on a regular basis? You know, do you get a lot of fiber in your diet? Do you eat a lot of processed foods? Or you pretty well just kind of set to what you make for yourself on a regular basis and can be helpful and insightful for both of us.

Johanna Gomez (00:13:29 -> 00:13:37)

I think sometimes people think that if the numbers come back and they're not the greatest, oh, I have to be on medicine right away. Is that always the case?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:13:37 -> 00:14:03)

That's not always the case. And thanks for bringing that up because actually, um, sometimes it's just as simple as, hey, you know, this is what it looks like with what you're currently doing. So let's just take this snapshot to say maybe we should modify something, adjust <laugh>, and then check again down the road. How did that modification go? Were you able to maintain this long-term mm-hmm. Dietary switch? Um, none of these is like a, a, a quick easy solution. No. Cardiovascular disease is all of a sudden present. It's like over the course of a, a

Johanna Gomez (00:14:03 -> 00:14:03)

Long, long

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:14:03 -> 00:14:14)

Time. Long time, yeah. So it's these dietary adjustments that are gonna take place over the long haul that you will continue to do that will keep you healthy for the long haul. That's kind of the, the point of it.

Johanna Gomez (00:14:14 -> 00:14:20)

So we all know the numbers, right? For cancer one in eight mm-hmm <affirmative>. What are the numbers when it comes to heart?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:14:22 -> 00:14:25)

I don't know that I can answer that. I don't know. No, I don't know that I can answer that. Okay.

Johanna Gomez (00:14:25 -> 00:14:26)

That's totally fine. I

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:14:26 -> 00:14:45)

Think that that's different, especially for like different, uh, cardiovascular issues purely for heart attacks. I'd have to look that up. Um, precisely. But, you know, a lot of that, um, goes into, you know, what your risk factor profile looks like, where you may or may not be, you know, getting adequate medical care and what that looks like globally, not specifically just the us. So,

Johanna Gomez (00:14:45 -> 00:15:08)

So do you think maybe that's why, because people don't really, when you say like one in eight, you're like, oh, wow. Yeah, I'm aware of this's. It's a big number. But if we don't technically think like, okay, like one in five women and I'm, this is just a number that I'm making up, you know, then you're like, oh, oh wow. Maybe I should really start thinking about how this affects me and how this will affect me. Kind of like what the awareness of what I mentioned earlier. Yeah.

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:15:08 -> 00:15:19)

I, I think that statistics can be helpful, but ultimately it doesn't matter if you're not in the statistic. You, you, everyone is an individual and you really kind of have to take every single patient exactly as they are.

Johanna Gomez (00:15:19 -> 00:15:20)

That's a good one. Just

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:15:20 -> 00:15:28)

As the genuine person that they are. We know that cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in this country, both male and females. And, uh, yeah. That's just,

Johanna Gomez (00:15:28 -> 00:15:35)

That's, that's just, yeah. Alarming. We got it. Yeah. It is alarming. What would you say is the everyday habit that can make the biggest difference in our health?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:15:36 -> 00:15:37)

There's three everyday habits. Actually.

Johanna Gomez (00:15:37 -> 00:15:41)

<laugh> oh three. Go ahead. Lemme see if I've done, I've done done any of them today. <laugh>,

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:15:42 -> 00:15:53)

I'm sure, I'm sure you probably have thought about them at least. Okay. There's really just three basic ones, you know, and this will, you know, have far reaching implications, not just for cardiovascular health, but just health in general. Are you eating well? Yeah.

Johanna Gomez (00:15:53 -> 00:15:54)

Good,

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:15:54 -> 00:16:07)

Healthy dietary choices. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. A lot of whole foods, the foods that basically came from the, the source that they came from. Right. Are you sleeping well? Are you getting adequate sleep? Are you giving yourself the opportunity Right. To get adequate sleep? And are you exercising? Yeah. Those

Johanna Gomez (00:16:07 -> 00:16:08)

Are the three,

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:16:08 -> 00:16:23)

Those are the three things, you know, and it, everyone's got, you know, oh, you know what? I, I sleep well and my diet's okay, but I'm really not exercising. Or, you know, it's one of the three variables. That's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe it's all three variables that are not okay. But you know, if you can get those three variables down, you've actually got, you know, uh, a little bit of a, an advantage.

Johanna Gomez (00:16:24 -> 00:16:31)

Uh, one of the questions that have come up is, what does personalized cardiovascular care look like for women?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:16:32 -> 00:17:21)

So, uh, for females specifically, it's helping to understand where female risk lies. Um, a lot of our traditional risk calculators don't specifically address female specific risk factors like autoimmune diseases, age agent men, arey, age agent menopause, polycystic ovarian syndrome. Um, and so, uh, it can play a role. And so individualizing to a female patient to understand where might your risk lie? Do you have any kind of pregnancy related complications? Obviously that's only gonna affect half the patient population, right? Um, you know, is that even a, something that we need to be aware of? So, uh, individualizing per patient what has happened throughout their lifetime that may, uh, confer some excess cardiovascular risk down the road.

Johanna Gomez (00:17:21 -> 00:17:45)

Okay. You see so many patients every day mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I'm assuming that, I'm not sure if you get the feeling and the vibe that it's difficult sometimes for women to advocate for themselves, not speaking for all of us, but overall it's a little difficult when we're like, I feel this, is it just because I'm doing a thousand things a day. How important is it for us to kind of trust our gut and advocate and say, something is not right. What

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:17:45 -> 00:19:24)

A great question, and what a great way to bring that up. I think that I've heard that a lot actually. I've heard patients themselves tell me that maybe they were in a situation where they didn't advocate for themselves, and they're like, I knew something was wrong, and they kept telling me it wasn't anything concerning. Yeah. But this doesn't feel right. And symptoms are just that, their symptoms, and then it's up to your healthcare team to try and tease out what might be the cause of those symptoms. And they're not always so obvious. And even patients, um, can be maybe misled by some of their symptoms. Oh, I'm having anxiety. Yeah. That's all that this really is. It's just anxiety. I'm just stressed. I'm just stressed. Right. Exactly. But maybe it's not that, maybe there's something more to it. Maybe let's examine it a little bit more and, um, take a, a, a deeper dive into what is it that you're experiencing, when does this happen? Um, and so it's really important that you advocate for yourself and sometimes having, you know, just a colleague or having someone on your side to say, you know what, this happened to me. What do you think? Um, as a female, I know that I've been in that situation before as well, and so I wouldn't say that, you know, all healthcare, you know, dismisses, you know, no any symptoms. But I would say that, you know, sometimes it's easier to talk to someone that might have experienced something fairly similar. And so, uh, sometimes having that kind of, uh, friend on your side to really speak, um, to their experiences and, um, delve into what is it that they are concerned with, uh, makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And wherever that can be best handled in their primary care doctor's office in a cardiology's office, um, is really, really important. But they need to feel comfortable in, in telling Right. Their healthcare practitioners

Johanna Gomez (00:19:24 -> 00:19:40)

What's wrong. I think that's probably the biggest thing, is feeling comfortable knowing that you can say, I, I wanna dig in a little deeper mm-hmm <affirmative>. And find out what's really wrong with me. But Baptist Health has a great program for women, a heart program. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. What makes this program so unique,

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:19:40 -> 00:20:08)

Because we have a team of, uh, cardiologists that will do these complete evaluations, looking at family history, looking at personal risk factors, performing a unique risk profile for each individual person, and then should we find alarming features, we work within a multidisciplinary cardiology team to fully examine what might be wrong and what might need to be addressed, uh, moving forward. So, um, yeah, it's a, it's a very comprehensive program and a very comprehensive approach that we take to each individual patient.

Johanna Gomez (00:20:09 -> 00:20:13)

And this program supports women through all the stages that they're going through.

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:20:13 -> 00:20:20)

Indeed. Young females, premenopausal, menopausal, and then those that have even been affected by cardiovascular issues. Yeah.

Johanna Gomez (00:20:20 -> 00:20:24)

What is the one thing that every woman should know about protecting her heart?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:20:25 -> 00:20:41)

It's important. It's a priority. It's a bigger priority than ever. And don't delay. If you feel like there's something wrong, just go get it Evaluated. The best case scenario is that there might not be anything wrong, but the worst case scenario is that you might figure out that maybe there's something that needs to be adjusted.

Johanna Gomez (00:20:41 -> 00:20:42)

Where should we start?

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:20:43 -> 00:20:58)

Well, you should start with either your primary care doctor or even a general cardiologist such as myself and, uh, you know, ask, ask any and all questions. They're welcome and they're important, and your health is important. Your health is important for you, but also for your family. Yeah.

Johanna Gomez (00:20:58 -> 00:21:09)

I love that you just said that, and I think that's a perfect way to end. Ask all questions, any questions. It's, they're all right. Yeah. There's no such thing right as Yeah. This is a silly question. Yeah. Especially when it comes to your health.

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:21:09 -> 00:21:10)

Exactly. Yeah.

Johanna Gomez (00:21:10 -> 00:21:13)

Thank you so much for your time and for all your information and advice. Oh,

Dr. Andrea Vitello (00:21:13 -> 00:21:14)

Thank you.

Johanna Gomez (00:21:14 -> 00:21:32)

Uh, remember viewers, be sure to hit that subscribe button on our channel here to keep up with the latest health and wellness information and tips from our experts. You can also find Baptist Health Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, so you can tune in anytime, anywhere. Thanks so much for watching and stay healthy.

PreProduced VO (00:21:33 -> 00:21:48)

Find additional valuable health and wellness information on our resource blog@baptisthealth.net slash news. And be sure to interact with us on our social media channels for live and upcoming events. Baptist Health Talk is brought to you by Baptist Health, the warmer side of care.