April 30, 2025 • 57 mins
Think your smartwatch is just counting steps? Think again.
Certified Nurse Practitioner Abby Gamby joins the show to reveal how wearable devices like Apple Watches and Oura Rings are transforming heart health—capable of detecting conditions like atrial fibrillation with over 95% accuracy, often before symptoms even begin.
We dive into how everyday factors like caffeine, stress, diet, and even sleep can influence your heart’s performance—and what to do when the numbers start looking off. Abby also shares practical lifestyle advice for supporting heart health at any age, from exercise recommendations to early warning signs of heart attack and stroke.
Whether you’re a fitness buff, navigating midlife, or just curious about that little buzz on your wrist, this episode turns heart health science into real-world insight you can actually use.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show.
I'm your host, cameo, and todaywe have our dear friend and
also an expert in the hearthealth area, miss Abby Mrs I'm
sorry, michael.
Her husband, michael, would bevery mad at me for calling her
Miss Mrs Abby Gamby.
Hi, abby, thanks for being here, thanks for having me and, as
(00:22):
always, we have my husband andco-host, mr Greg Braun.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm so excited to be here.
This is a very special episode.
It means near and dear to myheart.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It means near and dear to your heart.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well, abby, abby's near and dear to my heart, but
we're going to be talking aboutthe heart, so this is just full
of heart.
This episode yes you're rightVery heart-scalped.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well done.
Well, greg, you start us with adad joke, so do you have one
for us today?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I do, I do.
Why couldn't the bicycle standup by itself?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Because it was too tired.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Good, too tired.
Well, without further ado,thank you for that, greg.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's for all those moms and dads out there that are
tired because we're driving allover the place.
We're running all over theplace.
We're doing all this stuff.
We're just doing too place.
We're running all over theplace.
We're doing all this stuff.
We're just doing too much.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
We're doing too much.
And that is a great segue toMrs Abby Gamby, because she has
two very busy, involved athleticteens that she's running all
over the place, um, and awonderful husband, michael, who
she is probably busy with takingcare of him as well.
And her expert role here,though what we're talking about
(01:51):
today is she's a certified nursepractitioner, took on the nurse
practitioner role in 2009.
And she's currently working inan outpatient cardiology and
electrophysiology clinic, andyou've been doing that for the
last eight years.
So on the daily you are workingwith heart patients.
You're working with patients onmaking sure that their cardio
(02:12):
health stays or returns to whereit needs to be.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yes, optimal health is what we shoot for for them,
and it's, oh yeah,electrophysiology.
So that's heart rhythm disorderclinic, and then the other
focus on general cardiology,which is overall heart health,
blood pressure control,cholesterol control, just health
maintenance and a plethora ofcoronary artery disease or heart
(02:40):
problems.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So yeah, yeah, heavy stuff.
Yes, well, this came aboutbecause we were having a
conversation with Mike one nightand he mentioned that Abby had
given a presentation about ourwearable devices that track our
heart rate, our HRV, our sleep,all of these different things
that we're all obsessed with.
I mean, we're just as a cultureobsessed with our wearables,
(03:02):
our Apple watches, our whoopmonitors, our aura rings.
I was sharing with you, beforewe started, that I literally
wake up and check my aura ringevery single morning to see what
my ring tells me I have donewell and what it tells me I suck
at.
I'd like to start there andthen maybe branch off into some
just general heart healthinformation, because a majority
(03:24):
of our listeners are interestedin taking control of their
health by activity, by diet andmostly by understanding.
What does all of this mean tome?
What are the things that I needto be paying attention to and
what are the things that arejust noise, because there's a
lot of that too.
So if we could start, maybe,with some information about the
(03:46):
heart monitoring wearabledevices that so many people have
, can you talk to us about theaccuracy?
Can you talk to us about whatthese numbers actually mean from
your standpoint as a nursepractitioner and what you see
with your patients, and justgeneral information about them?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yep, yep.
So I would say by far the weknow the majority of users wear
the Apple watch and not to getto um you know, for with one
brand, but that is by far themost popular thing that we see
is the Apple watches and theytrack from any, depending on
what generation you have.
Um, starting at fourthgeneration is where they will
(04:27):
track your heart rhythm or ifyou're having irregular rhythm,
and that's what we're lookingfor In the general population.
If you get an irregular rhythm,that's where you want to take
the next step and make sure it'snot a concerning rhythm.
So the Apple Watches have thecapability to record that.
If you get an alert, you thecapability to record that.
(04:48):
If you get an alert, you recordthe abnormal rhythm and when
it's recorded, it is goodaccuracy.
So all our studies and datawe've looked at or has been
looked at has shown these are upto the Apple Watches.
Again, the other wearablesinclude Aura rings, or there's
many different types of rings orwhat, uh paired devices that
you can connect ultrasound waveUm, it's called a cardio device
(05:09):
is the main one that's used.
Anyhow, these are all up tolike over 95% accurate at
detecting abnormal heart rhythms.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Um, so the rage and the excitement around these
rings and devices and Applewatches is, it's reasonable,
like, it's not just a fad, it'snot just something that, like
might give you some informationthat's helpful.
It's extremely accurate.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
It is and we use the data that people bring in
because we know the accuracy andbecause we can view the EKG
recording.
So that's the rhythm thatyou're seeing and we can view it
and we can see.
What's helpful for us as likeproviders, is if someone brings
that in, concerned about a heartrhythm, we can tell them and
coach them.
You know this is sometimeswe'll say it's artifact, meaning
(05:54):
you can see right away it's onthe sheet of paper where the
recording comes across.
If it looks like crazy all overthe place of the rhythm, then
that's not normal.
That means it was not a goodconnection.
We can give some peace of mind.
This is what we call artifact.
Don't worry about that.
It wasn't a good connection toyour wrist, to your finger.
So a lot of times we'll getpeople really worried about
something that's not evenworried.
(06:16):
So it eases their mind to bringthat in.
So we see that.
And then, secondly, we can seethat if there is something
abnormal that looks abnormal,we're able to address it quicker
than if they didn't have awearable device.
So that's, in our eyes, thebiggest benefit is pulling out
something early.
You know, the biggest risk andI've just put this out there
(06:36):
because it's the number one.
Abnormal heart rhythm is atrialfibrillation and if someone's
having that and doesn't realizeit and they have other risk
factors, that's where you're atrisk for stroke.
So this is why in our world,these monitors have been very
helpful.
Whether someone has AFib as anew onset or they've had it and
now we're finding it whilethey're wearing their, it helps
(06:58):
guide treatment.
It also helps the number onething that you know all these
apps, all the Apple Heart Studyand different things looked at
was stroke risk reduction,because that's the biggest
concern with the abnormal heartrhythm of AFib.
That goes undetected a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
If I don't have something that's tracking that
for me?
Are there symptoms or are thereindicators that I would pick up
on that being something ofconcern for me, or does that
kind of happen almost too latein the process?
Can you explain that a littlebit more?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
That is a very good question.
So, um and this is where it'schallenging, because every human
being is different and whatthey feel when they have their
arrhythmia or AFib or otherheart rhythms.
But AFib is the bigger one thatoften goes unnoticed um,
because some people feel nothing, totally the same, no
difference.
It's almost.
I mean just in my experienceI'd say, people that have normal
(07:51):
heart rates and they happen togo into AFib may not notice
anything at all for a long time.
But some subtle symptoms likefatigue, increased fatigue, why
am I all of a sudden tired?
You know, mowing the lawn, push, mowing my small lawn, whereas
I used to not be Like that'ssometimes something that gets
tricky because people don'trealize the fatigue.
A change in level of fatigueand trigger could be a sign, I
(08:14):
should say, of arrhythmia.
Shortness of breath is the mainone.
Increased shortness of breathor like a butterfly feeling,
flip-flop feeling in your chestthose aren't normal symptoms.
Unexplained feelings like thatwould encourage someone to talk
with their doctor or get furtherevaluation with EKG as a quick,
(08:36):
simple way in an office tocheck a rhythm.
Now again, if you happen tohave one of these as well, they
are again pretty accurate.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And an Oura ring would do the same.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I believe.
So yeah, I mean I didn't lookas much detail on those, but I
know they they track the um, theheart rate, the same way.
So I don't have.
I can honestly say I don't seethat one used as often, you know
, just in my practice.
But, um, I know that it usesthe same technology as the Apple
watches with the infrared lighton the ring itself, which again
was looked at in the studies,and it showed similar, you know,
(09:11):
over 95% accuracy in detectingabnormal heart rhythm.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Can you talk a little bit more about the technology
and how that works to read theseon our wrists, on our fingers?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
these on our wrists, on our fingers, there's an
infrared light and it'sbasically picking up the blood
flow pulsations through theartery or through your, you know
, through your finger here orthrough the wrist, the
pulsations of the blood flow,and so it's tracking the rhythm,
if it's regular, irregular, andthe rate how fast.
So that's what it's basicallytelling you how fast or slow
your rhythm is, and if it'sregular or irregular as far as
(09:46):
rhythm goes.
And then that's what I'm morefamiliar with.
But then I know there's alsoall the other tracking, as we
were talking before with thesleep scores and sleep blood
oxygen.
So because it's reading theblood, you know it's able to
track the blood flow.
Also, some of them are able totrack blood oxygen levels.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Our rings track our, our blood oxygen level.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, at nighttime.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, and so with regard to sleep, and maybe it's
not something that you can speakto necessarily specific to the
devices, but while we're on it,can we talk about the importance
of sleep in overall heart?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
health.
Our biggest thing, andespecially getting into middle
age, is awareness of sleep apnea.
I know that's not something wetest on, but this is what also
these can track and pick up isif you're having low blood
oxygen levels at nighttime, buttracked by your device, whether
it's your watch or your ring.
That's concerning time, buttracked by your device, whether
(10:46):
it's your watch or your ring,that's concerning so you do not
want your oxygen levels droppingbelow 90 while you're sleeping.
That's not normal.
Anything below 90, 80s, 70swhile sleeping is abnormal, or
what we'd call sleep disorderedbreathing, potential risk for
sleep apnea, which then carriesa laundry list of risk of other
comorbidities such as, like highblood pressure, risk of stroke,
(11:09):
risk of a risk of heart rhythmissues, risk of heart failure.
So, and that is again over timeyou know it's not something
that happens overnight, but overtime.
If someone's not aware aboutoxygen levels at night, um,
that's one big thing that Ithink these are helpful for
tracking.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, and I think that's an overarching theme and
statement to make about these isthat the data is accurate, but
also it allows you to track thetrend.
So, as you mentioned, allhumans are different.
My HRV, my heart ratevariability number which, if you
could explain a little bitabout that, that would be
amazing but, like mine, lookstotally different than Greg's
(11:48):
and it looks way different thanFaith's.
She has our daughter's 19.
She has an aura ring and herHRV is like through the roof all
the time, like super high, andI'm super jealous of that.
But obviously there's a 20 plusyear gap in age and and
physiology there that makes adifference.
So can you talk to us about HRVand speak to the fact that
(12:09):
these trends are things thathelp experts, help your patients
make sure that they understandtheir own trends versus maybe
just what they Google?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, there's another thing that they're an excellent
source for and we all, you knowpeople will bring in a lot like
here.
Look here my heart rate, um,when I'm sitting in I haven't
been doing much throughout theday is 120.
You know that's not normaleither.
So you don't want a rusting.
Resting heart rate should bebelow, technically, probably in
the eighties, below 90, normalUm.
(12:40):
But you also should see theheart rate going up, like you're
talking about, probably withphysical activity running,
walking, climbing stairsthroughout the day.
You do want to see that rate goup, you know.
So that's normal.
You know there's no concern whenyou see heart rates knowing you
were at the gym or you weremaybe outside working in the
yard, that's normal.
(13:00):
For the heart rate to be 110,120.
No concern there.
More concern is resting heartrates elevated, unexplained
elevated.
Other thing would be if youwere not getting an increased
heart rate response to activity,which can happen with age.
So, as you mentioned, as we getolder 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s our
(13:22):
heart rate variability is not asrobust as, like faith, would be
at 19.
You still want to see some,though it's important that it
does speak to heart health,meaning your electrical
conduction through your heart isnormal if it's going up
appropriately with activity.
But if it's not, there's alittle more data showing some
risk for increased heart diseaseif you're not getting
(13:45):
appropriate heart rate responseto activity.
Especially our older populationand I'm talking over age, like,
let's say, 80, 70, 80,occasionally younger, but like
really blended heart rateresponse to activity can show a
significant decline inelectrical conduction.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
So sure that makes sense.
I guess I look at mine, forexample.
I I'm always perplexed when Iyou mentioned, like I'm just
sitting here working and myheart rate is a little hot on
the higher side and I'm notreally doing anything.
So I take some deep breaths tolike calm myself down.
Maybe I'm experiencing justsome stress and anxiety around
(14:22):
the work that I'm doing bring myheart rate back down.
I also then notice sometimes,like we do a lot of boxing
training, a lot of kickboxingand martial arts, sometimes I
feel like I'm just completelygassed, like I could just bend
over and just take in deepbreaths, just sucking in air,
trying to catch up.
And I look at my stats from myworkout and my heart rate didn't
(14:43):
really go like out of zone twoand I'm like how is that
possible?
I was nearly dying.
Like where's the correlationbetween knowing that you're
pushing yourself in physicalactivity uh, hard enough, but
not too hard and also like someof the things that would cause
my my resting heart rate tospike?
Those are two very differentquestions that I just threw at
(15:04):
you all at once.
But if we can break those downin a more organized way, I
presented them to you.
That would be great.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Well, I, before Abby gives us the answers, I think
you're faking it.
You're not giving it your alland you're stopping and the ring
doesn't lock.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
See, Greg and I spar each other, and when you, when
you say those things, Greg,you're just kind of asking for
it you know, you're just askingfor me to turn it up and that
could be dangerous for you, myfriend, so I don't regret it, or
was Greg winning at that time?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So you're like I'm done Well probably not.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
No, could have been.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah, so I think to answer your first question or
maybe it was your first questionregarding if you're at rest and
you're noticing your heartrate's up, but you're also
correlating it with increasedstress, anxiety.
That is very normal.
So there's stress hormonesreleased.
When you're upset, you'reemotional, you're nervous about
(16:02):
something for the day orsomething happened, you are
going to have a little bithigher heart.
Oh, the other thing is pain.
You know, obviously we expectheart rate to go up with pain.
If you're in pain, from fromsparring with Greg or whatever
it may be, the heart rate isgoing to be up.
At rest, you know, maybe 90 to100 or more.
But then, like you noticed, youdid the deep breathing, there's
(16:23):
direct correlation with youknow, deep breathing, relaxation
techniques that lower heartrate, and yoga, all those things
really lower heart rate as youdo those calming exercises.
So that is, yeah, normal withstress to go up, like that
normal to go down, as you doyour relaxation, which is why
those techniques are so good, asyou do your relaxation, which
(16:46):
is why those techniques are sogood.
Um, to follow that up with yourother question, which was, oh,
about the breathing Um yeah.
And you're feeling really shortof breath or like really winded
when you're working out but youdon't think your heart rate's
where it should be to be going.
Feeling that winded Is thatwhat you're?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
saying yeah, I mean, I feel like I pull up my numbers
after the workout, where I'm,like you know, today was really
difficult.
I felt really gassed in a waythat you know I was pushing
myself harder than I feel likemaybe I normally get to that
level and I pull up my ring andexpecting it to be like your
heart rate's 180, you know, andit's like 120, zone two, the
(17:19):
whole time and I'm like that wasmy next question what your
heart rate was.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
So it was 120, which was your normal for being
exercising.
Yeah, that's a tough one totease out.
I mean, certainly it might notbeen related to the heart rate
or something it could have been.
Maybe that day you knowsomething different where more
against stress, more stress thatday or more upset, that your
body in general just was moretired.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Do I understand correctly that as your physical
fitness level increases, thoughthat your heart rate?
Uh, how high it would go.
During a strenuous workout, itwould be normal for it to be low
, on the lower side than maybeif you were inactive and then
just went out and startedrunning sprints and you.
(18:02):
Is that an accurate statement?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yeah, I think so and I think again the age part has a
little bit to do with it.
Versus, like you know, whenwe're 18 to 20s we can tolerate
heart rates 170 target heartrates when you're exercising.
170, 180 is more manageablewith your breathing, versus 120
is more 130, 140.
As you get a little older, yourtarget heart rate goes down.
(18:24):
So your body, you know, youreally wouldn't maybe feel well
if your heart rate was evenhigher.
Like you're saying, youexpected it to be higher, like
160, 180, but it's unclear,maybe that day that happened,
why, I guess.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
but yeah, Well, I just, uh, I look over at Greg
and he's usually like breathingheavier than I am struggling.
I know he's usually likebreathing heavier than I am
struggling.
I know he's not working nearlyas hard as I am.
And then his heart rate's likehigher than mine and I'm like
what?
Like I'm putting out so muchmore extra energy and effort.
So I guess you know.
That's why I was chalking it upto my level of fitness, is just
(18:59):
that much higher.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I mean it could be because you ran a lot right Like
you were a runner and greg youdidn't do as much distance, is
that right?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
uh well, we, we did the clumbus marathon together
okay, yeah, yeah we ran a lotthat summer we did.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I would say, though, that, collectively, I've
definitely put in more milesover a longer period of time.
Okay then, greg, yeah okay.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
So I think anybody that's run distance running, um
any like athlete that's keptvery high level at Greg not that
you didn't, but um high levelof aerobic exercise, whether
it's marathons, half marathons,triathlons they're almost
throughout and I've just seenthis through some patients we've
(19:44):
had throughout their lifetime.
Their heart rates do run alittle bit lower at rest and
like you're saying, I'm guessingprobably more.
I have never really discussedthat with them but, like when
they're active and running anddifferent things.
People get worried a lot if theyare really active or if they
have a resting heart rate that'slow, like 40s, 50s, um, and
(20:07):
we'll get the question that alot.
If you're not having anysymptoms and your heart rate's
that low, it's it's okay,meaning we that's the frequent
thing that comes in is like well, it's called bradycardia,
meaning low heart rate, andthat's sometimes people's
baseline heart rate is lower.
As long as you're not havingany symptoms, then there's no no
concern.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Well, hers is lower.
Yeah yeah, her heart rate islower than mine.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So when I wake, up in the morning, my resting heart
rate overnight is sometimes inthe forties.
Is that typical that in yoursleep, when you're not moving
and you're at complete rest,your heart rate drops off from
when you're not active but awake?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yes, yes, correct, and that's the other question
we'll get is the heart rate atsleep will drop into the 40s for
a lot of people, and that'sokay.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And I don't quite recall the physiology, Like it's
not necessarily an issue.
It's just that when we sleep atnighttime our heart rates, our
bodies are so relaxed and rested, the heart rate slows way down
from our baseline.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Interesting.
This is maybe more on theexercise side of things, but to
me it's still heart related.
The difference between aerobicand anaerobic exercise.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You know, from our standpoint we certainly
encourage aerobic exercise.
So we do know that getting theheart rate up with aerobic
exercise I mean currently theAmerican Heart Association has
got, I mean it's recommended 150minutes a week for aerobic
exercise Most people don't getthat.
You know that's hard.
So aerobic exercise is superimportant for blood pressure
(21:42):
control, cholesterol control,diabetes, weight.
So I would say we of course,working in a heart office,
strongly favor aerobic exercise.
Getting that heart rate up isso important to prevent many
things and even heart rhythmissues are very well prevented
by getting your heart rate uplike that aerobic exercise 30
(22:06):
minutes a day is the standardwell, or you know, yeah, I mean
if you can.
I mean they say 150 minutes aweek, so that's almost every day
doing something to get yourheart rate up.
Um is the currentrecommendation.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
So and when you say get your heart rate up, what is
that?
Obviously that differs fromperson to person, yeah, and what
their base level is, but isthere like a?
Uh, not a range, but like a?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
zone three.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, Like a where where it correlates to your own
heart rate how far it should befrom your resting, or how do you
measure?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Yeah, I don't think.
I don't think there's anythingthat specific.
I've seen you know, it'sbasically any you know, and this
is for the general population.
I mean, some people arecertainly like you're.
I think you both are very goodwith being very aware of your
fitness levels and what you needto be doing, but then a lot of
people aren't.
So we just really encourage,like I said, every person is
different.
Some people have done nophysical activity for a very
(23:03):
long time, for whatever reason.
So we say start where you canStart, 10 minutes a day, 15
minutes a day, walking.
What can your body do If youcan't walk, you can't run, get.
If there's something stationaryyou can do, get on a bike.
If you can't do that, can youget in the water?
Can you get in a pool and walk,I mean, and then keep building?
So it depends on literally it'sunique for each person and not
(23:27):
specific range of heart rate.
It's just a matter of doingsomething physical more than
what you were currently doing.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Just so your heart rate isn't staying at just kind
of where it is when you'reresting, so that you do see when
you do that activity that spikein a heart rate over a period
of time.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yeah, and doing that will eventually I mean over
several months, usually we'd say, you know, two, three months
will improve those things thatmaybe you're trying to work on,
whether it be blood pressure,cholesterol, you know weight.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
While we're heading in that direction.
With regard to general hearthealth, Greg and I get our blood
work done annually.
We are due, Greg, so wedefinitely need to get that
taken care of.
But we both have even.
You know, as active as we are,as mindful of our nutrition as
we are, we're nowhere nearperfect.
I mean, I just inhaled birthdaycake for an entire week I'm
(24:17):
going to call myself out.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I literally just had a piece of cake and it was
amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Easter candy and birthday cake all in the same
week.
It's been insane around here.
So I'm not saying we're perfect, but we're very mindful and so.
But our blood work has shownthat we have slightly high LDL
cholesterol the bad cholesterolthat you're not supposed to have
and Greg is on the higher rangeof where his blood pressure
should be.
So what are things that impactour heart with regard to
(24:46):
nutrition and activity?
Those things specifically bloodpressure and cholesterol that
we can be mindful of in ourday-to-day, our busy lives,
running from place to place totry to keep those where they
need to be.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah, and that's and that's a good one, because
that's that's hard Cause, likeyou said, we have very busy
lives and sometimes it creeps upon you.
As far as blood pressure,slowly over time and can be
genetic definitely, which ischallenging, there's nothing you
can do about genetics if yourfamily history of blood pressure
or heart disease you knowthat's.
But it's that's where it'simportant to be very mindful of
(25:24):
um of your diet, which, again,we generally would recommend,
like Mediterranean diet.
That's been shown to be verybeneficial for heart health and
cholesterol.
The Mediterranean diet wouldinclude a lot of fish, omega-3s.
Olive oil is the main oil thata lot of times you know people
don't recognize or realize, likecoconut oil had a lot of you
(25:46):
know, rave as far as benefit,but there's a lot of saturated
fat and coconut oil.
So we really encourage moreolive oil, avocado oil,
saturated fat and coconut oil.
So we really encourage moreolive oil, avocado oil.
The healthy fats do helpcholesterol.
And then it's.
You know, I said fish, chicken,nuts, greens, fruits, minimal
processed foods, minimal redmeats in a nutshell, we love
(26:11):
steak, blank steak and we'rejust heavy on the red meat for
sure.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
That's probably where .
Speaker 3 (26:17):
That's yeah, I think that is the hard one, especially
like a lot in your lifetime,maybe throughout your life.
I mean Mike Gamby ate a lot ofred meat, yeah, so yeah, he's,
you know, just growing up how he, you know on the farm and
different things, I mean thatwas a lot.
I mean he loves red meat and Ilike it too, but, um, that's a
(26:40):
tough one for a lot of people.
I'd say that's the biggest kindof pushback from that diet.
When we talk about it is thered meat, um, so we don't say
you have to eliminate italtogether.
So I mean, certainly just againbeing mindful, okay, maybe I
have it once every other week.
You know it's better thanhaving it three times a week.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So you know, let's see, yeah, like I need to get it
down to once a day, and then Ican be maybe a little happier,
and you know, and it alsodepends on your numbers, like
you said.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
I mean, certainly if you, if I had both of your
cholesterol panels in front ofme and they were reasonably,
reasonably healthy, then it'd besurprising.
Okay, maybe you can stillcontinue to have your red meat
once a week or twice a week.
Now, on the flip side, if it'sthe it's, it's a different story
if someone had already hasheart disease.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
but if we're talking preventative health care, or
preventative health thencertainly just trying to get
your target numbers, that goalfor you well, I cannot wait to
get our results and email themto abby and we'll give it to us.
Let us know you know yeahbecause when we look at, we're
just like what is all this, youknow?
(27:50):
Yeah it's just yeah andgenerally.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
I'll tell you, like obviously, that it should be
giving you on the like what'snormal range, what's yeah, yeah,
which is probably pretty youknow for you guys, how, if you
guys are healthy people wouldprobably be accurate I've been
noticing because I'm 42 andprobably entering the
perimenopausal conversation likeI do have some of those
butterfly flutters.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I do have some increased anxiety, and I haven't
had my hormone panels done, Ihaven't done any of that yet but
I just feel like those arethings that are popping up that
I recognize, that are new anddifferent in the equation, that
are like oh shit, here we go.
I'm I'm in my forties and thisstuff is like something I have
to pay attention to.
And with regard to, like, thepattern of the ring, I think
(28:38):
that's helpful for me because Idon't obsess over it necessarily
, but I do.
I do at least know where myheart rate is, I do know my
numbers are and I know a littlebit enough to be dangerous about
what they mean.
And, um, let that kind of guideme.
Like when I don't get a goodnight's sleep, usually I I know
(29:00):
it before I checked my ring andthen it tells me hey, you didn't
get a good night's sleep, youdummy, you need more sleep.
Yeah, I was reading a book.
It's called scarcity brain.
Have you read it, abby?
It's by Michael Easter,fantastic book.
He has two books, maybe he hasmore than two but Comfort Crisis
and Scarcity Brain.
And coincidentally, there'sthis page on health where he's
(29:23):
talking about whoops anddifferent aura rings and fitness
trackers and it talks about howpeople use their recovery score
to determine what they're goingto do next, like what am I
going to do today based on myrecovery score score?
I guess on my aura ring itwould be called my readiness
score.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
And I'm curious if you see people leaning into what
their device says to dictatewhat they do with their activity
levels or with their day-to-day, and if that can be dangerous,
considering how accurate theinformation is or if you should
really hold tightly to like Igot bad sleep.
My readiness score is low.
(30:02):
I should rest and give my bodysome time to recover, or go more
based on how I feel or what Iwould normally do.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
The patient population.
I work with a a little bitolder average age, probably
above 70.
But personally I don't see ittoo often.
I some ways wish people took alittle more ownership of their
health.
Being proactive is so important, like you know.
We kind of touched on knowing,knowing your numbers, knowing
your blood pressure, knowing ismy heart rate symptom I'm
(30:31):
feeling, is my ring showingsomething weird.
You know those things.
Being so proactive, capturingeverything early, will, in the
long run over your lifetime,keep you much healthier.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Sure On the things that sneak up.
What are the things that yousee that people maybe come in
and they they didn't havesymptoms, they didn't realize,
and then all of a sudden they'rein this uh, danger zone of
having a stroke or having sometype of cardio cardiac disease,
not to scare people, but just tobe aware of as they're thinking
(31:04):
, yeah, all the health, healthmaintenance, um, I mean we could
go through a pretty good listof things that cause high blood
pressure, heart disease.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
You know, risk of high cholesterol, stroke, heart
rhythm issues Starting at thetop, I would say main ones
alcohol use and cigarettesmoking.
Alcohol use is directly linkedto a lot of things in the heart
world.
As far as heart failure, I mean, I'm talking again, heavier
alcohol use over time, these arethings that will catch up.
As far as blood pressure, heartfailure, I mean I'm talking
again, heavier alcohol use overtime, these are things that will
(31:35):
catch up.
As far as blood pressure, heartfailure, heart disease,
cigarette smoking as well, youknow, nicotine is very hard on
your arteries over time and cancause plaque buildup.
And then you know, these arethings that two lifestyle things
that are really important, thatwe preach a lot about, as far
as if we do have a patient thathas a new diagnosis of a heart
(31:58):
problem, those are two thingsthat we really try to hone in on
, trying to minimize.
I know it's difficult, butthat's two things.
Second thing would then beweight healthy weight, healthy
BMI, your height to weight indexreally under 27 for people is
where they start to see anythingabove that.
More health risk comes in asfar as blood sugar, you know,
(32:21):
diabetes, cholesterol, and sothen the other one I would say
would be exercise, like we havebeen touching on.
So weight exercise, and thenhealthy foods, like the
Mediterranean diet, um, low saltdiet, of course, if you have
high blood pressure.
We talking to people abouttheir diet as far as, um, what
(32:41):
type of sodium they're eating.
A lot of people aren't aware ofall the sodiums that hidden and
is hidden in our foods.
So that's a big conversation,um, and then you mentioned sleep
.
That's a big one, you know.
We talked about importance ofsleep and sleep disordered
breathing, again, sleep apnea,type of things, making sure
you're aware of your sleep,healthy sleep.
(33:02):
And then there's a final one Ihad on my mind oh, we touched on
already stress.
Stress is a big one as far as,over time, chronic stress leads
to chronic illnesses.
We know that, and in the heartworld we see it with blood
pressure, or, again, there is apotential for heart failure.
(33:23):
There's so much stress Can youeven have a stress induced
cardiomyopathy.
So best we can controlling ourstressors, whether that be
through, you know, I meanthere's that's a whole nother
talk on itself, but that's along list right there, but it's
a long list of healthmaintenance.
It's a lot.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
That's a great list.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
I feel like it's something that everybody kind of
knows, but maybe just becausethat's what you've always been
told, but don't really thinkabout the long-term consequence
or severity of it.
So having you discuss that fromyour position, seeing an older
population, seeing it when itkind of is, you know, maybe
happening.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yeah, and I shouldn't rephrase that because I do have
.
We do have a lot of people thatcome in and they're for maybe
they don't have the technologywe were talking about.
That I was more touching on thetechnology, but then we do get
people coming in a lot and Iwould say the primary thing in
40s, 50s, 60s is again bloodpressure issues, cholesterol or
early heart disease, whether itbe unhealthy lifestyle or family
(34:24):
history.
So it's yeah, I mean it'scertainly Greg.
I think we said in thebeginning, heart disease is the
number one killer in America.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, that stat just blows my mind because I would
have never guessed that and Iwould imagine a lot of people
general population that aren'tin the medical world wouldn't
guess that.
Maybe they would say cancer orsomething else, but just
literally heart disease.
Something else, but just justliterally heart disease.
(34:56):
And there's.
And you literally just gave thelist of the 10 commandments of
things to do to offset.
You know, correct, set yourselfup for the success in that.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it is so important.
It's so important before.
Hopefully in your lifetime younever have heart disease, but if
you do get it, it can really bea game changer, changing your
lifestyle after a diagnosis ofheart disease or heart rhythm
issues, focusing on those things.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It's kind of like you give those rules to the game of
life by laying them out thereand if you implement all of
those things I mean just thinkabout it like in our normal day
we get pinged with our phone andall this stress that we get
from driving all over the place.
I mean we are overstressed.
So if we don't do somethingconsciously, proactively, to
(35:46):
offset that said stress that weare getting pounded with every
day, you can't just accidentallyget healthy in today's world
Because we have comfort and easeand simplicity to just like be
lazy and eat fast food, and soyou have to consciously go.
I got to work out, I got tomanage my stress, Like it's all
(36:07):
got to be maximum impact, andthat's just like a constant
evolution that you just keepunfolding, you know so yeah, and
it's not easy.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
You know it is not easy and that's, I think, the
hard, the hardest part, you knowyeah it's trying to implement
these changes.
If someone's not ever beenaware, you know yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
But it starts with that being aware of like, yeah,
holy shit, these fries are notgood for me yes, yes and like
and, just like you guys aresaying, just knowing your
numbers is so important yeah,yeah, um former smoker, former
drinker.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
You well know that.
You've seen us in our glorydays, so I didn't know about.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I kind of forgot about the smoker part.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, I probably smoked for almost 10 years.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Oh, really I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, greg was a pack or two a day, or for a long
time.
Oh yeah, when we stoppeddrinking 10 years ago it the
smoking went out the window withit for sure, for good, um, but
it's still very difficult, bothvery difficult things to kick.
My question was going to belike you know, you see, people
(37:21):
come in, lifestyle choicescontribute to their overall
heart health and it sneaks inand it causes some problems
later on that maybe you weren'tpaying attention to in your
twenties, thirties, are worriedabout how does quitting both of
those things or limiting them oradjusting them, reverse the
damage that's been done or theproblems or the symptoms that
(37:43):
people are experiencing?
Is it something that'strackable and measurable and a
quick thing that happens?
Or is there data to supportthat?
Or what does that look like?
And I'm I'm asking more curiousfor, like, what does that mean
to me 10 years later?
What does it look like?
What does my heart look likefrom all the damage that I've
done in my previous life of notpaying attention or caring?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
you know, you know, I mean our, our bodies are pretty
amazing.
They can recover, um, andthat's what's so unique.
I mean I just, of course I workin the heart world.
We see, like I mentioned in thebeginning, you know, you can
have a stress-induced, basicallylike heart failure.
You can have an alcohol-inducedheart failure, but our heart is
a muscle and it actuallyrecovers.
(38:28):
So it can take, I meansometimes three months.
I mean we say three months ofyou know, alcohol cessation or
in medical therapy, I meancertainly with the addition of
you know, modern science, withmedication, it can improve over
time so our hearts can recover.
And that's specific to likeagain, alcohol or removing
(38:48):
whatever that was the cause.
There's many causes, but anyhow, the heart like reversible, as
you're saying, um, certainly,plaque in the coronary arteries,
regression, I should say, likeyou, have plaque in your
coronary arteries there is.
There can be plaque regressionIf you do change your diet, if
you do quit smoking.
You know the healthy lifestylechanges and lower blood pressure
(39:12):
and all that can remodelregress heart issues Um yeah.
So definitely a benefit todoing to, to changing those
habits.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Yeah, it's not like I have done all this damage and I
quit, but later I may show up.
Uh, you know having theseissues because of the damage
that I've done, the quitting theadjustment.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Well, maybe right if I'm lucky Because you were young
enough when you quit probably.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, yeah.
What's one of the biggestmisconceptions that people have
about heart health and thethings that you see when people
come in with issues or withconcerns.
What's a big misconceptionabout when people come in with?
Speaker 3 (39:54):
issues or with with concerns.
What's a big misconceptionabout?
Speaker 1 (39:56):
but you wish people knew like, even if it's simple
and basic.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Shout out from the mountain.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Um, I would shout from the mountain what I shouted
earlier that list, yeah.
I mean that is every day I amworking.
That conversation comes upmultiple times a day because
it's so important.
I mean for all facets of hearthealth, whether it be I know
(40:31):
we've talked about heart rhythma lot, or we've talked about
heart failure, or we've talkedabout coronary artery disease,
and it carries over to everyother part.
You know your brain health,your kidneys, so I would scream
from the mountaintop thatcigarette, smoking, alcohol,
weight, keep up your activity.
Know your numbers, know yourblood pressure, know your
cholesterol and, best you can,with what resources you have,
(40:52):
minimize stress.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
And that's not a misconception, that's just well.
Maybe you know, maybe it's amisconception People don't
realize that certain things intheir lifestyle it is really
important.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah, I think we're just clobbered over the head
with so much information andmisinformation through news
social media.
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
And I think one thing sorry to interrupt you, but
just really that those thingscan do so much more for you than
even though I prescribemedicine.
You know medicine will not fixeverything.
You know medications and pillscan be given to help blood
pressure and can be given tohelp things.
But if people can do their partand take care of their bodies
(41:37):
and themselves, it will do waymuch, do much more.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Yeah, like your body, and movement is the best
medicine to improve some ofthese things.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Yes, the movement and whatever you're putting in your
body, whether it be you knowfrom all those things we talked
about, from your diet tosubstances.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I have a question um kind of a little different gear
here, but I love coffee and I'msure lots of people out there
love drinking coffee.
It's like you can take away mybeer, my cigarettes, but please
don't take my coffee.
Don't take my coffee, you know.
I mean I just it's like part ofmy life you know, is.
(42:19):
Is it really that bad for me?
I mean, I'm, I could even like,dare I?
I'm going to just call, I mean,a pot a day.
Is that?
I know that's too much, I knowthat's too much.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
He's not lying.
Oh yeah, that is kind of a lot.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
but honestly that you know when I, when a previous
thing we looked at, our talk Idid, was on again heart rhythm
stuff, a previous thing welooked at or talk I did, was on
again heart rhythm stuff.
Caffeine was not directlylinked to heart rhythm disorders
but it did.
It was directly linked for somepeople as a trigger.
So it depends on, again, eachperson but it's not been shown
(42:53):
that it's going to cause a heartrhythm problem or cause again
heart disease or any heart issue.
Caffeine again heart disease orany heart issue.
Caffeine, so that but I wouldtouch on um in moderation,
probably was.
And then those um, I mean thisis again a little off subject,
but the energy drinks, um, like,uh, you know, celsius and
(43:14):
different things that have highamounts of caffeine, those can
certainly be a trigger forpeople with, with, with, with
rhythm issues or trigger arhythm issue.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Can you speak more about that?
Because I also drink coffee,but I'm one that sits over here
and says don't take my Red Bull,Please don't take my Red Bull
and I've been doing so well.
I haven't even purchased itbecause if it's not in the house
I won't go for it.
I won't stop and get one kindof.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Thing.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
But I love my Red Bull and I don't want it to go
away.
So can you speak more to likewhat that means, with the high,
the high levels of caffeinebeing a trigger for like a uh
high?
Speaker 3 (43:51):
higher.
Yeah, I think it's Red Bull isnot quite as bad right?
Isn't it only like 80 or Well,it depends on what size you
drink.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
So kind of back to that moderation conversation.
You know the eight ounces,probably 80 milligrams, but when
?
I'm drinking like a 12 or 16 orokay yeah you know I shame.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah, I think, um, I mean again, I we always see the
back end of it, like someone'scoming in with a heart rhythm
issue and then, or like again,it's usually fast heart rates
with stuff like that, orpalpitations.
So you mentioned, like you feelthat sometimes, like you'll
feel that and it does happen,it's common Like a quick flutter
(44:32):
, a quick skip beat, we will,and we get that a lot.
We see people with that a lot,and there is concern, like, and
we get that a lot, we see peoplewith that a lot, and there
there is concern that you knowwas something wrong with my
heart rhythm.
And then we have to dive intowhat are you drinking.
So if you're correlating itwith those types of drinks, you
know, then maybe that's atrigger for you.
(44:53):
Um, but and I guess the otherthing would be, just I, you know
, I, I don't know that there's alot of data out there.
Yet as far as, like, thelong-term effect of you, like
you know you're drinking thoseand then you're exercising all
that stuff, I think that mightbe a little bit tricky.
It is a stimulant, you know.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
So yeah, Right, I don't drink them before I go do
a boxing workout or run oranything like that.
Yeah, I, I and I haven't.
I've been so good, I've been sogood.
I often wonder, though, likeand you know, you mentioned
about the devices tracking whenthere's an irregular rhythm,
(45:29):
like I have these heart flutters, my ring doesn't say anything.
I must be okay, Like you know.
Is that a trustworthy thing tothink Like?
Because I do, because I amprobably perimenopausal, because
I do drink a lot of caffeine,because that is probably
somewhat normal.
It isn't maybe a pattern?
Is that accurate?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (45:47):
no, I'm glad you said that, because I these devices
don't pick up all your regularabnormal heart rhythms.
They mainly, I believe whatthey've been looked at is atrial
fibrillation at least the Applewatches.
I'm not as familiar with therings, but so if you are having
a lot of skipped beats, it maynot pick that up on your device.
(46:08):
And I say skipped beats thatcan mean like an early beat
coming out of the top part ofyour heart or out of the bottom
part of your heart, and that'swhat you feel when someone feels
a palpitation.
Sometimes it's just an extrabeat and that can be normal, but
it can be triggered by caffeine, lack of sleep, dehydration.
Lots of things can triggerthese early beats or extra beats
(46:28):
that feel like a flipped letter.
People describe a dropped beat.
Different things can triggerthose and if that's happening a
lot, that may not pick up onyour watch or your device.
So you would certainly want to.
You know we encourage people,you're feeling it often.
Then you do need what we calllike a medical grade ambulatory
(46:50):
or heart rhythm monitoring.
So then we order someone tohave a monitor on for 24 hours
that is actually really pickingup the rhythm and read by like
the cardiologist.
Or you can wear a one weekmonitor, two week monitor, three
week monitor.
It depends on how oftensomeone's symptoms and how
concerning they might sound foran arrhythmia.
So we don't we use these andthis is just from a healthcare
(47:15):
provider perspective.
They're used as a tool, but ifthere's a concern, certainly we
order like the medical grademonitoring.
So if it's yeah, I would kind ofkeep that in mind.
I don't think you're having itdoesn't sound like you're having
symptoms like that.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
But I don't think so.
I think it's probably prettycommon though, for our age or
younger, because we do drink alot of coffee, we do have a lot
of stress, we do drink energydrinks, we do, you know, maybe
push ourselves to max out ourphysical activity, where we
might have those from time totime and wearing the devices,
yeah, so every once in a whileI'll feel it and be like I've
(47:49):
had too much caffeine and.
I always coffee that gets thebad rap, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
And we always say to you as long as you're not having
other symptoms with it.
You know, that's kind of thedifference between like oh, that
feels kind of funny, versuslike oh, I feel really funny,
like if someone's havinglightheadedness with it or they
feel like they're going to passout.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
that's concerning Okay, and so now that you've
said that and I will I want tobe respectful of your time and I
will wrap this up and stop.
I could ask you a millionquestions and they'd be all over
the place.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
We've covered a lot of topics.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
We have.
It's more than you probablythought you bargained for here
but it's such great informationLike well.
I think it is.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
I mean, the heart is near and dear to my heart, so I
like.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I do, you know, I just I love letting the
population education yes.
Well, thank you again, um forfor sharing all of this because
it's from a high level veryhelpful, but my question was
going to be like I should knowthis, and there's two.
I always come at you with twoquestions what are the symptoms
of a heart attack and what arethe symptoms of a stroke?
Because we are of the age whereI should be mindful and be
(48:57):
paying attention of, like what'shappening and know these
symptoms in the event thatthere's something happening
around me.
So can you tell us from a highlevel what we should be paying
attention to?
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Yeah.
So from a heart standpoint, youknow, obviously you would know
if all, if you were at rest andyou're having crushing chest
pain, clearly that is unrelieved.
Someone goes to the emergencyroom for that.
That'll take someone to the ER.
But a less noticeable symptomwould be and not necessarily
heart attack, but awareness ofmaybe heart disease or plugged
(49:30):
artery.
We always discuss if you'rehaving chest pain every time you
go up to walk around thegrocery store, if you're
climbing a flight of stairs andyou're getting chest pain each
time you're active, that'sconcerning that because the
heart is pumping harder, tryingto work harder when you're more
active.
So when you're active, if theblood is not getting through
your coronary arteries, well,you're going to have chest pain,
(49:52):
meaning like you're getting aplugged artery, getting closer
to maybe having a heart attack.
Then you would be having chestpain is the most typical with
activity.
Alternatively, watching forshortness of breath.
That's often one that's kind ofmasked, unexplained shortness
of breath.
People often think chest painwith blocked artery, but it can
(50:12):
also present commonly asshortness of breath.
Those are the two uh more likered flags to be aware of for
heart.
You know, possible heart attackor coming on Now if you're
saying active heart attack, thatwould be again you, you chest
pain, jaw pain, any unusual painI mean I've had people have
(50:33):
like elbow pain, um, back painbetween the shoulder blades,
unexplained pain that's notrelieved, um, and that can
become tricky.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
But yeah, I just think I lay awake at night
worried about some of thesethings.
Not often I'm not like ananxiety heavy on the anxiety of
this, but just sometimes where Iwonder like would I know what I
would I know is?
Is it so severe that you justknow?
Or is it something that likebecause you read articles about
people who it just happens allof a sudden?
Speaker 3 (51:06):
they had no clue, you know, they just woke up feeling
normal and all of a sudden I'veseen it both ways you know,
it's a can come out of nowhereor, but you know, can happen
progressive, like we talkedabout pain with pain with
activity or breathing and astroke.
So yeah, a stroke is certainlyany, you know that's what you
(51:27):
kind of think about.
You have numbness.
You know one side of the bodychange.
You know difficulty with wordsUsually it's most commonly
speech or numbness.
Loss of use of an arm, you knowleg or memory, like you know
someone's not making any sense Ithink those would be the big
ones.
Or visual, you know vision loss.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
I think everyone probably wonders about that too,
as you start experiencingdifferent things, especially as
we age.
Is this normal or is thissomething I should be concerned
with?
So thank you for that Just kindof high level general you know
thing to pay attention to thathelps me.
I'll be able to sleep a littlebetter at night.
Speaker 3 (52:05):
I mean.
One other one is like obviouslyunrelieved, unexplained
headache, crushing headache.
You know, that's somethingobviously you don't ignore.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, oh gosh.
I could just keep going, but II feel like what's going to
happen is what happens when wehave experts on, like.
We had a DEXA scan expert onrecently and Greg and I had DEXA
scans and discussed our resultsat the level we were able to
explain them, and which was notawesome.
(52:34):
So then we had someone who wasawesome.
Come on and talk about the DEXAscan.
And then we see questions comein, so what.
I think will happen is likelythat this episode comes out and
people are like, wait, whatabout this?
And then it won't just be merandomly asking you a cluster of
questions, because I'm curiousabout everything and maybe a
(52:55):
little bit more specific to whatpeople are seeing or
experiencing as well.
So yeah, yeah no, that's great.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
Yeah, and it is, and it is.
Uh, there's a lot of thingsthat you know, people we see, as
far as concern for heart, heartissues, chest is a commonplace.
Things settle and people wantto know why am I feeling this?
What does this mean?
And, yeah, it's, it's normal.
Speaker 1 (53:18):
What is the deal with baby aspirin is my last
question.
Should.
I have baby aspirin around,just in case.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
You know it used to be.
They would say oh, anyone, youknow, everyone should be taking
baby aspirin.
That has changed.
Unless you have an indication,meaning you know you have heart
disease already or high risk forheart disease, typically we're
not recommending baby aspirinfor everyone anymore every day,
just because of the potentialside effect from it and the GI
issues.
So if you and you're askinghaving it around for like if you
(53:48):
had chest pain, Well, yeah,like if, if.
Speaker 1 (53:51):
I would feel terrible if something would happen, and
I was not prepared with anyaspirin.
I don't have any aspirin in thehouse, so while we're talking
about this, it's like maybe Ishould get some.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
I mean, I don't think you know.
I guess I shouldn't say you'renot at risk, but you're minimal
risk.
I would consider you both veryminimal risk.
But certainly if you diddevelop chest pain and you were
home alone or you were somewherelike you, taking, you know,
four baby out, chewing four babyaspirin, is what we would, you
know you might give it tosomebody if they were in clinic
or the EMS, if they came andsomeone was having chest pain,
(54:22):
um, aspirin right away will helpbecause it's a anti-platelet,
meaning blood thins the blood,prevent clotting, all that.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, so the validity in that theory or that practice
of having the aspirin in theevent that someone is having a
heart attack is a valuablesource of information.
Speaker 3 (54:40):
Yeah, yeah, that is something that is given in the
act of yes.
Having a heart attack.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
What else you got, greg?
Do you have a question?
That's that's.
Speaker 2 (54:48):
That's probably what saved my dad's life.
My mom had four baby aspirin.
Oh really yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
Yeah Well, thank you so much, abby, for sharing all
of this information with us.
I think so many listenersbenefit from having at least a
high level knowledge of whatthey need to pay attention to,
and with so much being thrown atus, we don't always know what
that is.
So having an expert like you,someone who sees this day in and
day out, give us the advice andthe ins and outs of what you
(55:16):
see and what can benefit us, isso very helpful, and we're very
grateful for your time and yourknowledge, so we appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
Yeah, well, thank you , I appreciate you having me.
It was fun talk.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
And also thank you for being an amazing wife to my
best buddy, Michael.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
It's hard work, but you know.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Somebody's got to do it.
Speaker 3 (55:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
I've put up with them for this long.
And that shows in your childrenas well, your stellar little
kids.
They, uh, they're lucky to haveyou as their mom.
So thank you for for that too.
Well, thank you, yep, alwaysjuggling a lot as a professional
and a mom and a mic wife.
(56:01):
well, thank you all so much forjoining us on the cameo show.
We have new episodes everyWednesday and if you have
questions for Abby or anythingsparked your interest or
intrigued your curiosity aboutyour heart health, please let us
know and we will get with Abbyon finding the answers for you.
I will try to articulate them,but we might have to have her
(56:21):
back if they're over my head,which they probably will be.
But please join us again.
We're so grateful that you'rehere.
We'll see you all next time.
Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show.
I'm your host, cameo, and todaywe have our dear friend and
also an expert in the hearthealth area, miss Abby Mrs I'm
sorry, michael.
Her husband, michael, would bevery mad at me for calling her
Miss Mrs Abby Gamby.
Hi, abby, thanks for being here, thanks for having me and, as
(00:22):
always, we have my husband andco-host, mr Greg Braun.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm so excited to be here.
This is a very special episode.
It means near and dear to myheart.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It means near and dear to your heart.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Well, abby, abby's near and dear to my heart, but
we're going to be talking aboutthe heart, so this is just full
of heart.
This episode yes you're rightVery heart-scalped.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well done.
Well, greg, you start us with adad joke, so do you have one
for us today?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I do, I do.
Why couldn't the bicycle standup by itself?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Because it was too tired.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Good, too tired.
Well, without further ado,thank you for that, greg.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
That's for all those moms and dads out there that are
tired because we're driving allover the place.
We're running all over theplace.
We're doing all this stuff.
We're just doing too place.
We're running all over theplace.
We're doing all this stuff.
We're just doing too much.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
We're doing too much.
And that is a great segue toMrs Abby Gamby, because she has
two very busy, involved athleticteens that she's running all
over the place, um, and awonderful husband, michael, who
she is probably busy with takingcare of him as well.
And her expert role here,though what we're talking about
(01:51):
today is she's a certified nursepractitioner, took on the nurse
practitioner role in 2009.
And she's currently working inan outpatient cardiology and
electrophysiology clinic, andyou've been doing that for the
last eight years.
So on the daily you are workingwith heart patients.
You're working with patients onmaking sure that their cardio
(02:12):
health stays or returns to whereit needs to be.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Yes, optimal health is what we shoot for for them,
and it's, oh yeah,electrophysiology.
So that's heart rhythm disorderclinic, and then the other
focus on general cardiology,which is overall heart health,
blood pressure control,cholesterol control, just health
maintenance and a plethora ofcoronary artery disease or heart
(02:40):
problems.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
So yeah, yeah, heavy stuff.
Yes, well, this came aboutbecause we were having a
conversation with Mike one nightand he mentioned that Abby had
given a presentation about ourwearable devices that track our
heart rate, our HRV, our sleep,all of these different things
that we're all obsessed with.
I mean, we're just as a cultureobsessed with our wearables,
(03:02):
our Apple watches, our whoopmonitors, our aura rings.
I was sharing with you, beforewe started, that I literally
wake up and check my aura ringevery single morning to see what
my ring tells me I have donewell and what it tells me I suck
at.
I'd like to start there andthen maybe branch off into some
just general heart healthinformation, because a majority
(03:24):
of our listeners are interestedin taking control of their
health by activity, by diet andmostly by understanding.
What does all of this mean tome?
What are the things that I needto be paying attention to and
what are the things that arejust noise, because there's a
lot of that too.
So if we could start, maybe,with some information about the
(03:46):
heart monitoring wearabledevices that so many people have
, can you talk to us about theaccuracy?
Can you talk to us about whatthese numbers actually mean from
your standpoint as a nursepractitioner and what you see
with your patients, and justgeneral information about them?
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yep, yep.
So I would say by far the weknow the majority of users wear
the Apple watch and not to getto um you know, for with one
brand, but that is by far themost popular thing that we see
is the Apple watches and theytrack from any, depending on
what generation you have.
Um, starting at fourthgeneration is where they will
(04:27):
track your heart rhythm or ifyou're having irregular rhythm,
and that's what we're lookingfor In the general population.
If you get an irregular rhythm,that's where you want to take
the next step and make sure it'snot a concerning rhythm.
So the Apple Watches have thecapability to record that.
If you get an alert, you thecapability to record that.
(04:48):
If you get an alert, you recordthe abnormal rhythm and when
it's recorded, it is goodaccuracy.
So all our studies and datawe've looked at or has been
looked at has shown these are upto the Apple Watches.
Again, the other wearablesinclude Aura rings, or there's
many different types of rings orwhat, uh paired devices that
you can connect ultrasound waveUm, it's called a cardio device
(05:09):
is the main one that's used.
Anyhow, these are all up tolike over 95% accurate at
detecting abnormal heart rhythms.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Um, so the rage and the excitement around these
rings and devices and Applewatches is, it's reasonable,
like, it's not just a fad, it'snot just something that, like
might give you some informationthat's helpful.
It's extremely accurate.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
It is and we use the data that people bring in
because we know the accuracy andbecause we can view the EKG
recording.
So that's the rhythm thatyou're seeing and we can view it
and we can see.
What's helpful for us as likeproviders, is if someone brings
that in, concerned about a heartrhythm, we can tell them and
coach them.
You know this is sometimeswe'll say it's artifact, meaning
(05:54):
you can see right away it's onthe sheet of paper where the
recording comes across.
If it looks like crazy all overthe place of the rhythm, then
that's not normal.
That means it was not a goodconnection.
We can give some peace of mind.
This is what we call artifact.
Don't worry about that.
It wasn't a good connection toyour wrist, to your finger.
So a lot of times we'll getpeople really worried about
something that's not evenworried.
(06:16):
So it eases their mind to bringthat in.
So we see that.
And then, secondly, we can seethat if there is something
abnormal that looks abnormal,we're able to address it quicker
than if they didn't have awearable device.
So that's, in our eyes, thebiggest benefit is pulling out
something early.
You know, the biggest risk andI've just put this out there
(06:36):
because it's the number one.
Abnormal heart rhythm is atrialfibrillation and if someone's
having that and doesn't realizeit and they have other risk
factors, that's where you're atrisk for stroke.
So this is why in our world,these monitors have been very
helpful.
Whether someone has AFib as anew onset or they've had it and
now we're finding it whilethey're wearing their, it helps
(06:58):
guide treatment.
It also helps the number onething that you know all these
apps, all the Apple Heart Studyand different things looked at
was stroke risk reduction,because that's the biggest
concern with the abnormal heartrhythm of AFib.
That goes undetected a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
If I don't have something that's tracking that
for me?
Are there symptoms or are thereindicators that I would pick up
on that being something ofconcern for me, or does that
kind of happen almost too latein the process?
Can you explain that a littlebit more?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
That is a very good question.
So, um and this is where it'schallenging, because every human
being is different and whatthey feel when they have their
arrhythmia or AFib or otherheart rhythms.
But AFib is the bigger one thatoften goes unnoticed um,
because some people feel nothing, totally the same, no
difference.
It's almost.
I mean just in my experienceI'd say, people that have normal
(07:51):
heart rates and they happen togo into AFib may not notice
anything at all for a long time.
But some subtle symptoms likefatigue, increased fatigue, why
am I all of a sudden tired?
You know, mowing the lawn, push, mowing my small lawn, whereas
I used to not be Like that'ssometimes something that gets
tricky because people don'trealize the fatigue.
A change in level of fatigueand trigger could be a sign, I
(08:14):
should say, of arrhythmia.
Shortness of breath is the mainone.
Increased shortness of breathor like a butterfly feeling,
flip-flop feeling in your chestthose aren't normal symptoms.
Unexplained feelings like thatwould encourage someone to talk
with their doctor or get furtherevaluation with EKG as a quick,
(08:36):
simple way in an office tocheck a rhythm.
Now again, if you happen tohave one of these as well, they
are again pretty accurate.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And an Oura ring would do the same.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
I believe.
So yeah, I mean I didn't lookas much detail on those, but I
know they they track the um, theheart rate, the same way.
So I don't have.
I can honestly say I don't seethat one used as often, you know
, just in my practice.
But, um, I know that it usesthe same technology as the Apple
watches with the infrared lighton the ring itself, which again
was looked at in the studies,and it showed similar, you know,
(09:11):
over 95% accuracy in detectingabnormal heart rhythm.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Can you talk a little bit more about the technology
and how that works to read theseon our wrists, on our fingers?
Speaker 3 (09:25):
these on our wrists, on our fingers, there's an
infrared light and it'sbasically picking up the blood
flow pulsations through theartery or through your, you know
, through your finger here orthrough the wrist, the
pulsations of the blood flow,and so it's tracking the rhythm,
if it's regular, irregular, andthe rate how fast.
So that's what it's basicallytelling you how fast or slow
your rhythm is, and if it'sregular or irregular as far as
(09:46):
rhythm goes.
And then that's what I'm morefamiliar with.
But then I know there's alsoall the other tracking, as we
were talking before with thesleep scores and sleep blood
oxygen.
So because it's reading theblood, you know it's able to
track the blood flow.
Also, some of them are able totrack blood oxygen levels.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Our rings track our, our blood oxygen level.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Yeah, at nighttime.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, and so with regard to sleep, and maybe it's
not something that you can speakto necessarily specific to the
devices, but while we're on it,can we talk about the importance
of sleep in overall heart?
Speaker 3 (10:24):
health.
Our biggest thing, andespecially getting into middle
age, is awareness of sleep apnea.
I know that's not something wetest on, but this is what also
these can track and pick up isif you're having low blood
oxygen levels at nighttime, buttracked by your device, whether
it's your watch or your ring.
That's concerning time, buttracked by your device, whether
(10:46):
it's your watch or your ring,that's concerning so you do not
want your oxygen levels droppingbelow 90 while you're sleeping.
That's not normal.
Anything below 90, 80s, 70swhile sleeping is abnormal, or
what we'd call sleep disorderedbreathing, potential risk for
sleep apnea, which then carriesa laundry list of risk of other
comorbidities such as, like highblood pressure, risk of stroke,
(11:09):
risk of a risk of heart rhythmissues, risk of heart failure.
So, and that is again over timeyou know it's not something
that happens overnight, but overtime.
If someone's not aware aboutoxygen levels at night, um,
that's one big thing that Ithink these are helpful for
tracking.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, and I think that's an overarching theme and
statement to make about these isthat the data is accurate, but
also it allows you to track thetrend.
So, as you mentioned, allhumans are different.
My HRV, my heart ratevariability number which, if you
could explain a little bitabout that, that would be
amazing but, like mine, lookstotally different than Greg's
(11:48):
and it looks way different thanFaith's.
She has our daughter's 19.
She has an aura ring and herHRV is like through the roof all
the time, like super high, andI'm super jealous of that.
But obviously there's a 20 plusyear gap in age and and
physiology there that makes adifference.
So can you talk to us about HRVand speak to the fact that
(12:09):
these trends are things thathelp experts, help your patients
make sure that they understandtheir own trends versus maybe
just what they Google?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, there's another thing that they're an excellent
source for and we all, you knowpeople will bring in a lot like
here.
Look here my heart rate, um,when I'm sitting in I haven't
been doing much throughout theday is 120.
You know that's not normaleither.
So you don't want a rusting.
Resting heart rate should bebelow, technically, probably in
the eighties, below 90, normalUm.
(12:40):
But you also should see theheart rate going up, like you're
talking about, probably withphysical activity running,
walking, climbing stairsthroughout the day.
You do want to see that rate goup, you know.
So that's normal.
You know there's no concern whenyou see heart rates knowing you
were at the gym or you weremaybe outside working in the
yard, that's normal.
(13:00):
For the heart rate to be 110,120.
No concern there.
More concern is resting heartrates elevated, unexplained
elevated.
Other thing would be if youwere not getting an increased
heart rate response to activity,which can happen with age.
So, as you mentioned, as we getolder 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s our
(13:22):
heart rate variability is not asrobust as, like faith, would be
at 19.
You still want to see some,though it's important that it
does speak to heart health,meaning your electrical
conduction through your heart isnormal if it's going up
appropriately with activity.
But if it's not, there's alittle more data showing some
risk for increased heart diseaseif you're not getting
(13:45):
appropriate heart rate responseto activity.
Especially our older populationand I'm talking over age, like,
let's say, 80, 70, 80,occasionally younger, but like
really blended heart rateresponse to activity can show a
significant decline inelectrical conduction.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
So sure that makes sense.
I guess I look at mine, forexample.
I I'm always perplexed when Iyou mentioned, like I'm just
sitting here working and myheart rate is a little hot on
the higher side and I'm notreally doing anything.
So I take some deep breaths tolike calm myself down.
Maybe I'm experiencing justsome stress and anxiety around
(14:22):
the work that I'm doing bring myheart rate back down.
I also then notice sometimes,like we do a lot of boxing
training, a lot of kickboxingand martial arts, sometimes I
feel like I'm just completelygassed, like I could just bend
over and just take in deepbreaths, just sucking in air,
trying to catch up.
And I look at my stats from myworkout and my heart rate didn't
(14:43):
really go like out of zone twoand I'm like how is that
possible?
I was nearly dying.
Like where's the correlationbetween knowing that you're
pushing yourself in physicalactivity uh, hard enough, but
not too hard and also like someof the things that would cause
my my resting heart rate tospike?
Those are two very differentquestions that I just threw at
(15:04):
you all at once.
But if we can break those downin a more organized way, I
presented them to you.
That would be great.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Well, I, before Abby gives us the answers, I think
you're faking it.
You're not giving it your alland you're stopping and the ring
doesn't lock.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
See, Greg and I spar each other, and when you, when
you say those things, Greg,you're just kind of asking for
it you know, you're just askingfor me to turn it up and that
could be dangerous for you, myfriend, so I don't regret it, or
was Greg winning at that time?
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So you're like I'm done Well probably not.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
No, could have been.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah, so I think to answer your first question or
maybe it was your first questionregarding if you're at rest and
you're noticing your heartrate's up, but you're also
correlating it with increasedstress, anxiety.
That is very normal.
So there's stress hormonesreleased.
When you're upset, you'reemotional, you're nervous about
(16:02):
something for the day orsomething happened, you are
going to have a little bithigher heart.
Oh, the other thing is pain.
You know, obviously we expectheart rate to go up with pain.
If you're in pain, from fromsparring with Greg or whatever
it may be, the heart rate isgoing to be up.
At rest, you know, maybe 90 to100 or more.
But then, like you noticed, youdid the deep breathing, there's
(16:23):
direct correlation with youknow, deep breathing, relaxation
techniques that lower heartrate, and yoga, all those things
really lower heart rate as youdo those calming exercises.
So that is, yeah, normal withstress to go up, like that
normal to go down, as you doyour relaxation, which is why
those techniques are so good, asyou do your relaxation, which
(16:46):
is why those techniques are sogood.
Um, to follow that up with yourother question, which was, oh,
about the breathing Um yeah.
And you're feeling really shortof breath or like really winded
when you're working out but youdon't think your heart rate's
where it should be to be going.
Feeling that winded Is thatwhat you're?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
saying yeah, I mean, I feel like I pull up my numbers
after the workout, where I'm,like you know, today was really
difficult.
I felt really gassed in a waythat you know I was pushing
myself harder than I feel likemaybe I normally get to that
level and I pull up my ring andexpecting it to be like your
heart rate's 180, you know, andit's like 120, zone two, the
(17:19):
whole time and I'm like that wasmy next question what your
heart rate was.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
So it was 120, which was your normal for being
exercising.
Yeah, that's a tough one totease out.
I mean, certainly it might notbeen related to the heart rate
or something it could have been.
Maybe that day you knowsomething different where more
against stress, more stress thatday or more upset, that your
body in general just was moretired.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Do I understand correctly that as your physical
fitness level increases, thoughthat your heart rate?
Uh, how high it would go.
During a strenuous workout, itwould be normal for it to be low
, on the lower side than maybeif you were inactive and then
just went out and startedrunning sprints and you.
(18:02):
Is that an accurate statement?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
Yeah, I think so and I think again the age part has a
little bit to do with it.
Versus, like you know, whenwe're 18 to 20s we can tolerate
heart rates 170 target heartrates when you're exercising.
170, 180 is more manageablewith your breathing, versus 120
is more 130, 140.
As you get a little older, yourtarget heart rate goes down.
(18:24):
So your body, you know, youreally wouldn't maybe feel well
if your heart rate was evenhigher.
Like you're saying, youexpected it to be higher, like
160, 180, but it's unclear,maybe that day that happened,
why, I guess.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
but yeah, Well, I just, uh, I look over at Greg
and he's usually like breathingheavier than I am struggling.
I know he's usually likebreathing heavier than I am
struggling.
I know he's not working nearlyas hard as I am.
And then his heart rate's likehigher than mine and I'm like
what?
Like I'm putting out so muchmore extra energy and effort.
So I guess you know.
That's why I was chalking it upto my level of fitness, is just
(18:59):
that much higher.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
I mean it could be because you ran a lot right Like
you were a runner and greg youdidn't do as much distance, is
that right?
Speaker 2 (19:07):
uh well, we, we did the clumbus marathon together
okay, yeah, yeah we ran a lotthat summer we did.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I would say, though, that, collectively, I've
definitely put in more milesover a longer period of time.
Okay then, greg, yeah okay.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
So I think anybody that's run distance running, um
any like athlete that's keptvery high level at Greg not that
you didn't, but um high levelof aerobic exercise, whether
it's marathons, half marathons,triathlons they're almost
throughout and I've just seenthis through some patients we've
(19:44):
had throughout their lifetime.
Their heart rates do run alittle bit lower at rest and
like you're saying, I'm guessingprobably more.
I have never really discussedthat with them but, like when
they're active and running anddifferent things.
People get worried a lot if theyare really active or if they
have a resting heart rate that'slow, like 40s, 50s, um, and
(20:07):
we'll get the question that alot.
If you're not having anysymptoms and your heart rate's
that low, it's it's okay,meaning we that's the frequent
thing that comes in is like well, it's called bradycardia,
meaning low heart rate, andthat's sometimes people's
baseline heart rate is lower.
As long as you're not havingany symptoms, then there's no no
concern.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Well, hers is lower.
Yeah yeah, her heart rate islower than mine.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So when I wake, up in the morning, my resting heart
rate overnight is sometimes inthe forties.
Is that typical that in yoursleep, when you're not moving
and you're at complete rest,your heart rate drops off from
when you're not active but awake?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Yes, yes, correct, and that's the other question
we'll get is the heart rate atsleep will drop into the 40s for
a lot of people, and that'sokay.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
And I don't quite recall the physiology, Like it's
not necessarily an issue.
It's just that when we sleep atnighttime our heart rates, our
bodies are so relaxed and rested, the heart rate slows way down
from our baseline.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Interesting.
This is maybe more on theexercise side of things, but to
me it's still heart related.
The difference between aerobicand anaerobic exercise.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
You know, from our standpoint we certainly
encourage aerobic exercise.
So we do know that getting theheart rate up with aerobic
exercise I mean currently theAmerican Heart Association has
got, I mean it's recommended 150minutes a week for aerobic
exercise Most people don't getthat.
You know that's hard.
So aerobic exercise is superimportant for blood pressure
(21:42):
control, cholesterol control,diabetes, weight.
So I would say we of course,working in a heart office,
strongly favor aerobic exercise.
Getting that heart rate up isso important to prevent many
things and even heart rhythmissues are very well prevented
by getting your heart rate uplike that aerobic exercise 30
(22:06):
minutes a day is the standardwell, or you know, yeah, I mean
if you can.
I mean they say 150 minutes aweek, so that's almost every day
doing something to get yourheart rate up.
Um is the currentrecommendation.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
So and when you say get your heart rate up, what is
that?
Obviously that differs fromperson to person, yeah, and what
their base level is, but isthere like a?
Uh, not a range, but like a?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
zone three.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, Like a where where it correlates to your own
heart rate how far it should befrom your resting, or how do you
measure?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Yeah, I don't think.
I don't think there's anythingthat specific.
I've seen you know, it'sbasically any you know, and this
is for the general population.
I mean, some people arecertainly like you're.
I think you both are very goodwith being very aware of your
fitness levels and what you needto be doing, but then a lot of
people aren't.
So we just really encourage,like I said, every person is
different.
Some people have done nophysical activity for a very
(23:03):
long time, for whatever reason.
So we say start where you canStart, 10 minutes a day, 15
minutes a day, walking.
What can your body do If youcan't walk, you can't run, get.
If there's something stationaryyou can do, get on a bike.
If you can't do that, can youget in the water?
Can you get in a pool and walk,I mean, and then keep building?
So it depends on literally it'sunique for each person and not
(23:27):
specific range of heart rate.
It's just a matter of doingsomething physical more than
what you were currently doing.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Just so your heart rate isn't staying at just kind
of where it is when you'reresting, so that you do see when
you do that activity that spikein a heart rate over a period
of time.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Yeah, and doing that will eventually I mean over
several months, usually we'd say, you know, two, three months
will improve those things thatmaybe you're trying to work on,
whether it be blood pressure,cholesterol, you know weight.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
While we're heading in that direction.
With regard to general hearthealth, Greg and I get our blood
work done annually.
We are due, Greg, so wedefinitely need to get that
taken care of.
But we both have even.
You know, as active as we are,as mindful of our nutrition as
we are, we're nowhere nearperfect.
I mean, I just inhaled birthdaycake for an entire week I'm
(24:17):
going to call myself out.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
I literally just had a piece of cake and it was
amazing.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Easter candy and birthday cake all in the same
week.
It's been insane around here.
So I'm not saying we're perfect, but we're very mindful and so.
But our blood work has shownthat we have slightly high LDL
cholesterol the bad cholesterolthat you're not supposed to have
and Greg is on the higher rangeof where his blood pressure
should be.
So what are things that impactour heart with regard to
(24:46):
nutrition and activity?
Those things specifically bloodpressure and cholesterol that
we can be mindful of in ourday-to-day, our busy lives,
running from place to place totry to keep those where they
need to be.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah, and that's and that's a good one, because
that's that's hard Cause, likeyou said, we have very busy
lives and sometimes it creeps upon you.
As far as blood pressure,slowly over time and can be
genetic definitely, which ischallenging, there's nothing you
can do about genetics if yourfamily history of blood pressure
or heart disease you knowthat's.
But it's that's where it'simportant to be very mindful of
(25:24):
um of your diet, which, again,we generally would recommend,
like Mediterranean diet.
That's been shown to be verybeneficial for heart health and
cholesterol.
The Mediterranean diet wouldinclude a lot of fish, omega-3s.
Olive oil is the main oil thata lot of times you know people
don't recognize or realize, likecoconut oil had a lot of you
(25:46):
know, rave as far as benefit,but there's a lot of saturated
fat and coconut oil.
So we really encourage moreolive oil, avocado oil,
saturated fat and coconut oil.
So we really encourage moreolive oil, avocado oil.
The healthy fats do helpcholesterol.
And then it's.
You know, I said fish, chicken,nuts, greens, fruits, minimal
processed foods, minimal redmeats in a nutshell, we love
(26:11):
steak, blank steak and we'rejust heavy on the red meat for
sure.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
That's probably where .
Speaker 3 (26:17):
That's yeah, I think that is the hard one, especially
like a lot in your lifetime,maybe throughout your life.
I mean Mike Gamby ate a lot ofred meat, yeah, so yeah, he's,
you know, just growing up how he, you know on the farm and
different things, I mean thatwas a lot.
I mean he loves red meat and Ilike it too, but, um, that's a
(26:40):
tough one for a lot of people.
I'd say that's the biggest kindof pushback from that diet.
When we talk about it is thered meat, um, so we don't say
you have to eliminate italtogether.
So I mean, certainly just againbeing mindful, okay, maybe I
have it once every other week.
You know it's better thanhaving it three times a week.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
So you know, let's see, yeah, like I need to get it
down to once a day, and then Ican be maybe a little happier,
and you know, and it alsodepends on your numbers, like
you said.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
I mean, certainly if you, if I had both of your
cholesterol panels in front ofme and they were reasonably,
reasonably healthy, then it'd besurprising.
Okay, maybe you can stillcontinue to have your red meat
once a week or twice a week.
Now, on the flip side, if it'sthe it's, it's a different story
if someone had already hasheart disease.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
but if we're talking preventative health care, or
preventative health thencertainly just trying to get
your target numbers, that goalfor you well, I cannot wait to
get our results and email themto abby and we'll give it to us.
Let us know you know yeahbecause when we look at, we're
just like what is all this, youknow?
(27:50):
Yeah it's just yeah andgenerally.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
I'll tell you, like obviously, that it should be
giving you on the like what'snormal range, what's yeah, yeah,
which is probably pretty youknow for you guys, how, if you
guys are healthy people wouldprobably be accurate I've been
noticing because I'm 42 andprobably entering the
perimenopausal conversation likeI do have some of those
butterfly flutters.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
I do have some increased anxiety, and I haven't
had my hormone panels done, Ihaven't done any of that yet but
I just feel like those arethings that are popping up that
I recognize, that are new anddifferent in the equation, that
are like oh shit, here we go.
I'm I'm in my forties and thisstuff is like something I have
to pay attention to.
And with regard to, like, thepattern of the ring, I think
(28:38):
that's helpful for me because Idon't obsess over it necessarily
, but I do.
I do at least know where myheart rate is, I do know my
numbers are and I know a littlebit enough to be dangerous about
what they mean.
And, um, let that kind of guideme.
Like when I don't get a goodnight's sleep, usually I I know
(29:00):
it before I checked my ring andthen it tells me hey, you didn't
get a good night's sleep, youdummy, you need more sleep.
Yeah, I was reading a book.
It's called scarcity brain.
Have you read it, abby?
It's by Michael Easter,fantastic book.
He has two books, maybe he hasmore than two but Comfort Crisis
and Scarcity Brain.
And coincidentally, there'sthis page on health where he's
(29:23):
talking about whoops anddifferent aura rings and fitness
trackers and it talks about howpeople use their recovery score
to determine what they're goingto do next, like what am I
going to do today based on myrecovery score score?
I guess on my aura ring itwould be called my readiness
score.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
And I'm curious if you see people leaning into what
their device says to dictatewhat they do with their activity
levels or with their day-to-day, and if that can be dangerous,
considering how accurate theinformation is or if you should
really hold tightly to like Igot bad sleep.
My readiness score is low.
(30:02):
I should rest and give my bodysome time to recover, or go more
based on how I feel or what Iwould normally do.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
The patient population.
I work with a a little bitolder average age, probably
above 70.
But personally I don't see ittoo often.
I some ways wish people took alittle more ownership of their
health.
Being proactive is so important, like you know.
We kind of touched on knowing,knowing your numbers, knowing
your blood pressure, knowing ismy heart rate symptom I'm
(30:31):
feeling, is my ring showingsomething weird.
You know those things.
Being so proactive, capturingeverything early, will, in the
long run over your lifetime,keep you much healthier.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Sure On the things that sneak up.
What are the things that yousee that people maybe come in
and they they didn't havesymptoms, they didn't realize,
and then all of a sudden they'rein this uh, danger zone of
having a stroke or having sometype of cardio cardiac disease,
not to scare people, but just tobe aware of as they're thinking
(31:04):
, yeah, all the health, healthmaintenance, um, I mean we could
go through a pretty good listof things that cause high blood
pressure, heart disease.
Speaker 3 (31:14):
You know, risk of high cholesterol, stroke, heart
rhythm issues Starting at thetop, I would say main ones
alcohol use and cigarettesmoking.
Alcohol use is directly linkedto a lot of things in the heart
world.
As far as heart failure, I mean, I'm talking again, heavier
alcohol use over time, these arethings that will catch up.
As far as blood pressure, heartfailure, I mean I'm talking
again, heavier alcohol use overtime, these are things that will
(31:35):
catch up.
As far as blood pressure, heartfailure, heart disease,
cigarette smoking as well, youknow, nicotine is very hard on
your arteries over time and cancause plaque buildup.
And then you know, these arethings that two lifestyle things
that are really important, thatwe preach a lot about, as far
as if we do have a patient thathas a new diagnosis of a heart
(31:58):
problem, those are two thingsthat we really try to hone in on
, trying to minimize.
I know it's difficult, butthat's two things.
Second thing would then beweight healthy weight, healthy
BMI, your height to weight indexreally under 27 for people is
where they start to see anythingabove that.
More health risk comes in asfar as blood sugar, you know,
(32:21):
diabetes, cholesterol, and sothen the other one I would say
would be exercise, like we havebeen touching on.
So weight exercise, and thenhealthy foods, like the
Mediterranean diet, um, low saltdiet, of course, if you have
high blood pressure.
We talking to people abouttheir diet as far as, um, what
(32:41):
type of sodium they're eating.
A lot of people aren't aware ofall the sodiums that hidden and
is hidden in our foods.
So that's a big conversation,um, and then you mentioned sleep
.
That's a big one, you know.
We talked about importance ofsleep and sleep disordered
breathing, again, sleep apnea,type of things, making sure
you're aware of your sleep,healthy sleep.
(33:02):
And then there's a final one Ihad on my mind oh, we touched on
already stress.
Stress is a big one as far as,over time, chronic stress leads
to chronic illnesses.
We know that, and in the heartworld we see it with blood
pressure, or, again, there is apotential for heart failure.
(33:23):
There's so much stress Can youeven have a stress induced
cardiomyopathy.
So best we can controlling ourstressors, whether that be
through, you know, I meanthere's that's a whole nother
talk on itself, but that's along list right there, but it's
a long list of healthmaintenance.
It's a lot.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
That's a great list.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
I feel like it's something that everybody kind of
knows, but maybe just becausethat's what you've always been
told, but don't really thinkabout the long-term consequence
or severity of it.
So having you discuss that fromyour position, seeing an older
population, seeing it when itkind of is, you know, maybe
happening.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yeah, and I shouldn't rephrase that because I do have
.
We do have a lot of people thatcome in and they're for maybe
they don't have the technologywe were talking about.
That I was more touching on thetechnology, but then we do get
people coming in a lot and Iwould say the primary thing in
40s, 50s, 60s is again bloodpressure issues, cholesterol or
early heart disease, whether itbe unhealthy lifestyle or family
(34:24):
history.
So it's yeah, I mean it'scertainly Greg.
I think we said in thebeginning, heart disease is the
number one killer in America.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah, that stat just blows my mind because I would
have never guessed that and Iwould imagine a lot of people
general population that aren'tin the medical world wouldn't
guess that.
Maybe they would say cancer orsomething else, but just
literally heart disease.
Something else, but just justliterally heart disease.
(34:56):
And there's.
And you literally just gave thelist of the 10 commandments of
things to do to offset.
You know, correct, set yourselfup for the success in that.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, yeah, it's, it is so important.
It's so important before.
Hopefully in your lifetime younever have heart disease, but if
you do get it, it can really bea game changer, changing your
lifestyle after a diagnosis ofheart disease or heart rhythm
issues, focusing on those things.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It's kind of like you give those rules to the game of
life by laying them out thereand if you implement all of
those things I mean just thinkabout it like in our normal day
we get pinged with our phone andall this stress that we get
from driving all over the place.
I mean we are overstressed.
So if we don't do somethingconsciously, proactively, to
(35:46):
offset that said stress that weare getting pounded with every
day, you can't just accidentallyget healthy in today's world
Because we have comfort and easeand simplicity to just like be
lazy and eat fast food, and soyou have to consciously go.
I got to work out, I got tomanage my stress, Like it's all
(36:07):
got to be maximum impact, andthat's just like a constant
evolution that you just keepunfolding, you know so yeah, and
it's not easy.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
You know it is not easy and that's, I think, the
hard, the hardest part, you knowyeah it's trying to implement
these changes.
If someone's not ever beenaware, you know yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
But it starts with that being aware of like, yeah,
holy shit, these fries are notgood for me yes, yes and like
and, just like you guys aresaying, just knowing your
numbers is so important yeah,yeah, um former smoker, former
drinker.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
You well know that.
You've seen us in our glorydays, so I didn't know about.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I kind of forgot about the smoker part.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Yeah, I probably smoked for almost 10 years.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Oh, really I did not know that.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah, greg was a pack or two a day, or for a long
time.
Oh yeah, when we stoppeddrinking 10 years ago it the
smoking went out the window withit for sure, for good, um, but
it's still very difficult, bothvery difficult things to kick.
My question was going to belike you know, you see, people
(37:21):
come in, lifestyle choicescontribute to their overall
heart health and it sneaks inand it causes some problems
later on that maybe you weren'tpaying attention to in your
twenties, thirties, are worriedabout how does quitting both of
those things or limiting them oradjusting them, reverse the
damage that's been done or theproblems or the symptoms that
(37:43):
people are experiencing?
Is it something that'strackable and measurable and a
quick thing that happens?
Or is there data to supportthat?
Or what does that look like?
And I'm I'm asking more curiousfor, like, what does that mean
to me 10 years later?
What does it look like?
What does my heart look likefrom all the damage that I've
done in my previous life of notpaying attention or caring?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
you know, you know, I mean our, our bodies are pretty
amazing.
They can recover, um, andthat's what's so unique.
I mean I just, of course I workin the heart world.
We see, like I mentioned in thebeginning, you know, you can
have a stress-induced, basicallylike heart failure.
You can have an alcohol-inducedheart failure, but our heart is
a muscle and it actuallyrecovers.
(38:28):
So it can take, I meansometimes three months.
I mean we say three months ofyou know, alcohol cessation or
in medical therapy, I meancertainly with the addition of
you know, modern science, withmedication, it can improve over
time so our hearts can recover.
And that's specific to likeagain, alcohol or removing
(38:48):
whatever that was the cause.
There's many causes, but anyhow, the heart like reversible, as
you're saying, um, certainly,plaque in the coronary arteries,
regression, I should say, likeyou, have plaque in your
coronary arteries there is.
There can be plaque regressionIf you do change your diet, if
you do quit smoking.
You know the healthy lifestylechanges and lower blood pressure
(39:12):
and all that can remodelregress heart issues Um yeah.
So definitely a benefit todoing to, to changing those
habits.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
Yeah, it's not like I have done all this damage and I
quit, but later I may show up.
Uh, you know having theseissues because of the damage
that I've done, the quitting theadjustment.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Well, maybe right if I'm lucky Because you were young
enough when you quit probably.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah, yeah.
What's one of the biggestmisconceptions that people have
about heart health and thethings that you see when people
come in with issues or withconcerns.
What's a big misconceptionabout when people come in with?
Speaker 3 (39:54):
issues or with with concerns.
What's a big misconceptionabout?
Speaker 1 (39:56):
but you wish people knew like, even if it's simple
and basic.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Shout out from the mountain.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Um, I would shout from the mountain what I shouted
earlier that list, yeah.
I mean that is every day I amworking.
That conversation comes upmultiple times a day because
it's so important.
I mean for all facets of hearthealth, whether it be I know
(40:31):
we've talked about heart rhythma lot, or we've talked about
heart failure, or we've talkedabout coronary artery disease,
and it carries over to everyother part.
You know your brain health,your kidneys, so I would scream
from the mountaintop thatcigarette, smoking, alcohol,
weight, keep up your activity.
Know your numbers, know yourblood pressure, know your
cholesterol and, best you can,with what resources you have,
(40:52):
minimize stress.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
And that's not a misconception, that's just well.
Maybe you know, maybe it's amisconception People don't
realize that certain things intheir lifestyle it is really
important.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah, I think we're just clobbered over the head
with so much information andmisinformation through news
social media.
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
And I think one thing sorry to interrupt you, but
just really that those thingscan do so much more for you than
even though I prescribemedicine.
You know medicine will not fixeverything.
You know medications and pillscan be given to help blood
pressure and can be given tohelp things.
But if people can do their partand take care of their bodies
(41:37):
and themselves, it will do waymuch, do much more.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Yeah, like your body, and movement is the best
medicine to improve some ofthese things.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Yes, the movement and whatever you're putting in your
body, whether it be you knowfrom all those things we talked
about, from your diet tosubstances.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I have a question um kind of a little different gear
here, but I love coffee and I'msure lots of people out there
love drinking coffee.
It's like you can take away mybeer, my cigarettes, but please
don't take my coffee.
Don't take my coffee, you know.
I mean I just it's like part ofmy life you know, is.
(42:19):
Is it really that bad for me?
I mean, I'm, I could even like,dare I?
I'm going to just call, I mean,a pot a day.
Is that?
I know that's too much, I knowthat's too much.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
He's not lying.
Oh yeah, that is kind of a lot.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
but honestly that you know when I, when a previous
thing we looked at, our talk Idid, was on again heart rhythm
stuff, a previous thing welooked at or talk I did, was on
again heart rhythm stuff.
Caffeine was not directlylinked to heart rhythm disorders
but it did.
It was directly linked for somepeople as a trigger.
So it depends on, again, eachperson but it's not been shown
(42:53):
that it's going to cause a heartrhythm problem or cause again
heart disease or any heart issue.
Caffeine again heart disease orany heart issue.
Caffeine, so that but I wouldtouch on um in moderation,
probably was.
And then those um, I mean thisis again a little off subject,
but the energy drinks, um, like,uh, you know, celsius and
(43:14):
different things that have highamounts of caffeine, those can
certainly be a trigger forpeople with, with, with, with
rhythm issues or trigger arhythm issue.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
Can you speak more about that?
Because I also drink coffee,but I'm one that sits over here
and says don't take my Red Bull,Please don't take my Red Bull
and I've been doing so well.
I haven't even purchased itbecause if it's not in the house
I won't go for it.
I won't stop and get one kindof.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Thing.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
But I love my Red Bull and I don't want it to go
away.
So can you speak more to likewhat that means, with the high,
the high levels of caffeinebeing a trigger for like a uh
high?
Speaker 3 (43:51):
higher.
Yeah, I think it's Red Bull isnot quite as bad right?
Isn't it only like 80 or Well,it depends on what size you
drink.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
So kind of back to that moderation conversation.
You know the eight ounces,probably 80 milligrams, but when
?
I'm drinking like a 12 or 16 orokay yeah you know I shame.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah, I think, um, I mean again, I we always see the
back end of it, like someone'scoming in with a heart rhythm
issue and then, or like again,it's usually fast heart rates
with stuff like that, orpalpitations.
So you mentioned, like you feelthat sometimes, like you'll
feel that and it does happen,it's common Like a quick flutter
(44:32):
, a quick skip beat, we will,and we get that a lot.
We see people with that a lot,and there is concern, like, and
we get that a lot, we see peoplewith that a lot, and there
there is concern that you knowwas something wrong with my
heart rhythm.
And then we have to dive intowhat are you drinking.
So if you're correlating itwith those types of drinks, you
know, then maybe that's atrigger for you.
(44:53):
Um, but and I guess the otherthing would be, just I, you know
, I, I don't know that there's alot of data out there.
Yet as far as, like, thelong-term effect of you, like
you know you're drinking thoseand then you're exercising all
that stuff, I think that mightbe a little bit tricky.
It is a stimulant, you know.
Speaker 1 (45:09):
So yeah, Right, I don't drink them before I go do
a boxing workout or run oranything like that.
Yeah, I, I and I haven't.
I've been so good, I've been sogood.
I often wonder, though, likeand you know, you mentioned
about the devices tracking whenthere's an irregular rhythm,
(45:29):
like I have these heart flutters, my ring doesn't say anything.
I must be okay, Like you know.
Is that a trustworthy thing tothink Like?
Because I do, because I amprobably perimenopausal, because
I do drink a lot of caffeine,because that is probably
somewhat normal.
It isn't maybe a pattern?
Is that accurate?
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (45:47):
no, I'm glad you said that, because I these devices
don't pick up all your regularabnormal heart rhythms.
They mainly, I believe whatthey've been looked at is atrial
fibrillation at least the Applewatches.
I'm not as familiar with therings, but so if you are having
a lot of skipped beats, it maynot pick that up on your device.
(46:08):
And I say skipped beats thatcan mean like an early beat
coming out of the top part ofyour heart or out of the bottom
part of your heart, and that'swhat you feel when someone feels
a palpitation.
Sometimes it's just an extrabeat and that can be normal, but
it can be triggered by caffeine, lack of sleep, dehydration.
Lots of things can triggerthese early beats or extra beats
(46:28):
that feel like a flipped letter.
People describe a dropped beat.
Different things can triggerthose and if that's happening a
lot, that may not pick up onyour watch or your device.
So you would certainly want to.
You know we encourage people,you're feeling it often.
Then you do need what we calllike a medical grade ambulatory
(46:50):
or heart rhythm monitoring.
So then we order someone tohave a monitor on for 24 hours
that is actually really pickingup the rhythm and read by like
the cardiologist.
Or you can wear a one weekmonitor, two week monitor, three
week monitor.
It depends on how oftensomeone's symptoms and how
concerning they might sound foran arrhythmia.
So we don't we use these andthis is just from a healthcare
(47:15):
provider perspective.
They're used as a tool, but ifthere's a concern, certainly we
order like the medical grademonitoring.
So if it's yeah, I would kind ofkeep that in mind.
I don't think you're having itdoesn't sound like you're having
symptoms like that.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
But I don't think so.
I think it's probably prettycommon though, for our age or
younger, because we do drink alot of coffee, we do have a lot
of stress, we do drink energydrinks, we do, you know, maybe
push ourselves to max out ourphysical activity, where we
might have those from time totime and wearing the devices,
yeah, so every once in a whileI'll feel it and be like I've
(47:49):
had too much caffeine and.
I always coffee that gets thebad rap, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
And we always say to you as long as you're not having
other symptoms with it.
You know, that's kind of thedifference between like oh, that
feels kind of funny, versuslike oh, I feel really funny,
like if someone's havinglightheadedness with it or they
feel like they're going to passout.
Speaker 1 (48:06):
that's concerning Okay, and so now that you've
said that and I will I want tobe respectful of your time and I
will wrap this up and stop.
I could ask you a millionquestions and they'd be all over
the place.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
We've covered a lot of topics.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
We have.
It's more than you probablythought you bargained for here
but it's such great informationLike well.
I think it is.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
I mean, the heart is near and dear to my heart, so I
like.
Speaker 1 (48:36):
I do, you know, I just I love letting the
population education yes.
Well, thank you again, um forfor sharing all of this because
it's from a high level veryhelpful, but my question was
going to be like I should knowthis, and there's two.
I always come at you with twoquestions what are the symptoms
of a heart attack and what arethe symptoms of a stroke?
Because we are of the age whereI should be mindful and be
(48:57):
paying attention of, like what'shappening and know these
symptoms in the event thatthere's something happening
around me.
So can you tell us from a highlevel what we should be paying
attention to?
Speaker 3 (49:09):
Yeah.
So from a heart standpoint, youknow, obviously you would know
if all, if you were at rest andyou're having crushing chest
pain, clearly that is unrelieved.
Someone goes to the emergencyroom for that.
That'll take someone to the ER.
But a less noticeable symptomwould be and not necessarily
heart attack, but awareness ofmaybe heart disease or plugged
(49:30):
artery.
We always discuss if you'rehaving chest pain every time you
go up to walk around thegrocery store, if you're
climbing a flight of stairs andyou're getting chest pain each
time you're active, that'sconcerning that because the
heart is pumping harder, tryingto work harder when you're more
active.
So when you're active, if theblood is not getting through
your coronary arteries, well,you're going to have chest pain,
(49:52):
meaning like you're getting aplugged artery, getting closer
to maybe having a heart attack.
Then you would be having chestpain is the most typical with
activity.
Alternatively, watching forshortness of breath.
That's often one that's kind ofmasked, unexplained shortness
of breath.
People often think chest painwith blocked artery, but it can
(50:12):
also present commonly asshortness of breath.
Those are the two uh more likered flags to be aware of for
heart.
You know, possible heart attackor coming on Now if you're
saying active heart attack, thatwould be again you, you chest
pain, jaw pain, any unusual painI mean I've had people have
(50:33):
like elbow pain, um, back painbetween the shoulder blades,
unexplained pain that's notrelieved, um, and that can
become tricky.
Speaker 1 (50:44):
But yeah, I just think I lay awake at night
worried about some of thesethings.
Not often I'm not like ananxiety heavy on the anxiety of
this, but just sometimes where Iwonder like would I know what I
would I know is?
Is it so severe that you justknow?
Or is it something that likebecause you read articles about
people who it just happens allof a sudden?
Speaker 3 (51:06):
they had no clue, you know, they just woke up feeling
normal and all of a sudden I'veseen it both ways you know,
it's a can come out of nowhereor, but you know, can happen
progressive, like we talkedabout pain with pain with
activity or breathing and astroke.
So yeah, a stroke is certainlyany, you know that's what you
(51:27):
kind of think about.
You have numbness.
You know one side of the bodychange.
You know difficulty with wordsUsually it's most commonly
speech or numbness.
Loss of use of an arm, you knowleg or memory, like you know
someone's not making any sense Ithink those would be the big
ones.
Or visual, you know vision loss.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
I think everyone probably wonders about that too,
as you start experiencingdifferent things, especially as
we age.
Is this normal or is thissomething I should be concerned
with?
So thank you for that Just kindof high level general you know
thing to pay attention to thathelps me.
I'll be able to sleep a littlebetter at night.
Speaker 3 (52:05):
I mean.
One other one is like obviouslyunrelieved, unexplained
headache, crushing headache.
You know, that's somethingobviously you don't ignore.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, oh gosh.
I could just keep going, but II feel like what's going to
happen is what happens when wehave experts on, like.
We had a DEXA scan expert onrecently and Greg and I had DEXA
scans and discussed our resultsat the level we were able to
explain them, and which was notawesome.
(52:34):
So then we had someone who wasawesome.
Come on and talk about the DEXAscan.
And then we see questions comein, so what.
I think will happen is likelythat this episode comes out and
people are like, wait, whatabout this?
And then it won't just be merandomly asking you a cluster of
questions, because I'm curiousabout everything and maybe a
(52:55):
little bit more specific to whatpeople are seeing or
experiencing as well.
So yeah, yeah no, that's great.
Speaker 3 (53:01):
Yeah, and it is, and it is.
Uh, there's a lot of thingsthat you know, people we see, as
far as concern for heart, heartissues, chest is a commonplace.
Things settle and people wantto know why am I feeling this?
What does this mean?
And, yeah, it's, it's normal.
Speaker 1 (53:18):
What is the deal with baby aspirin is my last
question.
Should.
I have baby aspirin around,just in case.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
You know it used to be.
They would say oh, anyone, youknow, everyone should be taking
baby aspirin.
That has changed.
Unless you have an indication,meaning you know you have heart
disease already or high risk forheart disease, typically we're
not recommending baby aspirinfor everyone anymore every day,
just because of the potentialside effect from it and the GI
issues.
So if you and you're askinghaving it around for like if you
(53:48):
had chest pain, Well, yeah,like if, if.
Speaker 1 (53:51):
I would feel terrible if something would happen, and
I was not prepared with anyaspirin.
I don't have any aspirin in thehouse, so while we're talking
about this, it's like maybe Ishould get some.
Speaker 3 (53:59):
I mean, I don't think you know.
I guess I shouldn't say you'renot at risk, but you're minimal
risk.
I would consider you both veryminimal risk.
But certainly if you diddevelop chest pain and you were
home alone or you were somewherelike you, taking, you know,
four baby out, chewing four babyaspirin, is what we would, you
know you might give it tosomebody if they were in clinic
or the EMS, if they came andsomeone was having chest pain,
(54:22):
um, aspirin right away will helpbecause it's a anti-platelet,
meaning blood thins the blood,prevent clotting, all that.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, so the validity in that theory or that practice
of having the aspirin in theevent that someone is having a
heart attack is a valuablesource of information.
Speaker 3 (54:40):
Yeah, yeah, that is something that is given in the
act of yes.
Having a heart attack.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
What else you got, greg?
Do you have a question?
That's that's.
Speaker 2 (54:48):
That's probably what saved my dad's life.
My mom had four baby aspirin.
Oh really yeah.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
Yeah Well, thank you so much, abby, for sharing all
of this information with us.
I think so many listenersbenefit from having at least a
high level knowledge of whatthey need to pay attention to,
and with so much being thrown atus, we don't always know what
that is.
So having an expert like you,someone who sees this day in and
day out, give us the advice andthe ins and outs of what you
(55:16):
see and what can benefit us, isso very helpful, and we're very
grateful for your time and yourknowledge, so we appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (55:24):
Yeah, well, thank you , I appreciate you having me.
It was fun talk.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
And also thank you for being an amazing wife to my
best buddy, Michael.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
It's hard work, but you know.
Speaker 1 (55:36):
Somebody's got to do it.
Speaker 3 (55:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:38):
I've put up with them for this long.
And that shows in your childrenas well, your stellar little
kids.
They, uh, they're lucky to haveyou as their mom.
So thank you for for that too.
Well, thank you, yep, alwaysjuggling a lot as a professional
and a mom and a mic wife.
(56:01):
well, thank you all so much forjoining us on the cameo show.
We have new episodes everyWednesday and if you have
questions for Abby or anythingsparked your interest or
intrigued your curiosity aboutyour heart health, please let us
know and we will get with Abbyon finding the answers for you.
I will try to articulate them,but we might have to have her
(56:21):
back if they're over my head,which they probably will be.
But please join us again.
We're so grateful that you'rehere.
We'll see you all next time.
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