Dr. Danielle Belardo

But I think it doesn't get enough press, especially in women, because, you know, it's one of those things where generally we don't see heart disease super early.

So people just kind of associate it as, you know, when we're young, when you're in your 20s and you're in your 30s and things like that, you're not thinking, okay, well, when I'm in my 50s or 60s, am I going to have a heart attack or stroke or whatever?

putting those things into play for prevention then.

So I think that because it's a slow growing process, not always, but generally, that it kind of gets put in the back burner.

But yeah, I would say that there's a lot of kind of confusion about heart disease prevention and about certain things that cause heart disease online.

Even to this day, I always tell patients of mine that the internet's amazing because I love when patients come to me.

You know, there's some memes out there where doctors say like,

your Google search doesn't equal a medical degree.

I like hate phrases like that because the thing is, is that I love when patients come to me with information that they found on TikTok or something like that, because it's important to be able to sit down with people and explain what is kind of fact versus fiction when it comes to that.

And there's a lot of misinformation out there about heart disease.

Right.

No.

And it's so we have to meet patients where they're at.

Right.

Like I actually literally any of my patients were even watching this are going to be like, this is so true.

I literally say to my patients, if I'm starting them on a new medication or we're talking about a different test.

And I always say, like, if you see something on TikTok or Instagram or X that is about this, that concerns you, like, please bring it to me because I would love to discuss it with you.

So that way they're not just feeling like they're having to sort it out.

Yeah, well, I think it's, you know, kind of twofold.

So, you know, when it goes into heart disease, it's kind of like a wide bucket.