Dr. Tara Narula

So it doesn't have to be this sort of sharp chest pain that makes you really fall to the ground, but it can be that more subtle, like, oh, I just feel this sort of knot here.

Women can also get, and men, but jaw pain, shoulder pain on the left side,

a feeling of nausea or shortness of breath.

That can be a big one that sometimes is missed.

So if you're short of breath when you're walking fast or walking up hills or walking upstairs or even at rest, that can be a sign.

Lightheadedness, fatigue.

I ask my patients, are you unusually fatigued or exhausted more than you would expect?

Have you not been able to exercise as much?

All of those can be signs of cardiovascular disease that people need to pay attention to.

Well, hot flashes we think of as this vasomotor dysfunction.

And it does seem like lots of times women who have hot flashes may then go on to be predisposed to some sort of cardiovascular disease.

So there's something, again, about the way the vessels are responding.

So the same way that we talked about pregnancy as this time where we're predicting what might happen.

certainly that vasomotor dysfunction may also be predictive as well.

I had room for one more.

Yeah, so we have something called a calcium score, which I love.

So this is a very quick CAT scan of the heart.

It takes five minutes.

It is no contrast.

It is very low radiation, about the same as a chest x-ray.