Digital Social Hour
Danielle Belardo: This Doctor Uses TikTok to Fight Heart Disease Misinformation | DSH #1695
21 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What does Dr. Danielle Belardo think about the role of the internet in health information?
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.
Chapter 2: Is heart disease really increasing among younger populations?
And there's a lot of misinformation out there about heart disease.
Okay, guys, got Dr. Danielle Bilardo here today.
Chapter 3: What are the risks associated with carnivore diets and cholesterol?
Not a biohacker. We're going to get the opposing side today. So thanks for your time.
Thanks for having me.
Chapter 4: How does the Mediterranean diet compare to other diets in terms of health?
Yeah, I know I have on a lot of biohackers, but I want to be fair as a host and get the other side of things. I know you've debated Dr. Stephen Gundry and a couple other people, right?
Yep, yep, yep. I'm here and hoping your audience is gentle with me.
So could you, first of all, for people that don't know who you are, explain what type of doctor you are and what you do?
Chapter 5: What is the truth about intermittent fasting and its effects on muscle mass?
Yeah, sure. So I am a cardiologist. I'm a preventive cardiologist. I work in Los Angeles, California. And I focus on heart disease prevention, cardiometabolic health, so things like
Chapter 6: How can you identify bad science and misinformation in health claims?
hyperlipidemia, high cholesterol, what we call primary prevention, so preventing heart disease, as well as secondary prevention, so taking care of patients with heart disease. I'm very interested in nutrition and cardiovascular disease, so I was actually the lead author of our latest, our Nutrition and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
statement from the american society of preventive cardiology so very also interested in the lifestyle factors for heart disease prevention as well as you know evidence-based medicine so do a lot about evidence-based medicine and um how you know everyone can kind of advocate for themselves to get the best care on social media nice um since you've started have you seen an increase in heart disease like i see these stats online i never know what to believe but
Yeah, so heart disease is certainly, you know, overall we've seen, you know, a reduction in somewhat in the severity of disease. But I think that, of course, heart disease is still present. It's the number one cause of death for men and women. I would like to actually even say it's probably the number one through, you know, five and then, you know, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
That's how far off everything else is.
Chapter 7: Why are most dietary supplements considered ineffective or harmful?
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.
Chapter 8: What are the misconceptions surrounding statins and their importance in heart health?
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.
Well, respect for, first of all, embracing that because certain doctors are a bit older and they would like see that as a sign of insult. I don't know.
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. I got two Freds right now. They're in their 30s. Both of them just got diagnosed with heart disease. Are you seeing younger people getting it these days?
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.
When we talk about coronary artery disease, so the plaque that builds up in the heart arteries, a lot of those risk factors are not, you know, necessarily controlled, especially for people that are younger that aren't even getting their risk factors checked, things like their cholesterol, diabetes, their blood pressure.
And then, of course, we have, you know, an obesity epidemic, and that leads to a lot of these risk factors as well. I also think we're diagnosing it, not in everyone, but in a substantial amount of people earlier because now our imaging and detection has gotten much better.
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