Is that daily glass of red wine actually helping your heart… or hurting it?

In this quick-fire game, Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum puts common “heart health” habits to the test—separating what actually supports your body from what’s just hype.

From menopause myths to everyday wellness habits, we’re calling it out: heart health… or heart nope?

In This Episode:

• The truth about red wine and heart health
• Common habits women think are “healthy”—but aren’t
• What actually supports your heart in midlife
• Quick myth-busting you can apply immediately

Why This Matters

There’s a lot of noise around women’s health—and not all of it is helping you.

This is your shortcut to cutting through the confusion and focusing on what actually works.

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Cutting carbs to lower blood pressure, complex carbohydrates.

Super fabulous for you.

What I believe in is the Mediterranean diet that has consistently shown to decrease cardiovascular risk.

We can still get a lot of the protein from that kind of a diet.

Yes.

HRTs in your 40s.

HR2 happens after you're done menstruating, but not if you're menstruating.

It's a different.

The high intensity interval training part.

Healthy.

You don't need that high intensity until you actually get into really good shape.

Then that high intensity brings you to the next level.

Just focus on that moderate intensity.

Make choices that are really gonna help you live the most vital, healthy life you can for as long as you can.

So this game is called Heart smart or Heart Nope.

So heart Smart is you support it.

Heart nope is it's a myth or a waste of time or possibly even bad for you.

Okay.

Okay.

The first one is taking 10,000 steps a day.

I mean, heart smart, but, yeah, good, do it.

10,000 Is the number we should hit.

I mean, there's some controversy around it.

But I would tell you, you know, this is from a really long time ago, and that's kind of what we're saying is where our target might be a little less than that.

I'm going to tell you this.

The more you move, the better it is.

And if we say 10,000 and we hit 8, awesome.

If we say 8 and we hit 5.

Nope.

So hold the bar higher.

Right, Right.

You want to get above the.

Okay, good to know.

Okay.

Red wine for heart health.

Yeah, that's a.

You know, listen, I. I live in New York.

When you ask people if they drink in New York, they're like, no, just a bottle of wine with dinner.

Right.

When you go anywhere else, maybe in California, too.

Anywhere else in the country, do you drink?

No means no, right?

I think that like everything, moderation becomes so important.

And I think if you have a glass of red wine with dinner, nothing is going to happen to you.

But that's not often what happens.

And so it's really about moderation and understanding what's the best for you.

I will tell you, there are people that drink winter red wine, and the nitrates in the red wine, they're feeling foggy or stuffy or not.

Well, don't drink it.

It's not good for you.

And everyone is different.

As we go through menopause, you know, metabolism changes, then that's a hard.

Nope, you know, don't do it.

But if you do and it's A wonderful Friday, Saturday night, you might have a glass of red wine.

Knock yourself out.

Good advice.

Good advice.

HRTs in your 40s.

Well, again, everything in my land really comes down to this personalization and understanding who you are.

If you're in your 40s and menstruating, it's not HRT that you would need.

It was.

It's birth control pills.

Right.

So HR2 happens after you're done menstruating.

What I will say is, is if you go into menopause in your 40s, it's early.

It's early menopause.

So being on hormone replacement, I would absolutely recommend it, because early menopause leads to heart disease, osteoporosis.

I mean, it's really, really hard on your body.

So menopause in the 40s?

Yes, yes, yes.

Heart smart and healthy to go on hormones, but not if you're menstruating.

It's a different deal.

Okay.

Different deal.

Magnesium for sleep.

Magnesium is really.

I love magnesium because it actually slows the heart rate down and actually prevents extra beats.

So for women going through menopause who gets palpitations, magnesium is really helpful.

The marketing behind magnesium for sleep is just a branding.

Marketing amazingness, because what it actually does is it impacts the heart and slows it down and it makes you feel calmer.

Oh, interesting.

That's why you can kind of lull to sleep maybe a little easier.

Right.

Okay, good to know.

Isn't that so cool?

Another one of those small tips, right?

Yes, I love that.

And these, like, kind of like, nutrients that maybe we don't talk about as much too, you know?

Right, right.

Cutting carbs to lower blood pressure.

Huh?

That's interesting.

Well, I'm not sure about.

So carbohydrates, depending.

Simple carbohydrates are high in sugars, and so that's not good for us.

Sugars oftentimes leads to belly fat and leads to inflammation, and all of that will increase blood pressure.

That being said, complex carbohydrates, things like quinoa, amaranth, spelt like all of these, like, ancient grains, super fabulous for you.

Decreases, and it actually improves sugar metabolism, decreases cholesterol.

This is great.

This is not going to increase belly fat.

And so that's not going to increase your blood pressure.

It's actually been shown to decrease your blood pressure.

It's part of the dash diet and Mediterranean diet, and.

And both of these diets have been studied, and it actually decreases blood pressure.

Mm.

Okay, good to know.

Let's see.

The.

Oh, high Intensity interval training.

HIIT training heart healthy.

These are.

You wish I would say this was supposed to be a fast thing, right?

I'd rather hear you like your expertise.

So it's fine.

I'm giving you like a 20 page synopsis.

Hit intervals for athletes is great.

And I, you know, I talk to women who've been like college athletes are training their whole lives, and they're like in their 50s and 60s and they're killing it.

And you know, for them, high intensity intervals are wonderful.

If you're starting out or you're really in this place of, I say in the thick of menopause and you haven't gotten it all figured out yet, just focus on that moderate intensity.

You don't need that high intensity until you actually get into really good shape.

Then that high intensity brings you to the next level.

But really high intensity, it's just not good for you in that, like, icky phase.

I.

Okay, I just coined a new menopause term, like in that icky phase.

We know this icky phase.

Well, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Just stay in that moderate intensity zone.

Okay.

Cold plunges heart healthy.

This is part of that biohacking thing.

If you make me go do a cold plunge, I will never speak to you ever again.

Like, it's not for me again.

This is an individual thing.

It's really helpful for.

It's an anti inflammatory, really helps the autonomic nervous system.

A lot of women I take care of have Raynaud's, which is spasm of the arteries and the fingers and toes where their hands and feet get really, really cold in the cold.

Have you heard of this?

Yes, I've heard of that.

Do not do a cold plunge.

Like, no.

Right.

So again, it gets back to this personalization.

The concept for many, especially people that are working out a lot, anti inflammatory, improves the parasympathetic nervous system.

For me, nope.

But for some, yeah, it could be great.

Okay, now rate these in order.

The keto diet versus the plant based diet for heart health.

Is there one that's better?

Plant based.

Plant based.

I will never change my mind.

Really.

So.

Okay, that's good to know.

So no keto for heart health.

It's got to be plant based.

Okay, so let's talk about this, because here I go again.

You know, it's really interesting because we talk about the education and what people are really pushing, and one of the things that's come up in the menopause community is really talking about high protein diets.

Protein is so Important for us.

But there are different kinds of proteins, saturated fats, you know, what we get from.

I always say it's like two eyes, four legs, a mother.

That's a saturated fat.

Right.

So that includes dairy products because it comes from something with two eyes, four legs and a mother.

Right.

But that's also chicken, turkey, red meat, all of that.

People think that chicken is good and better than red meat because it's lower in fat.

It is still a saturated fat.

So there's difference between high protein things that we get from legumes, beans.

I swear I live on chickpeas.

I do not eat meat.

I don't eat meat.

I do eat fish.

And so when I talk about high keto, we've got to really discuss what that means.

Is that a high saturated fat or are we talking about high protein and low sugar?

Because low sugar I agree with 100%, but I don't agree with this really high saturated fat.

I really like the idea of mostly vegetarian.

And what I believe in is.

Sorry, vegetarian.

But what I believe in is the Mediterranean diet that has consistently shown to decrease cardiovascular risk.

That's high in omega 3 fatty acids.

So that's fish, olive oil, flaxseed, avocado, really good fats, complex carbohydrates, but really low in saturated fats and really, really low in sugars.

That's a good point.

Okay, so the hummus.

And we can still get a lot of the protein from that kind of a diet.

Yes.

So I'm not really a cook, chef, anything.

I just missed that gene and had no interest.

So I actually get delivered to me a high protein vegetarian diet.

And I am really getting like 20 grams of protein in an all vegetarian.

And it's a lot of different kind of legumes, beans, like you mentioned, hummus, that sort of thing.

And I make sure to get on my own fish and that omega 3 component.

Okay, good.

Okay, last one.

Listening to your body over lab work.

Oh.

Listening to your body is really interesting and can be potentially dicey.

Okay, good to know.

Because when we talk about high blood pressure, we call it the silent killer.

Sometimes you can't feel it.

High cholesterol, you don't know, you can't feel it, you never know.

And so I am literally talk about constantly like this idea of living from the heart.

So listening to your body is one of the most important things to do.

But when you think about what is going to affect you the most, that you might not know, it actually comes from the blood work.

And I really, really want everyone to know.

You've got to know your family history.

You have to understand that piece.

Because one of the most common things I hear from women is I eat well and exercise.

And although my family history is really bad, I take care of myself.

So it doesn't matter.

It does.

It does.

What you're doing for yourself makes you healthier, but it doesn't mean you might not need medication.

It.

It doesn't mean you're a failure at trying to prevent disease or taking care of yourself.

It's just sometimes those genes are so powerful that you can't get the cholesterol down and you might need medication.

So how you feel like demote your brain a CEO for real and listen to your heart in the most profound way, which is what's the impact of these blood tests on.

On my heart?

Can I develop heart disease and all of those things and make choices that are really going to help you live the most vital, healthy life you can for as long as you can?

That's what you really want to talk about.