About Heart Health, Reimagined with Dr. Mona Shah, MD
You passed your stress test. Your numbers looked fine. And you still don't feel sure your heart is actually okay. That feeling is worth paying attention to.
I'm Dr. Mona Shah, a triple board-certified preventive cardiologist focused on the early detection of heart disease, advanced cardiac imaging, and integrative cardiovascular care. After 20 years in traditional cardiology, I built a practice focused on what medicine too often waits too long to do: find cardiovascular disease before it becomes a heart attack.
On this channel, I share clear, evidence-based insights on heart health, longevity, and prevention. We dig into coronary CT angiography, CAC scoring, plaque detection, cholesterol, ApoB, and advanced lipid testing, plus the lifestyle factors that actually protect your heart: nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, metabolic health, and inflammation. If you've been told everything looks normal but still have questions, this channel is for you.
New videos every week.
Berberine, Bergamot, Red Yeast Rice, or Plant Sterols — What Actually Works?
Can supplements really replace a statin? In this video I break down the four natural options I get asked about most for lowering LDL and ApoB - red yeast rice, berberine, bergamot, and plant sterols - what the evidence actually shows for each one, and who might genuinely be a good candidate for a natural-first approach versus who needs more than a supplement can offer. I also cover why I stopped recommending niacin, whether you can safely combine these supplements, and the exact framework I ...
1 Oct 2026
What Menopause Really Does to Your Heart Risk
If you're in your 40s and starting perimenopause, in your 50s going through menopause, or you went through menopause years ago, this matters to you. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women, and menopause can be a major turning point in your cardiovascular risk, not because estrogen was "protecting" you and then vanished, but because the hormonal environment that shapes your cholesterol, insulin sensitivity, fat distribution, and blood vessels for decades starts to change. In thi...
24 Sept 2026
Coronary Calcium, CIMT, or CTA - Which Test Actually Answers Your Question?
"Should I get a calcium score?" "Should I get a CIMT or carotid ultrasound?" "Or a coronary CT angiogram?" I get this question constantly - and these tests are not interchangeable. In this video, I break down what each one actually measures and what it can miss. CIMT measures carotid wall thickness, not actual plaque, and it hasn't held up well against calcium scoring for predicting coronary events. A coronary calcium score directly looks at the heart, but only catches calcified plaque - and...
18 Sept 2026
Your A1C Is Normal. So Why Are You Insulin Resistant?
Your fasting glucose is normal. Your A1C is normal. That doesn't mean your metabolic health is fine. In this video, I break down insulin resistance — one of the major metabolic-health buckets I look at when assessing cardiovascular risk, and one I've never given its own full video until now. I explain what insulin resistance actually is, why your A1C can look normal for years while it's developing underneath it, why two people can have the exact same fasting glucose and not be metabolically ...
16 Sept 2026
Why Heart Disease Is Still Missed in Women
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in American women - killing roughly seven times as many women as breast cancer - yet fewer than half of women even recognize it as their greatest health threat. In this video, I break down why it keeps getting missed, and what to actually watch for. I start with a patient of mine who was a runner. Her coronary calcium score was zero. She still had a 90 percent blockage. That case is the thread running through everything else in this video: why I do...
3 Sept 2026
You Found Heart Plaque. Now What?
You just found out you have plaque in your coronary arteries, even with no symptoms and a normal cholesterol panel. Here's exactly what I do next as a cardiologist: the three real goals of treatment, and how we actually get there. About half of first heart attacks happen with no warning symptoms and no known heart disease beforehand. If your coronary CT or calcium score just came back with plaque on it, that's not a reason to panic, it's an opportunity most people never get. In this video I b...
27 Aug 2026
Your LDL Is Normal. So Why Is There Heart Plaque?
Your LDL is 90. Your doctor calls that normal. So why does your scan show plaque anyway? In this video, I break down 5 reasons a "normal" LDL can hide real coronary plaque — including two most people have never had checked (ApoB and Lp(a)) and how insulin resistance quietly skews the numbers you do see. A normal LDL doesn't mean zero risk. It's one piece of a bigger picture. 🔔 Subscribe for weekly videos on early detection and precision heart care - and tell me in the comments: Has this ev...
20 Aug 2026
Cardiologist Reveals the #1 Thing She Recommends Alongside Statins
You have plaque. Now what? Half the internet says everyone over 50 needs a statin. The other half says statins are poison. Both sides are missing the point, and getting stuck between them can cost you years of protection you didn't need to lose. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through the real truth about statins, the newer non statin medications most people have never heard of, and where supplements actually fit into a plaque reversal plan. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Cardiologist Reve...
13 Aug 2026
What Should You Eat For Optimal Heart Health? What a Cardiologist Actually Eats
🎁 Learn more about Dr. Mona Shah: www.drmonashah.com Eat the butter. Don't eat the butter. Cholesterol doesn't matter. Cholesterol is everything. Go carnivore. Go vegan. No wonder you're confused. The diet world contradicts itself every single day, and it should be the easiest place to protect your heart, not the most confusing. In this episode, I'm going to cut through the noise on fat, cholesterol, keto, and carnivore, and show you exactly what actually lowers the numbers that build plaqu...
6 Aug 2026
The 5 Supplements I Actually Take for My Heart (And How to Take Them Right)
If you have a drawer full of supplements you started because of something you read or watched, this episode is for you. Most people either take too many supplements or none at all, and both approaches miss the point. The real problem is almost never the supplement itself. It's that nobody matches it to the right person, in the right form, at the right dose. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through the exact 5 supplements I take myself and recommend most often for heart health, includin...
30 Jul 2026
5 Hidden Signs Your Heart Is Already At Risk
Stress is not just a feeling in your head. It physically changes how your heart operates, and most people never connect the dots until something goes wrong. Your body cannot tell the difference between a stressful email and a real emergency, and that matters more than you think. Over time, that constant alarm state wears down your cardiovascular system in ways that rarely show up on a standard checkup. In this episode, I'm going to walk through five hidden signs that stress is already affect...
23 Jul 2026
Cardiologist Reveals: The Cardio That Actually Protects Your Heart
There is a way to exercise that cuts your heart disease risk by nearly 50%. Most people never hear about it from their doctor. They just get told to do cardio, and that advice means almost nothing on its own. In this episode, I'm going to show you the exact combination of training that protects your heart far more than steady cardio alone, plus the one fitness number that predicts how long you'll live. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Cardiologist Reveals: The Cardio That Actually Protects Your Heart 0:...
16 Jul 2026
Heart Doctor Reveals Frightening Results From Own Heart Scan
You got a scan back and something scared you. Maybe it was a lab number. Maybe your doctor mentioned plaque and moved on to the next patient. Now you have a list of things to start, stop, take, or avoid, and no idea which one actually matters first. I have guided thousands of patients through this exact moment, and I went through it myself. In this epidose, I'm going to walk you through the exact order I made decisions after finding plaque in my own arteries, and why most people get the sequ...
9 Jul 2026
7 Blood Tests That Could Save Your Life (Your Doctor Probably Isn't Ordering Them)
📌 Learn more about Dr. Mona Shah: www.drmonashah.com Every week I see patients who passed their last physical with flying colors. When I run the seven tests I actually care about as a triple board-certified holistic cardiologist, something is wrong in almost every single case. Your doctor told you your labs look fine. What they did not tell you is that the standard lipid panel has not meaningfully changed since the 1970s. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through all seven tests, expla...
2 Jul 2026
What Women With A Family History of Heart Disease Are Never Told at Their Cardiology Appointment
If you’re a woman with a family history of heart disease, there is information your cardiology appointment was never designed to give you. You've been told your numbers look fine. But if you have a family history of heart disease, that answer might not mean what you think it means. Noting a family history and actually measuring what it points to are two completely different things. Most cardiology appointments do the first. Almost none do the second. In this episode, I'm going to break dow...
25 Jun 2026
Reactive Cardiologist vs. Preventive Cardiologist: Most People See the Wrong One
You left cardiology with a clean stress test and a pat on the back. Something in you still didn't believe it. That feeling was right. You were asking a preventive question and getting a reactive answer. Most people have no idea that mismatch is even happening to them. In this episode, I'm going to walk you through what each type of cardiologist actually does, where each approach breaks down, and how to know which one you need right now. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Reactive Cardiologist vs. Pr...
18 Jun 2026
The Two Cholesterol Numbers Your Doctor Isn't Checking
Your doctor ran your standard lipid panel and told you your cholesterol is fine. Somewhere online, someone told you cholesterol doesn't cause heart disease anyway. Both of them are pointing at the same wrong number, and because of it, most people have never had the two tests that would actually tell them their real cardiovascular risk. These tests are not experimental. They are available at most labs. And most doctors are still not ordering them. In this episode, I'm going to show you why L...
11 Jun 2026
What Health-Conscious People Get Wrong About Protecting Their Heart.
You work out. You watch what you eat. Your last physical came back clean. And somewhere along the way, you stopped worrying about your heart. But a healthy lifestyle and healthy arteries are not the same thing. For a specific group of patients doing everything right, plaque builds quietly inside the artery wall while every standard test says there is nothing to see. This episode is for those people. In this episode, I'm going to show you why living healthy doesn't guarantee clean arte...
11 Jun 2026
After 20 Years in Cardiology, I Stopped Trusting Stress Tests
Your stress test came back normal. Your doctor said you're fine. Fifty percent of people who have their first heart attack had no idea they had heart disease, and many of them passed a stress test in the months before. A stress test only tells you whether your most severe blockages are already restricting blood flow. It cannot find the softer, smaller deposits that are far more likely to rupture. A normal result is not a clean bill of health for your arteries. In this episode, I'm going...
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