Most of us think our hearts are fine. Even the day before a heart attack, people think they’re OK!? Unfortunately, many people wait until they are experiencing a cardiac event before they look beyond blood tests cholesterol and the blood pressure reading at a doctor visit. Tune in to learn what tests you can do to take preventative measures in making sure your heart is operating in optimal condition. BTW, this is as much for athletes as it is for the reluctant exerciser!

This week Jenn is joined by Chief Nursing Officer of Recovery Plus Health, Jenny Martin. Jenny breaks down many different aspects of heart health in this episode, from the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest, to VO2 max, to cardiorespiratory fitness, and more. She also discusses how a CPET test can provide you with a good outlook on your heart health, as well as give you information on how to best manage your fitness and exercise routine for your individual needs. Preventative care is a must when it comes to heart health, and this is one tool to help make your heart health a priority. Tune in to learn more about the CPET test, what it tells you, and where things can be missed when only doing lab tests. 

The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, discussing wellness and weight loss for real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, bad science & marketing surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store. 

IN THIS EPISODE: 

● [6:03] How did Jenny end up in nursing and then shift into cardiopulmonary chronic care? 

● [12:33] What is the difference between a cardiovascular event vs. a cholesterol challenge or blockage? 

● [15:55] Many people look at athletes as the epitome of health, but then they have a cardiac event - what are we missing? 

● [20:23] What is Cardiopulmonary and Cardiopulmonary Fitness?

● [23:18] What is the difference between optimal and suboptimal? And why do we want to use these words? 

● [26:56] What is Respiratory Exchange Ratio (RER) and why is it important?

● [28:24] What is Peak VO2 or VO2 max?

● [33:21] What is Heart Rate at Peak and at Anaerobic Threshold? 

● [36:02] What is Cardiorespiratory Fitness (CRF)?

● [37:58] What is an Inducible Threshold? 

● [41:51] What is the CPET test?

● [48:05] How do people take the information about their Zones into their personal fitness routine?

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

● [29:46] Peak VO2 can be increased with the proper training, proper nutrition, proper hydration, and proper supplementation as your exercise or nutrition is optimized. Each time you can get the number up by one ml, you reduce your chance for all-cause mortality by 10%. 

● [33:49] Optimal performance for your heart rate is to keep your peak heart rate in the 80-85% range, which shows that you’re not heart rate dependent. We don’t want to be heart rate dependent, instead you want to be stroke volume dependent, meaning the strongest part of your heart is pumping oxygen-rich blood to the rest of your body.

● [36:59] Knowing your numbers gives you control over your situation. The best way to find out what you can do safely is to get the data, to know your numbers and know where you are so that you know where you want to go. If you don’t know where you’re starting, how do you know where you are headed? How do you know what your heart health goals should be? 

● [46:20] Not everyone has the same heart rate zones, so the CPET test can help you uncover what your heart rate zones are so you can exercise and function at your optimal health number.

QUOTES: 

[13:02] “You are not healthy the day before a heart attack.” - Jenn Trepeck

“Hearts come in electrical and plumbing. When one of those goes wrong, that's when bad things happen. When we look at cholesterol levels, we're only looking at the plumbing." – Jenny Martin

[14:47] “The original stress test, treadmill stress testing you get done in the cardiologist office, what they don’t do is they don’t do a ventilation, perfusion ratio. They don’t look at the gasses, they don’t look at the lung aspect of things, and so they actually don’t identify non-obstructive heart disease at all. You could have a heart cath, you could go in and have a wire run up through your arteries, and they can say ‘there’s nothing obstructive here, so everything is fine’, and you can have a heart attack the next day.” - Jenny Martin

[21:29] “Sleep apnea has a very high rate of coexistence and causation for heart failure, and that’s very untalked about and it has everything to do with if we can’t get oxygen the heart just stops.” - Jenny Martin

"Optimal means that things are working at a level in which it supports other systems. So, optimizing health we want to have all the systems, heart and lungs, working with each other to support every other system in our body.” - Jenny Martin

[47:11] “I know my zone 2, you know your zone 2, and they’re not the same, but if we were to use the calculations that are just kind of out there for everybody to try to use, they would be very close, because it’s not taking into consideration anything else. Our health history, our cardiac function, our pulmonary function, what our body needs, what our bodies need to be able to perform at the workload that we’re asking them to, that’s going to differ per person as well.” - Jenny Martin

RESOURCES:

Become A Member of Salad with a Side of Fries

Jenn’s Free Menu Plan

A Salad With a Side of Fries

A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch

A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram

GUEST RESOURCES

RecoveryPlus.Health Website

Email: [email protected]  

Phone number: 800-242-6221

Jenny Marin's LinkedIn

Jenny Martin's Instagram

RecoveryPlus.Health's TikTok

RecoveryPlus.Health’s Instagram

GUEST BIO:

Jenny Martin MSN, APRN, FNP-C and Chief Nursing Officer of Recovery Plus Health has years of nursing experience specializing in cardiology, pulmonary, and chronic care management. She has conducted research on improving care and bridging gaps for patients post-cardiac events as well as patients who wish to prevent cardiovascular disease. Jenny has been instrumental in developing a multi-state remote population platform to improve access to care for patients needing cardiovascular rehabilitation and in developing a program with a focus on reducing hospital readmissions. She also recently opened a clinic in New York offering cardiopulmonary exercise tests for all individuals from cardiac patients to professional athletes.