Heart Health, Reimagined with Dr. Mona Shah, MD

Testosterone is everywhere right now - men are told low testosterone is making them tired, overweight, and putting their heart at risk, while at the same time people worry testosterone replacement itself causes heart attacks and blood clots. So which is it?

In this video I break down what low testosterone actually means, what testosterone replacement genuinely improves, what the major TRAVERSE cardiovascular safety trial actually showed, and the risks I personally watch for - plus what we actually know (and don’t) about testosterone in women.

I’m Dr. Mona Shah, a triple board-certified holistic and preventive cardiologist - board-certified in cardiology, cardiac CT, and holistic medicine - and the founder of One Heart Cardiology in Northeast Florida. Every week I put out videos on early detection and prevention of heart disease, advanced cardiovascular labs, coronary imaging, nutrition, and lifestyle. Subscribe if you want to understand your actual cardiovascular risk before you have a problem.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro — Is Low Testosterone Actually Dangerous?
1:41 Physiologic Range vs. Supraphysiologic Doses
1:55 Does Low Testosterone Actually Hurt the Heart?
3:44 The Labs I Actually Check
4:10 Treatment Options and What Testosterone Can (and Can’t) Fix
6:17 The TRAVERSE Trial
7:29 What TRAVERSE Also Found
8:33 Monitoring Hematocrit
9:40 Clomid, hCG, and Other Options
10:31 Raising Testosterone Naturally
11:34 What About Women?
13:39 Replacement vs. Anabolic Steroid Abuse
14:32 Bottom Line

DISCLAIMER
This video is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always talk to your own doctor about whether testosterone therapy is appropriate for you.

For more than 20 years, women were warned that hormone therapy could hurt their heart. Some of those warnings have since changed - so were we wrong, or are we now making the opposite mistake and calling estrogen heart-protective? The truth is more nuanced than either extreme.

In this video I break down why hormone therapy became so feared, what we now know about timing, oral vs. transdermal estrogen, and progesterone, and which benefits of estrogen have actually been proven versus what we still only suspect. I also give you my honest, personal take on where I land for the right woman, even without a definitive outcomes trial.

I'm Dr. Mona Shah, a triple board-certified holistic and preventive cardiologist - board-certified in cardiology, cardiac CT, and holistic medicine - and the founder of One Heart Cardiology in Northeast Florida. Every week I put out videos on early detection and prevention of heart disease, advanced cardiovascular labs, coronary imaging, nutrition, and lifestyle. Subscribe if you want to understand your actual cardiovascular risk before you have a problem.

CHAPTERS 
0:00 Intro — Were We Wrong About Hormone Therapy?
2:04 The WHI Study That Changed Everything
4:01 Prescribing Plummeted — And Women Paid the Price
4:24 Same Estrogen, Different Outcome (and the Timing Hypothesis)
5:43 What Estrogen Actually Does
7:03 What ELITE and KEEPS Actually Showed
8:40 Estrogen's Proven Benefits Beyond the Heart
10:35 Oral vs. Transdermal: Why It Matters
11:50 Blood Clot Risk and Progesterone's Role
13:55 The Labels Are Changing
14:43 So Where Does This Leave You? (and Her Personal Take)
17:35 Bottom Line

#HormoneTherapy #Menopause #Estrogen #HeartHealth #Cardiology #PreventiveCardiology #HolisticCardiology

DISCLAIMER: This video is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always talk to your own doctor about whether hormone therapy is appropriate for you.

Is the radiation from a coronary CT angiogram actually dangerous? If you've Googled it, you've probably seen wildly different numbers - anywhere from 1 to 20 millisieverts - and it's confusing to know which one actually applies to you.

In this video I break down what actually determines your radiation dose, how that compares to things like a mammogram, a dental x-ray, or a nuclear stress test, what the real cancer-risk numbers mean (and don't mean), and how I personally decide whether a coronary CTA is worth that exposure for a given patient.

I'm Dr. Mona Shah, a triple board-certified holistic and preventive cardiologist - board-certified in cardiology, cardiac CT, and holistic medicine - and the founder of One Heart Cardiology in Northeast Florida. Every week I put out videos on early detection and prevention of heart disease, advanced cardiovascular labs, coronary imaging, nutrition, and lifestyle. Subscribe if you want to understand your actual cardiovascular risk before you have a problem.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro — Does Coronary CTA Radiation Matter?
1:18 Why I Even Order a Coronary CTA
2:38 How Much Radiation You're Actually Getting
4:19 Putting the Numbers in Perspective
4:49 Comparing Common Medical Tests
5:29 Can Coronary CTA Cause Cancer? (100 mSv Explained)
7:31 Scaling the Risk Estimate Down
10:11 ALARA — As Low As Reasonably Achievable
11:08 Two Extremes I Don't Agree With
11:17 Bottom Line

#CoronaryCTA #RadiationSafety #HeartHealth #Cardiology #preventivecardiology  #HolisticCardiology

DISCLAIMER: This video is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always talk to your own doctor about whether a coronary CTA or any other imaging test is appropriate for you.

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 use with my own patients to decide how much treatment someone actually needs.

I'm Dr. Mona Shah, a triple board-certified holistic and preventive cardiologist - board-certified in cardiology, cardiac CT, and holistic medicine - and the founder of One Heart Cardiology in Northeast Florida. Every week I put out videos on early detection and prevention of heart disease, advanced cardiovascular labs, coronary imaging, nutrition, and lifestyle. Subscribe if you want to understand your actual cardiovascular risk before you have a problem.

CHAPTERS
0:00  Intro - Can Supplements Replace Statins?
1:30  Who Should Try a Natural-First Approach?
4:11  1. Red Yeast Rice
7:19  2. Berberine
9:44  3. Bergamot
11:15  4. Plant Sterols & Stanols
12:38  What About Niacin?
13:27  Can You Combine These Supplements?
15:00  Do They Do More Than Lower Cholesterol?
15:56  How I Actually Decide
17:09  Bottom Line

#cholesterol #RedYeastRice #berberine #bergamot #PlantSterols #hearthealth #HolisticCardiology #preventivecardiology 

This video is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always talk to your own doctor before starting, stopping, or combining any supplement or medication.

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 this video, Dr. Mona Shah breaks down exactly what changes during the menopausal transition: why LDL and ApoB tend to rise, what's really happening with visceral fat (and why the scale can stay the same while your risk doesn't), how arterial stiffness can jump within a single year around your final period, why blood pressure and sleep are part of this picture too, and why early menopause carries its own added risk. She also covers what men experience with age related hormone changes, and what this all means for your cardiovascular prevention plan going forward.

You'll learn:

What estrogen actually does throughout your body, not just reproductively
Why cholesterol and ApoB often rise around perimenopause and early postmenopause
The difference between gaining weight and gaining visceral fat, and why it matters so much more
What happens to arterial stiffness and blood pressure through this transition
Why early or premature menopause is its own cardiovascular risk marker
The exact numbers to know and bring to your next doctor's visit

🔗 Videos mentioned in this episode:
Why Your A1C Can Be Normal and You're Still Insulin Resistant: https://youtu.be/XzgM8J-jvf0
The Truth About ApoB and Why I Check It On Every Patient: https://youtu.be/Lq-OcuZK_48
My Complete Guide to Exercise and Cardiovascular Health: https://youtu.be/wsrxKvSiTmA

Coming up next: an entire video devoted to hormone replacement therapy, in both men and women, and what the cardiovascular data actually shows.

If this is the kind of straight, whole picture approach to prevention you're looking for, subscribe. Every week I cover topics like heart scans, labs, lifestyle, and the things standard care tends to miss.

#Menopause #WomensHeartHealth #HeartDiseasePrevention #Cardiology #HormonesAndHeartHealth #HeartHealth #PreventiveCardiology #VisceralFat #InsulinResistance #WomensHealth

"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 up to about 1 in 6 people with no symptoms and a calcium score of zero still have noncalcified plaque hiding in their coronary arteries. A coronary CT angiogram can see both.

I walk through why that "reassuring zero" isn't the whole story, a 2025 analysis from the ICONIC study on soft plaque that a calcium score alone would miss, and the SCAPIS study - nearly 25,000 people with no symptoms, where adding coronary CT angiogram information caught roughly 1 additional person out of every 7 who went on to have a coronary event. I also get into why I don't need everyone to get a coronary CT angiogram, what actually goes into that decision, and the exact questions to bring to your own doctor before choosing a test.

🔗 Videos mentioned in this episode:
The 10-Second Heart Scan That Can Detect Heart Disease Early - https://youtu.be/4QAAQU5yYGQ
The Scan That Shows All Plaque - https://youtu.be/4QAAQU5yYGQ

Coming up next: a dedicated video on radiation from cardiac CT and coronary CT angiograms - what those numbers actually mean and how I think about risk versus benefit.

If this kind of practical, precision-based approach to prevention is helpful, subscribe and send this to someone debating between a calcium score, CIMT, or a coronary CT angiogram.

#HeartHealth #CoronaryCalciumScore #CardiacCT #Cardiology #PreventiveMedicine

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 identical at all, and why I don't rely on any single lab number to make that call.

I also get into why this matters to me as a cardiologist — it plays into endothelial function, triglycerides, visceral fat, and blood pressure, not just diabetes risk — what Google's new Pixel Watch and Fitbit insulin resistance tracking can and can't actually tell you, how I use continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) with patients, and why South Asians can develop insulin resistance at a lower BMI and younger age.

Most importantly: what you can actually do about it. Targeting visceral fat instead of just the number on the scale, the exercise approach that improves insulin sensitivity even without major weight loss, the Diabetes Prevention Program's 58 percent risk reduction, sleep and stress, and where supplements (like berberine and psyllium) and medications (like metformin and GLP-1s) genuinely fit in, and where they don't.

I touch on insulin resistance in several other videos — cholesterol, ApoB, exercise, stress, visceral fat — a few of the most relevant are linked below. I also have dedicated videos on South Asian heart and metabolic risk, and on menopause and metabolic health, both coming soon.

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 don't like calling women's symptoms "atypical," why "what has changed" matters more than "is this a classic symptom," and why documented disparities in how women get diagnosed and treated during a heart attack are real.

I also walk through two conditions every woman - and everyone who loves one - should know about: INOCA (ischemia with nonobstructive coronary arteries) and SCAD (spontaneous coronary artery dissection). Plus a 30-year study tracking nearly 30,000 women that shows why no single lab number tells the whole story, why I lean on ApoB more than LDL in my own practice, and why menopause is one of the biggest turning points in a woman's cardiovascular risk.

This video isn't only for women. If you're a husband, partner, son, brother, or friend, you may be the person who notices something has changed - and recognizing heart disease in the women you love shouldn't be a responsibility they carry alone.

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 break down what your results actually mean (narrowing vs. plaque burden vs. plaque type), the three goals of treatment once plaque is found (regress it, stabilize it, prevent more), and the four "buckets" I walk every patient through to figure out why they developed plaque in the first place.
In this video:What stenosis, plaque burden, and plaque composition actually mean- Can plaque really be reversed? What the evidence supports– Why stabilizing plaque can matter as much as shrinking it- The four buckets I use to find out why you have plaque: ApoB, metabolic/vascular health, inflammation, and genetics/Lp(a)- How I decide whether someone needs lifestyle changes, supplements, medication, or a combination

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 ever happened to you?

📱 RESOURCES 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrMonaShahMD
Website: https://drmonashah.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/drmonashahmd/ 
Blog: https://drmonashah.wordpress.com/

Recommended next videos:
The 7 Labs I Check Beyond a Standard Cholesterol Panel: https://youtu.be/6IaHhJlAl3k
Everything You've Been Told About Cholesterol and Heart Disease Is Wrong: https://youtu.be/0FoyQuc8QGw
The Heart Scan That Shows ALL Your Plaque: https://youtu.be/4QAAQU5yYGQ

ABOUT DR. MONA SHAH: 
Dr. Mona Shah is a triple board-certified cardiologist in cardiology, holistic medicine, and coronary CT. After 20 years inside conventional cardiology, she left to build a practice that does what the standard system rarely does: look inside the artery wall before something goes wrong. She uses advanced imaging, including coronary CTA with AI analysis, to give patients a real picture of their cardiac risk. She specializes in patients with a family history of heart disease, elevated ApoB or Lp(a), and anyone who has been told they're fine but still isn't sure.

#HeartHealth #ApoB #PreventiveCardiology