Uncontrolled blood sugar damages blood vessels and increases heart disease risk.
Welcome to the Younger Longer 28-Day Healthy Heart Challenge, a transformative podcast series designed to help you take control of your heart health and live a longer, healthier life. Over the next 28 days, we’ll guide you through a comprehensive journey covering key aspects of cardiovascular wellness—nutrition, exercise, stress management, medical awareness, and lifestyle choices.
Each daily episode is packed with expert insights from Dr. Warrick Bishop, best-selling author and cardiologist dedicated to preventing heart disease before it becomes a life-threatening issue. Using the latest science and practical strategies, this series empowers you to make heart-healthy choices and build habits that will support your well-being for years to come.
What You’ll Learn in the 28 Days:
✔ Understanding Your Heart – How it functions and why proactive care is essential.
✔ Heart-Healthy Nutrition – The best foods to fuel your cardiovascular system.
✔ Exercise & Movement – The role of physical activity in strengthening your heart.
✔ Stress & Mental Well-being – Managing stress and anxiety for a healthier heart.
✔ The Power of Sleep – How sleep quality impacts cardiovascular function.
✔ The Impact of Smoking & Alcohol – Making informed lifestyle changes.
✔ Supplements & Medical Insights – Understanding key nutrients and medical checkups.
✔ Advanced Heart Testing & Risk Factors – Going beyond traditional risk assessments.
✔ Sustaining Long-Term Heart Health Habits – Turning knowledge into action for lifelong benefits.
Why Listen?
- Get practical tips and science-backed advice you can apply immediately.
- Learn from real-world examples and medical expertise.
- Gain daily challenges to help you stay engaged and track progress.
- Take charge of your heart health in a simple, effective, and engaging way.
Your heart is your most vital organ, and the steps you take today will shape your future health. Whether you’re looking to prevent heart disease, manage risk factors, or simply improve your overall well-being, this 28-day challenge is your roadmap to a healthier, longer life.
Subscribe and start your journey today—because every heartbeat counts!
Transcript
Hi and welcome to Day 25, and this is probably one of the most important days if you ask me. What I want to get across is how heart attacks can occur out of the blue in people who otherwise seem healthy—no signs, no problems.
I am going to ask you to take a moment to check out the resources associated with this particular day because I'm going to include my TEDx talk, which is a personal experience where I dealt with a patient who had exactly that occur, and it changed the way I practice cardiology. So please check it out.
What's really, really important is to understand that we don't feel raised cholesterol. But what's also really important is some of these statistics that we know: nearly 50% of heart attacks occur in people who have normal cholesterol. So don't use that as a reassurance. For many people, the very first symptom of heart disease is a heart attack—nearly 20%. And of heart attacks, one in six, that's 15%, will be fatal.
When we look at people who have heart attacks, up to 20% to 25% of all heart attacks occur in individuals 65 years of age or less. Since heart disease affects nearly 20% to 25% of the entire population, we are all at risk until we know otherwise.
So what really catches us? Cholesterol building up in the arteries doesn't give you a symptom. And here's the key: you won't get a symptom from the buildup of cholesterol in the arteries until that cholesterol has built up so much that it limits flow down the arteries, or becomes flow-limiting.
That makes sense—if you exercise and have flow-limiting plaque in your arteries, not enough blood gets down that artery to supply the heart as it should. The heart then suffers the consequences of this lack of blood flow, which is equivalent to cramp. This gives rise to pain, stiffness, shortness of breath, and discomfort—the anginal syndrome you may have heard of.
But here’s the bit I really want you to understand. Before plaque builds up to being flow-limiting, it is non-flow-limiting. If it's non-flow-limiting, it does not restrict blood flow down the artery at all, even when someone exercises full tilt.
Why is that important? At autopsy, when doctors cut open the arteries to examine what happened, they find that nearly 40%—that's almost half—of all heart attacks occur on plaque that was not limiting flow up until the moment it ruptured, burst, and formed a clot.
This is so, so important to understand. It means you can be walking around completely symptom-free with a plaque that is not limiting blood flow but has the potential to rupture suddenly. When a clot forms on that ruptured plaque, it can block the artery suddenly, leading to a heart attack out of the blue.
So what can you do? We've talked about traditional risk checks. We've talked about checks with your GP. We've talked about managing blood pressure. But in my opinion, one of the single most important things to do is to look at the health of your arteries and consider getting a coronary artery calcium score.
I've talked about this multiple times. You can check it out at virtualheartcheck.com, where you can organize a scan for yourself. Men aged 45 to 50 and above, and women aged 55 to 60 and above, should think of it as a rite of passage to see what's going on.
Please check out the resources for today. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and the last couple of days. Thank you so much for being attentive and getting this far. I really hope that today sinks in, resonates with you, and leads to action.
For now, I truly hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now.
Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?
Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.
- 94% of Australians have at least One Risk Factor for heart disease.
- 59% of Australians have been Touched by heart disease.
- Yet only 3% of Australians have had a Full Heart-Health Assessment in the past 12 months.
Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au
Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!
Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!
The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:
- understand the present state of their heart’s health
- recognise their current level of risk of suffering a heart attack
- Learn the positive steps they can take to improve their situation
Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON
