The Buena Vida Podcast

Heart Health: A Deep Dive with Dr. Jayne Morgan

• Lacy Wolff • Season 4 • Episode 2

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This episode explores the vital connections between heart health, community, and overall well-being with cardiologist Dr. Jane Morgan. Emphasizing the role of friendships and preventive care in longevity, Dr. Morgan provides insights on managing heart health through lifestyle changes and addressing issues like high blood pressure.

• Exploring the link between friendships and longevity 
• Understanding systolic and diastolic blood pressure 
• Importance of tracking blood pressure for everyone 
• Combating loneliness to improve heart health 
• The significance of preventive care in managing chronic conditions 
• The impact of community connections on mental and physical well-being 
• Encouraging small, sustainable health changes for longevity 
• Dr. Morgan’s vision for women’s heart health and continued research

Resources Discussed: 

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Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Friendships actually are the single biggest contributor to longevity than anything else for women.

Lacy Wolff:

Hi and welcome back to the Buena Vida podcast, where we explore what it means to live a good life through health, well-being and the choices we make each day. I'm your host, Lacy Wolff. Today. I am honored to introduce you to Dr Jayne Morgan. She is a leading cardiologist and a passionate advocate for heart health. She currently serves as the VP of Medical Affairs at Hello Heart, which is a digital health company dedicated to empowering people to manage their cardiovascular health through innovative technology.

Lacy Wolff:

Dr Morgan completed her medical degree at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, her internal medicine residency at George Washington University and her cardiology and pacemaker fellowships at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, florida. Dedicated voice in public health, frequently sharing her insights on CNN and Scripps News, she's been a champion for increasing access to healthcare and clinical trials for underserved communities. In our episode today, we will dive into the importance of heart health, why blood pressure matters, even when you feel fine, and the small, sustainable changes that can make a big impact on our well-being. Dr Morgan will also share her perspective on what it truly means to live a good life. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Dr Jayne Morgan. Dr Morgan, thank you so much for being a guest on the Buena Vida podcast. It's so good to spend some time with you today.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

I know, I'm so glad we got to do this. This is excellent. I'm super excited.

Lacy Wolff:

Me too, and I just think you're so wonderful, so knowledgeable, and I thought maybe we could just kick this off by having you tell our listeners a little bit about how you got into cardiology, what inspired you to get into medicine, so we can just get to know you a little bit.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Yeah, you know I think it's such a good question because I went to medical school to become an orthopedic surgeon and you probably are thinking that is extremely specific. But when I grew up there were many doctors in our neighborhood and the doctor across the street was an orthopedic surgeon and the one two doors down. But when I grew up, there were many doctors in our neighborhood and the doctor across the street was an orthopedic surgeon and the one two doors down was an orthopedic surgeon and the one two doors down. I spent a lot of time babysitting with his kids and the one across the street, his daughter, was my best friend in the neighborhood, so I spent a lot of time at their house and her father had a big office downstairs and we would be downstairs playing and I would always sneak in his office and get his textbooks out and really just flip through them to look at all the gross things that I would see in there. We would sit there and go oh, oh and kind of look through his books. Of course we weren't supposed to be in the office. We'd have to put the book back exactly as we found it and run out of the office and close the door, but I found myself in there, even when my friend wasn't with me. She was off doing something else. I would be down in her dad's office going through those books. So that was kind of my foray into medicine. I thought, okay, I'll be an orthopedic surgeon.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

And then, once I got to medical school, I started being exposed to all kinds of things Rheumatology that, quite frankly, I had never heard of before I went to medical school. What is rheumatology? So for a while I wanted to be a rheumatologist. For a while I wanted to be a psychiatrist. For a while I was just kind of like a chameleon absorbing all of this information. So by the time I finished medical school I really was undecided. So I went into internal medicine, which is your primary care physician, and I decided to do internal medicine.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

And while I was doing my residency at George Washington University again, you have to rotate through different areas. I rotated through cardiology and just really loved it, was fascinated for reading the EKGs. I really liked the critical care, monitoring the patients in the unit. I liked that close setting and the access to the nurses. So the point, the morrow of my story, which should be the morrow of your entire life, especially if you're in medicine, always be open to learning, always be open to changing, always be a student and not the master. And because I allowed my world to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. As I was in medicine and doing things, I learned more and more, was exposed to more and more, and I was adaptable, and so this is how I ended up in cardiology, something I really didn't know anything about when I went to medical school.

Lacy Wolff:

But I allowed my world to grow and as my world grew, I found my niche market so far from orthopedic surgery, Well, I'm so happy you found your passion, because I think you do help a lot of people through your role at Hello Heart, and I know you're also featured on lots of different news channels talking anything about heart health. It seems like we will see you appear. So thank you for all you do to educate the world about things related to heart health. Can you talk a little bit about how heart health impacts our overall well-being? I mean, it is kind of like the center of our body and so important for overall well-being and how can people better understand this incredible organ?

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Right, and as a cardiologist. So here's sort of just you know, internal shop talk. The cardiologists fight with the neurologists and the neurosurgeons and we go back and forth between who's got the most important organ. Is it the heart or the brain? Is it the heart or the brain? And so the heart is really feeding everything in the body, right? So this is the organ that is pumping blood to the rest of the body. That's important because blood is carrying oxygen, pumping blood to the rest of the body. That's important because blood is carrying oxygen, and the oxygen is what is giving us the fuel and oxygenating all of our cells, and so it's really very important.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

It's really kind of the lifeblood.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

It keeps all of the other organs healthy, and it's one of the reasons why, for instance I'm going to give just an example because it's so cold in so many parts of the United States right now.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

But if you were to suffer from hypothermia and we have to make a choice, we're going to try to rewarm your core, where your organs are for first, and try to keep your heart moving, because it doesn't make sense. You can lose your limbs, but you wouldn't be able to survive without losing your heart. So that's how important it is as a center for what we're doing, for everything, and then the way that we live as we're growing up and as we transition through young adulthood really will determine what types of illnesses we have or lack later on. And so it's interesting that the decisions we make early in our life, when really we may not be making decisions, we may not even be thinking, may not be thinking at all about what's going on in our bodies, or how we're living and how we're doing anything partying or putting anything in our mouths or anything in our bodies or how we're abusing it.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

But later on it does impact your heart health. Specifically the types of food processed foods, whether you are overweight, whether or not you are a smoker, whether or not you are consuming mostly fast, easily edible and ready fast foods, pre-prepared foods all of that can come back to haunt you later in the form of earlier and earlier heart disease.

Lacy Wolff:

Yeah, absolutely, and so much of it, like you said, is beyond our control. When we're children, our parents may be, you know, guiding them, and so I think it's so important that we have these discussions and you know that, because potentially, you're impacting people around you every single day and the choices that we make. So, one of the things that we hear a lot about, but I think a lot of people don't really understand what is blood pressure, because we all know it's important to take our blood pressure. What, what is it? Can you explain? Diastolic systolic, what?

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

is blood pressure, so that you just use those two words systolic, diastolic. I don't know. Some people may have heard of it, may not have heard of it, but this is what we call the blood pressure in medicine. It's the systolic over diastolic, systolic being the top number, diastolic being the bottom number. So if you have a blood pressure of 120 over 80, that's a perfect blood pressure, by the way then that top number is a systolic number, the bottom number is the diastolic number. Now what does that mean in science? What is that telling us as physicians? Here's what it's telling us.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

The top number tells us the forward contraction of the heart and the blood going through the body. Like what is the force that the blood is coming out of the heart. That's that pressure. It's the pressure, and we want to see that number high enough to sustain life and perfuse all of your organs, but not so high that now it's causing damage to your organs. It's coming in at too high of a velocity. So that's the top number, the force. Just think of it as the force of contraction of your heart.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

The bottom number, diastolic, is really about the relaxation phase of the heart. So if the heart squeezes, then it's got to relax and feel again before it squeezes, and your arteries also will follow the same degree of expanding and contracting. So that relaxation phase where the heart can fill with blood before you get that contraction and forward flow, that's called diastole, the diastolic function, and we want to. That number gives us an idea of how well the heart is filling. So there we are. And the higher that diastolic number gets, that bottle number gives us an idea that the heart is filling. So there we are. And the higher that diastolic number gets, that bottle number gives us an idea that the heart may be getting a little stiffer and that the arteries also as well may be getting a little stiffer, so they don't have the ability to really relax as much anymore and contract. So there you are. I hope that was easy to understand. But that was systolic over diastolic. Both numbers are very, very important.

Lacy Wolff:

That's great. And for ERS, you know we've been using or we've been providing Hello Heart to our health plan participants.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Oh, that's outstanding as a benefit.

Lacy Wolff:

Yeah, we've got over 40,000 people enrolled in this program.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

I mean, oh my gosh, that is such a great device, yes, and we've got more great research and data coming out to publish. I'm so excited in 2025, more data coming.

Lacy Wolff:

But okay, it's amazing and it just it makes it so simple for people to track their blood pressure. That's right, it's simple for people to track their blood pressure.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

That's right and track your health and your livelihood and your investment in longevity and healthy aging. That's really what you're doing. It's just as we talked about earlier. You know, there are times in our life we don't really have control over what we're doing. We're children. We just, you know, live in an environment that our parents are providing for us and you just do the best you can. And then, when you know better, you do better. And some people, you know, we all come out of different environments and so, you know, here is an opportunity to, if you know better, do better.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Track your blood pressure when you can, because later on, the actions we take today impact us later and it's hard for us to think about 20 years down the road or 25 years down the road, it's like, eh, I'll just skip it, I won't take my blood pressure medicine, I won't take my blood pressure reading, I'm going to just, you know, eat this fifth donut. I think I'll just get exercising, and you know and guess, and, and you feel fine, but it accumulates so slowly and then, 20 or 25 years later, oh, my god, you've got heart failure, you have obesity, you have diabetes, you have, you know, and here we are trying to fix it, get the horse back in the barn. So prevention is always worth a pound of cure, and thank you for for saying that. Hello Heart, I'm so dedicated to it to bend the arc on heart health. It's not just about your blood pressure. Your blood pressure will help prevent heart disease.

Lacy Wolff:

Could you talk a little bit about the risk of high blood pressure? I know we call it the silent killer because you don't always feel it when you have high blood pressure. But what's the impact of walking around, maybe not knowing that you have it over the long-term?

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Yeah, long-term risk is what Heart attacks and strokes. So this impacts your ability or disability to continue to live a good quality of life. If you think recovering from a stroke is nothing, then think again, and many people never gain full recovery, have to go out on disability, and certainly stroke kills as well. So if you are enjoying a full and vigorous life but you know you have high blood pressure, but and this is what I frequently hear people like to be able to brag that they don't take any medication. And here's the thing it's better to take medication and have a normal blood pressure than to be able to say you're not taking any medications but your blood pressure is actually high.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

It's part of our culture, especially for women, where aging is viewed negatively and starting to have to take medications is a sign of aging, and I think people resist that. That means I'm like my parents who are taking medication. I don't need medication, or I'm going to fix this with exercise and diet, and I encourage that and you may do that. That's absolutely fine. But in the meantime, we should control your blood pressure while you're working on better control of your weight and your diet and all of these other risk factors, because the repercussions are just too high of a risk for you.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

And those repercussions of a heart attack and a stroke. And if you're not concerned about yourself, be concerned about all of those people around you who love you, who support you, who may even depend on you to be making good decisions about your health such that they can have better opportunities in their life, especially if they're depending on you. So keep yourself in a position to be able to continue to support others such that they can develop into their full lives.

Lacy Wolff:

I've seen in our data at ERS that as people get older, likelihood of having hypertension or high blood pressure increases with age Right right.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Age doesn't help anything people. No, it doesn't. Nothing gets better with age, other than thought processes and wisdom. But listen, physically nothing gets better, and so time does not help us. So we want to make certain that we are taking good care of ourselves and always thinking about longevity. As you're eating, think about longevity. Is this really the right food choice for me to live a long life, as opposed to. Should I be eating this? If I'm trying to lose weight, should I be eating this? Think about it from longevity perspective, and then that's a complete lifestyle change. Then sort of sometimes this temporary. I'm going to do this right now because I'm trying to lose weight and those kinds of things. It's very hard to stick to that, so have a grander plan.

Lacy Wolff:

Yes, well, and it makes me think about I actually just the last podcast guest was BJ Fogg, the Stanford researcher that I think a lot of the Hello Heart app uses some of the research from his lab. You know the behavior design and building in those healthy habits like taking your medication.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

We've got that digital coaching and that gamification to encourage you and, if you're falling short, to make certain that you get right back on that horse. There is no failure. Failure is just the road to success. Right, this is how you learn what's possible and what's not possible, so don't ever let a failure stop you. It's just part of the road to being successful, and I think Hello Heart does a great job of that. Digital coaching, motivating, getting you going. Don't compare yourself to anyone else. Listen, I teach Pilates and I always tell my students, because I teach, virtually nobody can see you Do not compare yourself to someone else. Your progress today is your progress based on your progress yesterday, not based on someone else who's in the class. We're all in different levels and you need to gauge yourself based on yourself, and this is exactly how we do our health as well.

Lacy Wolff:

Wow, it makes sense that you're a Pilates teacher. Your posture is so perfect. My listeners can't see you right now, but your posture is perfect. I'm sitting straight up, really, oh man, yeah, the name of our podcast, the name of our well-being program, is Buena Vida, which means a good life, and we're trying to help support people really live a good life, whatever that means to you. How would you define a good life from the health perspective?

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

You know, a good life is being filled and surrounded by community and that's really going to be, first and foremost, the community that you select, that you choose, that chooses you, into which you are born, into which you migrate. However you get your community. That community really is going to dictate a lot of your outcomes, their habits, their values, but also it helps with your mental stability, behavioral stability. We know there's such a big connection between mental health and heart health and stress reduction and that human connection. A lot of that has been lost or is continuing to be lost as we move increasingly into the digital era. And yet we are able to reshape it in other forms and you can have a digital community that is strong and comforting and supportive. When I say comforting, it doesn't mean that you're down in the dumps and you need people to continue to uplift you. No, it's about just regular relationships that you value and people who value you, and you have conversations and you're able to discuss and share.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Believe it or not, that goes a long way towards longevity. When we look at the blue zones, these are zones in the world where people tend to live longer on average than other places in the world, on average than other places in the world, In those blue zones. One common thread is that they always have a very, very strong community. So don't underestimate the power of friendships. We found out especially for women, and we'll do that when we do our women's talk friendships actually are the single biggest contributor to longevity than anything else for women.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

So something to think about. So I think you know, always remember, remember, remember, remember your community, because that can drive your overall health and your wellbeing. And, as your mom used to say to say, be careful of who you surround yourself with, because those kinds of habits will rub off on you. And it's exactly right. And people who have different habits and different ways of looking at things, they can drive you in a good direction or a bad direction. They can help you towards your goal of longevity or keep you back from it. So, just you know, think about that as well as you are choosing. And remember, don't ever be afraid to be a leader. You don't have to be a follower.

Lacy Wolff:

Yeah, I love that. It's so powerful and when you think about you know what is it to have a good life and having a good community, that you feel a part of a strong community. Do you have any strategies for people? Because I think you know we're seeing more and more that loneliness is a huge part of, or there's such negative consequences associated with loneliness. So, what do we do? Do you have any strategies for people to connect?

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Yeah, and you know, and people compare loneliness and isolation and I want to make the distinction is that lonely people can actually be surrounded by a lot of other people and they just have a feeling of being disconnected or not being included. So a lonely person you could see in the midst of a crowd or the midst of a group, but their subjective feeling is they don't really belong, they're not connecting, as opposed to a person who's isolated, who's literally all alone and there's no one around them, they actually may not feel lonely. They are isolated.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Now, isolated people can also be lonely. I want to be clear, but I want to make the distinction between isolation and loneliness. Lonely people may be in the middle of a crowd. Isolated people may be by themselves and not actually be lonely. So we have to remember that because it does drive mental health, including suicide rates, including longevity and healthy aging, and that comes back to your heart health and overall stress and what we call the allostatic load, which is the end result that we see of constant stress on the body and how it wears the body down earlier. So it's sort of the antithesis of healthy aging.

Lacy Wolff:

Absolutely. It's so interesting too, just to think about that.

Lacy Wolff:

I'm talking to a cardiologist and you're talking about loneliness and how it impacts your heart right you know, and this connection between the mind and the body, and I'm pretty sure everybody's had the I don't know if everybody's had this experience, but of walking into a party where you don't know anybody and you feel alone. You know that's not a good feeling and you feel it in your heart. So thank you for hearing that. Preventive care I want to talk a little bit about preventive care and just how the lifestyle care. I want to talk a little bit about preventive care and just how the lifestyle. But when we think about managing chronic disease like hypertension and diabetes, we're really trying to, you know, get ahead of these conditions, like you know, help people prevent and detect them early and manage conditions if they are present. Can you speak a little bit to the importance of preventive health in managing chronic conditions?

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Oh my gosh. It is so incredibly important again if we're going to be talking about healthy aging. And there are some areas where you really can make significant impact. Blood pressure is just one of them. There's just no getting around it. Your blood pressure is either one of them. There's just no getting around it. Your blood pressure is either normal or it's not. There is no gray zone. It's either normal 120 over 80, or it's not. And if it's not, it's high, and then you need to do something about it. And you need to do something about it sooner rather than later.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

And again, if you look at the Hello Heart Blood Pressure Monitor and app and you are measuring your blood pressure, it's not just for people with high blood pressure, it's for everyone. Because, especially when I'm thinking about women and we'll do this on a women's health as we transition through perimenopause and menopause, your blood pressure can start to increase. You don't even know it because you don't feel it, you feel normal. So your blood pressure monitor allows you to send that information to your doctor and so you can get in and see your doctor ahead of your annual physical when your blood pressure is discovered. Your high blood pressure is discovered by your doctor, you're catching it early, and what does that do? That decreases that risk of that end organ damage from you having high blood pressure for prolonged periods of time of which you are unaware. Now you've got a device that's going to tell you so you can inform your doctor that it's time to go in, as opposed to the other way around. The doctor mentions to you during your annual visit oh, your blood pressure is high. So this is how that empowers you.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

When we look at high cholesterol, kind of the same thing high lipid levels or cholesterol levels can also increase your risk of heart disease and stroke, because they can help form those plaques on those arteries. Those plaques are what we call those little blockages, and those blockages are what prevent blood from flowing to the heart and delivering oxygen. That's how you get a heart attack. The exact same things happens in the brain, which is how you get stroke and guess what? And dementia, and so we know that people with higher risk of heart disease also have a higher risk of dementia. You see this heart brain connection as well, and so, and then the other thing is diabetes. I mean diabetes for many years was long known as the cardiovascular equivalent. Meaning is so significant. It accelerates heart disease so rapidly, if it's uncontrolled, that it was called a cardiovascular equivalent for a long time. So if you were diagnosed with diabetes, make certain that you control it.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Do not avoid medications because you want to be able to say that you don't take medications and you want and you feel psychologically better, you feel more like your peers If you're not taking medication. You want to be like your peers, or even better, and you don't want to take medication. But what's happening is you're artificially accelerating the aging process of your body and you don't see it on the outside, but disease is occurring on the inside, and so being able to say that you don't take medications now to your friends will be declared later and all will be. What's in the dark always comes to light. So just think about that. If you could think about those things blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

And then what are the other ones? Weight is always a big one, right? We got to try to work to keep our weight down. Not easy in a country with readily available, inexpensive foods and all kinds of things at the grocery store that are yummy and that have been created such that the texture is palatable. We like it on our tongue, we like the way it feels, we like the way it tastes, we like the way it smells. So it's very, very difficult for us, and I don't want to say that it is, but it's very difficult. And then, number one if you smoke, you just got to stop smoking. There are a number of different ways. We won't go into it. You can certainly look it up Lots of different programs to try to quit smoking. That increases your risk of heart disease and stroke.

Lacy Wolff:

You also talk a whole lot about movement and physical activity and I know movement can pretty quickly get your blood sugar down, if you do have those quick spikes Right. Can you talk a little bit more about how physical activity can help our heart and what's actually happening there, because we're putting stress on the heart when we do cardiovascular exercise.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

You know what A great question. We didn't talk about activity yet. So the heart is a muscle in the body. It is striated muscle. Now, why am I even bringing that up? Because we have two types of muscles in our body smooth and striated. Striated muscle that's what the heart is made of is exactly the same muscle, that is, muscle fibers that are made in our arms and in our legs. So these are fibers that are made to work. This is not smooth muscle, this is striated skeletal muscle, that, where sarcomeres you may not know this word will slide in and out.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

So think about when you are exercising and you're moving your legs and you're moving your arm, your heart is also exercising. Your legs and you're moving your arm, your heart is also exercising. And that's why I often say that if you are exercising for vanity reasons and there's nothing wrong with that but if you are, and then you're not achieving the results that you like or you're not achieving them fast enough and you give up because your body isn't changing in the way that you would like, the fact of the matter is inside is where you're getting all the benefit. And so don't give up because you're not seeing the external results, because that striated muscle which is the heart is really, really really benefiting and is part of that longevity and healthy aging. And so you know, I often say and I know the American Heart Association puts out a long thing of you know how we should exercise 30 minutes a day and moderate to severe intensity. And you know it's very difficult, I think, for people easy to read but very difficult for people to remember the details and what happens in human nature when we don't really know what to do. We can't remember it and the information is coming and there's confusion. We basically have inertia, we do nothing, we just pull back from it. Oh, so if people start to cast doubt on something or make it confusing or difficult, we just don't do it at all. That's the choice that we make, which is a terrible choice, but that's what we do. So here's what I say as a cardiologist is not being sanctioned by anyone. Just pick an activity that you like, pick something, whatever you like to do, whatever it is where you move, pick that activity and just do it for 20 or 30 minutes a day, five days a week. There is no judgment zone. Whatever it is you want to do for 20 or 30 minutes, just five days a week. That's it. It doesn't have to be traditional swimming, jogging, hiking, tennis, whatever is your activity and then just do that for 20 to 30 minutes.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

If you're over 50, especially if you're a woman, try to add some resistance twice a week. You know, people buy the weighted vests and walk in them. I'm a Pilates instructor so I've got, you know, resistance bands and rings. But you don't have to do all that. You know, get a jug of milk and you know, take it in and out of the refrigerator 10 times with both arms and put it back. You know, make it simple for you.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

If you are tied at the house with your children and you can't get out, get that big jug of gallon milk and take it in and out of the refrigerator with each arm 10 times, put it back. There's your resistance. Close the refrigerator, do you know? So be creative. Don't defeat yourself by saying I don't have a gym membership, I can't get out. My kids are here, and I'm not minimizing that, because women especially have so much responsibility and a lot of that responsibility is based on other people waiting and expecting and needing things from us, and it's ongoing and it's mentally and emotionally exhausting as well, but I'm trying to just give you some tips as to how you might be able to navigate it within your environment.

Lacy Wolff:

Absolutely. That makes so much sense. There's so many ways that we can move. Just today I was working at a wellness fair and I had to carry a big wellness fair and I had to carry a big, heavy bag of gear and I was my shoulder was burning while I was doing that and I thought this is good to be able to do this activity. I think so often when we feel uncomfortable we will be like, ooh, this is bad, but reframing that is is kind of helpful.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

That's right. I mean the, the, the victory is in the progress. We just want to make the progress and continue. You know, you've heard, sometimes it's not the destination, it's the journey. So what are you doing on that journey such as you can get to the destination where you need to be? And so you know, we keep going back to the grocery store. You know, so often we've got people bagging our groceries and people taking it out and people taking the cart back, and it's very easy and convenient and we're busy. We've got a lot of things going on. We've got things in our minds. So very nice to have somebody else do it.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

But stop and think for a second. I need to bag my own groceries. How much arm movement is that? I need to pick up these bags and put them in the buggy? I need to now push the buggy to my car. I need to open my trunk myself and put every single bag in there. Now I need to walk and take that buggy all the way back to the front of the supermarket and then walk back to my car to get in.

Lacy Wolff:

Do that Far out.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Right, that is so much more activity built in to just a task that you were doing that day. So just you know, and those are the kinds of things that we don't think about because somebody's pushing the bug in, somebody's got the thing, and we're on the phone and blah, blah, blah. Everything's going on. But take a moment to think about where are these opportunities where I really could be getting in some movement today? It's hard. I don't want to lug all these groceries. Some of this stuff is hard. I've got, oh you know, some of this stuff is heavy. I've got a big thing of orange juice and a big you know, but that's it. There's the work, and you want to have those heavy things and make sure that you're pulling them in and then when you get home, you got to take them out. Just think about that kind of thing. I think the supermarket, the grocery store, is always such an opportunity a missed opportunity for us to work on healthy aging and longevity.

Lacy Wolff:

So many layers there. Really, I mean what we buy, how we do it, parking far out and something that I know for me I have to go to the grocery store usually three times a week because I have teenage boys, so it's a lot of opportunity, yeah.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Yes, and I'm guilty because what happens? I'm busy and I decide that I need something and I don't want to stop what I'm doing to get it, and I'll dial on to you know one of those delivery things so they can get it to me in an hour, so I don't literally have to stop what I'm doing, get in the car, drive to the thing, come back, blah, blah, blah. So women also especially I'm not saying men, don't they get caught up in multitasking. I'm in the middle of this. I need to finish it. Oh my God, I'm missing X for my next thing that I need to do, that the family or somebody may be waiting on and I can't get that done until I get X. But now I've got to stop doing this and somebody is waiting on this project deliverable.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

And so what do you do you dial in? How can I get everything done? It's not so much of even making it easier for you, unfortunately, it's how can I keep doing more and more and more things? So even I have to be cognizant of that to say sometimes you just say no. So even I have to be cognizant of that to say sometimes you just say no, this project's not going to get in on time. I'm getting ready to go. I've got to run an errand. I need to come back and do some other things instead of let somebody else run the errand. I finished the project. So all of that, think about all of those things, those conveniences that keep us from moving.

Lacy Wolff:

Yes, yes, mow the lawn, wash the car, all those things, right. Well, I am just so excited about the benefits that we're making available to our health plan participants at ERS we are. I believe we're really starting to take kind of an upstream approach to healthcare to help people manage conditions, detect conditions early and also understand the simple behavior things that you can do to improve your health and quality of life, like through Hinge Health, hello Heart, catapult Health all these great things that we're offering. Sure, what excites you, like what's coming down the pipes and what are you excited about with health care, and is there anything else that we need to know about that, maybe helping people to improve health and quality of life?

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Yeah, I'm super excited about the features that we've built out on Hello Heart with pregnancy features, complications of pregnancy, like hypertension or high blood pressure, diabetes, these kinds of things, cholesterol, but specifically high blood pressure, because if you develop hypertension of pregnancy or high blood pressure during your pregnancy, it increases your risk of heart disease twofold, not during the pregnancy, but for the rest of your life. So that's really important and one of the ways to mitigate that is to measure your blood pressure during your pregnancy and work as hard as you can to get it down and if it's going up, make certain that you are alerting your doctor early, because it is a lifelong marker of heart disease. And then the other thing we're doing is we're looking at perimenopause and menopause, because that's another time of increased risk of heart disease in women. And we have a dearth of information, a dearth of funding as far as research and grants, and I mean just worldwide, because for the most part, women's health is considered reproductive health. And you know, one of the reasons that I came to Hello Heart is that Hello Heart understood that women's health is not all about the breast and the uterus and the ovaries.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Guess what? Women have hearts, and we've got brains and we've got lungs, and all of this goes into our longevity and so our menopause feature, which is a time in a woman's life during perimenopause and menopause 35 to 60 years of age. It can span that period of time where your blood pressure can start to rise without you realizing, because your arteries are stiffening, where cholesterol can start to go up. Sleeplessness, which increases your risk of heart disease, increases your risk of blood pressure. Weight gain, which increases your risk of heart disease, increases your risk of blood pressure. Weight gain Increases your risk of heart disease, increases your blood pressure.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

So these are all areas where Hello Heart and myself are working together to bend the arc on heart disease. So I'm super excited about women's health. I think that we have a tough road ahead of us. I don't know how much support we're going to have for women's health funding. You literally need billions of dollars. We have not had research in clinical trials and I don't know how much interest or appetite there is for it. But I'm certainly interested and I certainly have the appetite. I bring others with me and Hello Heart is interested, and so we've got a cadre of women who are really saying enough is enough, is enough. We need to have really good information, such that we can make good decisions about our health.

Lacy Wolff:

That is amazing and I was just thinking about, as you were talking about, the pregnancy program. When I was pregnant with my babies, I only got my blood pressure taken when I'd go to the doctor once a month, and you have no idea what can be happening within that cycle.

Lacy Wolff:

And same with. I mean, you said perimenopause can start as early as 35. I don't think, I don't know that people are aware that these things could be happening. So yeah, it's wonderful. Well, I just want to close out with one kind of final question tying this whole thing together, and we started kind of talking about your path to becoming a cardiologist. What is a good life for you, dr Morgan?

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Oh, you know, a good life and I hate to come back to this is community and fulfillment for me, in both my personal life and career. I think at this point in my life and my children I don't know if anybody can see me or whatever, but my children are adults where I am finally able to step into who I am and to move forward with those things that drive me, for which I have passion, for which I have interest, and to be empowered to say no, and that's really empowering. It's taken me my whole life to figure that out, to figure out how to set boundaries such that I can move in the direction that the universe is taking me. All of the things, all of the wealth of knowledge and information that I've accumulated throughout my career, I now can bring it to bear in a direction and in an area that really fulfills me.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Not that medicine didn't fulfill me and seeing patients didn't fulfill me, but it's sort of like as I was going through medical school and residency. You know your world gets bigger and bigger and bigger and you learn more and more and more about things. And how I transitioned orthopedic surgery to cardiology. That's exactly where I am at this phase in my life. I've learned all of these things in my career. Now there's some things that I'm really interested in and that I'm really passionate about, and I'm moving into that area with Hello Heart, and that's really what you see. So that's a good life for me to get up every day doing something that is meaningful to me and also meaningful to other people, being a servant leader and always being humble enough to be an eternal student of medicine and never a master of medicine. So that's my beautiful life.

Lacy Wolff:

I love that. I love that Well. I'm so grateful for the time that I got to spend with you and I'm looking forward to many more opportunities to highlight your work and you with our ERS health plan population and anybody who wants to listen. I think anyone who wants to listen to you will benefit greatly, so thank you so much. Is there anywhere else you talked about your LinkedIn and your Instagram? Sure, do you have the Stereo Chronicles? Yeah, any other resources you want to tell people about?

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Sure. So you know, and if you come onto my Instagram and my LinkedIn pages um specifically, but also other pages I will be um launching a course that I am teaching, an online course, along with a lot of other experts in different areas, um including it's all women's health. So this, you know, includes, um you know, your bone health and your reproduction and sexual health, and um movement and athleticism and nutrition. All of this, of course, I'm covering the heart. So you know those. Those courses will be available at the end of January 2025. And so you know, follow me, you'll, you'll see any of those links you can. You can dial in, log in and get you and get whatever course you need If you just want to learn more and hear more and see what's out there and feed your curiosity and feed your interest in longevity and healthy aging. And again, I'm at Dr Jane Morgan, d-r-j-a-y-n-e-m-o-r-g-a-n. On Instagram, threads X, youtube and on LinkedIn it's JaneMorganMD, so you can easily find me, google me, I'm out there.

Lacy Wolff:

Awesome. Thank you so much. I really really appreciate you.

Dr. Jayne Morgan:

Thank you so much, lacey, it was fabulous.

Lacy Wolff:

All right, everyone. That wraps up this month's episode of the Buena Vida podcast. Thank you so much for spending time with us. We hope you found today's discussion valuable and inspiring and that perhaps it helps you to take some small steps toward a healthier, more fulfilling life. Be sure to check out our show notes for links to all the resources we mentioned during the episode, including Hello Heart and Dr Jane Morgan's contact information. Also, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss next month's episode. Next month, we'll be joined by Trent Mathias, who is the director of the National Fitness Campaign. In next month's episode, we'll be diving into how our environment shapes our movement habits and, ultimately, our health. It will be a fascinating conversation about how the spaces around us can either support or hinder our well-being. You won't want to miss that one. Until next time, take care and keep making choices to support your Buena Vida. Take care, everyone.