>> Hi, I'm Jennifer Nichols,
and term president at Johns Hopkins Baby Medical Center and
pass co-chair of Go Red for Women in Baltimore.
Welcome to the Red Chair Series.
Today, joining me, I have Dr. Aaron Mikos, Dr. Mikos. Welcome.
>> Thank you so much for having me on this program.
>> Tell us a little bit about what you do at Johns Hopkins.
>> I'm a cardiologist that focuses on
prevention and women's cardiovascular health.
I both see patients in my women's cardiovascular clinics.
But I also have research grants,
including those for the American Heart Association
to do research to understand
risk factors of cardiovascular disease in women and
how women's heart health is different than men's.
>> I also understand a big part of
your practice is Cardio-Obstetrics.
Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
>> Cardio-Obstetrics is a relatively new field.
It's so it's understanding the intersection
between cardiovascular disease and pregnancy.
How pregnancy can affect
heart health and how heart health can affect pregnancy.
Of course, it's important because we are goals not only to have
a healthy mother and healthy baby but
also women's heart health years later,
even decades after their pregnancy.
They may be at increased risk for
cardiovascular disease if they've had
an adverse pregnancy outcome such as
preeclampsia or gestational diabetes.
>> Are there any other type of symptoms
that women who are pregnant should be thinking about?
>> Pregnancy can potentially unmask
cardiovascular disease or heart disease
that women might not have been aware that they had.
But if someone has no known heart disease
such as congenital heart disease
that they may have been born with.
Potentially pregnancy can exacerbate that.
For women who have known heart disease is really important for
pre-pregnancy counseling and collaboration
between cardiology and maternal-fetal medicine,
Obstetrics to plan for
pregnancy and have the best options for mother and baby.
>> What inspired you to choose Cardiology as a profession?
>> What to cardiovascular disease can be
preventable really attracted me.
I was very interested in diet and
physical activity and the importance of healthy lifestyle.
People have risk factors and we tried to
prevent them from developing cardiovascular disease.
These risk factors are what I was talking about,
only the traditional ones like blood pressure and cholesterol,
but also these unique female-specific factors
that women don't get asked about such as early menopause.
Did they ever have a pregnancy
with a complication like preeclampsia,
one of the biggest risk factors for having
an adverse pregnancy complication like preeclampsia,
gestational diabetes is starting
pregnancy in poor cardiovascular health.
Having chronic hypertension or being overweight or obese.
Really trying to optimize
women's heart health throughout the lifespan,
pre-pregnancy, during pregnancy,
and beyond is so important.
>> It's not just an investment that you have to
make when you have an adverse event,
it's a daily investment to your point around prevention so
that hopefully you don't
actually have one of those adverse events.
>> Prevention works best when delivered early as we can
always treat later when we find disease,
but it's more effectively treated early,
following a healthy diet,
getting regular physical activity, getting good sleep.
The more of these factors that you have that are healthy,
that confers more likelihood
that people don't develop complications during pregnancy,
but ultimately they don't develop heart problems later in life.
>> It's interesting because so often we think
of heart disease as a disease of the aging.
Not necessarily younger women who are
of childbearing age who are thinking about getting pregnant.
>> Unfortunately, heart disease on the rise
and young adults particularly in young women.
Actually the fastest growing heart disease rate
is in middle age women.
Women are often so focused,
I'm taking care of everybody else in their life that they
may not be prioritizing their own health.
If their doctors haven't asked them about
their reproductive history and they have
some of those red flags then yes,
they should bring it up
because and that might be a marker to start
preventive therapy such as statins earlier or at least do
some additional tests to see if they're at risk for heart disease.
As a woman, I feel like I
can relate to a lot of what my patients are going
through and it's just a pleasure to do this for my career.
>> I for one I'm just thrilled that you are
an academic medicine and that you're at
Johns Hopkins and that you are taking care of
so many female cardiac patients and just the
research that you do to try to advance the field. Thank you.
>> Thank you so much again for having me on your program.