Myth: I’m too young to worry about my heart.

Fact: Cardiovascular disease begins early in life. When you’re a child, you start laying down that plaque that will cause a heart attack in your adulthood. Think about what a child eats: hamburgers, French fries, hot dogs, pizza … not so good! 

Guidelines say you should have your blood pressure checked beginning at age 18 and your cholesterol checked beginning at age 25.

Blood pressure is a silent killer, meaning that you don’t necessarily experience a lot of symptoms. You can actually feel pretty good with high blood pressure until you have a stroke or heart attack or go into heart failure. That's why you don't want to ignore it.

Cholesterol elevation is often genetic, and reducing these cholesterol levels will prevent plaque build-up in your blood vessels.

Myth: Heart disease runs in my family, so there's really nothing I can do about it. 

Fact: We can't change your genetics—at least not right now. That will come soon. But for now, what you can change are your risk factors. 

That means don't smoke. Control your blood pressure. Make sure that your cholesterol level is controlled. Maintain a normal body weight. Exercise on a regular basis. And if you do those things, you can fight genetics. 

Myth: GLP-1 medications are good for my heart. 

Fact: There is some clinical data that suggests possibly so. The SELECT trial studied non-diabetic patients who had a body mass index of 28—they were overweight but not obese.

What we found is that in that population in three years there was a 20% reduction in stroke, heart attack or dying for any reason. So, these drugs actually looked to be good for your heart. And in fact, they're even FDA approved for people who already have underlying heart disease to prevent future cardiac events. 

Myth: Drinking a glass of red wine every day is good for my heart.

Fact: In the past we have told people, yes, that's a good idea. But more recently, we have changed that recommendation. In fact, the World Health Federation says any alcohol, any amount of any kind, is damaging to your body.

Myth: Fish oil, Vitamin D and other supplements will protect my heart. 

Fact: We see a lot of ads on TV that say, “Take this. It's good for your heart.” Unfortunately, these supplements don’t help. The only person who will benefit is the guy selling it, because you're going to make him rich.

We've looked at fish oil, and it does not help. It doesn't hurt either, but it really doesn't improve your cardiovascular health. 

We've studied magnesium in clinical trials and found that it had no benefit. So be very careful about what you hear on TV. 

Myth: If I take a statin for my cholesterol, I'm going to develop dementia.

Fact: Often, I have patients say, “I really don't want to take that statin because it's going to affect my brain. It's going to cause dementia.” Now we have data from 7 million patients in 55 different clinical studies that show not only do statins not cause dementia, but in fact, they actually prevent it.

These studies showed a reduction in overall dementia--Alzheimer's dementia and vascular dementia. So, take your statin—it’s actually healthy for your brain.

Myth: If milk does a body good, then more calcium is even better.

Fact: Many people take calcium supplements to try to build strong bones. Unfortunately, that's a myth. Calcium by itself is really not going to build strong bones. What we’ve actually found is that instead of going to the bones, calcium supplements might go to blood vessels and, therefore, may increase your risk of a stroke or heart attack.

Sometimes the calcium goes to your heart valves and causes your valves not to work so well. In fact, a recent study by John Hopkins University showed that people taking calcium supplements had a higher risk of death. So maybe that calcium supplement not recommended by your doctor is not the best thing for you.

Myth: The bottom number of my blood pressure is normal, so I can stop taking my medicine.

Fact: Blood pressure numbers can be confusing. There's a top number and a bottom number, and often people believe the bottom number is the more important one. It's really not. Particularly once we reach age 50 or older, the top number becomes much more important. 

Years ago, the Systolic Hypertension in the Elderly (SHEP) study found that that top number was the one that was most associated with stroke, heart attack and heart failure. So, pay attention to your top number and treat it if necessary. We need it to be less than 130.