Talking about healthy heart habits with podcast host Kate Hanley, author of How to Be a Better Person.

Are you happy? How long has it been since you expected happiness, despite all the challenges we’ve been dealing with? Yes, 2020 is over, but all the impact that has hit women the hardest of all continues.Asking about happiness isn’t a question I ask too often. This may surprise you, but I think happiness is overrated. I think that the pursuit of happiness has become a craze that has made us believe every day should be filled with unblemished bliss.

Before the outbreak of Covid-19, we knew our healthcare system had serious gaps. We knew that the business of medicine had come with significant impact to the treatment of patients. Then the pandemic broke out and elevated these issues to the forefront of the national dialogue.

I think 2021 has brought a word to the top of my mind. Maybe yours too, because it seems everything about 2020 demands us to consider it. The word: transformation. What does it mean to “transform?” And how can we do it to change what we’ve all been going through?

Is it just me or is the M word forbidden? Is menopause really something so bad we can’t even talk about it? Maybe it’s just me but should we all be doing our best Sex in the City impersonation, in our favorite diner, talking with girlfriends about the way menopause impacts every area of a woman’s life? (Perhaps SJP and friends will do just that in the next iteration that I’ve read is on its way?)

I’ve seen the stress response in action many times over the years and I typically illustrate it for my patients as the college student who crams for tests and then, when they are over, develops a bad cold. So let’s talk about stress management, rest and recovery.

Doctors get a lot of flak in the media for not knowing enough about nutrition or not giving enough nutritional guidance. I can see why. We often tell a patient simply to “diet and exercise,” but how much harder would it be to provide a bit more structure, such as “to eat a Mediterranean diet” or to “try the DASH diet,” and provide some basic information about what those diets entail?