The 5 Best Questions to Ask Your Cardiologist
Be smart and delve deep to make the most of your appointment with your heart doctor.
Cardiovascular disease is a term used to describe diseases of the heart and blood vessels. Some of the common types of cardiovascular disease include coronary artery disease, heart attack, and heart rhythm disorders. Nearly half of all Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a report from American Heart Association published in February 2023. What’s more, every 36 seconds, a person in the United States dies from cardiovascular disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — making CVD the No. 1 cause of death.
It is important to meet with a cardiologist to learn about your risk for cardiovascular disease. Oftentimes this will require a referral from your primary care provider.
Cardiologists are doctors who specialize in conditions related to the heart. They have at least three years of cardiology training after their medical residency, and some subspecialize, studying an additional year or two.
Since there’s a lot you’ll want to cover, it helps to know in advance what you want to ask, says Amy Pollak, MD, assistant professor of cardiology at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Dr. Pollak adds, “It is also important to know about your family history (particularly in first or second degree relatives) of heart disease, stroke, leg artery disease, or aneurysm. So, make sure you talk with your family ahead of time.”
The National Institute on Aging provides several recommendations to prepare for your doctor’s visits. This includes writing down a list of questions to bring to your doctor. It also suggests documenting all of the medicines, vitamins, and herbal supplements you take, including the dosages. Another recommendation is to bring a close friend or relative with you to help remember to get all of your questions answered and to stay on track when speaking to the doctor.
Here, a heart doctor talks about how to find out the right questions to ask to maintain heart health, and why they matter.
Why You Should Ask Understanding your risk for future heart disease, leg artery disease, stroke, aneurysm, and the like drives much of your care, Pollak says. Someone whose cholesterol is borderline but who has diabetes and a family history of heart disease will need their cholesterol treated much more aggressively than someone with a lower risk, for example.
Doctors use several types of risk calculators to determine your 10-year risk of developing heart disease. But you can also get a sense in advance of seeing your doctor by utilizing the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology’s ASCVDRisk Estimator Plus, an online risk calculator for people ages 40 to 79 years. You plug in your most recent blood pressure and cholesterol readings, along with basic health information. Although Pollak warns that the information offered by a risk calculator is not perfect, it will be a good beginning for a more meaningful conversation with your cardiologist.
Why You Should Ask “This is a really smart question because heart disease is such a big umbrella term,” Pollak says. Someone with a leaky valve, for instance, will have different symptoms indicating that the condition is worsening than someone with a heart rhythm issue.
You may think you know the symptoms for some conditions, like chest pain indicating a heart attack, but a large percentage of women, and even some men, never experience these signs, Pollak says. Instead, they get shortness of breath, sweats, nausea, or discomfort in the neck, jaw, shoulder, or back. That’s why it’s important that your doctor goes over all the warning signs that are personalized for you.
Why You Should Ask Difference tests may be ordered based on your medical history, your family’s history with certain medical conditions, or because you are new to that provider’s office and they don’t have any recent lab work from you. When Pollak recommends a test, she says that she always explains what it involves and what her patient will experience. “I view the doctor-patient relationship as we’re partners in the journey toward your health and health goals,” she says. She also lets her patients know that no test is completely accurate, “even if it is an excellent test interpreted by a well-trained eye,” she says.
Why You Should Ask Doctors — not your friends or social media buddies — are best positioned to explain the pros and cons of a drug based on the science, Pollak says.
In fact, the editors of more than two dozen cardiology-related scientific journals published an editorial in the February 2019 issue of the journal JAMA to “sound the alarm” over patients deciding whether to take statins and other medications based on incomplete information they have read online. Be honest with your doctor about any hesitations or concerns, Pollak says, so they can explain the benefits proven in research.
Carefully going over your prescriptions can also help you handle any medication hiccups later. “Your doctor can explain potential side effects and create a plan if any do occur,” she says.
Why You Should Ask Cardiovascular disease is an area where changes in lifestyle — diet, exercise, stress reduction, sleep — can greatly impact the course of the condition.
For example, the Mediterranean diet — which is high in vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats, and low in saturated fats and added sugars — was shown to be superior to a low-fat diet to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, in a study published in the journal The Lancet in 2022. The right diet should be discussed with your provider if you are at risk for heart disease.
Doctors should go over lifestyle information with you, refer you to dietitians, physical therapists, and other professionals they work with, as necessary. Be sure to talk to your cardiologist about lifestyle changes to develop a plan that works for you.
Additional reporting by Alexandria Jones-Patten.
©2025 sitename.com All rights reserved