StrongHER Hearts: Screenings & Conversations That Empower Women

06/02/2026

I posted a video last night about why women's heart disease looks so different from men's.

I made the comparison to Christmas Lights.

The short version — men have large vessel disease. Like the old-style Christmas lights, one light bulb goes out, or one vessel blocks, and the whole string goes dark.

Women predominantly have microvascular disease. Tiny vessels throughout the body. Many small lights all over the body go out, one at a time, but the string stays on.

The damage is still real. It's just harder to see.

That might explain — the vague symptoms that don't have a name— The tests that come back normal — The feeling that something isn't right that persists for months or even years — The cardiac events in women who seemed perfectly healthy — Why that 'something's-not-right' feeling can start long before menopause — Why it feels real, even when no one believes you.

We might be able to explain a lot of things if we started looking at women's hearts the way women actually experience them.

Women need more testing, not less.

Video is on our Instagram — .

Worth two minutes of your time.

— Jim

Join StrongHER Hearts for women's cardiovascular screening, education, and advocacy to prioritize women’s heart health and recognize early warning signs. Community-based cardiovascular education and screening helping women better understand their heart health through awareness, early detection, an...

06/01/2026

05/31/2026

She passed the stress test.

She passed the angiogram.

She was told her heart was fine.

Then she had a cardiac event anyway.

This is not a mystery. It is a known phenomenon — one that standard diagnostic tools were not designed to detect.

Sixty percent of cardiac events in women are caused not by blockages but by inflammation, hormonal shifts, and vascular spasms.

The tests we rely on look for narrowed or blocked arteries.

When the arteries are clear the report says normal.

Normal doesn't always mean fine.

It sometimes means we were looking in the wrong place.

This is one of the reasons women are diagnosed with cardiovascular disease on average a decade later than men — after multiple events have already occurred.

Earlier detection requires looking differently.

That's what we do.

📩 Link in bio.

05/29/2026

I want to tell you something I hear almost every week.

"I didn't want to bother anyone."
"I didn't want to make too much of it."
"I was afraid they'd think I was overreacting."

These are not the words of women who don't care about their health.

These are the words of women who have been taught — slowly, repeatedly, over years — that their concerns are probably nothing.

That the doctor said they were fine.
That they should stop worrying.

So they do.

They stop bringing it up.
They stop expecting answers.
They start managing quietly.

And somewhere along the way that becomes the new normal.

I want to say something clearly.

You are not overreacting.

You never were.

The feeling that something isn't right is worth following.
Every time.

— Jim
strongherhearts.org

05/26/2026

I've been asked — before and since posting that video last night — 'why do you do this?'

The honest answer is that I can't not do it.

I've spent 27 years responding to emergencies. I know what it looks like when something goes wrong that didn't have to go wrong.

Every woman I screen who has a finding — every woman who looks at me and says nobody ever told me that — that's not a medical moment.

That's a failure that happened somewhere upstream.

I'm just trying to be a little further upstream.

A few people close to me have gently pointed out that my videos aren't exactly Hollywood productions. They're not wrong.

But here's what I've learned over my career in emergency medicine:
Fear and uncertainty will talk you out of doing the right thing every single time — if you let them.

I find making videos uncomfortable. I'm not good at it. And none of that matters.

Because I can't not do it.

So I do it anyway.

And here's the thing — the same is true for all of us when it comes to women's cardiovascular health.

We don't have to be perfect at this.
We just have to be willing to try.

Because every time we try, we get a little better.
And getting better at this — for women, for the system, for each other — is exactly what's needed.

— Jim

Join StrongHER Hearts for women's cardiovascular screening, education, and advocacy to prioritize women’s heart health and recognize early warning signs. Community-based cardiovascular education and screening helping women better understand their heart health through awareness, early detection, an...

05/19/2026

Something happened after last night's video that I want to acknowledge.

Women reached out. Women shared it. Women started conversations I wasn't even part of.

That's the whole point.

It was never about the video. It's about what happens when women start talking to each other about their hearts.

If you've been thinking about hosting a gathering — or just want to know more — reach out. The conversation is already happening.

— Jim