01 · The story
Why I created Heart Reserve.
5:51
The story behind the work, and why your own health story belongs in the conversation.
THE PODCAST
Heart
Reserve
Clear conversations.
Better questions.
With Lisa Zahakos, RPA-C
Conversations about pregnancy, midlife and your heart—so you can bring better questions to your next visit.
Latest episode · 33:39
Is This Menopause? Why You Don’t Feel Like Yourself—and What Can Help
Listen on Spotify: Is This Menopause? Why You Don’t Feel Like Yourself—and What Can Help (opens in a new tab)A PLACE TO BEGIN
New here?
Start with these.
Three short listens: meet Lisa, find your starting point and bring a better question to your next visit.
02 · The starting point
What should I check?
6:27
A first look at symptoms, pregnancy history, blood pressure and results.
03 · The next question
Normal blood count. Low iron?
7:03
How to ask a better question when your results and how you feel do not seem to match.
Find your next listen.
Search all 12 episodes, or choose a topic.
9 more episodes
Menopause & hormones
LatestIs This Menopause? Why You Don’t Feel Like Yourself—and What Can Help
33:39
Still getting your period, but waking at night, losing words, or feeling your heart race? Understand symptoms, useful tests, treatment choices and follow-up in plain language, including how pregnancy history fits your heart-health conversation.
Stress tests & next steps
My Stress Test Was Abnormal. Do I Need a Stent?
30:34
What an abnormal result means, what a coronary CT scan or heart catheterization involves, and how medicines, stents and bypass surgery fit into the next step. Includes fictional teaching examples and five questions for your visit.
Stress tests & next steps
Your Stress Test Was Normal. What Did It Actually Check?
30:45
Treadmill, echo and nuclear stress tests explained in plain language. Understand exercise versus medication, target heart rate, and what a normal result can—and cannot—tell you.
Perimenopause & bloodwork
Perimenopause & Your Heart: What Your Blood Tests Can Tell You
6:37
A conversation about perimenopause, blood tests and your heart health.
Menopause & hormones
Menopause and Testosterone: What’s Changing for Women
4:35
Explore the conversation about menopause and testosterone with Lisa Zahakos, RPA-C.
Hormones & heart health
Will Hormone Therapy Protect My Heart?
5:08
What hormone therapy can help, why timing and medical history matter, and what the studies do—and do not—show about preventing heart attacks.
Cholesterol & family history
My Cholesterol Looks Normal. What Could My Usual Test Miss?
4:26
Meet Lp(a), an inherited heart-risk clue that usually needs a separate blood test, and learn what a result can change.
Cholesterol & menopause
My Cholesterol Went Up. Is It Menopause—and Do I Need Medicine?
4:47
Why cholesterol can rise in midlife, how it relates to a heart attack, and what to ask before deciding on treatment.
Research & your heart
Does Lowering Inflammation Prevent a Heart Attack?
6:39
What does a lower inflammation number mean for your heart? Understand the research behind the headlines and the questions to bring to your next appointment.
THE HEART STORY TOOL
Bring your story
to your next visit.
Heard something you want to ask about? Keep that question, add the history you want to share, and create a summary to save or print for your next visit.
Build my Heart StoryFree. No email needed. You choose what to include.
MY HEART STORY SUMMARY PREVIEW
- 01My question
What I want to ask.
- 02My history
What I want my clinician to know.
- 03Our next step
Space for the plan we make together.
A conversation guide for your visit.
IN LISA’S OWN WORDS · 74-SECOND TRAILER
The story behind
HEART RESERVE.
Why I started HEART RESERVE, and why your own health story belongs in the conversation. Get to know me in this 74-second introduction.
Build my Heart StoryTranscript & interview source
Lisa’s original voice, edited from Healthy Mom Healthy Baby Tennessee · TIPQC. Full interview published October 16, 2026.
Will you be able to play with your grandchildren? Will we be able to hold suitcases and walk up a flight of stairs and travel?
Heart Reserve really started out of my own life experience. So I'm able to see it from a patient because I'm a 45-year-old mom kind of going through this myself right now and as a clinician on the other side of the seat.
And I created Heart Reserve as an educational platform for patients, for clinicians, for people leaving the NICU, for anyone in one of these situations, so that we could understand better what our history is and how to bring that to the clinician so that they could help us.
As a physician assistant, I've always seen my role being taking these incredible researchers and genius doctors in this specialty field and translating it into easy words that people could understand and medicine that we understand.
I want women to get used to telling your story, to talking about that experience as it relates to you. Your NICU experience, your baby's experience, that was also your history.
Will you be able to live the life that you want by building this reserve.
Build My Heart Story.
You could print it, you could download it.
FEATURED GUEST CONVERSATIONS
Hear Lisa’s story.
I join other hosts as a physician assistant and a mother of four to talk about pregnancy, the NICU and why a mother’s own health story deserves to be heard.
Healthy Mom Healthy Baby Tennessee · TIPQC
EO: 236 Heart Reserve with Lisa Zahakos, RPA-C
Lisa joins Dr. Cornelia Graves and Brenda Barker to talk about pregnancy history, mothers’ heart health after the NICU, and bringing your own questions into the exam room.
· Full interview · About 37 minutesLisa’s original recorded voice
Beyond the Beeps · The Incubator Podcast & ICU Baby
What Does It Really Take to Save Twins With TTTS?
Lisa joins Leah MG Jayanetti to talk about her twin pregnancy, fetal surgery and the NICU—and how that experience helped shape HEART RESERVE.
Episode 27 · Lisa’s original recorded voice
More conversations to come.2 recorded interviews · Awaiting publication
These interviews have been recorded. Episode links will appear here when publication is confirmed.
Recorded
Graham’s Foundation
Interview with Nicholas Hall. Recording complete; publication has not yet been confirmed.
Visit Graham’s Foundation ↗Recorded
Physician Assistant History Society
Oral history interview. Recording complete; editing in progress.
Visit Physician Assistant History Society ↗Interview status checked October 16, 2026. See scheduled appearances · Invite Lisa to your podcast