I AM YOU is hosted by Nitza I. Alvarez, MD, FACC — board-certified cardiologist, Women’s Heart Specialist, and bestselling author. Each episode shares real conversations and expert insights that empower women to understand their heart health, listen to their bodies, and step fully into their role as the CEO of their own health.

In this deeply personal and eye-opening episode, Dr. Alvarez welcomes a very special guest — Dr. María Isabel Alvarez-Torres, a clinical psychologist specializing in trauma and emotional health… and her sister. Together, they explore the powerful and often overlooked connection between the emotional heart and the physical heart.

Through the story of their mother — a strong, resilient woman who carried the weight of family, responsibility, and unspoken stress — this episode reveals how years of emotional endurance, suppressed trauma, and chronic stress can quietly shape women’s cardiovascular health. What begins as “just stress” can ultimately surface as heart disease, broken-heart syndrome (Takotsubo cardiomyopathy), high blood pressure, or overwhelming anxiety.

Dr. Alvarez-Torres explains how chronic stress rewires the nervous system, how trauma — including Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) — can leave lasting biological imprints, and why many women normalize survival mode without realizing the toll it takes on their hearts. Together, the sisters unpack why women are especially vulnerable, how multitasking and perfectionism fuel chronic stress, and how the body eventually demands to be heard.

This episode also offers hope and tools: learning to pause, recognize stress signals, regulate the nervous system, release stored emotional energy, and seek trauma-informed care when needed. Healing the heart is not just about medication or test results — it’s about compassion, self-awareness, boundaries, and giving yourself permission to rest, feel, and receive support.

This powerful conversation is a reminder that you cannot fully heal the physical heart without honoring the emotional one — and that becoming the CEO of your own health means caring for both.

🎧 Listen.

💬 Share with the women you love.

💪 And join the movement to change how women experience heart health.

Visit NitzaMD.com

Follow @NitzaMD on Instagram and Facebook

I AM YOU is hosted by Nitza I. Alvarez, MD, FACC — board-certified cardiologist, Women’s Heart Specialist, and bestselling author. Each episode shares real stories and expert insights that help women understand their unique heart health, navigate a healthcare system that too often dismisses them, and step fully into the role of CEO of their own health.

In this powerful episode, Dr. Alvarez sits down with Valerie Brackney, a vibrant, postmenopausal woman whose life was repeatedly disrupted by unexplained dizziness, blackouts, and dangerously low blood pressure. What began as leg swelling in her late 40s led to years of symptoms that were repeatedly minimized, misattributed, or brushed off as dehydration, heat, or “just menopause.”

Valerie shares her frightening experiences of collapsing at work, falling down stairs, waking up in ambulances, and being hospitalized multiple times—only to leave without answers. Despite doing “everything right,” her body kept sending warning signals that something was wrong.

Through careful listening, persistence, and specialized cardiac care, Valerie was finally diagnosed with neurocardiogenic syncope, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that affects blood pressure regulation and can cause sudden fainting—especially in women around and after menopause.

Together, Valerie and Dr. Alvarez unpack:

• Why women’s symptoms are so often dismissed
• How menopause and hormones can mask serious cardiovascular conditions
• What a tilt table test is—and why it was life-changing for Valerie
• The emotional toll of being told “you’re fine” when you know you’re not
• How finally having a diagnosis restores peace, confidence, and quality of life

This episode is a reminder that knowing your body is powerful, that answers matter, and that persistence can save your life. Valerie’s story is a call to every woman listening to trust herself, speak up, and demand care that truly listens.

Most importantly, it reinforces Dr. Alvarez’s mission: empowering every woman to become the CEO of her own health.

🎧 Listen.

💬 Share with the women you love.

💪 And join the movement to change how women experience heart health.

Visit NitzaMD.com

Follow @NitzaMD on Instagram and Facebook

I AM YOU is hosted by Nitza I. Alvarez, MD, FACC — board-certified cardiologist, Women’s Heart Specialist, and bestselling author. Each episode blends real women’s stories with powerful science to help women understand their bodies, manage stress, and become the CEO of their own health.

In this episode, Dr. Alvarez reveals how falling estrogen levels change the inner lining of a woman’s arteries — making vessels stiffer, inflammation higher, and stroke risk more likely around perimenopause and menopause. She explains why a woman with new headaches, dizziness, or sudden weakness can be dismissed as “just stressed,” and why up to 80% of strokes are preventable with the right testing and lifestyle habits.

You will learn:

• Why women experience strokes earlier than expected
• How hormone shifts affect brain blood flow and cognitive clarity
• The myths that keep women from recognizing early warning signs
• The essential diagnostic studies every woman should request after a confirmed stroke (TEE, rhythm monitoring, vascular imaging, and more)
• The role of sleep, movement, nutrition, and hormone evaluation in lifelong prevention

This episode is a compassionate reminder that women deserve answers, not dismissal — and that prevention is not fear, but power. Knowing your numbers, honoring your symptoms, and asking for complete evaluation can save your life or the life of someone you love.

Because the best stroke is the one that never happens — and every woman deserves to step into her role as the CEO of her own health.

Visit NitzaMD.com

Follow @NitzaMD on Instagram & Facebook