Reverse Heart Aging? Exercise, Sleep, Diet and the Truth About Heart Health
29:29
Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care
Host: Sandra Peebles, award-winning journalist
Published: May 6, 2026
Host: Sandra Peebles, award-winning journalist
Published: May 6, 2026
Can you reverse heart aging—or at least slow it down? In this episode of Baptist HealthTalk, Sandra Peebles is joined by Dr. Jonathan Fialkow, chief medical executive of Integrated Services and Precision Care at Baptist Health, for a fascinating conversation about heart aging, longevity, inflammation, and the everyday habits that have the biggest impact on cardiovascular health.
Together, they break down the science behind aging hearts, explain the growing research surrounding the extracellular matrix (ECM), and separate real prevention strategies from social media wellness hype.
You’ll learn:
• What “heart age” actually means—and how it’s measured
• Why exercise is still the most powerful thing you can do for your heart
• How sleep affects inflammation, heart health, and aging
• What happens to the heart and blood vessels as we get older
• The truth about biohacking, cold plunges, and red light therapy
• Whether supplements and stem cell therapies really help
• Why chronic disease impacts the heart, brain, and kidneys together
• If heart aging can actually be reversed after age 50
• The truth about red wine and heart health
• How lifestyle habits influence long-term cardiovascular risk
Whether you’re focused on prevention, healthy aging, or simply trying to understand what really matters for heart health, this episode offers practical, science-backed guidance you can actually use.
Host: Sandra Peebles, award-winning journalist
Guest: Jonathan Fialkow, M.D., cardiologist, Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care; chief medical executive of Integrated Services & Precision Care at Baptist Health.
Featured Provider
Jonathan Adam Fialkow, MD
Jonathan Fialkow, M.D., is a cardiologist and the chief medical executive of integrated services and precision care at Baptist Health South Florida. In this enterprise-wide role, he focuses on advancing personalized, data-driven care models that improve access, outcomes and the patient and provider experience across the organization.
Dr. Fialkow is a certified lipidologist through the American Board of Clinical Lipidology and has developed and led lipid clinics, cardiometabolic centers, sleep centers and other programmatic approaches to managing chronic disease. His clinical practice continues to focus on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of complex medical and metabolic conditions.
His commitment to innovation in healthcare delivery has led to the development of transformative care models that leverage team-based care, digital tools and coordinated services to enhance access to care while improving patient and provider experiences. Dr. Fialkow has served as principal investigator on numerous cardiovascular research studies, with a focus on medical management, care design, diagnostic imaging, devices, pharmacologic therapies and patient outcomes. He also serves as medical executive and principal investigator of the Miami Heart Study, a seminal research initiative evaluating asymptomatic individuals across a broad demographic to better understand the drivers of atherosclerosis through advanced biomarker analysis and imaging-based predictive modeling.
Dr. Fialkow joined Baptist Health in 2018 and was the first chair of the Board of Managers and a founding member of the Baptist Health Quality Network, a clinically integrated network of more than 1,300 providers. He was named the 2025 Health System Executive of the Year by the Millennium Alliance for his leadership and innovation.
Dr. Fialkow is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. He earned his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, N.Y. His postgraduate training includes a cardiology fellowship at Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
