Navigate Heart Health is a private, clinician-led online community for people recovering from a heart attack, stent placement, or coronary artery bypass surgery. It provides expert nutrition guidance, personalized meal planning, cardiac rehab support, and peer connection — all designed around the first year of recovery, when lifestyle change has the greatest impact on long-term heart health outcomes.

Navigate Heart Health is for people who have experienced a heart attack, angioplasty, stent placement, or coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) - as well as those preparing for an upcoming CABG. It’s a place to find practical support, encouragement, and connection with others who truly understand what you’re going through

Navigate Heart Health was founded and is led by Melanie McAuliffe, RDN, LD, CCRP — a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Cardiac Rehabilitation Professional. Melanie works in hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation and inpatient clinical nutrition, and brings her direct clinical experience to every aspect of the community. She is actively present in the community, answering questions, providing guidance, and updating content as the evidence evolves.

Yes. Navigate Heart Health has a free membership tier that includes the Heart-Smart Kickstart collection — a four-chapter Lifestyle Foundations Guide and a preview of the Confident Dining Out Guide. Free members also have access to community orientation materials including the community mission, guidelines, and an introduction to the program. The free tier is designed to give you a meaningful introduction to the community and help you decide whether the paid membership is right for you.

Secondary prevention refers to the medical and lifestyle interventions used to reduce the risk of a second cardiovascular event in people who have already experienced one — such as a heart attack, stroke, stent placement, or bypass surgery. It is distinct from primary prevention, which focuses on reducing risk in people who have not yet had a cardiovascular event. Secondary prevention typically includes medications such as statins, aspirin, and blood pressure treatments, combined with lifestyle modifications including a heart-healthy diet, regular physical activity, smoking cessation, stress management, and weight management. Cardiac rehabilitation is one of the most evidence-based secondary prevention interventions available. Navigate Heart Health is built around supporting secondary prevention through sustainable lifestyle change.

The dietary pattern with the strongest evidence for people who have had a heart attack is the Mediterranean diet. Research including the CORDIOPREV trial — a seven-year randomized study in patients with established coronary heart disease — found that a Mediterranean diet significantly reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes olive oil, fatty fish, legumes, nuts, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, with limited red meat, processed meat, and added sugar. It is flexible, sustainable, and does not require eliminating entire food groups. Reducing sodium is also a priority for most cardiac patients, particularly those managing blood pressure or heart failure. For personalized guidance based on your specific medical history, medications, and lab values, working with a registered dietitian who specializes in cardiac nutrition is the most effective approach.

Cardiac rehabilitation is a medically supervised program designed to support recovery after a heart attack, heart surgery, or other cardiac event. It typically combines supervised exercise, heart rate and rhythm monitoring, education on lifestyle modification, and support for risk factor management. Cardiac rehab is one of the most evidence-based interventions available for secondary prevention of heart disease — research consistently shows that people who complete cardiac rehab have significantly lower rates of hospitalization, recurrent cardiac events, and mortality compared to those who do not. Despite this, cardiac rehab remains underutilized, with many eligible patients never enrolling or not completing the full program. If you have had a heart attack, stent placement, or bypass surgery, cardiac rehabilitation is almost certainly covered by your insurance and strongly recommended by major cardiology organizations including the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. If your healthcare provider has not yet referred you, it is worth asking directly.

Most cardiac rehabilitation programs in the United States consist of 36 supervised exercise sessions, typically completed over 12 to 18 weeks at a frequency of three sessions per week. Sessions are held in a clinical setting with monitoring by cardiac rehabilitation nurses and exercise physiologists, and usually last between one and two hours including warm-up, exercise, and cool-down. Some programs also include education sessions covering nutrition, stress management, medications, and return to activity. After completing the formal program — often called phase 2 cardiac rehab — patients are encouraged to continue the exercise habits and lifestyle changes they developed independently or through a phase 3 maintenance program if one is available locally. The transition out of supervised cardiac rehab is one of the most important moments in recovery, and having ongoing support for that transition is a key part of what Navigate Heart Health is designed to provide.

This is one of the most common questions people have after a cardiac event, and a completely understandable thing to want to know.

The honest answer is that life expectancy after a heart attack or bypass surgery varies enormously depending on individual factors - the extent of heart muscle damage, the presence of other conditions like diabetes or kidney disease, age, whether the person smokes, and perhaps most importantly, what happens in the months and years following the event.

What the research consistently shows is this: the lifestyle choices made after a cardiac event have a significant and measurable impact on long-term survival. People who complete cardiac rehabilitation, adopt a heart-healthy dietary pattern, manage their blood pressure and cholesterol, stay physically active, and maintain a strong social support network have meaningfully better outcomes than those who do not. These are not small differences, studies show that cardiac rehabilitation alone is associated with a 20 to 30 percent reduction in cardiovascular mortality.

In other words: while no one can give you a specific number, the trajectory of your recovery is not fixed. The choices you make in the first year after a cardiac event, when motivation is highest and the body is most responsive to change, have an outsized influence on where that trajectory goes.

If you are looking for support in making the most of this critical window, Navigate Heart Health was built for exactly this moment.

Melanie McAuliffe holds the following credentials: Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), Licensed Dietitian (LD), and Certified Cardiac Rehabilitation Professional (CCRP). The RDN credential is the gold standard for nutrition professionals in the United States and requires a minimum of a bachelor's degree in nutrition or dietetics, completion of an accredited supervised practice program, and passage of a national credentialing examination. The CCRP credential is awarded by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and recognizes professionals with specialized expertise in cardiac rehabilitation. Melanie works in hospital-based cardiac rehabilitation and inpatient clinical nutrition, bringing direct patient care experience to her work at Navigate Heart Health.

No. Navigate Heart Health is an educational and community support resource and is not a substitute for medical care, cardiac rehabilitation, or the guidance of your healthcare providers. Melanie McAuliffe is a Registered Dietitian and Certified Cardiac Rehabilitation Professional, but her role within Navigate Heart Health is that of an educator and community guide, not a treating clinician. Members are encouraged to work closely with their cardiologist, primary care provider, cardiac rehabilitation team, and other healthcare professionals throughout their recovery. Any specific medical questions or concerns should be directed to your treating providers. Navigate Heart Health is designed to complement and support — not replace — the care you receive from your medical team.