One Life, Two Hearts: Surviving Cancer, Loss and Heart Failure | Dr. Dawn Mussallem

Dr. Dawn Mussallem was a young medical student when she collapsed and doctors discovered a 15-centimeter tumor wrapped around her heart. She was diagnosed with stage IV diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and told she had only months to live.

She endured chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and radiation while continuing medical school, eventually graduating first in her class. But surviving cancer came at another cost: the treatment severely damaged her heart.

Dawn developed advanced heart failure, received a pacemaker and defibrillator, lost her husband to sudden cardiac death and spent years fighting to stay alive for her daughter. In 2021, with her organs beginning to fail, she accepted a donor heart from a woman who had used intravenous drugs and carried hepatitis C.

That transplant gave Dawn a second life.

Now an integrative oncologist, endurance athlete and Chief Medical Officer at Fountain Life, Dawn joins Ken Rideout to share what she learned through cancer, grief, heart failure and transplantation. They also discuss the fundamentals of longevity that matter most, including fiber, complex carbohydrates, strength training, VO2 max, heart-disease screening, organ donation and the role of nutrition in cancer survivorship.

This is a story about accepting what you cannot control, refusing to surrender your purpose and making every day of a borrowed life count.

Thank you to our sponsors

Our Title Sponsor ROKA: www.roka.com/ Code “RIDEOUT”

AMP Fitness: amp.ai/rideout 

Ken’s book now available here: https://www.theothersideofhard.com/

Chapters

(00:00) Meet Dr Dawn

(01:11) Ohio Roots and Early Running

(02:35) Raising Healthy Kids

(06:05) Athletics and Strength Training

(09:15) College Fitness and Ms Fitness

(10:41) Sponsor Break Roka Eyewear

(12:22) Carbs Fiber and Performance

(19:26) Path to Medicine and Mayo

(23:21) Cancer Diagnosis and Survival

(31:18) Chemo And Transplant

(32:08) Hospital Bike Breakthrough

(33:14) Exercise As Medicine

(34:18) Transplant Process Explained

(35:17) Isolation And Infection Control

(36:26) Radiation And Tumor Limits

(37:29) Heart Failure After Cancer

(38:39) Fertility And IVF Struggles

(41:07) Surprise Pregnancy Discovery

(43:40) Postpartum Heart Failure Reveal

(46:25) Diagnosis And Mayo Recovery

(48:57) Devices And HRV Talk

(50:36) Fountain Life Heart Data

(53:44) Lifestyle And VO2 Priority

(57:31) Precision Genomics Testing

(01:01:32) Next Gen Lipid Drugs

(01:02:16) Metabolic And Inflammation Tests

(01:04:37) Loss And Resilience

(01:07:21) Diet For Heart Reversal

(01:10:35) Near Death And Transplant Listing

(01:15:51) Donor Heart Dilemma

(01:19:55) Transplant Recovery And Gratitude

(01:23:35) Integrative Oncology Explained

(01:26:05) Insurance And Breast Cancer Care

(01:28:04) Hormone Blockers And Symptom Relief

(01:32:09) Closing And Subscribe

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