Dr. Nanette Wenger, the queen of hearts

Open Dr. Nanette Wenger's refrigerator, and the first thing you'll see is a bowl of ice chips filled with crudités – carrot and celery sticks, perhaps some broccoli florets.

"I love them," said Wenger, the world-renowned cardiologist who turns 94 this year. "I've always eaten healthy."

Wenger says she still weighs the same as the day she was married more than 60 years ago, and she isn't afraid to give you that number: 110 pounds. She never smoked. She's a light drinker. Her blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels remain in the healthy range. She stays physically active, but as a physician, she never had to look for ways to fit exercise into her day.

"When you do clinical medicine, getting 10,000 steps a day was just part of your routine," Wenger said. "There were days when I didn't sit down for three or four hours. I think I was part of the heart-healthy regimen before it was named that."

Being a pioneer comes naturally to the woman known for so many firsts.

Wenger was one of the first women to attend Harvard Medical School. The first woman fellow and chief resident at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. One of the first to understand the best way to recover from a heart attack was to get out of bed, not stay in it. And the first and most forceful voice to call for greater inclusion of women in medical research to understand the unique way cardiovascular disease affects women.

After seven decades as a clinician and researcher, Wenger isn't just still healthy, she's still working.

"What else would I do?" she asks when people wonder why she hasn't retired. Wenger remains a professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine, a consultant to the Emory Heart and Vascular Center and founding consultant to Emory...