[.ca] The Heart Disease Breakthrough: What Even Your Doctor ... (ISBN 0471353094)

Some good stuff, some risky advice:
It is encouraging that Dr. Yannios rejects many of the conventional (and incorrect) approaches to heart disease prevention. There have been no studies that conclusively link high blood cholesterol, high dietary cholesterol, high dietary fat, or high blood triglycerides to heart disease. (For more on this, see Dr. Uffe Ravnskov's excellent book "The Cholesterol Myths.") I was pleased particularly pleased to see him mention that many people who have heart disease have normal cholesterol. In fact, nearly half of the patients in the Framingham heart study who died of coronary disease had blood cholesterol under 220! I am, however, concerned that Dr. Yannios seems to be so concerned with atherosclerosis as a cause of heart disease. As Dr. Ravnsknov's book shows, there is no evidence that atherosclerosis causes heart disease, nor is there any evidence that high blood cholesterol causes atherosclerosis. And without that evidence, it is plainly risky to treat otherwise healthy patients with expensive cholesterol-lowering drugs that may have serious short- and long-term side effects, simply because they have preatherosclerotic streaks in their arteries. Even fetuses have such streaks. Should we give newborns cholesterol lowering drugs? If so, I am going to go sink all my money into pharmaceutical stocks. I say, read this book, but read it skeptically. Do not go out and ask your doctor to prescribe cholesterol lowering drugs for you, especially if your cholesterol is normal. Go to a good library and read the journal articles on cholesterol and heart disease yourself, including the numbers. (Summaries can and do lie!) Read the clinical trials of cholesterol lowering drugs to discover the side effects of these drugs, and ask yourself whether, if you are currently healthy, you want to live a life riddled with those side effects in the name of your "health." Read a book on statistics so you'll understand what is and is not statitistically significant. And read "The Cholesterol Myths."

No fluff in this book.:
Just intensely interesting and highly informative material that is presented perfectly. This information will motivate you to make the changes in your life necessary for good health - and not through "scare tactics". It's difficult for me to comprehend how anyone who reads this book can come away with a negative opinion that results in a bad review. I only wish that I had come into possession of this knowledge at an earlier date.

Have an MI, then BUY THIS BOOK:
I had an MI at the age of 36 (ouch). Since then I've tried to keep up to date on all the real, important research about heart disease causes and prevention. Trust me, you don't want to have a *second* MI. This book takes all the important stuff you need to know and gives it to you in a form you can understand. Better than that, you can take *action*. Action that is tailored to *YOU*. Both my GP and my Cardiologist knew less about all the risk factors than I did. We did the super-low-fat diet thing and they wanted to treat my lipids with *only* statins. This book has helped me educate them and given me what I need to advocate for myself. I'm know doing everything I can for my *specific* risk factors. My diet is now low in carbohydrate. My doctors, of course had put me on an ultra-low-fat diet, which, for me (and for 25% of the U.S. population), was *exactly the wrong thing*. When I went on a high-protein, low carb, moderate fat diet my lipids ***greatly*** improved (oh yah and I lost 30 pounds). Given my lipids, I know now that Niacin *and* statins are the right choice for my profile (I had an LDL-GGE test recommended in the book). Hey I just had a thought...maybe *you* should buy this book *before* you have an MI...

Best Heart Book Ever:
After having a heart attack about six years ago at a young age, I resolved to put the disease into remission. I read everything I could find regarding heart disease, books on diet, exercise, cardiac rehabilitation, stress reduction, and cholesterol reduction...It was less than a year ago that I read The Heart Disease Breakthrough by Dr Yannios. The book is a terrific summary of almost everything that I have gleaned from years of reading and consultation. Significant are the descriptions of a number of new important blood tests which go unmentioned in even the current literature and are vital in determining the course of action necessary to combat heart disease in each individual. After reading this book I made an appointment and traveled some distance to have Dr. Yannios review my blood test results and diet and exercise program. He's tough. I have purchased copies of the book for my children, for my family physician, my cardiologist, and our local hospital's cardiac rehabilitation library. This book is a must read for anyone with heart disease or a history of heart disease in their family. It's also a should read for everyone else. Often the first symptom of heart disease is death.

A Book for Everyone:
I am a young, athletic women trained in the health sciences. This is a unique book, relevant to everyone and I mean everyone. Just the diet and exercise chapters alone revolutionized my thinking. Dr. Yannios' is the only book that I know of that seperates exercise "styles" according to one's risk factors. And for cardiovascular risk factor analysis, well, this book is the ONLY one that deals with 21st century science.