[.ca] Heart Frauds: Uncovering the Biggest Health Scam in History (ISBN 0941599566)

Highly Recommended For Anyone Interested In Heart Disease!:
Charles T McGee presents a witty, often hilarious, and always to-the-point attack on the hugely profitable industry that has grown around heart disease. Mc Gee reviews the studies conducted to date on open heart surgery - many would be shocked to know that they have all failed to show any appreciable longevity benefit for those who undergo surgery compared to those who don't. McGee presents, with cutting wit, an example of a typical sales-like pitch on the benefits of open heart surgery often given to patients who have just had a heart attack. Patients are typically told they will be unlikely to live to see the next morning unless they undergo surgery right away. Studies examining the survival rate of patients who successfully choose to eschew surgery and opt for other means of addressing their illness reveal this pitiful sales pitch for the nonsense it truly is. It appears the only thing truly in danger if patients start refusing open heart operations is the ability of the surgeon to keep up the lease payments on his new Mercedes. McGee also presents a highly critical expose' of the field of angiogragphy. He reveals that the most effective form of angiogram has been typically confined to use in research settings, while the less effective version is the one commonly used in the clinical setting to make the all-important decision on whether or not to operate. McGee also takes a shot at the cholesterol theory. He highlights how the theory has it's origins in flawed animal experiments performed by Russian researchers at the beginning of the twentieth century, and then goes on to highlight the many other studies that have failed to show any benefit from cholesterol lowering. McGee doesn't just attack the medical industry and then run - he discusses low risk treatments like EDTA chelation therapy that are typically ignored by drug-obsessed mainstream medicine. The only flaw with the book is the author's praise for Dean Ornish and Nathan Pritikin, both who promoted spartan diets with unhealthy recommendations for unnaturally low fat intakes. Ornish, for example, published a study where the arteries of an intervention group reportedly widened in comparison to a group not recieving the intervention treatment. Ornish's treatment group recieved a multiple intervention treatment - excercise five days a week, smoking cessation, meditation and group counselling in addition to a low fat vegetarian diet. McGee claims those who highlight the fact that this was a multiple intervention are "missing the point". I totally disagree. Ornish used several different treatments in his intervention group but when speaking with journalists and writing for the public, talks as if the low fat diet was the decisive factor in his study. One cannot in good conscience make this claim when there is absolutely no proof to back it up - one of the most basic rules of science is to control your variables. All Ornish can claim from his study is that a MULTILPE intervention, encompassing all the tactics he used, was successful in widening arteries. We know that excercise can widen arteries, and that was one of the interventions Ornish used. There is no evidence a vegan diet can achieve this effect. Ornish should be honest enough to admit this, but instead he persistently bad mouths all but the most austere low fat diets. Unfortunately McGee fails to pick up on this, so I would recommend one keep this in mind whilst reading this section of the book. Heart Frauds' strong point is its' thorough discrediting of the entire heart disease industry, and the tactics used by this industry to ensure its continued future profitability. If you are a heart disease patient, or have a friend or loved one who has CHD, I would highly recommend this book. I would also recommend Uffe Ravnskov's "The Cholesterol Myths" , the best examination of the cholesterol issue I have read to date. Ravnskov's book also contains an enlightening discussion on the hugely popular statin drugs; McGee's book was written before the rise of these drugs.