Introduction: The Heart Smart Advantage
Bill had worked hard to get his weight back down to where it should be. He was exercising regularly, had good blood pressure, and was managing to suppress and control his weakness for fast food. He was an influential and powerful man of 58 who had regular checkups and testing with the best doctors and the best hospitals in the world.
Dave, like Bill, seemed to be the picture of good health. Dave wasn’t overweight, indeed he looked to be a little on the thin side. At 52 he worked hard and had access to and the means to get the best health care money could buy.
Yet, somehow these two healthy-seeming baby boomers ended up with severe coronary heart disease that went completely undetected until they both needed urgent open-heart bypass surgery.
Who were Bill and Dave? I’m talking about President Bill Clinton and Late Show host David Letterman.
When you read about the heart-health problems of these very prominent men, you might think that if a president and a celebrity television host, with all they have access to, couldn’t detect their heart disease early, then what chance do I have of finding it early enough to prevent serious heart issues? Well, you do have a chance, and I guarantee that by reading Heart Smart and taking advantage of new technology and available tests that you can detect heart disease early and have the best opportunity to avoid bypass surgery or perhaps even a heart attack.
Heart Smart is a must read for anyone interested in heart disease prevention. Unlike all the other heart-health books available on the market, Heart Smart:
- Is authored by a cardiologist specializing and dedicated to heart disease prevention.
- Tells you how to utilize traditional cardiac risk factors, emerging cardiac risk factors and state-of-the-art technology to help you defeat coronary heart disease.
- Provides a proven, successful strategy to exercise, nutrition, heart healthy super foods and supplements as well as medications to lower your cardiac risk and prevent heart attacks.
Well-Known Baby Boomers Who Had Cardiovascular Disease
Former President Bill Clinton: 4-vessel bypass surgery (age 58)
John Ritter (actor): Died from a tear in his aorta (age 54)
David Letterman (Late Show TV host): 5-vessel bypass surgery (age 52)
Dana Carvey (actor/comedian): 2-vessel bypass surgery (age 42)
Robert Palmer (recording artist): Sudden cardiac death (age 54)
Jim Cantalupo (CEO of McDonalds): Sudden cardiac death (age 60)
How to Use This Book
As a cardiologist in private practice who works every day on the “front lines,” I have used my clinical experience along with up-to date clinical data and national guidelines, to develop a comprehensive, proven, and effective five-step program for heart disease prevention. My program is easy to understand, and once you start on it I know you’ll be on your way to better heart health.
STEP 1
Recognize The Warning Signs Of Heart Disease
The first step in the Heart Smart program is learning to protect yourself. In Step 1 you will find out all about chest pain, heart attacks, and the deadly process of atherosclerosis that causes coronary heart disease—and how to recognize the first signs of trouble.
In Chapter 1, you’ll read about patients who have lived through heart attacks. You’ll also hear from them firsthand about the warning signs they had as well as get their advice on how to act and react during a heart attack—and survive it.
Chapter 2, “The Ultimate Chest Pain Guide,” will help you sort out the dangerous from the not-so-dangerous causes of chest pain and keep you from panicking every time you feel some pain in your chest.
In Chapter 3, we’ll take a look at the underlying cause of heart attacks and coronary heart disease: atherosclerosis, the complex process that is your number one enemy.
STEP 2
Take Charge Of Your Cardiac Risk Factors
Once you understand what to watch out for, it’s time to start digging into your personal cardiac risk. Step 2 of the Heart Smart Program tells you how to take charge of your cardiac risk factors.
Chapters 4 through 6 take an in-depth, comprehensive look at how to test for, identify, and treat the traditional cardiac risk factors that cause most heart attacks, strokes, and coronary heart disease. Those are high blood pressure, the “new” diabetes, smoking, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, high LDL (bad) cholesterol, low HDL (good) cholesterol and high triglycerides.
STEP 3
Go High-Tech To Detect Heart Disease And Lower Your Risk
At long last, emerging cardiovascular technology is focused on detecting heart disease in its earliest stages. Believe it or not, the new tests can detect heart disease before symptoms develop, not after. In Step 3 of the Heart Smart Program, I cover all the new, so-called emerging cardiac risk factors, the new lab tests, and the multimillion-dollar high-tech imaging studies that currently provide new resources for heart disease prevention and detection. This very exciting step tells you about the latest and greatest tools available to help you determine your cardiac risk and prevent heart attacks.
In Chapter 7, you will learn how to avoid being the next “completely healthy” victim of a stealthy heart attack. From C-reactive protein levels to assessing the size and amount of your bad cholesterol, find out which “emerging” cardiac risk factors you may need to be tested for.
Chapter 8 is the only source for finding out the truth about stress testing. Stress tests are a valuable tool in our fight against coronary heart disease, but this chapter makes you aware of the potential downsides of stress testing that can leave you at high risk for a heart attack.
Chapter 9 offers a first-hand look at the new era of high-tech preventive cardiology. You’ll read how breakthroughs in imaging quality and technique now provide us with unprecedented opportunities to look inside your arteries non-invasively to detect heart disease at its earliest stages and to predict with accuracy your risk of a heart attack.
By reading this section of the book you’ll learn definitively whether you should have one of these tests as part of your program to prevent heart disease.
STEP 4
Putting It All Together: What’s Your Risk?
Step 4 gives you everything you need to know to easily calculate your personal risk. You’ll learn how to use your traditional risk factors, emerging risk factors, and the high-tech tests from Steps 2 and 3 to estimate your risk for coronary heart disease.
STEP 5
Live The Heart-Smart Life: A Cardiologist’s Practical And Proven Approach
Step 5 of the Heart Smart Program introduces you to a no-nonsense, straightforward, proven, and effective strategy to prevent, treat, and reverse coronary heart disease. Being Heart Smart encompasses all aspects of your life. It’s about making exercise and fitness a major priority. It’s about choosing foods that are good for your heart and don’t cause obesity.
Kick off your new heart-healthy lifestyle in Chapter 10 by learning the 101 action items that you can do right now to stop or prevent coronary heart disease. Then dive into what may be one of the most important elements in my program: Exercise. In Chapter 11, you’ll discover how exercise can single-handedly lower your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes as well as lower your blood pressure, lower your cholesterol, help you lose weight, improve your bone strength, make you happier, as well as improve the way you look.
Next, we’ll turn to the central role nutrition and diet play in living a Heart Smart life. In Chapter 12 you will read about the good fats, the bad fats, and a cardiologist’s take on the Atkins, South Beach, and Mediterranean Diets. In addition, you will be introduced to the cardiac “super foods” such as nuts, fish, soy and fiber. Finally, in Chapter 13 find out which life saving medications you may not be able to live without.
Don’t Be a Victim: Take Charge of Your Heart Health
If you wait for your doctor, or for your spouse or your children, to take control of your heart health and cardiac risk factors, it will be too late. Unfortunately, millions of people have cholesterol building up in their heart arteries right now but they simply don’t know it, and those completely silent blockages put them at high risk for heart attacks.
With this book you will understand the weaknesses of our current approach to heart disease prevention and treatment and discover the new technology and medicines that are ready to catapult us into a new era of early detection and prevention. Armed with this knowledge, you can take charge of your heart health and protect yourself from disabling heart attacks or premature cardiac death.
It is never too late to become Heart Smart!
