Book Review: Heart 411

Book Review: Heart 411

As an interventional cardiologist, I maintain a very high standard for books on heart disease. I am happy to say that Dr. Gillinov and Nissen’s, Heart 411 clearly meets that standard. I found their book on heart disease easy to read, but quite informative.

In the first section, the authors breakdown the common and not so well-known risk factors for heart disease. As a cardiologist, I spend most of my day explaining to patients what these risk factors are and how to modify them. It means everything for a patient to understand this information because ultimately, an educated patient is an empowered patient who will have be ability to modify and improve their own health. I found the coverage of this topic to be very thorough and well presented. I was particularly impressed that Nissen and Gillinov took the time to address non-traditional/emerging risk factors such as air pollution, and bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA is found in plastic items and food packaging and has been recently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

Section II, A Plan for Prevention helps readers to understand some of the simple tools that can be used to prevent heart disease. Topic such as diet, exercise, and red wine are discussed in sufficient detail. The authors address the strong connection between emotions and heart disease, and highlight the benefits of meditation, yoga, and guided imagery stress relief. The authors end the chapter on emotions by encouraging readers with heart disease to explore one or more of these methods for stress reduction. I feel that this recommendation to explore yoga and meditation should have been extended to all readers (not just those with heart disease) since emotional stress is ubiquitous and we are all at risk of developing heart disease.

The third section reviews available treatments for heart disease including medications and procedures such as coronary stents versus surgery for coronary heart disease. I found the coverage of the topic again to be very thorough and balanced. The authors give each of these tools adequate credit for the potential role they play in improving cardiovascular outcomes, but highlight recent data touting the strong benefits of good medical therapy.

The authors round out the book in Sections IV and V by discussing heart disease in men, women, and children. I commend the authors for including the chapter on children because to truly prevent heart disease certainly as a society we must take a close look at the habits we teach our children. As the authors state, “Prevention starts now!” Section V takes a glimpse into the future of cardiology discussing artificial hearts and the promise of stem cell therapy.

Heart 411: The Only Guide To Heart Health You’ll Ever Need is a very well written, informative book which I would recommend to anyone with an interest in learning about heart disease. Although I disagree that any one book can serve as the only definitive source on the topic of heart disease, surely this book comes as close as any. The authors are to be applauded for this fine piece of work which will empower readers and give them the tools to begin improving their own heart health.