Customers Reviews
2010-01-30
Heart disease info
If you have heart disease noe or want to avoid it in the future this is must reading!!
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2010-01-01
A Wonderful overview for increasing your heart health!
I had a mild heart attack in 1993 and had to remain firm in not undergoing the typical invasive techniques that cardiologists at the time recommended. Too many people with mild heart attacks got bi-pass surgery or stents that almost always are limited in effectiveness and by their very nature cause problems. My father died of heart disease at 54 years of age so I did take my heart attack very seriously. I balked at first at taking medication but have been faithful to the usual drugs that are prescribed since that attack. I was also a firm adherent to the radical no meat, no fish, no oil, no seeds, no nuts diet that Dr Ornish prescribed at the time. I see that he is not as much of an enemy towards fats in general now, but only 'bad' fats. I felt very healthy with this original diet but any lowering of cholesterol was temporary. After three years, I dropped this diet, mostly because it was so difficult to follow it when going out to eat and it really limited my food choices. And it did not work in lowering my cholesterol which was my hope in following it.
I did do a lot of reading about heart disease over the years and added many supplements that had claims to be effective against heart disease. Now 17 years later, my cholesterol is usually around 160 (It used to be between 220 and 300) and I don't have any of the symptoms that indicate advancing heart disease. My doctor is great! At first he was upset with me not going the usual route, but 10 years after, said - "George, you were right." There are studies now that show non-invasive techniques are just as effective as the surgeries that happen. The non-invasive techniques all depend on medications, supplements, exercise, diet, and stress reduction. And they don't cause the problems that surgeries many times do.
Now comes this wonderful book that has all of the information in one place that I had to seek out in so many sources. I was happy to discover that I am already taking most of the supplements that are recommended in the lists on pages 208 and 209, but I now have better information on dosage and the reasons why they are effective. Since heart disease is a progressive one, my current techniques will always need changing and tweaking. This book is a great resource for me and I expect it will remain so for many years.
I do want to mention that from my point of view, there are so many books that advise us adequately about diet, exercise, relaxation techniques, and surgery but not too many out there focusing on supplements in so helpful a way.
Also, my decision to forgo invasive techniques was based on the fact that my heart attack was a mild one. Like the authors, I do feel that I would use surgery if my circumstances changed and my disease demanded a more radical approach. But believe me, I have heard so many stories of people getting surgery with symptoms that could have just as easily been handled by medication and other non-invasive techniques. I'm a big believer in traditional medications and non-traditional supplements. This has worked so well for me that I plan on reading and re-reading each chapter and seeing how I could modify my current approach to my disease with the help of this book. I feel that what I am now doing is reinforced by the information presented. Great job guys!
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2009-12-02
REVERSE HEART DISEASE NOW
This is an excellent reference book for anyone who would like some suggestions for natural food and supplement alternatives to drugs, by an experienced heart surgeon, Dr. Stephen T. Sinatra. It arrived in NEW condition and was a very good price. I would deal with infinityplus and Amazon again.
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2009-11-23
If only ...
I have been very impressed by this book. If only it had been the superb book it could have been.
The authors, Drs Sinatra and Roberts, have been converted to a new way of doing cardiology. PREVENTION of heart troubles and treatment with nutritional supplements are not often practised by cardiologists. And Drs Sinatra and Roberts are humble enough to admit that they have learned much from their patients. If only other doctors would be prepared to listen to their patients instead of acting as if they know everything.
If only Drs Sinatra and Roberts had taken notice of some much earlier research about the causes of heart disease.
Here I will quote Dr Mark Starr, who in his book "Hypothyroidism Type 2: the Epidemic" refers to the work of Dr Broda Barnes:
"Dr Barnes realized quite early in his career that hypothyroidism was pervasive and a majority of those afflicted were not being diagnosed or properly treated. By 1950, he also recognized that his patients had not suffered any heart attacks while their incidence was exploding in the rest of America. In 1950 ... Dr Barnes began a long-term study to determine if proper treatment of hypothyroidism would prevent heart attacks ... Dr Barnes intended for his study to parallel the Framingham study. In 1972, after 22 years of his ongoing study, Dr Barnes published the results of his work in a book, 'Heart Attack Rareness in Thyroid-Treated Patients' ... The Framingham Study would have predicted that 72 of Dr Barnes' patients should have suffered heart attacks. Only four occurred. In addition, at least 30 patients who quit the study and discontinued thyroid hormones suffered fatal heart attacks within six years of stopping their thyroid [treatment]. Many of these patients had moved. Their new doctors declined to continue thyroid treatment. Blood tests often showed the patients did not need thyroid hormones ... Dr Barnes purposely did not attempt to control cholesterol, smoking, exercise or other variables. He wanted the only variable between his patients and those from the Framingham study to be the use of thyroid hormones. In 1976, four years after his book, 'Heart Attack Rareness in Thyroid Treated Patients' was published, Dr Barnes published another groundbreaking book, 'Solved: the Riddle of Heart Attacks'. Despite the publication of eight editions through 1999, mainstream medicine continues to dismiss his irrefutable work."
There is much more about this in the 'heart attack' chapter of Dr Starr's book!
In the whole of "Reverse Heart Disease Now" Drs Sinatra and Roberts acknowledge the thyroid connection in only two brief sentences: "We look at hormone levels, particularly estrogen, testosterone and thyroid. Even a slight hypothyroid status increases the risk of CVD because the body needs thyroid hormone to metabolize cholesterol efficiently."
I do not know how they "look at" thyroid hormone levels, but if they look for blood test levels outside what is considered the normal range, they will miss most cases of hypothyroidism. This is one of the serious points made by Dr Starr and of course by Dr Barnes. Hypothyroidism is not diagnosed properly, because of concentration on blood tests and so-called normal ranges, leaving many sick people to get sicker and to potentially suffer heart attacks! And those who do manage to get a diagnosis are often under-treated. If only the diagnosis was made by careful observation of the patient and careful listening to his story (as in the olden days!) and treatment given at a level that is effective for the patient, not just to make the numbers look good.
If only Drs Sinatra and Roberts had true knowledge of dietary matters! This is the second major flaw in their book.
While some parts of their dietary advice are correct, others are not. For instance, they advise against refined carbohydrates, and that is good advice. But then they define refined carbohydrates as "highly processed foods loaded with sugar". They then go on to advocate GRAINS, which even as "whole grains" start turning into sugar as soon as they arrive in the mouth, and prunes, which are loaded with sugar. They are thoroughly confused about saturated fats, and still believe the outdated notion that meat, poultry and full-fat dairy products create a risk for CVD. So, "more fish, less beef and dairy", they advise. This is quite wrong.
The entire lipid hypothesis, covering saturated fats, cholesterol etc, has been proved false. Many books demonstrate this, eg Ravnskov "The Cholesterol Myths: exposing the fallacy that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease", Colpo "The Great Cholesterol Con: why everything you've been told about cholesterol, diet and heart disease is wrong", Kendrick " The Great Cholesterol Con: the truth about what really causes heart disease and how to avoid it", Taubes "Good Calories, Bad Calories" -- also known as "The Diet Delusion" -- and Ravnskov's latest book, "Fat and Cholesterol are GOOD for You!" Also look for "7 reasons to eat more saturated fat" and "Diet and fat: a severe case of mistaken consensus" and "The skinny on fats" (google them). The real villain among fats is TRANS fat, which should definitely be avoided, along with polyunsaturated oils. The big problem is to get all those doctors, nutritionists, dietitians and diet gurus to acknowledge their mistake about saturated fats, swallow their pride and eat humble pie. If only they would!
I could go on with criticism of the Sinatra/Roberts diet advice, for instance their advice to eat less salt (only SOME people need to have a low-salt diet, everybody else NEEDS salt, though not as processed foods) and their advocacy of soy products, which are toxic and act as endocrine disruptors. But I think I have given enough information to justify the 4 star rating instead of a 5.
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2009-10-04
IT'S THE REAL DEAL - READ THIS BOOK!
I heard through a friend of mine about someone they knew who, under a doctor's supervision, applied some of the recommendations in the book. He was gradually able to get off his blood thinners and blood pressure meds and is doing fine.
I suffer from DVT's (have had seven) and PE's (have had three), and HBP. I am glad to be alive but I am sick of all the meds, blood draws, and side effects which I am told, that I would have to put up with for the rest of my life. I have done tons of research on alternative therapies so I was curious about this book.
I hit the jackpot here. Great information, well written, intelligent, documented, referenced, and practical. Lot's of useful info that other books leave out like supplement details, dosages, and resources, as well as realistic programs and recomendations for specific conditions.
The book is very balanced and is not against traditional medicine. It picks up where traditional therapies fall short. Get it - You won't regret it.
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