Heart 411: The Only Guide to Heart Health You'll Ever Need

Dr. Marc Gillinov and Cleveland Clinic are the reason I am healthy today. Our search for the best hospital and the finest surgeon led us there in September 2011. Dr. Gillinov performed state of the art robotic surgery to repair my mitral valve and later introduced me to Dr. Walid Saliba who performed an ablation to cure a lifelong arrhythmia. As a physician Dr. Gillinov is attentive and caring, and he takes the time to explain your medical situation and the measures needed to correct the problems. In reading this book, it is like spending time with him in his office as he explains thoroughly how to take care of your heart and your health. We have found this book invaluable, interesting, and enjoyable. My wife has read it cover to cover in a very short period of time. The actual patient stories and the positive, down to earth way that the doctors express themselves make this book a real page turner. We recommend it wholeheartedly to our family and friends. We only wish we had had access to this information years ago.

These two guys are without a doubt two of the best in the business and although neither personally cared for me and my dad was passed on to someone who was a resident at the time, I still think they are two of the best. They couldn't fit everything into this book, which is well indexed and for specific issues you may search out more, but his overview which attempts to answer the most common questions they have been faced with by patients and family as well, is one of the best if not THE best you will find. I had a copy I have misplaced and ordered a duplicate for a friend who has recently been diagnosed with a valve issue and couldn't get an appt with ANYone at the clinic even after being hospitalized at another hospital in this area for over a month in spite of my opinion that she is in critical need. We know she has to have a valve fixed, and sadly with the competitive nature of health systems and their greed, the clinic is going to require many to be repeated. Of course with the extended delay to be seen, it will have been a significant amount of time since the tests were first done...but the book makes clear what tests are relevant what perhaps you should say no to. So I have left the book with her and she can read as she wishes. Even Dr Oz (whom this friend idolizes) has endorsed it, so she will take to heart (no pun intended) the info it contains. A very good resource and good guidance.

Great book but lots has changed in the world of cardiology in the last 12 yrs. I had 2 HAs (one in 2014 NSTEMI) and one in 2022 STEMI. They never thought to put me on statins until the first and that was 20mg atorvastatin. ugh. my ldl at the time was 153 (considered high normal at the time but considered high after 2018) I needed 3 DES stents one in each main artery. For the 2nd, I needed another 3 stents but diff locations. They bumped me from 20mg to 80mg which got me to only got my ldl to 76. I pushed the doc to get it way down after reading something from Dr Nissen on the Cleveland Clinic site. I added a PCSK9 Repatha 140mg) which has my ldl down to 20. I am trying to keep HA 3 from occurring. Believe it or not, I did little damage to my heart even though I didn't recognize the symptoms either time. I workout 6 days a week, (both aerobic and anaerobic) try and follow the Mediterranean Diet as best I can. I haven't smoked in 40 yrs (only half pack a day when I did), don't have diabetes, never had HBP and a 68 yr old male. I did get a pacer put in 4 mos after the 1st HA because of a full AV block. I have another doc now monitoring my pacer and he says I probably didn't need the pacer as it was most likely the vagus nerve that caused the issue. At any rate, I am glad I am living in an age where we have so much we can use to stop heart disease. The book is great but could use an update. ***UPDATE*** 4/27/25 Although this is truly a good standard "desk reference" for heart disease and most things heart, it IS 13 yrs later and some info doesn't age well with regard to LDL, ApoB LPa. I hope that the doc's update there opinions/medical info regarding what is the proper numbers for the above to get you to where you need to be. I have had 2 HA's (2014 and 2022) first NSTEMI 2nd STEMI. 3 DES stents each. I didn't know my family background. If you don't either, I would advice getting a genetic test. From what I see now and from what doc's are saying, if ApoB and/or LPa are higher than avg, get your LDL under 40. If HD doesn't run on either side of your family, get the LDL below 100, and if it does run in your fam but haven't had an event, get it under 55. If it does run in fam AND you've had atleast one event, get it under 40. As always, check with your cardi first before changing anything. If you have problems with statins, plz know that there are many options today if you want to get better numbers relative to your health/family background. best of luck!

Lots of interesting info.....but still mostly very "mainstream" advice. Not real sure if these authors are totally up to date on the research, or just not willing to rock the established medical/pharmaceutical/food industry boat....yet. Worth reading as part of a well-rounded approach, but still look at some other sources and be willing to question the "status quo". After all, it's obvious that what the medical establishment has been recommending so far has not significantly improved the overall health of our nation!!

This is a book to look at before you visit a doctor. It will help you to figure out what questions to ask of him. If after you leave him you still have questions it can help you to find the answers. It can give you what the results to your tests mean. Of course it does not give the result to every test, however, it is a good start. The language the authors use is clear and simple. I was looking for Calcium Scan and C Reactive Protein and found what the results meant. I was not looking for an argument about cholesterol and diet, as a few others were doing. This book was not specifically written to answer that question although it does give some information. I was happy to find a book that gave answers without jargon.

Good book on heart health. When our doctors only see us during 10 minute office visits (two hrs. in outer and inner waiting rooms don't count) its best to do some deep research on the subject before your office visit or after your visit to understand what to ask and understand what you were told after you had your visit. I found this book very helpful in understanding what I was going through and some choices I didn't know I had before getting a CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft), Angioplasty (balloon), Artery stents, etc. I first heard about this book when I saw the two authors on a TV program (PBS I think) discussing heart disease and treatments. They were so interesting and informative on the subject I was sold on the book before I bought mine on Amazon. Controversy surrounds heart disease causes and treatments and there is some bad information out there in the medical world that varies a lot among the medical community mostly because of opinion more than fact. Or, because some treatments are perceived as threats to a thriving medical billing practice. I leave it up to anyone buying the book to arrive at their own conclusions based on their reading. If you agree or disagree with me regarding how helpful I've found this book makes no difference to me. Its your choice. I'm recommending this book because it helped me fill in some of the "blanks" about heart disease I didn't know and wasn't getting from my short Cardiologist visits (more usually a Physicians Assistant or Nurse Practioner). I still recommend this book after 4 years and 6 heart stents and just purchased one for a friend who just had a heart attack, a quad bypass and a stent put in one of his grafts that was told it was because of him having bad arteries. He definitely needs to read up on what his cardiologist is telling him...

I started reading this book at my doctors suggestion. I read and I read and I read some more. Then I stopped reading. Perhaps it would have gotten better had I kept reading, but I found it depressing. It seems everything in the world is bad for your heart. From being in a traffic jam to having a toothache. My heart is already in trouble. I had to stop reading about all the stuff that could make it worse. Maybe someday I'll continue reading, but not today. I wanted to give one star, but because I didn't finish it and my review is based only on the first few chapters. I gave it three.

I saw this book's authors (Gillinov and Nissen) interviewed on Tavis Smiley's show and was so impressed with their approach that I bought it the next day. At 500+ pages it may seem like a bit of a slog, but it is well worth it. The book has enough medical information to make their points without becoming a medical journal. They support or debunk myths with facts; and when the facts are insufficient, they tell you so, and give you their best judgment based on the current data available. They don't hesitate to call out names of firms or products which are deliberately misleading, but they don't dwell on throwing them under the bus either. As they say in the book: "...many of our colleagues claim that there are two types of people in the world - people who have coronary heart disease and people who are going to get it." This book is aimed at helping both types of people - I highly recommend it.