Books I have been reading

Here is a listing of books I have read lately. I am including the Title, Author, Publisher, ISBN and a brief description of the book’s contents. As I read more books, this list will grow, no doubt.

Have any books you recommend? Let me know and I will look at them too.


Title: The First Year: Heart Disease – An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed
Author: Lawrence D. Chilnick
Publisher: Lifelong Books
ISBN: 978-1-60094-029-3

Summary:

“A diagnosis of heart disease can be a blessing in disguise. It can provide the impetus for a healthier you. It’s all about implementing a disciplined and sustainable heart-healthy game plan. You, too, can achieve this.”
--- From the forward by Curtis M. Rimmerman, MD

A longtime health writer and editor, Lawrence Chilnick was stunned and terrified when he suffered a heart attack at age 48 – but assumed his medications would take care of the condition. They didn’t. Soon, Chilnick needed a quadruple bypass. At that point, he set out to turn his health around by educating himself on all aspects of this life-threatening disease. Now as a patient – expert, Chilnick shares his story and the latest medical, dietary and lifestyle advice for stabilizing and reversing a heart condition. In clear and accessible language, The First Year: Heart Disease shows you how to take an active role in your treatment to manage coronary and cardiovascular disease. This unique guide prioritizes the information for you, walking you through everything you need to learn and do day-to-day, week-by-week, and month-by-month in the crucial first year after diagnosis.


Title: Take a Load off Your Heart
Author: Joseph C. Piscatella and Barry A Franklin, Ph. D.
Publisher: Workman Publishing
ISBN: 0-7611-2676-7

Summary -
Increase the odds of living longer with this bold, broad approach to cardiac health. A medically up-to-the-minute and easy-to implement program, Take a Load off Your Heart sets out four key steps to cardiovascular fitness, from assessing risk to managing stress, from improving diet to making habit of exercise. It demystifies predictive markers such as triglycerides and Syndrome X, and offers 109 simple, practicle lifestyle tips - #22 Breathe deeply, #97 Drink black tea, #3 Increase your HDL Level, #54 walk briskly, #75 Give up dieting - for preventing, stabalizing, and, yes, reversing heart disease.


Title: Heart Attack - A Cleveland Clinic Guide
Author: Curtis Mark Rimmerman, M.D.
Publisher: Cleveland Clinc Press
ISBN: 1-59624-031-8

Summary -
There is no other medical center more qualified to write a book on this subject. The Cleveland Clinic Heart Center has been selected as the best Heart Center in America, according to U.S. News & World Report's annual survey for the past 11 years. Our doctors are leaders in cardiology, cardia surgery, cardiothoracic anethesia, and research into the heart and its diseases. No heart program has more experience, more knowledge, or better access to technology. Cardia angiography and the coronary artery bypass were developed at the Cleveland Clinic.
Heart disease is a tremendously frustrating condition. It progresses silently and makes its presence known - if at all - only well after it is established in the heart's arteries. When there are symptoms (significant chest pain, for instance, or sensations of indigestion), they aren't always recognized or acknowledged as being associated with heart disease or heart problems. Worse, sometimes the first sign of a heart disease is a heart attack, and a lethal one.
Told through case histories, this Cleveland Clinic Guide provides what anyone at risk of a heart attack needs most: real, substantive information from a source that is trusted by people all over the world. The author understands what patients are going through and knows that with more information - like this Cleveland Clinic Guide - they will understand they are not alone and that they can have hope.

Heart disease myths addressed:
* If I have symptoms, I'm not at risk
* If my parents had heart disease, I'm doomed to get it also
* Heart disease begins in adulthood
* Only those who are overweight or obese are at risk
* Normal cholesterol levels = no risk for heart attack
* Women don't have heart disease or heart attacks
* Smoking only hurts the lungs (and cigars are "safe")
* If you're taking cholesterol-lowering agents (statins), you can eat anything you want

Other topics:
* Heart anatomy (cardiac plumbing "101")
* What can go wrong (anatomy of a heart attack)
* Telltale signs / warnings
* Risk factors
* Women and heart disease
* Patient's role in managing heart disease
* Life after MI / cardiac rehab
* Medical and interventional therapy
* Choosing a heart doctor


Title: You and Your Cardiologist
Author: Curtis Mark Rimmerma, MD
Publisher: Cleveland Clinic Press
ISBN: 1-59624-081-0

Summary -
Your visit to a heart doctor will be less stressful once you read You and Your Cardiologist: A Cleveland Clinic Guide, by Curtis Mark Rimmerman, M.D. This book will teach you how to work closely with your cardiologist, whose goals are to treat heart disease and help maintain a healthy lifestyle.
"Heart disease is one of those conditions that stimulate great fear and anxiety in patients and families. The antidote to fear is knowledge," writes Dr. Steven Nissen in the forward to You and Your Cardiologist. "This book is essential reading."
Using simple language and real-life examples, this comprehensive guide helps you prepare for your heart exam, walks you through the actual office visit, and shows how doctors proceed from intake to diagnosis to treatment. Its descriptions of heart disorders are clear and easy to follow. In addition, You and Your Cardiologist answers questions often asked by heart patients, including:
* Why do I need a cardiologist?
* Which important details does my cardiologist need to know about me?
* Are all these heart tests really necessary?
* What are my medications for, and how to they work?
* What if I need surgery?
* Aftere my heart attack, will my life ever go back to normal?

As Medical Director of Cleveland Clinic Family Health Centers in Westlake, Lakewood, and Avon, Ohio, Dr. Rimmerman sees both sides of the doctor-patient relationship. In this book, his observations to underscore the importance of strong partnerships: Improved communication saves lives.

A NOTE ON DR. RIMMERMAN:

Dr. Curtis Makr Rimmerman is a cardiologist with more than 14 years' experience in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. Board-certified in internal medicing, cardiology, and echocardiography, he holds Cleveland Clinic's Gus P. Karos chair in Clinical Cardiology, serves as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Clevelenad Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, and is the author of Heart Attack: A Cleveland Clinic Guide (Cleveland Clinic Press, 2006). Owing to the work of Dr. Rimmerman and his colleagues, Cleveland Clinic cardiac care consistently ranks No. 1 in the United States, as reported in "America's Best Hospitals," the annual survey made by U.S. News & World Report.