Heart Smart Book

A Cardiologist’s 5-Step Plan for Detecting, Preventing, and Even Reversing Heart Disease

Heart disease kills more men and women in the United States every year than any other disease. In fact, over 41 percent of all deaths in the United States each year result from heart disease. If you combine heart disease and stroke, the two major vascular diseases, these two entities kill more men and women in the United States every year than all diseases combined! 
Consider the following facts: 
– One American dies of heart disease every 33 seconds—almost one million deaths every year. 
– Almost 25 percent of adults in the United States have one or more types of heart disease. 
If you consider all risk factors for heart disease such as elevated cholesterol, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, and being overweight or obese, there isn’t a single family in America left untouched by heart disease. 
With these grim statistics in mind, it is imperative that we in the car- diology community make every effort to educate our patients about heart disease and what they can do about it. In this important new book, Heart Smart: A Cardiologist’s 5-Step Plan for Detecting, Preventing, and Even Reversing Heart Disease, Dr. Matthew DeVane has done just that. 
Dr. DeVane combines the latest information on all aspects of heart disease with a user-friendly, motivational writing style, which will certainly help individuals lower their risk of ever developing heart disease or more effectively manage it if they currently have one of the forms of heart disease or other vascular conditions. 
A great strength of this book is Dr. DeVane’s clear and lucid explana- tion of risk factors and what each individual can do to lower the chance of ever developing heart disease. It is critically important that we emphasize to our patients how much power they have in their own hands to lower their risk of heart disease. Let me give you an example. A study published recently in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine showed that over 80 percent of all heart disease in women could be eliminated if individuals would take the following actions: 
• Stop Smoking 
• Increase Physical Activity 
• Improve Nutritional Habits 
• Maintain A Proper Bodyweight 
Despite these very encouraging predictions, only 3 percent of women in this study met all four of these criteria. We need to do a better job! 
Another great strength of Dr. DeVane’s book is the clear explanation of current and emerging technologies, which assist us in the early detec- tion of various forms of heart disease. Such
emerging technologies as car- diac MRI and high-speed CT of the coronary arteries provide early information that was never accessible to cardiologists before. Dr. DeVane describes each of these and many other tests in detail and offers sound advice about who should have each test and what information each test yields. 
I believe that the greatest opportunity to lower the tremendous toll of heart disease in the United States is to convince our patients that the best results come from a partnership between them and their doctor. Dr. DeVane’s authoritative guide will provide tremendous help in this educational process. 
This is an important book addressing key health considerations rele- vant to every family in America. I urge every adult to read Heart Smart and every cardiologist’s office to stock it and recommend it to their patients. 
It is through efforts such as Dr. DeVane’s work that we will finally begin to make inroads into the enormous problem of cardiovascular dis- ease in the United States.
 
James M. Rippe, M.D. Associate Professor of Medicine 
(Cardiology), Tufts University School of Medicine 
Founder and Director, Rippe Lifestyle Institute and Rippe Health Assessment