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Reverse Heart Disease Now: Stop Deadly Cardiovascular Plaque Before It's Too Late |  | Authors: Sinatra, James C. Roberts M.D.
Creator: Martin Zucker
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.48
as of 11/28/2009 08:21 CST details
You Save: $6.47 (43%)
New (44) Used (13) from $8.48
Seller: rickcart70
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 5885
Media: Paperback
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0470228784
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.1205
EAN: 9780470228784
ASIN: 0470228784
Publication Date: January 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
While most books focus solely on the role of cholesterol in heart disease, Reverse Heart Disease Now draws on new research that points to the surprising other causes. Two leading cardiologists draw on their collective fifty years of clinical cardiology research to show you how to combine the benefits of modern medicine, over-the-counter vitamins and supplements, and simple lifestyle changes to have a healthy heart.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
 If only ... November 23, 2009
Valerie O (Canberra, Australia)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
IT'S THE REAL DEAL - READ THIS BOOK! October 4, 2009
E. Miller (USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
Most comprehensive book on integrative cardiology September 30, 2009
D. Sammons (Johnson City,TN)
This book is absolutely fantastic!! It is one of the most comprehensive books I have read on integrative cardiology. (I would also recommend, IS YOUR CARDIOLOGIST KILLING YOU, by Sherry Rogers MD.
Felling Better. September 12, 2009
John Isaacs (Barre, VT)
After three months of following Dr. Sinatra's nutritional suggestions I feeel 100% better. Now I am hoping to feel 100% better than this. I gave this book to my cardiologist
 Megadoses and some useful information. September 2, 2009
Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Not to be confused with the current #1 best-seller, "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Esselstyn, "Reverse Heart Disease Now" by Sinatra et. al. is also selling at a brisk pace as is "No More Heart Disease" by Ignarro. (Ornish's "Program for Reversing Heart Disease" is perhaps perceived as dated, but may be the best all-around, well-considered book of the bunch.)
Both Sinatra and Ignarro satisfy some readers' need for pill recommendations; Esselstyn instead offers an extreme vegan solution (even fish oil is excluded); Ornish offers, in addition to diet and supplements, advice about attitude and life-style changes. Still, after reading Sinatra's recommendations (prepare to become a full-time swallower), Esselstyn's food-based approach seems less extreme or radical than Sinatra's belief in the power of vitamins--lots of them.
Here's the supplement cocktail constituting the "essence" of Sinatra's recommendations: 1. CoQ10 (the marquee player, but 200 mg. required for therapeutic cases); 2. Magnesium (no less than 400 mg); 3. D-Ribose (10 grams), 4. L-Carnitine: (1 gram). Ignarro's required regimen, you will notice, is somewhat different: 1. L-Arginine (the quintessential supplement, no less than 4 grams daily); 2. L-Citrulline (necessary to activate the beneficial activity of arginine, no less than 200 mg per day); 3. Vitamin C (500 mg); 4. Vitamin E (200 IU); 5. Folic Acid (400 mcg); 6. Alpha lipoic acid (10 mg). Both authors recommend numerous other supplements, frequently overlapping with one another, but the aforementioned two combinations are their respective "essential" therapy kits along with fat restriction, exercise, etc.
Some of these recommendations are not only for products intended for healthy athletes but for doses 20-40 times greater than the doses recommended by the manufacturer (L-Ribose). There's also the assumption, clearly not espoused by the manufacturers, that these amounts are no problem for compromised hearts and won't interact problematically with prescribed medications. Readers who follow the recommendations to the letter will require courage, commitment and faith.
And money. Sinatra breaks down the costs of his recommended program--for those who are sufficiently well-heeled, several hundred monthly; for comparative paupers, a blue-plate special of minimal medications that'll set you back a mere hundred per month. The author acknowledges (but that's about all) the difficulty of swallowing (very literally) all of his advice, but it's somewhat distressing that there's so little literature about the drain on the system that is experienced by some people who commit to these megadose regimens, telling themselves they must be feeling better while there tired bodies are meanwhile screaming out for relief from the constant onslaught of non-nutrient substances.
I know several doctors who characterize these books, and most of the genre, as primarily about making money. Perhaps they're envious about not writing their own book (along with a mail-order vitamin business), but I also know that medical students are frequently taught, contrary to the recommendations here, that augmentation of a substance that is part of the body's own make-up is often as misguided as some traditional Asian medicinal practices that recommend eating the gonads of a tiger as a cure for impotency. The benefits of CoQ10, for example, can be severely compromised if not nullified if the ingestion of the substance is insufficient to penetrate the "cellular membrane" present at the level of the mitochondria where the body manufactures and stores it.
I frankly am inclined to take seriously many of these books' recommendations, since the authors are highly qualified as physician-scientists not to mention experienced in actual practice with cardiac patients. But readers considering purchase of the books, especially some who have difficulty with side-effects from even non-prescription products--or with the swallowing and digestion of numerous supplements and vitamin products--should know what to expect. Moreover, there are other books (e.g. Dr. Esselstyne's) that promise the same results without the pills but with a commitment to a vegan diet--which for some may suddenly appear less stringent than originally thought.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
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