Before It Happens to You: A Breakthrough Program for Reversing or Preventing Heart Disease Hardcover - 2004

From the publisher

You hear about it all too often: an otherwise completely healthy person struck down by heart attack in the prime of life. The result of hidden heart disease--the first symptoms of which are slightly high cholesterol or blood pressure-this is the kind of tragedy that sends us running to the doctor for a physical. But today's medical guidelines don't indicate treatment for most; based on the cost-effectiveness of treatment for society, lifesaving medications are withheld for high-risk patients. It doesn't have to be this way.Under the Don't Die Young! plan, concerned readers are screened for heart disease with a few doctor-ordered blood tests and, depending on the findings, treated with up to four medications: an aspirin, an ACE-inhibitor, a statin, and a beta-blocker. The scientific evidence for this strategy is overwhelming: The medications work, they stave off heart disease, and bring heart health back. Their use cuts an individual's risk of heart attack in half-even without starting an exercise program, or cutting back on saturated fats.Explaining the science as well as how to talk to doctors about their necessary involvement, Don't Die Young! will help more people identify and treat their heart problems. Providing both a pound of prevention and treatment advice for those who already know they have heart disease, it will save lives.

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