Positive Health Online

This book brings to our attention the prevalence of heart disease. There are 270,000 heart attacks yearly in the UK with over 2.1 million people experiencing angina, a chest pain which is the main symptom of heart disease. Dr Myers teaches his readers to face up to the warning symptoms of detrimental heart health and to take action to overcome and prevent further problems.

Dr Myers discusses fully the structure and functions of a healthy heart, how heart problems can develop, and provides a risk assessment questionnaire. Risk factors include those that we cannot change, for example family history, age and sex (males are more at risk), as well as those we can change such as smoking, personality type, sedentary lifestyle, high cholesterol levels, hormone replacement therapy, emotional stress, diabetes control, obesity and high blood pressure. The section on blood pressure is useful as he explains exactly what blood pressure is, how to measure and interpret the results, and then details the causes of high blood pressure (hypertension) and the resultant damage to the heart, arterial system, eyes and kidneys. Treatment methods for hypertension are highlighted to include drug therapy, salt restriction, exercise, alcohol restriction, relaxation, weight reduction and nutrition.

Two more recently researched risk factors for heart disease are also described: Homocysteine, an amino acid, which in high levels predisposes people to atherosclerosis; and Lp(a), a lipoprotein (cholesterol containing molecule), which in high levels may promote blood clotting increasing the risk of a heart attack.

He writes about the different types of allopathic cardiac testing such as the electrocardiogram and magnetic resonance imaging, discusses the common forms of heart disease such as atherosclerosis, angina and arrhythmias, and moves on to clarify angioplasty, and bypass and valve surgery. He believes that medication should be prescribed only when the risk of not taking it exceeds the risk of taking it, and gives in depth discussion on the specific drugs for heart problems noting all their side effects.

However, Dr Myers is vehemently against complementary cardiac care describing it as 'quackery' and 'harmful'. This may well be because he doesn't understand alternative health, which is verified, to some extent in his book, when he writes that the common name for niacin is B6 (and not B3). But, the combination of allopathic and complementary medicine is the approach to heart disease that I would recommend and urge all sufferers to explore complementary therapies for themselves.

In spite of this, Dr Myers has achieved his focus of educating people allopathically to understand heart disease so that they can help themselves and take part in their own treatment plan. He explains complex topics very clearly in easy to understand language and provides a glossary at the end of the book to define medical terms.