 Tools
for Heart-Healthy Living
The American Medical Association Guide to Preventing
and Treating Heart Disease: Essential Information You and Your Family
Need to Know about Having a Healthy Heart, by Martin
S. Lipsky, MD, Marla Mendelson, MD, Stephen Havas, MD, MPH, and
Michael Miller, MD, belongs on every family’s bookshelf before
any family member gets heart disease. Easy to read and understand,
it’s the go-to guide for everything you need to know to help
you assess your risk, recognize symptoms, and adjust your behaviors
to help prevent the leading cause of death for American men and
women. For those with heart disease, it’s a primer on the
latest and most effective treatment. (www.wiley.com)
Another great guide to preventing and treating heart disease is
Dr. Arthur Agatston’s The South Beach Heart Health
Revolution. The author of the New York Times bestselling
The South Beach Diet is back with a potentially lifesaving book
that examines heart disease in a reader-friendly yet through manner,
and provides a four-step program that involves diet, exercise, appropriate
diagnostic tests, and the appropriate medications when lifestyle
factors don’t adequately eliminate risk. (www.rodale.com)
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If you are, or if you have a loved one who is a Black woman or
a Latina, don’t overlook an empowering resource that’s
both life enhancing and life saving. Heart Smart for
Black Women and Latinas: A 5-Week Program for Living a Heart-Healthy
Lifestyle, by Jennifer Mieres, MD, FAHA and Terri
Ann Parnell, RN, MA, with Carol A. Turkington, is tailored to the
special needs of a population not getting the important message
that they’re more at risk for cardiovascular disease than
are Caucasian women. The authors, a cardiogist and a nurse, are
quick to point out that improving your heart health doesn’t
require a massive makeover of your lifestyle and deliver the encouraging
news that simple, sustainable lifestyle changes can make you more
heart healthy in as little as five weeks. And while the book is
addressed to the special needs of Black women and Latinas, the strategies
the authors share will help all women—and men, for that matter—reduce
their risk and live healthier lives. (www.stmartins.com)
Another helpful weapon against heart disease is The
Miami Mediterranean Diet: Expanded Edition, by Michael
Ozner, MD, features recipes for healthy versions of kinds of foods
you want to eat, like pizza and wraps. The research-supported diet
emphasizes antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables; whole grain,
high-fiber foods; nuts; beans; red wine; and olive oil to protect
against a range of other diseases as well. Dr. Ozner provides a
14-day sample menu plan and a wide assortment of very appealing
recipes. (www.igpbook.com)
Being good to your heart involves more than eating properly and
exercising regularly. Reducing stress is also a key component of
wellness with benefits that extend to your heart health. There are
many ways to bring about a state of relaxation, yoga among them.
New from Acacia is a DVD that’s all about heart: Shiva Rea’s
Radiant Heart Yoga, designed to tap into
the healing power of the heart and help you achieve deep relaxation.
(www.acacialifestyle.com)
And to get your heart pumping, try Crunch: Belly, Butt
and Thighs Boot Camp and Crunch: Cardio Go-Go Dance
DVDs. These cardio blasts will help get your heart and all your
other muscles in shape. (www.starzhoment.com/fitness)
A tool to help you slash your heart risks: WomenHeart’s
All Heart Family Cookbook: Featuring the 40 Foods Proven to Promote
Heart Health, published by Rodale Books By Kathy Kastan,
KCSW, MA ED, Suzanne Banfield, PhD, Wendy Leonard and members of
WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease,
it’ll keep you cooking in a heart-healthy way from breakfast
through dinner and beyond, with family friendly recipes that are
easy to prepare.
Visit these sites to learn more: womenheart.org
and Rodale
Store.
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