Heart Myths: 2setting the Record Straight on Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Cardiovascular disease is far from the automatically dire, black-and-white matter that popular (and professional) wisdom sometimes proclaims it to be. In fact, as Charash points out, few illnesses impose an automatic death sentence, and no diet absolutely assures a healthy heart. ``Risk factors''--smoking, obesity, hypertension--certainly increase the chance of illness, but many people ``at risk'' won't get sick, he argues, and some who adopt all the right preventive measures will nevertheless die of heart attacks. `` There are no guarantees, only choices ,'' Charash asserts (author's emphasis). His sobering and eye-opening book puts high-profile topics like cholesterol, aspirin and ``type A'' personalities in proper perspective, suggesting who really needs to worry about salt, stress and palpitations and who only needs to take reasonable precautions to stay well. Readers will be pleasantly surprised by the author's good news of how few people actually benefit from certain heavily hyped diets and treatments; anyone with heart or blood pressure problems can profitably use Charash's advice to help decide whether various risky drugs and procedures are worth undertaking. The author is an associate professor of medicine at Cornell University Medical College. 35,000 first printing; author tour. (Jan . )