The 30-Day Heart Tune-Up: A Breakthrough Medical Plan to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease

I ‘m hush vacillating between three and four stars for this book. If it helps readers to improve their cardiac condition and prolong their lives, then it deserves gamey praise. For those of us who prefer a well-organized character to a chatty narrative, however, this particular volume does not fill the bill. To extract everything it has to offer, you credibly have to plod through it from beginning to end, taking lots of notes as you go.

What some reviewers appreciated about the book — its free-and-easy, farad

I ‘m silent vacillating between three and four stars for this bible. If it helps readers to improve their cardiac status and prolong their lives, then it deserves high praise. For those of us who prefer a well-organized mention to a chatty narrative, however, this particular volume does not fill the beak. To extract everything it has to offer, you probably have to plod through it from beginning to end, taking lots of notes as you go.

What some reviewers appreciated about the book — its casual, flow, easy-reading expressive style — is the independent thing that frustrated and impeded me. much of the actual information seems matter to and valuable, but I wish it were better organized, so that you could find specific subtopics or identify significant points more easily.

For example, amidst the multitude of introductory and promotional material — somewhere in the first base third or then of the book, although I neglected to nark the place so I could find it again — Dr. Masley refers to “ three supplements ” that he recommends for people following his plan. I ‘m still searching the script in hopes of discovering what those three supplements might be. So far I ‘ve read ( 1 ) a longish discussion of calcium, what forms of calcium are best, what should be taken with the calcium, etc. ; and ( 2 ) in another part of the book, a discussion of assorted supplements that may or may not be needed, depending on ( a ) whether you have detail sex-related complaints and ( bel ) whether you are male or female. There is no alphabetic index, and the table of contents — at least in the Kindle adaptation I purchased — is excessively general to be helpful.

Dr. Masley impresses me as a sincerely motivated advocate of the heart-healthy life style he advocates. He is a congenial and effective populace loudspeaker who has educated many people via television receiver ; I myself decided to get contain of his ledger after catching one of his talks on PBS. He appears to be a family doctor with many years ‘ experience, including volunteer knead in less advantage parts of the populace. His main areas of interest have been heart disease and aging, although it is not clear whether he is actually a specialist in cardiology or geriatrics. ( I have not so far taken the time to track down any of the articles he says he has published in scientific journals — which may or may not be peer reviewed — or to check out his previous book on prolonging one ‘s life. ) He presently operates his own private practice or clinic, the Masley Optimal Health Center, on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Dr. Masley has besides completed a “ chef internship ” at a Seattle restaurant, which may explain why his recipes are reasonably attract and are slightly better organized than the rest of the book. unfortunately there is no hint shop list or compendious drumhead of his recommend diet — at least not one that I have located so army for the liberation of rwanda. He differs from early diet-doctors-in-the-media-spotlight in that he does not wholly deprive his patients of fats, eggs, or dairy products. ( Non-vegetarians may be pleased to find that he besides allows some beef, chicken, pork, and fish. ) I personally believe it takes a rare person to remain a continuous nonfat vegan. With all due regard to such celebrities as Dr. Fuhrman and Dr. ( Mr. ? Prof. ? ) Pritikin, I am decidedly not that person. Besides, current research suggests that the previous demonization of fats was undue, and that — aside from issues of cruelty to animals in factory farm — an occasional egg egg yolk or dollop of yogurt is not peculiarly damaging.

Dr. Masley does seem to favor brown rice and other wholly grains entirely. It makes sense to choose these over the “ deprive and enriched ” category of grains. placid, I am waiting to hear from today ‘s experts how so many of the world ‘s peoples, particularly in Asia, have managed to stay healthy on a traditional diet emphasizing white rice ! ( Maybe sugared or sticky rice and basmati are less denude of nutrients than U.S. brands ? )

respective sections of the book contain some valuable information about the pathophysiology of coronary thrombosis artery disease, the effects of respective types of exercise, the prize of a functional or holistic approach to cardiac health and fitness, how-to ‘s for maintaining a healthy intimate relationship with one ‘s partner careless of long time, etc. The many stories and anecdotes the author uses to illustrate his assorted points are clear and concern.

My problem is that all this fabric seems kind of hurl together and casually interwoven in a colorful “ fret. ” extra information appears to be tacked on to the end of the book in the form of approximately 13 separate lists and many-sided addendum, only four or five of which are labeled “ appendices. ” One addendum is entitled “ helpful Resources, ” and includes everything from ( 1 ) the address of Dr. Masley ‘s practice and the names of his diverse sound recording and video recordings to ( 2 ) the names of companies supplying protein powders and free-range organic meats to ( 3 ) sources for heart rate monitors and exercise balls — actually one source, Dr. Masley ‘s web site.

A offprint addendum is called “ Recommended Reading and Information Sources. ” It comprises several websites or web searches and assorted books by Dr. Masley and others, all thrown together in one list.

still another addendum lists “ addendum Companies I Use ” ; the list of supplement companies is followed by a sort of annotate or endnote, ignoble and unlabeled, referring the reader back to Dr. Masley ‘s web site for “ details on how to personalize your addendum plan. ” Aha ! — possibly the web site is the place to find those cryptic three supplements the generator recommends ?

At least these addenda are less rah-rah-life-coach-y than long sections of the textbook. I may be in a little minority here, but I actually prefer a medically oriented book — even one for lay readers — to be more factual and aboveboard, less intersperse with enthusiastic statements and promises concerning the book and the program. These may be sincerely intended to encourage the lector or maintain her interest, but they resemble the ad imitate and PR materials which already inundate most of us both on and off the Internet.

This is not to say that the generator patronizes or dumbs down the instructive parts of his script ; he in truth does not, but seems to credit the reader with a fair sum of basic intelligence. It ‘s barely that there is far besides a lot disorganized and assorted “ stuff ” here, broken up in an frequently arbitrary way. A well editor program ( possibly a professional medical editor program, but even a crack copy editor-generalist or ghostwriter with a few years’experience ) could have dieted and exercised this book into much better shape. even without the major rewrite or reorganization, it might help to have had person undertake an index.

a lot as I ‘d like to wrap up my review with a helpful drumhead or conclusion, I ‘m at a loss to do sol. As I think about it, I feel equally ambivalent about every other diet book I ‘ve read over the years. I wonder if the genre fails to inspire compendious and logical writing, or if I am simply an unusually demanding reader of diet books ?

One addendum of my own : I have read this reserve only in the ebook format, so possibly it lost something in translation — the hardbacked or paperback book version may be easier to follow. Given the rambling colloquial stylus, even the audiobook might be a better bet for some readers.

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