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Rating: 
Summary: Thought provoking information
Review: I found "The Heart of the Matter" extremely interesting, thought provoking and hightly believable because it was so well documented with a bibliography with listed source materials from respected national journals less than four or five years old! I'm a little uncomfortable with the need for antibiotics but - since heart disease is an infectious disease our options are limited. The book was easy to read and understand. What do I plan to do with the information - don't know yet - I'm still thinking Wow!
Rating: 
Summary: A matter of fact book that might save my life
Review: I was lucky to stumble across an advance reading copy of Peter Salgo's book "The Heart of the Matter," written with Joe Layden. I love Joe Layden's books, he is an expert at every kind of expository writing, and he's very good at translating the language of public figures into a sturdy prose tailored to each figure he's ghosting for. He's the one who wrote the Rock's autobiography. But now that he has worked with Peter Salgo he has actually done something of a public service.Salgo's three-pronged prescription may be controversial--and indeed so simple that you could condense the message of this book into 10 words or less, like an old time telegram--but I feel confident that he is on the right track. And so does my own cardiologist. Maybe in the future we will all be learning a pattern of dependence on statins as a daily thing, the way we learn to brush our teeth. And keeping chlamydia at bay is bound to be a good thing in the long run. Good work, Salgo and Layden.
Rating:
Summary: A matter of fact book that might save my life
Review: I was lucky to stumble across an advance reading copy of Peter Salgo's book "The Heart of the Matter," written with Joe Layden. I love Joe Layden's books, he is an expert at every kind of expository writing, and he's very good at translating the language of public figures into a sturdy prose tailored to each figure he's ghosting for. He's the one who wrote the Rock's autobiography. But now that he has worked with Peter Salgo he has actually done something of a public service. Salgo's three-pronged prescription may be controversial--and indeed so simple that you could condense the message of this book into 10 words or less, like an old time telegram--but I feel confident that he is on the right track. And so does my own cardiologist. Maybe in the future we will all be learning a pattern of dependence on statins as a daily thing, the way we learn to brush our teeth. And keeping chlamydia at bay is bound to be a good thing in the long run. Good work, Salgo and Layden.
Rating:
Summary: Bound to be controversial -- but arguably a lifesaver
Review: It's fascinating to me that two respected and reputable New York cardiologists, Peter Salgo in "The Heart of the Matter" and Jonathan Sackner Bernstein in "Before It Happens to You," have come out in the same month with books espousing the unusual, rather heretical view that most Americans, even those regarded as healthy, would benefit from taking the popular cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins. The two books differ in several ways -- Salgo also focuses on aspirin and an infection that many Americans may harbor, Bernstein on the benefits of ACE inhibitors, etc. -- and I think the Bernstein book is a little more repetitive than the Salgo book and perhaps written on a slightly more casual level. But what's remarkable, to me at least, is that these books agree on the usefulness of statins, in fact on the crucial NEED for them: that is, the need to take them NOW instead of waiting till you've suffered a heart attack (when these drugs are generally prescribed). The two physicians are bluntly dismissive of the conventional wisdom that one should attempt to control cholesterol primarily by exercising more and altering one's diet. They don't say that these are bad choices, simply that they don't help very much; exercise and diet are relatively ineffective because 80 percent of one's cholesterol level is genetically determined and is not amenable to lifestyle changes. Salgo and Bernstein are, I think, rather courageous in advocating a solution so unfashionable; indeed, they are "thinking the unthinkable" -- that there IS a sort of pharmacological "quick fix" that happens to be safe and inexpensive; that swallowing some pills every day will actually lengthen our lives; and no doubt there are many well-meaning souls who will try to shout them down. I suspect, though, having read both books and having found them both persuasive, that Americans might well live significantly longer if they followed these doctors' advice.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking information
Review: It's fascinating to me that two respected and reputable New York cardiologists, Peter Salgo in "The Heart of the Matter" and Jonathan Sackner Bernstein in "Before It Happens to You," have come out in the same month with books espousing the unusual, rather heretical view that most Americans, even those regarded as healthy, would benefit from taking the popular cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins. The two books differ in several ways -- Salgo also focuses on aspirin and an infection that many Americans may harbor, Bernstein on the benefits of ACE inhibitors, etc. -- and I think the Bernstein book is a little more repetitive than the Salgo book and perhaps written on a slightly more casual level. But what's remarkable, to me at least, is that these books agree on the usefulness of statins, in fact on the crucial NEED for them: that is, the need to take them NOW instead of waiting till you've suffered a heart attack (when these drugs are generally prescribed). The two physicians are bluntly dismissive of the conventional wisdom that one should attempt to control cholesterol primarily by exercising more and altering one's diet. They don't say that these are bad choices, simply that they don't help very much; exercise and diet are relatively ineffective because 80 percent of one's cholesterol level is genetically determined and is not amenable to lifestyle changes. Salgo and Bernstein are, I think, rather courageous in advocating a solution so unfashionable; indeed, they are "thinking the unthinkable" -- that there IS a sort of pharmacological "quick fix" that happens to be safe and inexpensive; that swallowing some pills every day will actually lengthen our lives; and no doubt there are many well-meaning souls who will try to shout them down. I suspect, though, having read both books and having found them both persuasive, that Americans might well live significantly longer if they followed these doctors' advice.
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