Prevent & Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D. The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure This is the newest of my favorite books on nutrition and health. In this great book, published in February of 2007, Dr. Esselstyn tells us the proven truth about nutrition and how nutritional excellence can prevent, arrest and even cure America's #1 killer, heart disease.  Aimed primarily at heart patients, he describes a diet that is a good bit tougher than diets described in some of my other favorite books.  The reason being that the life and death of his patients is on the line and he wants to give them every possible chance of avoiding death by heart disease.  Through his study, he knows that heart disease is unheard of in cultures where the total cholesterol is below 150; therefore, his goal for his patients is to get them below that magic number preferably without the use of any drugs.  His ongoing 20-year study was successful at curing the heart disease in all 23 patients who stayed with his very strict program.  While his exact program may not be for everyone, it certainly helps show us the way to the absolute power of an optimal diet...even though it may be considedered extreme by some.  As a highly regarded mainstream surgeon at the renowned Cleveland Clinic prior to becoming enlightenened about nutrition, Dr. Esselstyn brings a tremendous amount of irrefutable credibility to the argument regarding the power of the whole, unrefined plant-based diet. He knows that most diseases are the result of nutritional folly associated with the rich Western diet. A fabulous book by a wonderful human being...Buy it, read it carefully and share it with everyone that you care about...Jim Hicks. In his own words during a recent interview, Dr. Esselstyn sums up where we stand in this country relative to health care... "My own feeling is that if you were to summarize where we stand on this epidemic, we have a great many brilliant minds that are focussed on mechanisms, drugs, and procedures, and we've sort of abandoned the capacity of the public to take care of this epidemic on their own. I would like to say right now that perhaps there can be no greater condemnation of 21st Century medicine then its refusal to share with the public the causation and cure of its most frightening chronic illnesses. How in the world can we have someone who's had two or three heart attacks and a couple of bypasses, and not say to them --- look them in the eye and say "Look. I'm tired of doing these bypasses for you. Why don't you cure yourself? I mean, it's not that these people can't do it, it's just that they don't have the information available. It's extremely difficult to in any way applaud what medicine is doing in this arena because the public just isn't being told what they can do to cure themselves." From the book's website... Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States for men and women. But, as Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., a former internationally known surgeon, researcher and clinician at the Cleveland Clinic, explains in this book it can be prevented, reversed, and even abolished. Dr. Esselstyn argues that conventional cardiology has failed patients by developing treatments that focus only on the symptoms of heart disease, not the cause. Based on the groundbreaking results of his 20-year nutritional study—the longest study of its kind ever conducted—this book explains, with irrefutable scientific evidence, how we can end the heart disease epidemic in this country forever by changing what we eat. Here, Dr. Esselstyn convincingly argues that a plant-based, oil-free diet cannot only prevent and stop the progression of heart disease, but also reverse its effects. The proof is in the results. The patients in Dr. Esselstyn’s initial study came to him with advanced coronary artery disease. Despite the aggressive treatment they received, among them byasses and angioplasties, most were told by their cardiologists that they had less than a year to live. Within months on Dr. Esselstyn’s program, their cholesterol levels, angina symptoms, and blood flow improved dramatically. Twenty years later, they remain free of symptoms. Here are the documented results: Drop in cholesterol levels: After 5 years on Dr. Esselstyn’s plant-based diet, the average total cholesterol levels of his research group dropped from 246 milligrams per deciliter to 137 mg/dL (Above 240 mg/dL is considered “high risk,” below 150 mg/dL is the total cholesterol level seen in cultures where heart disease is essentially nonexistent.) This is the most profound drop in cholesterol ever documented in the medical literature in a study of this type. Cardiac events: The 17 patients in the study had 49 cardiac events in the years leading up to the study, and had undergone aggressive treatment procedures. Several had multiple bypass operations. After beginning the eating plan, there were no more cardiac events in the group within a 12-year period. Angiogram evidence: Angiograms taken of the participants in the study show a widening of the coronary arteries, and thus a reversal of the disease. PREVENT AND REVERSE HEART DISEASE offers readers the same simple, nutrition-based plan that dramatically changed the lives of his patients forever. With this eating plan, sufferers of heart disease will maintain cholesterol levels low enough to ensure that they will never have a heart attack. Best of all, the book offers more than 150 delicious recipes that Dr. Esselstyn and his wife, Ann Crile Esselstyn, have developed over the years—showing readers how easy it is to enjoy their new way of eating. See the BOOKS section above for link to Dr. Esseslstyn's website