Customer Reviews

The New 8-Week Cholesterol Cure

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is truly and excellent book. A well-written, practical guide for lowering your cholesterol.

I am an MD and my cholesterol "before" was TOTAL: 278, LDL 188, HDL 36, TRIGS. 221. I followed his program, and after just under the 8 weeks, TOTAL 204, LDL 119, HDL 50, TRIGS 147.

Most of what he says makes lots of sense and is backed up by lots of good, solid, medical eveidence. Honestly, I was skeptical of some of what he said, and pulled up the primary journal references, and reviewed, and the evidence was indeed quite good. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE REGARDING NIACIN IN GENERAL AND ENDURACIN IN PARTICULAR!!! Don't miss that last point. This really could save your life and obviate need for statins and other things, which are not necessarily medically evil as some seem to think, but are really not the best for most, as Kowalski points out. BUT, I do think he under-plays the fact that statins probably are best for those with very high LDL, especially, if they cannot reach target LDL level with niacin---but niaicin could help need less statin.

Now, why not 5 stars? 1) Despite being based on good solid evidence, his book is till a bit too anecdotal "me" "the docs I've spoken with", etc.
2) Some things he says are scientifcally a bit suspect---"I've only heard thousands of satisfied people over 20 years"---well that itself is what we call reporting bias---those who tried and failed or had other complaints are very unlikely to write to the author unless they have a real axe to grind. So I would not go in thinking this has a 100% success rate!

Similarly he keeps saying things around studies like " those who started with the highest levels had the biggest changes." We call this "regressiion to the mean". It means that a drug that tends to normalize things will necessarily make a bigger jump for those who are worse off to start. So the drug really is doing the same thing no matter where you are staring from.

3) Enduracin is dirt cheap. But if you start using everything else he suggests as little adjuncts, it really starts to get expensive for the poor or middle class. For example, if you take the Endur phytosterols with every meal, or the Profibe fiber he suggests 3 times daily, and the Pantesin, you've just added about $75 per month. Now that is rough, because I DO think those things help, especially to get a bit more LDL lowering, on top of the Enduracin. But he needs to address teh cost issue head on.

OVERALL: Get the book, discuss with your doc. Try it. If your doc won't give you the 4-6 mos. to try this, fire him!!! Really...because this really could save your life in a very well-tolerated way. But as always, keep up a bit of healthy skepticism ;-)

This is a great book for those who want all the details on how to proect your heart, against cholesterol and other heart disease risk factors. The author is trained in both journalism and science, and after suffering one heart attack and thinking about leaving his kids fatherless, he "got religion." He now reads all the medical research on heart health, distilling it down and explaining it to the lay reader. He has the right attitude, only trusting studies that have good methodology and have been replicated.

He considers diet, including fruits and vegetables, fats, meats, soluble fiber and alcohol. He goes over the research on antioxidents and other supplements, including the vitamin that works better than prescription drugs: niacin. He also covers stress and exercise.

Heart disease is completely preventable. If you have high cholesterol or other risk factors, this book will set you straight on what works and what doesn't. My doctor agrees with the parts he's read, and the information here is in agreement with other sources like the American Heart Association website and webmd.com.

If what you want is an owners manual for your heart, a book length treatment that mentions all the important studies and their results, then this book is for you. For me and my nurse mother-in-law, this is the bible on heart health.

If you want to quickly and easily be able to speak with your doctor about heart disease on a PEER-TO-PEER basis, buy this book. You are looking at the only review I have ever written about anything. I am writing this after reading the very negative reveiw left by Gadgester. I do not know what "Top 50 Reviewer" means, but it sounds important. However, His/Her statements are so opposite of what is in this book, I did not what else to do, other than to write this. The book is purely scientific and presents the findings and shortcomings of virtually every medical study performed on heart disease in the past five decades. The Bibliography of the medical studies discussed in the book is 14 pages long! The information is presented in easy understandable and organized fashion. Proof positive - by following the guidelines of this book (actually it is the guidelines set forth by the hundreds of medical studies referenced, I reduced my cholesterol from the high risk category to the low risk category in four months and established habits that will keep it low for the rest of my life. The only problem is this books title - "8-Week Cholesterol Cure" makes it sound too fadish. This book is pure gold.

I temporarily live in Australia, I went home (US) in January and had a physical, my cholesterol was sky high, they immediately put me on statin drugs, no diet, no health advice, just the drugs, forgot to mention female and 38. They wanted me to be re-tested in 3 months even though they knew I would be in AU at the time. I went to the Dr. here locally, he immediately took me off the drugs and wrote me a list: fish oil twice a day, metamucil for fiber, red wine and proactive (plant steriod). I also followed this book, and even though it was difficult to get some of the suppliments here locally, I did my best. After 3 months following the AU Dr. and Kowalski, I droped my tri-glycerides by 200 units, total cholesterol by over 40 and I have a chol/HDL ratio of 2.7. The doctor's advice was to stay with my current regiment. I will be re-tested in another 4 months and feel confident it will be much lower than present levels. The book gave me hope and the Dr. in Australia gave me a chance to cure bad cholesterol naturally.

When a doctor saw my cholesterol had dropped almost 25% in a month, he asked, "What are you taking for it?"

I told him that I had just bought a book, and followed the directions. He was amazed!
.

The worst thing about health research is that what's considered healthy today is considered bad the next and revised back to good the day after that. Mr Kowalski makes this a great book because he collates all the best research, summarizes it and in most cases gives a rational recommendation based not just on the research but on the results he has achieved.
For the average person dealing with an average cholestrerol problem, I would highly recommend this book as all you need to learn what you are doing wrong and what you culd do to improve your cholesterol measures

I've ordered this book before--I lend it out and replace it again and again. My friends always keep their copies because they have the same experience I have (and they want to keep the recipes on hand). Using its advice, I've successfully lowered my cholesterol dramatically without the dangerous drugs that are prescribed everywhere today. It's realistic, easy-to-read, and helpful.

This book has changed my life, to put it mildly. I've been following it for almost four months now. I'm 53 and have not felt this healthy in 20 years. I weigh less than I did 20 years ago. I feel almost like a kid again. Even my eyesight has improved and I rarely have to wear my distance glasses anymore.

But it was my heart that I was worried about four months ago. Shortly after starting the niacin and other supplements, I could actually feel a difference in my heart and blood chemistry. It is my belief that if there is such a thing as a miracle supplement, it's niacin. Even my mental acuity has increased.

Today I got the results of my most recent blood test. When I went in to the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner looked at my results and asked me for a list of the medications I'm taking. I answered "nothing, not a single medication". She clearly didn't believe me, so I told her again, and she just looked kind of shocked and said "Well, that's a good thing!".

All the heart doctor told me was that he would like me to take some fish oil to "improve my LDL pattern". Guess he was having trouble finding anything to advise me on. LOL. This was a far cry from my visit four months ago when he put heavy pressure on me to start using statins, et al. I'm grateful that I found this book instead.

Here are my before and after blood test results:

Total cholesterol: dropped from 252 to 196.
LDL (bad) cholesterol: dropped from 164 to 100
HDL (good) cholesterol: rose from 51 to 60
Triglycerides: dropped from 185 to 96
Blood pressure: dropped from 136/94 to 122/74

I'm thrilled. My wife is thrilled. I exercise more, I eat better, and I don't even have bad niacin flushes anymore. Kowalski was a genius.

This book has become my health bible. I have been following all suggestions strictly. Have not had blood work since starting the program --will do so soon as it has been almost 2 months. I feel good and am sure my labs will be greatly improved. A nice side benifet is a good amount of weight loss without being hungry or feeling deprived. Have read 2 other books on this subject which are not nearly as good. This book is the best I have read. I Like the Endurance Co. he recommends. When I had a problem with taking the niacin I emailed them and they called me to discuss a solution. Good personal touch.

Following this book and taking the phytosterols I got my cholesterol down 28 points in 3 months so that the Dr. did not put me on the cholesterol lowering drugs. I highly recommend the book and using the online address he gives to order the phytosterols.