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A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life: The HEART Program for Health and Longevity

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Many women are surprised to find that heart disease kills more women each year than breast cancer. Another surprise is the fact that each year heart disease kills more women than men. When Mellanie True Hills had a close call with a coronary artery 95% blocked and nearing a heart attack she decided to do something about her situation. How she saved her life and changed the heart disease scenario is what this book is about.

The author provides extensive educational material on risk factors and what to do about them. She also includes an excellent section on heart attack and stroke symptoms and how the symptoms of a man and of a woman may be quite different as well as how it is diagnosed and why it is often harder to diagnose in women than men.

After discussing how she was able to change her health she provides a how-to guide on developing your own plan to stave off or recover from heart disease. The book ends with an appendix containing multiple forms you can use to help develop your plan.

This is an excellent resource full of information covering the complete spectrum of heart disease. While it is written for women and has a lot of information specific to women, the method of developing a plan that you can use to ward off heart disease is useful for everyone. As such, A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life is a recommended read for everyone.

The price tag is hefty for a standard-sized 8.5x11 paperback workbook, but any concerned about women's health and heart disease must take a look. It identifies the different risk factors and symptoms involved in women's heart health, packs in tips on how to lose weight (tested tips: the author lost 85 pounds with these secrets), and reveals how to get the tests and treatments unique to the female body. Charts and case histories appear in boxed, easily-noted pages of detail which succeed in breaking up test and enhancing visuals. A 'must' for any woman concerned about heart health.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

For 20 years now, heart disease has killed more women each year than men. Statistically, 40 percent of women will have a cardiovascular problem in her lifetime, and heart disease kills more women than every type of cancer combined. Women have different heart symptoms than men, and yet most of us, including physicians, do not know this.

"It's shocking!" is the first sentence of Mellanie True Hills' A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life. Hills learned the hard way, undergoing a heart attack and a stroke very close together. As she had none of the obvious risk factors (she was young, didn't smoke, had low cholesterol and blood pressure, and was not diabetic), she thought she was safe. What she was, however, was overweight and overstressed, and that in itself is enough.

It also didn't help that it was hard to recognize her heart attack symptoms - shortness of breath, fatigue, mild nausea and heartburn, and a bit of left shoulder and jaw pain. The acronym to remember here is LIFE: Left side pain in shoulder, neck, or jaw, Indigestion, nausea, Fatigue often accompanied by sleeplessness, and Exertion that seems more severe than normal. As it turns out, most women do not experience the crushing chest pains that most male heart attack victims experience. Women have subtle symptoms, but the same deadly outcome.

The HEART plan has five components: Healthy Eating, Exercise Daily, Attitude Toward Stress, Rest, Relaxation, and Rejuvenation, and Take Proactive Control of Your Health. Hills presents checklists, quizzes, and easy to follow and understand programs to help women move forward in all five areas.

Hills' book is very clear, easy to follow, and to the point. It is a quick read, but encourages readers to take the time to really look at their own lives and make positive healthy lifestyle changes. There is good advice on diet, exercise, stress reduction, hormones, and how to recognize a heart attack or stroke when it's happening. Even if you think you are healthy, you should read this book.

A Woman's Guide To Saving Her Own Life by Mellanie True Hills is one EVERY woman must read and take "to heart." It is Mellanie's story of nearly dying of heart disease. Few women realize that in the United States one woman dies every minute of heart disease, 10 times as many as die of breast cancer and 5 times as many as from all cancers! Heart disease and stroke are responsible for 40% of women's deaths, even young women and those who don't smoke and are without history of high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Heart disease kills more women than men, and yet we don't hear about it. This book details the warning signs and has excellent instructions for changing our lifestyles to prevent heart disease. This is a MUST for all women and men who love them

Forty percent of women die of heart disease and stroke--more than ten times the number of women who die from breast cancer--according to Mellanie True Hills in her book, A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life: The HEART Program for Health and Longevity. These and other little-known facts about the causes and effects of heart disease in women make this guide a must-read for women of all ages.

A heart survivor herself, Hills tells her own story and uses an informal woman-to-woman style to educate women about heart health. Her book offers easy-to-follow advice on nutrition, exercise, stress, sleep, and identifying the symptoms of heart disease in women. The guide also includes a step-by-step workbook for building a customized plan for heart disease prevention.

Mellanie True Hills is the Founder and CEO of the American Foundation for Women's Health. She provides lifestyle coaching and speaks extensively to spread awareness of heart disease and prevention.

Armchair Interviews says: Life-saving information every woman should know.