Heart Smarter for Women

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very informative and I feel like a better person for reading it!

This is a great basic primer on heart health for women that’s written by a handful of conventionally trained female experts in the field. It’s written with short chapters and is easy to understand. There’s a great deal of good information on the heart and a six week plan for improving your heart health:

WEEK 1, S: Select and stock the kitchen with healthy food choices.
WEEK 2, T: Take control of your activity and choose to move every day.
WEEK 3, E: Eat for a healthier heart.
WEEK 4, P: Partner with your doctor, family, and friends.
WEEK 5, S: Sleep more, stress less, and savor life.
WEEK 6, Put it all together: Permanent S.T.E.P.S. to a Healthier Heart.

The advice is standard. I personally will not take the dietary advice as it’s pretty conventional— low fat dairy, whole grains including gluten, not a lot of protein or fat, etc. I reversed my covid-induced extremely high blood pressure, prediabetes and heart problems by switching to a clean keto diet and prioritizing sleep, gentle exercise, stress relief, etc. I went from 142 to 117 (in my ideal range for my height) and got rid of the worrisome shortness of breath, heart palpitations, dangerously high blood pressure, etc. so I’m sticking with this. I was also disappointed that there is no mention of natural supplements that have science backed proof to be very helpful like hawthorn and garlic.

Still, it’s a great basic guide that is easy to read and implement.

This is an updated version of Heart Smart for Women by cardiologists Jennifer Mieres and Stacey Rosen, with updated nutrition information from registered dietician Marissa Licata. If you don’t know much about heart disease, it’s a decent overview. However, it is incredibly repetitive and didn’t go into as much detail as I would have liked regarding some of the risk factors (such as autoimmunity and hormone changes), tests, and medications.

The book includes a discussion of the risks and symptoms of heart disease in women as well as the doctors’ six STEPS plan to improve heart health in six weeks. They include a week’s worth of suggested menus to provide an example of their recommended dietary approach; portion size guidelines; strength and flexibility exercises; tips for reducing stress and getting enough sleep; a discussion of common tests, medications, and treatments; and tips on how to recover from a heart attack.

The back matter includes a heart disease Q&A, glossary, index, and references.

While this didn’t provide the depth of information I would have preferred on some topics, it does provide a reasonable overview of an incredibly important topic.

I was provided an ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

Very thorough book advocating for women to take control of their heart health by understanding the heart, factors for heart disease and interesting facts, tips and reminders.

An excellent book that is well organized with concepts broken down into easy to understand terms. A great book for the lay population, especially women, who are focused on improving their health. Heart disease remains a top cause of disability and death in the female population and a woman can never start to early with disease prevention.

Thank you for the review copy. All comments, thoughts, and opinions are my own.

This is my first book about heart problems for women, and it was perfect timing since I have been having problems.

This book was a great read for me, there is a lot of information that I highlighted through out the book. Some of it was not in my ability to do, but the notes of it are still there. I talked each chapter, or section depending, out with my husband each night and we went over what changes we thought we would be able to do. I really enjoyed this book, and will be keeping it on my shelf to go back to over and over again.

I consider myself heart-wise, and I read widely about living a healthy lifestyle. Still, I learned a great deal from reading Heart Smarter for Women: Six Weeks to a Healthier Heart.

This book is packed with indispensable reminders, tips, examples and suggested actions for any woman wishing to lead a healthier lifestyle (it also includes a week's worth of menu planning for heart-healthy meals). With heart disease being the leading cause of death for the past 20 years (and steadily increasing since 2000), the time to take action is now.

As I tend to read cover to cover, word for word (nerd alert, I know), I did experience a few minor concerns while reading. 1) I found my copy quite front-heavy with testimonials, dedication, introduction, overview, acknowledgements and important notes to the reader. (It took me until page 58 on my smartphone to get to Chapter One). 2) The authors did include much repetition. This made some sense as their message is essential and one that we often ignore. Still, it did lead to some skimming. 3) I cringed slightly in the beginning when it suggested throwing out any heart-unhealthy items in your refrigerator and pantry (including margarine, white bread, canned soups, canned baked beans, frozen pizza, etc., etc., etc.). While I got the authors' point, this advice appeared inconsistent with the rest of the book's message about starting where you are and allowing for sensible moderation. With steadily rising food prices, the waste and expense of throwing away food that could simply be labelled to use in moderation (and then not replaced) would seem to be a more viable approach.

The above points by no means discredit the usefulness of this resource. It's simply a reminder to keep reading and not let any minor details cause this important book to land in the Too Hard Basket.

I was absorbed in my reading throughout. My husband regularly asked me for updates. He also suggested that I send a summary to our adult children.

Thank you to Netgalley, Advantage Media Group and authors Jennifer H. Mieres, MD; Stacey E. Rosen; Lori M. Russo; Marissa Licata for gifting me a digital copy in exchange for this honest review. As this book makes excellent resource material, I will purchase a hard copy for handy reference.