Dr. Heart - The Heart Coach - Book Review

"The Heart Coach" is the first book by the cardiologist known as Dr. Heart, Dr. Stefan Waller, who primarily wants this guide to help people help themselves.

In "The Heart Coach," Dr. Waller offers a wealth of information about the heart and explains medical connections with the same easy style that marks his videos. He manages to make the book both easy to understand for laypeople and interesting for medically educated readers.

According to him, the book is mainly aimed at people after a heart attack, patients with coronary heart disease, anyone who belongs to a heart-risk group, but also at people who are (still) healthy and want to prevent getting sick.

In four chapters, he first explains the basics and the treatment of heart disease, then shows what you can do yourself to prevent heart disease or to improve your current condition, and finally gives concrete instructions with a 5-point plan.

In the basics, Dr. Heart gives a very clear explanation of the anatomy of the heart and the blood vessels. He explains the different heart diseases that are caused by narrowing of the coronary arteries.

The second chapter covers the visit to the cardiologist. Here the invasive treatment options such as cardiac catheterization, stents, bypass surgery, etc., as well as drug therapies, are discussed.

The third and largest chapter encourages the reader to take matters into their own hands, face their condition, and make changes where possible. Dr. Waller clarifies the influence each person has on their existing risk factors and their effect on the cardiovascular system, and already gives practical help in the areas of smoking cessation, exercise, nutrition and stress management.

In the fourth chapter he becomes the heart coach. Using the 5-point plan, which is supported by coaching videos available online, he guides people who want to change through an assessment and a step-by-step plan. He helps define goals, find motivation and keep it. It's really best to proceed step by step here; otherwise the scope of the 5-point plan can easily be overwhelming. But if you take the time to work through the points one by one, the coaching provides great support for changing lifestyle habits.

All chapters are designed so the text is easy to read. Various boxes break up the text, highlighting important points or providing background information. The "take-home messages" summarize the most important point of the preceding text.
Color-highlighted sidebar pages pick up specific aspects and go into more detail.
Various links point to relevant informational or motivational videos online.

Dr. "Heart" Stefan Waller's Heart Coach provides a lot of important information about the cardiovascular system. It is a worthwhile purchase, especially for people with heart disease or high blood pressure, but also for anyone else interested in the topic.

We at BloodPressureDB can wholeheartedly recommend buying The Heart Coach.

View the book on Amazon.