Saturday, February 10, 2007

Title: A Woman’s Guide to Saving Her Own Life
Author: Mellanie True Hills
Publisher: Healthy Ideas Press
ISBN: 0-9766008-0-3
Genre: Non-Fiction/Health/Self-Help
Key Words: Heart, Health, Women, HEART, Plan

A Woman’s Guide to Saving Her Own Life by Mellanie True Hills is a book written as a self-help guide to educate women in general and women of USA in particular , about the risks of heart disease and the steps that they can take to prevent such diseases or having come through, how to prevent recurrence and worsening of their health. The author was a high pressure executive and almost suffered heart attack and came out with an angioplasty (which was difficult because of the location) and is thus a survivor. She made a fairly intensive research of the various risk factors including heredity, life style, stress etc., and has developed a plan, which she has aptly named as HEART :

H : Healthy eating
E: Exercise daily
A: Attitude
R: Rest, Relaxation and Rejuvenation
T: Take Proactive Control of your health

The book is informative and well written with lots of charts and other inputs to help the reader chalk out her own action plan and see how it goes. Since she herself went through these problems, she comes out as a sincere person and her writing carries conviction. She is active as a speaker for the American Heart Association.

Since it is so informative, the book could have been hard bound to withstand repeated use. A few editorial slips were noticed but they don’t detract from the value of the book.

All in all, this will be a good read for women (and their men), especially this month (February is observed as a heart health month in USA).