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.

Same old stuff. There wasn't much "new" in the "new cholesterol cure". It has some good points, but if you read the old one, you probably don't need this one.

This book is certainly well written which is to be expected since Kowalski was a medical journalist, and his program has helped some. I use the past tense because nowhere in these reviews do I find the information that Kowalski died suddenly in November 2007 of a pulmonary aneurysm at the relatively young age of 65. Kowalski's online newsletter has been discontinued. It is curious that the regular physicals and special medical monitoring Kowalski describes in his book did not reveal this problem. Pulmonary aneurysms are rare, but not undetectable. Kowalski cited the results of those tests as proof his program worked, and it appears the program addressed the most obvious of Kowalski's circulatory problems, but it is just as obvious that Kowalski's doctors missed the boat, with tragic results. Just goes to show that now matter how determined one is, no matter how disciplined one is, fate has a way of stepping in.

I don't know if the results happened in 8 weeks, but after my husband started implementing many of the suggestions in this book (along with the prescription med he was already taking) his cholesterol went from sky high to within normal range.

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!
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This book does nothing but help the author make a quick buck by playing on people's fears. I *am* a believer in the importance of lowering your bad cholesterol, but I think the way to do it is to talk to your doctor (hopefully you have a good doctor) who can monitor your progress and guide you through the process. This book has some "common sense" information but also a lot if misinformation, such as the stuff on supplements. None of them has been shown to really work! Don't waste your money. Talk to your doctor first, and be sure to find out if your parents also have high cholesterols and let your doctor know.

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.