The Heart Speaks: A Cardiologist Reveals the Secret Language of Healing » (Bargain)

Dr. Mimi Guarneri is founder and medical director of Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine and has been an attending physician in cardiovascular disease at Scripps Clinic since 1995. Dr. Guarneri is the author of numerous articles that have appeared in such journals as the Annals of Internal Medicine and the Journal of Echocardiology. She has been nominated for the Bravewell Award in IM Leadership and honored by the American Heart Association. She is board certified in cardiology and internal medicine. She lives in La Jolla, California.

Every day, 2,600 Americans die of cardiovascular disease — and despite remarkable interventional and surgical procedures, over 650,000 new heart attacks occur annually. In The Heart Speaks, Dr. Mimi Guarneri reveals groundbreaking new research that the heart is a multilayered, complex organ, possessing intelligence, memory, and decision-making abilities independent from the mind — and that healing the heart can have more to do with healing the mind and soul than we ever knew.

From childhood in a family riddled with heart disease to a medical career facing the pounding heartbeats of cardiac emergencies, Dr. Guarneri draws us into the intimate moments of life and death, and leads us on a riveting exploration of the heart's many mysteries. Through her compelling memoir we see that it is only by knowing the whole heart — its mental, emotional, spiritual, and universal aspects — that we can truly heal.

Publishers Weekly

A lyrical writer as well as a cardiologist, the author, founder and medical director of the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, describes how she learned that beyond the power of our most sophisticated medical equipment is a physician's humanity-"the listening ear, the healing touch, the devices of healers throughout time." Guarneri became highly accomplished at angioplasty and stent procedures, but came to realize that those she treated could also be helped by proper nutrition and stress reduction techniques such as yoga and visualization. She became committed to practices such as those of Dean Ornish, with whom she has worked, to reverse coronary disease with diet, exercise, meditation and support groups. Guarneri studied the link between depression and heart disease, and opened her mind to the validity of other alternative treatments, including energy healing, visualization before and after surgery, and spiritual practices. What is particularly attractive about this chronicle is the author's graceful integration of her own story-the destructive effect on her of stress and overwork-into those of her patients. Guarneri deplores the financial constraints that prevent doctors from spending time with patients and that many physicians have developed "a mechanic's mentality," focused on fixing rather than getting to know their patients. (Feb. 7) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Introduction: Biography of the Heart

1. The Unexamined Heart

2. A Heart, a Spleen, a Leaking Valve

3. The Fog of Stress

4. Echoes of Anger

5. The Landscape of Depression

6. Sacred Revelations

7. The Persistence of Grief

8. The Little Brain

9. Universal Heart

10. Toward Compassionate Medicine

Notes

Further Reading

Acknowledgments