Can You Die of a Broken Heart? A Heart Surgeon’s Insight into What Makes Us Tick

In this helpful, simply written health guide, surgeon Stamp introduces readers to the basics of heart anatomy and care. Drawn to a career in medicine even in childhood, Stamp shares her early wonder and fascination at the heart’s amazing capabilities. While she answers the fascinating question of the title early on, she also answers many others, covering topics as varied as stress’s role in heart disease, transplants and mechanical hearts (with a shout-out to Dick Cheney), nutrition and exercise, and sleep’s role in heart health. She also looks at how differently heart disease affects women and men, observing that men have more heart attacks than women but tend to fare better when attacks occur, and that heart attacks can present in women as something quite different, such as fatigue. In a particularly helpful section, she goes over fundamental “symptoms and how to talk about them,” with specific language to use when talking to a doctor. She also discusses how much exercise is enough, how even pets can help, and why disease prevention is key to a healthy heart. Stamp’s well-appointed resource will leave her audience with plenty of useful suggestions on tending to an all-important organ with one’s “body, mind, and soul.” (July)