If you're browsing through The Heart of the Matter, the threat of cardiac disease is lurking in your mind, and with good reason. Although national programs to contain this killer are highly successful and ahead of schedule, heart disease remains highly prevalent and deadly. Medical research during the last 15 years has successfully defined many treatment strategies that work, and many that don't. Your task is not to understand this mountain of information, but to know the critical questions to ask your doctor when you are in trouble. The Heart of the Matter will highlight for you the right questions to ask after your heart attack, or if you're afflicted by hypertension, high cholesterol, or heart failure. Before you need a pacemaker, defibrillator, heart surgery, or angioplasty, the right questions need to be asked, and you'll find out why they're important. Take advantage of all of the recent research and years of clinical experience by the authors in managing heart disease.