Your Best Health Ever!: The Cardiologist's Surprisingly Simple Guide to What Really Works (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780692852811)

Dr. Bret Scher is a preventive cardiologist passionately committed to the principle that the best way to "treat" someone is to avoid the need for treatment in the first place. Board-certified and trained at Stanford University, Ohio State University and the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, he's a partner in the cardiology practice of a large, well-known health system in San Diego, CA and sees private clients in his Boundless Health lifestyle medicine practice. In Dr. Bret Scher's own words: I admit it: I am a card-carrying preventive cardiologist. But if you're expecting me to recommend a fistful of prescriptions or surgery to help you reach your best health ever, you're in for a pleasant surprise. (Unless, of course, you enjoy funding the healthcare industry.) Like many of you, when I was growing up I never had to worry about my health, or my weight, or fitness, or what I ate. My dad always worked out, and as a kid, I'd tag along to the gym with him. As time passed, I moved on from gym workouts to cycling, swimming, running, and by my twenties, competing in Ironman triathlons before they were even popular. Then, real life happened. I graduated from Stanford University and entered Ohio State University's medical school, followed by my internal medicine residency and a fellowship in cardiology. Those gym visits, long runs and bike rides became a struggle to maintain. Finding time to eat well, stay active, get enough sleep, and handle the stress of a high-stakes job was a constant challenge. At the same time, I began to see new ways to combine cardiology and preventive medicine, treating the whole person, not just a collection of risk factors. In my own cardiology practice as part of a large, well-known health system in San Diego, it became clear to me that our healthcare system is full of people suffering from completely preventable diseases. Suddenly, I had a clear mission: to empower all my patients to help themselves, by making the best-informed choices possible about everything from food to activity to sleep to stress management, every single day. After all, the best way to "treat" someone is to prevent the need for treatment in the first place. That inspired the development of the six building blocks that form the basis of my lifestyle medicine practice and this book. It is my mission to provide a roadmap to the simple, fact-based principles that offer us a lifetime of wellbeing and a path to your best health ever.