The Heart Speaks by Mimi Guarneri is written by a cardiologist who lost several family members to heart disease. She began her career as a cardiologist inserting stents in her patients to aid in blockages. She began to notice that the same people continue to return for the same issues. Simultaneously, a few of her patients began utilizing alternative medicine in conjunction with the western medicine she was applying. Dr. Guarneri was skeptical at first but began to see progress in her patients who were using these methods. She then founded the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in San Diego where holistic healing methods such as acupuncture, group therapy, biofeedback, and yoga were combined with conventional methods to aid in healing.
The book is divided into 3 parts and the second part was the most appealing to me as it went into the emotions of stress, anger, depression, and grief and how they affect the heart. Dr. Guarneri noticed that when people began to open up and share themselves as well as what they are carrying around, the healing can truly begin. Lastly, Guarneri states that “compassion, patience, and empathy” have shifted in the medical field and are desperately needed from doctors to their patients.
This book is fairly quick to read and not geared towards medical professionals so it can benefit the lay person.
Read this book if:
- You are interested in more information on the intersection of conventional and complementary medicine with a focus on heart disease
- You are a practitioner of conventional or complementary medicine
- You have been diagnosed with any type of heart disease, high blood pressure, or experienced a heart attack
Guarneri, M. (2006). The Heart Speaks: A Cardiologist Reveals the Secret Language of Healing. New York, NY: Simon & Shuster.