Understanding the Heart: Surprising Insights into the Evolutionary Origins of Heart Disease—and Why It Matters

Heart disease is the number-one killer in the world. Despite ever-advancing medical procedures and more powerful pharmaceutical drugs, the rate of heart disease continues to rise. According to Dr. Stephen Hussey, this is due in part to misunderstandings about how the heart really functions and how to keep it healthy. These misunderstandings result in improper medical approaches and off-target intervention therapies. As a type 1 diabetic, Dr. Hussey has always known that he was at two to four times greater risk of developing heart disease. As a result, he has dedicated his entire adult life to understanding the heart, to prevent himself from becoming a statistic. And then his worst nightmare came true. Dr. Hussey suffered a “STEMI,” a blockage in the left anterior descending artery of his heart. STEMIs are typically so fatal that they are known as “widowmakers.” Only twelve percent of those who experience them outside of a hospital setting survive. Dr. Hussey was among the lucky twelve percent, but faced a difficult decision during his recovery: follow the standard of care laid out for him by the attending cardiologist or politely decline and apply everything he’d learned about the heart to a recovery protocol that would look massively different than what the doctors were recommending. In Understanding the Heart, Dr. Hussey shares the information that guided him through the highest-stakes decision of his life.