Living Longer, Living Better
Exploring the Heart-Mind Connection

Living Longer: The heart-mind connection is written for all those who strive for optimal long-term health and the maximal functioning of their hearts and minds. Today's problem for the health-conscious individual is information overload - new health studies pour out almost daily from newspapers, radio stations and television networks. Many of the reports are contradictory and often misleading. In this book, Professor Opie sifts through the available information on the vast number of possible health promotion changes, varying from increased exercise to aspirin to green tea, and diets from Atkins to the vegetarian, with the aim of grading the validity of the evidence, asking questions such as, "Just how true are the studies" and "Just how compelling are the facts they claim"? Living Longer guides the reader through this morass of information with the message that just five key steps taken now will promote long-term health benefits for heart and mind and give protection from future heart disease and brain deterioration.

Lionel Opie qualified as a medical doctor at the University of Cape Town. He then won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he trained in heart research and later worked with leaders of thought at Harvard University. After the world's first heart transplant in Cape Town, he was invited back to South Africa to develop heart research at Groote Schuur Hospital, where he still works. As a clinician he specializes in managing problems of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and reducing heart attack risks. His teams' ground-breaking contributions show how exercise can counter heart attacks, following the philosophy that heart-mind interactions are of crucial importance in achieving and maintaining optimal health. He is highly regarded internationally as a scientist, academic and medical writer. He has recently been honoured with the prestigious South African Presidential award, the Order of Mapungubwe.