Smoking doesn’t have to leave you at a dead end. This unique book provides insight, whether you are a current or past smoker, on how to reduce your risk for heart attack and stroke before it’s too late. Rather than asking you to quit smoking, Dr. Fenske instead asks you to make changes in your life while you quit, by focusing on how the cardiovascular system is susceptible to disease, and how its healthy function can be optimized independent of smoking.

Humorous and informative, While You Quit asks you to take a series of small, intentional steps toward vascular health. Armed with a state-of-the-art perspective on vascular biology, you follow Peter, an overweight, cigarette-addicted patient, as he takes these small strides. You will see clearly how each improvement directly impacts his vital statistics - just as they will for you, even if quitting isn’t on your road map yet.

Dr. Theodore Fenske is an associate clinical professor in the division of cardiology at the University of Alberta Medical School and a cardiologist on the frontlines of medicine in a busy downtown Edmonton tertiary care health centre. He lives in Edmonton.

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Dr. William Dafoe is regional director of Capital Health Cardiac Rehabilitation, the founding president of the Canadian Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation, and secretary of the Cardiovascular Rehabilitation and Secondary Prevention Council of the World Health Federation.

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