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Dick Cheney, former vice president under President George W. Bush and political tour de force, has started working on a memoir about the one thing he's kidded about not having: a heart. 

 

Since 1978, the 71-year-old has had at least five heart attacks and has undergone nearly every medical procedure in the book to stay alive — from quadruple bypass to a coronary stent and most recently in March, a full heart transplant. 

 

His new medical memoir will be co-written by Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist who practices at George Washington University Hospital and teaches at the university's medical center in Washington, D.C. According to publisher Scribner, the dual-account will allow readers to approach heart disease from both sides of the patient/doctor relationship. 

 

“Through this unusual dual account, readers will gain an intimate understanding of the disease from a patient’s perspective, and through Dr. Reiner, a physician’s view of the particular problems of dealing with a disease both chronic and acute,” Susan Moldow, Scribner Publishing Group president, said in a press release.

 

What's unclear at the moment is whether the book will contain any information regarding the type of diet most effective at fighting heart disease. President Bill Clinton, who famously battled his own heart issues (and also counts Reiner as one of his doctors), achieved excellent results in reversing his cardiovascular disease by adopting a plant-based diet in 2010.

 

"I'm trying to be one of those experimenters," Clinton said. "Since 1986, several hundred people who have tried essentially a plant-based diet — not ingesting any cholesterol from any source — have seen their bodies start to heal themselves; break up the arterial blockage, break up the calcium deposits around the heart. 82 percent of people who have done this have had the result, so I want to see if I can be one of them."

 

Cheney's diet has been a bit more of a mystery, but we do know he was advised by doctors to drop beef in 2001. Aides to the vice president also described his nutitional regimen as one of "fish, buffalo and salad." 

 

Scribner Publishing Group expects the book to be released sometime next year. 

 

Related post on MNN: Dick Cheney's shocking weight loss