Product Description

"Why do I feel so tired and drained?" You're not alone if you're constantly asking yourself this question. Exhaustion is epidemic in America and "lack of energy" one of the top five complaints to doctors nationwide. This is because vast numbers of people have lost their connection with the inner energy that is the source of healing and radiant vitality.

But now Dr. Woodson Merrell shows us that it doesn't have to be this way. One of the nation's preeminent integrative medicine specialists, Dr. Merrell tackles this problem head on with his long-awaited first book, offering a way to break the fatigue cycle and achieve the abundant energy that leads to true health. Here is his uplifting, proven program -- a breakthrough, six-step, 21-Day Plan for how you can become an "energy creator" rather than an "energy consumer."

The Source is the most comprehensive, authoritative, and cutting-edge health guide available on how to power up your energy, your health, and your life. In his more than twenty years of medical practice, Dr. Merrell has discovered core concepts about energy that draw on both Western and Eastern medical knowledge and healing practices. His plan has helped to transform thousands of people's lives physically, mentally, and spiritually to allow them to feel better than ever before. With myriad paths to energy and wellness, Dr. Merrell's plan gives you all the tools you need -- including relaxation practices, a sustainable exercise program, a protocol for detoxifying your body, and organic menus and recipes for each day of the 21-Day Plan.

Dr. Merrell is among the first physicians to give a blueprint for energy generation, providing an accessible, clear solution for living, looking, and feeling better. As you undertake his program, you will tap into "The Source" of life's essential force -- energy -- and increase yours as you experience incredible changes in mind, body, and spirit. You will power up your body and wake up to life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22088 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Review
"Woody helped teach me integrative medicine, but I still took copious notes on his sensational 21-day program. Follow his 6 simple steps for healing your energy and you could feel more alive than ever before."-- Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., coauthor of You: Staying Young and You: On a Diet

"Woody Merrell, M.D., is the doctor of the future. And The Source is packed with exciting, health-enhancing secrets that you begin using immediately. Great stuff!"-- Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of The Wisdom of Menopause and Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom

"The Source is a must-read for anyone that wants to take their health and well-being to the next level. Dr. Merrell's focus on emotional fitness, dietary discipline, and exercise demonstrates that creating a balanced lifestyle isn't just about your health--it's about creating the foundation of a truly fulfilled and vital life."-- Anthony Robbins, author of Awaken the Giant Within and Unlimited Power

"In today's world, there are countless doctors that are specialists, but Woody really treats the patient first; not only the disease. His unique ability to bring together Eastern and Western philosophy creates what I call a whole healing, which is for the mind, body, and spirit. This book will open the door to understanding that we all deserve optimum health and how to achieve it."-- Donna Karan

"If you want to become healthier and also to transform your life, this book is for you. Dr. Woodson Merrell, one of America's leading pioneers in integrative medicine, is an utterly trustworthy guide. The Source is a rich resource -- good medicine, good science, and good sense."-- Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Words and Reinventing Medicine

"I read this entire book in one sitting! I found I just didn't want to put it down. It really is a compelling read. Dr. Merrell's book reminds me why it's important to take care of our whole selves. The 21-Day Program is such a simple and empowering way to reconnect with your own source. I'm so thankful that Dr. Merrell put his wisdom into a book that I can refer to again and again."-- Cindy Crawford

"My old friend, Dr. Woodson Merrell, has written this fine book sharing the important and skillful strategies he's learned and developed in his 15 years at the forefront of integrative medicine. He's been an enormous help to me and many of my friends, and I'm sure he will be helpful to many others. Give this book a try."-- Richard Gere

About the Author
Dr. Woodson Merrell, named by New York magazine a "Leader for the New Millennium," is chairman of the Department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center, Manhattan campus of Albert Einstein College of Medicine and an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Since 1985 he has maintained a high-profile private practice in integrative medicine and acupuncture on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Dr. Merrell has chaired and been scientific director for numerous medical and consumer health care conferences, and is featured regularly in the national media for his expertise in integrative medicine.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Science of Personal Energy

From a strictly medical point of view, energy is a measurable biological commodity. Scientists working in biomolecular medicine have created a much clearer picture of how this common energy that powers life works and how the body creates energy. They have also made new discoveries into why the body begins to experience fatigue and slide into poor health. Working independently in myriad disciplines from neuroscience to exercise physiology to nutrition and mind-body medicine, researchers have begun to delineate the sources of energy in your body and identify new ways to tap them. In The Source I will show you how to apply the results of these findings to create more abundant energy and achieve more vibrant health.

Your body stays near 98.6 degrees throughout your life, which could be for the better part of a century, by making its own thermal energy day in and day out. Scientists have identified the carriers of the energy your body creates; they are present in every cell of the body -- everywhere from your skeleton to your brain -- as tiny rechargeable battery-like packets of available energy called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The act of making these molecules of energy, also known as energy metabolism, depends on some very primitive DNA called mitochondrial DNA.Mitochondria are like tiny factories -- thousands of them are within each and every cell (with DNA as the plant supervisor) -- and they work ceaselessly to transfer the potential energy from food, air, and water into active human energy. With a complex cycle of chemical transformations that requires many essential vitamins and other nutrients, mitochondria are able to extract about 40% of the energy available in food and turn it into ATP, the universal currency of energy in your body that can be used anywhere to do any kind of work, from fueling your heartbeat, to providing the chemical energy to process thoughts,mustering the biological energy to attack a flu virus, or supplying the power to create a human life if you are pregnant.

The energy system in your body is highly dynamic, it constantly recycles energy, and it's exquisitely sensitive to change. Your activity level, your environment, the food you eat, the water you drink, your stress levels, your emotional state, the amount of sleep you've had -- are all factors that can affect your energy-generating system. What makes the body's energy supply so susceptible to shifts in the biological machine is the fact that the energy packets of ATP cannot be stored. ATP is constantly made on demand, used up, and quickly recycled, which makes the energy your body works so hard to manufacture quite fleeting -- though almost infinitely replaceable if you properly care for and maintain your body.

The amount of energy your body is required to make every day is absolutely astonishing.At any given moment you've got about three ounces of energy (ATP) in your body -- just enough to power ten seconds of intense exercise, or an all-out sprint to catch a train. And then your body starts all over again constantly remaking ATP thousands of times a minute. Even a sedentary person recycles an amount of ATP each day equal to about 75% of his total body weight (a 180-pound man would recycle almost 135 pounds of ATP just sitting on the couch with the flipper). A person running a marathon can recycle twice as much energy as a sedentary person -- that would be a whopping 270 pounds of pure energy molecules processed by that same 180-pound guy while running a marathon.Considering the hefty energy requirements for keeping a body going, it is no wonder that people develop problems and inadequacies with their energy-generating system.

Energy metabolism -- which is how biologists describe the body's energy-making activities -- plays an important role in health and aging. The healthy functioning of mitochondria is a key component in longevity, according to a wide range of research -- from a leading gerontologist in England to neuroscientists at UCLA. Using this latest research, and my decades of experience with patients, The Source can improve your body's ability to extract and transform energy from your environment.

The message of energy philosophy behind The Source -- that your body is designed to be an energy creator, not an energy consumer -- is easily translated to daily living by following the 21-Day Plan. Exhaustion does not have to be the inevitable by-product of coping with continual stressful demands. I will teach you how to build your energy through all your waking hours. Your mental acuity and creativity will increase day by day, as will your health. As you work with the 21-Day Plan -- with its numerous methods for relaxation, exercise, eating for energy, emotional balance, sleep, spiritual development, and detoxification -- you will find that all of your physical and mental systems function more efficiently and work together to support your energy needs. You will be at ease with your body; you will become more resilient and feel an ever-expanding capacity for engaging in all activities with a full sense of vital energy and total well-being.

Specifically, The Source will show you:

• A new perspective on illness and health that stimulates and incorporates your inherent healing energy;
• The six essentials of energy creation: Power Mind (stress management), Power Food (diet), Power Exercise, Power Detox, Power Rest, and Power of Connection (spirituality);
• The latest scientific breakthroughs on how the body generates energy and ways you can maximize your body's energymaking mechanisms;
• How to think about, conserve, and create energy the way Eastern cultures do, with simple ways to practice energizing meditation and yogic breathing;
• Complementary/alternative approaches to curing fatigue and improving health, such as acupuncture, herbs, and body work;
• A 21-day, step-by-step plan -- complete with recipes -- for increasing energy.

The book is organized into three parts: Part One, "Transforming Energy, Six Ways to Reclaim Your Vitality"; Part Two, "21 Days to Optimal Energy"; and Part Three,"Menus and Recipes." Each part stands alone as a usable guide to energy creation. But taken together, all of the parts will magnify and deepen your understanding of how to increase energy and create a uniquely personal, healthy lifestyle.

Part One, "Transforming Energy, Six Ways to Reclaim Your Vitality," will help you identify your own energy issues with the Energy Quiz. It also recounts patients' stories of their energy epiphanies and reveals the latest scientific research.My goal is for you to come away from Part One with an appreciation of the miraculous web of emotional-physicalspiritual well-being that underlies vitality and health. And you will learn the relatively simple, straightforward things you can immediately do in your daily life to renew your energy.

CHAPTER ONE
Power Mind, Boundless Energy

This chapter explains recent discoveries about the link between thought patterns, stress, and energy production. It will give you a clear idea of the plan I've developed for using your mind to reduce stress as easily -- and stresslessly! -- as possible. It reveals how stress saps your energy and health because of its effects on myriad systems (hormonal, cardiac, nervous, digestive). Power Mind gives a clear prescription for managing and reducing stress -- and for freeing up energy you can use to regain health.

CHAPTER TWO
Power Food, Your High Performance Fuel

Power Food reveals the latest information from the emerging science of functional medicine, a new nutrition science that emphasizes the molecular basis of how food produces energy. Food consists of molecules that provide substrates for rebuilding and creating energy. Food also sends specific signals to your DNA. Also in Power Food is cutting-edge science on the treatment of food allergies and sensitivities and the growing role of superfoods and supplements in achieving optimum health and energy -- all of which are incorporated into the menus of the 21-Day Plan.

CHAPTER THREE
Power Detox, Increase Vitality by Removing Toxins

According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control, 148 different industrial chemicals circulate in the average American's bloodstream. Every individual varies in his or her capacity to process toxins -- much of which depends on lifestyle factors. This program includes a one-day juice cleanse that has been shown to increase the efficiency of your energycreating mechanisms. Power Detox drives home the critical importance of following the personal environmental clean-up protocol I've developed.

CHAPTER FOUR
Power Exercise

A fourth key to understanding energy is realizing that the human body is built to move.A sedentary lifestyle dramatically inhibits energy creation. Even moderate exercise (30 minutes three times a week of brisk walking), has been shown to increase the number and efficiency of mitochondria to produce energy. It also helps repair the nervous system by producing brain peptides that are critical for retaining a youthful mind. Power Exercise also gives easy, practical suggestions to act on right away and throughout the 21-Day Plan for moving and increasing energy.

CHAPTER FIVE
Power Rest, How to Recharge Your Battery

Recharging your battery is all about rest...whether this means resting between exercises sessions or sleeping properly every night. You probably don't get optimal sleep, which means your body doesn't have time to repair and renew, or to allow for proper energy creation. Lack of sleep is associated with some very common diseases, including heart disease, and weight gain! My program will show you how to overcome insomnia and sleep problems to significantly increase your energy and improve your health. Details on how to do this on a daily basis are in the 21-Day Plan.

Customer Reviews

What Is The Source of Your Energy?
From: www.BasilAndSpice.com
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Book Review: The Source--A FirstLook Feature

Are you tired of feeling tired? About 75 million of us believe that we feel "extreme fatigue" while at work. An estimated 38% of the workforce really is tired, resulting in $100 billion of healthcare costs.

A newly published book, The Source: Unleash Your Natural Energy, Power Up Your Health, and Feel 10 Years Younger (Free Press, Sept 2008), written by Woodson Merrell, M.D.* with Kathleen Merrell*, explains that our bodies aren't designed to be simply energy consumers, but also energy creators. A beneficial book for those on a healing journey and wellness guide for everyone else, The Source helps the reader positively alter his life, become an energy producer--without the caffeine fix, and live a healthier life. Dr. Merrell writes that over the counter solutions to energy loss consumed as coffee, energy drinks, sleeping pills, and alertness drugs, do not address the sources of energy drain and they don't really rejuvenate the inner source of natural energy. Energy loss, he continues, is one of the top five complaints doctors get, yet only 3% of those with fatigue are actually found to have a related health condition.

Utilizing recent research, Dr. Merrell presents innovative integrated ideas which he has already put into practice. Often seeing patients who have been seen by a conventional doctor with a prescription pad but had shown no improvement, he has been able to prevent or reverse primary lifestyle problems which begin disease. Dr. Merrell blends into his practice various aspects of foreign cultures views on health, homeopathy, quantum physics, and spirituality. His research has led to the development of the new medical discipline known as Integrative Medicine. In this field, the patient is treated as a whole person, rather than just the disease. Dr. Merrell combines a unique connective approach between the mind, body, heart, and spirit.

Part one of The Source generates "Six Ways to Reclaim Your Vitality." Dr. Merrell highlights the links between energy and the mind, food, detoxification, exercise, rest, and the power of connection. This beginning of the book is stocked with research that's written not for a doctor, but in layman's language for the general population to ingest and understand.

Ever wake up more tired than when you went to bed? I have. I'll say, "I feel like a semi ran over me in the night." The Source includes within Part 1, a section on sleep. It explains why we sleep, what's happening within the body during the night, and which factors lead to energy draining sleep. Bad sleep causes generally are a result of aging and hormone shifts (for both men and women), stress, sleep apnea, snoring, chronic sinus congestion, GERD, chronic pain, inflammatory conditions, alcohol in the system, caffeine, and some medications. Fortunately, Dr. Merrell describes several solutions for a better rest.

Part 2--"21 Days to Optimal Energy" is a guide to assist the reader through a three-week program of detoxifying, energizing, and maximizing the body's energy output. Week one is a gradual elimination of stressors on the body--alcohol, red meat, wheat, sugar, processed food. Healthier food is eaten incrementally, more water is drunk, and relaxation is begun. A daily stress log is kept.

Week two moves on to resetting the metabolism by "cleaning out" toxins through a one-day juice cleanse. With increased ingestion of power foods--green tea, greens, mushrooms, fish, berries, stress becomes reduced and manageable. Week three extends into energy -generating techniques which will maximize energy. The body may be ready for Reiki or acupuncture.

Part 3, "Menus and Recipes" was written with Stefanie Bryn Sacks, M.S., a Culinary Nutritionist. Stefanie has incorporated many "in" power foods for her recipes:

Agave Syrup

Quinoa

Curry Powder

Miso

Cardamon

Notable unique recipes you'll find worth trying: Dr. Merrell's Veggie Juice, Warm French Lentils, Shitake-Miso Soup.

Throughout The Source, Dr. Merrell has placed an emphasis on a balanced stress-reduced life, one which incorporates rest, exercise, healthier eating, and proper breathing. Dr. Merrell has a host of famous followers who support his work and say so publicly--Donna Karan, Cindy Crawford, Richard Gere, Christiane Northrup, Mehmet Oz, and Daniel Goleman.

The Source offers hope. Hope to those who live with chronic conditions and who are unaware that there may still be a way to improve their health. This book receives five stars! It is well worth reading and will provide new insight into ways we all can live a better life.

*Dr. Woodson Merrell, affectionately known as "Woody," was named by New York magazine as a "Leader for the New Millennium" is chairman of the Department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is also an assistant clinical professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He maintains a private practice in Manhattan.

*Kathleen Merrell is Dr. Merrell's writing partner and spouse, and is also an award-winning freelance journalist who specializes in holistic and preventive health. Her work has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, Forbes, Real Simple, and Allure.



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Excellent health resource
I learned a lot reading The Source. I was able to understand complex chemical processes,such as how does the body create energy or how does the liver detox the body, because it's written in an entertaining style. I also liked the fact that it provides suggestions on how to improve your health using both Western as well as alternative medicine principles (so one can chose). As we learn about them, these suggestions are based on extensive research as well as Dr. Merrell's experience with his patients.

Great book!
This book is very well written and has some wonderful ideas. After just one week I feel great and really do have much more energy. I also managed to lose three pounds without trying. Would recommend it to anyone that is feeling tired and run down.