Product Description

As health care costs continue to skyrocket and the national debate on health care reform rages on, Americans are taking greater charge of their health. This revised edition of Natural Health, Natural Medicine equips readers with the latest information on prevention and treatment of many common ailments using alternative methods that are safe, natural, effective, and not as expensive as standard medical treatments.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #252350 in Books
• Published on: 1998-05-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 370 pages

Amazon.com Review
Health can be defined in any number of ways, from the simple fact that you're not lying on a hospital bed to an overall sense of well-being and connectedness. One person may not feel healthy unless he's carrying around mounds of gym-built muscle, while another doesn't feel healthy unless she's eating an intestine-scrubbing macrobiotic diet and practicing an hour of yoga each day.

Dr. Andrew Weil looks at every aspect of health in Natural Health, Natural Medicine. He's quite cynical about bodybuilding and the emphasis on protein in our diets, while making a strong case for paying more attention to the way we breathe and the degree to which we interact with family, community, and nature. An interesting--but, unfortunately, short--section on loving says that most people have no idea what to do when they fall out of romantic love with a partner, which helps explain the high divorce rate.

Other sections of the book focus on healthy self-care practices ("nasal douching" is recommended for sinus sufferers), supplements (he believes most benefits that seem to come from these are placebo responses), and natural home remedies for an A-to-Z list of problems (the section on depression states that people experience low mood because they constantly seek highs; eliminate the quest for highs, and you eliminate the rebound experience of lows).

Many regard this book as the bible of natural healing; but even those who are on the fence about alternative medicine should find it to be an entertaining, informative, and highly opinionated beginner's guide to achieving better health without conventional medicine. --Lou Schuler

From Publishers Weekly
Weil, a believer in alternative, preventive medicine, provides basic fitness information and advises readers on herbal home remedies for common ailments. "Although he is justifiably quick to call certain conditions--chronic fatigue syndrome, candidiasis, hypoglycemia--faddishly inflated in presumed severity and consequences . . . some of Weil's positions are controversial," said PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Weil, a Harvard Medical School graduate and a member of the advisory panel for the Congressional Study of Alternative Cancer Therapies, advocates preventative health maintenance as a means of combating future painful and expensive therapies. The handbook proposes methods of creating a healthy lifestyle, offers advice on guarding against potentially fatal diseases, provides information on natural treatments, and recommends these treatments for specific common ailments. Controversial in its challenge of orthodox medicine, the manual stands out as a useful resource for its clear, concise writing style, its practical advice, and its thoughtful examination of the important issues facing contemporary health care. For consumer health collections.
- Marilyn Rosenthal, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The bible for how to maintain optimum health and treat common ailments
This review is written by a former hospital administrator of just under 2 decades. I have been studying health and nutrition for more than decade. I became very interested in alternative medicine when a family member was diagnosed with kidney cancer and the allopathic doctors (traditional MD's) could give no reason for the tumor.

The purpose of this book is to present a complete guide to preventative health maintenance. With preventative health maintenance described as a timely and appropriate investment of energy in your well being that will save you trouble down the road.

He subdivides his book as follows:

PART ONE: PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE (The basic information about designing a healthy lifestyle)
1. What Should I Eat?
2. Answers to Common Questions About Diet and Health
3. What Will You Have to Drink?
4. Air and Breath
5. A Guide to Exercise for People Who Hate the Whole Idea of It
6. Relaxation, Rest, and Sleep
7. Habits
8. Connections

PART TWO: SPECIFIC PREVENTION: OUTWITTING THE KILLERS (Specific advice about reducing your risks of getting the diseases that kill most people prematurely in our society)
9. How Not to Get a Heart Attack
10. How Not to Get a Stroke
11. How Not to Get Cancer
12. How to Protect Your Immune System

PART THREE: BASIC NATURAL TREATMENTS (the tools in the forms or natural treatments that we can use ourselves)
13. Simple Measures
14. Vitamins and Supplements
15. The Herbal Medicine Chest

PART FOUR: A TREASURE OF HOME REMEDIES FOR COMMON AILMENTS (this section deals with common ailments that respond well to gentle, natural therapies and lifestyle modification)
APPENDIX A: Finding Practitioners
APPENDIX B: Finding Supplies
APPENDIX C: Sample Recipes

In part one of the book the doctor does a wonderful job of explaining what we should and more importantly should not eat. The first chapter of the book is worth the price of the book alone. The doctor outlines 9 principles for a healthy diet that he explains in great detail without losing those of us that are not trained physicians or nutritionists. These principles are simplistic but very powerful. If you are a follower of a low carbohydrate diet you will not agree with what you will read in this section.

The doctor also goes into great detail regarding his recommendations for physical activity. He discusses all the common forms of exercise and the pros and cons of each form of exercise. How much exercise do we need? Thirty minutes of aerobic exercise at least 5 days a week. Not much of a surprise, but after you read the section on exercise you will understand why you need that much aerobic exercise, and hopefully that will get all of us off the couch, or away from our computers with a little more frequently. The doctor also discusses stretching and strength training and how much of these we need and why.

Part two of the book, on how to avoid specific diseases, is very well written, easy to understand, and easy to follow for those individuals that are highly motivated. The suggestions will not be palatable to everyone. But, if health is your primary motivation, there are wonderful ideas and suggestions contained in these chapters.

In Part three of the book the doctor has a brief chapter on simple measures that is very informative. In this chapter the doctor discusses simple techniques that we can all use at home to improve the overall quality of our health. I use the techniques in this chapter to feel better when I get a cold, or just don't feel like myself. The techniques really are simple and easy to use, but have a power effect on my overall well being.

Part four of the book covers the resources that any of us would need to follow the practices brought forth in the other portions of the book.

In Summation, I feel that this book is very well written and easy to understand. Once you have read this book I believe it will become your bible for how to maintain optimum health and treat common ailments. I highly recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in health.

Outstanding review who value prevention
Author Andrew Weil starts by discussing preventative health and maintainance strategies including, "What should I eat". The book answers common questions about diet and health. It reviews issues as simple as the water you drink and the air you breath in the context of positive health. The significance of regular exercise, relaxation, rest and sleep is emphasized. Not only that, the author reviews specific ideas on how to prevent specific killers like heart attack, stroke and cancer etc. Finally, Dr. Weil talks about basic natural treatments including the use of vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements. This is a keeper!
Anil Minocha MD
Author: Natural Stomach Care

Great Reference on obtaining and maintaining good health
Dr. Weil has a rare outlook that you wish all health practitioners had. Specifically, he tries to take the best from traditional and natural medicine to help patients get and stay well instead of picking one of the two sides and calling the other side evil.
This book is a great reference for all kinds of questions you might have about health. Dr. Weil goes into detail on such basic yet crucial subjects as what you should eat and drink, how much exercise is enough, how to avoid cancer and heart disease to the extent possible, the role of dietary supplements, and even mental health. The majority of his answers to health questions will probably not be completely new to you, although I have never seen such a eclectic combination of viewpoints in one book before. What is particularly helpful is that Dr. Weil doesn't just tell you that you need to exercise, he tells you what goes on in your body if you do and if you don't. He doesn't just tell you to eat your vegetables, he points out that as infants we all loved vegetables and that it is probably the fact that vegetables become particularly unpalatable if served incorrectly that has trained us to dislike them. At the end of the book he has included some very delicious recipes to help you retrain your tastes.
Dr. Weil talks about various chronic diseases such as diabetes and has advice for diet, exercise, and supplementation in each case. I particularly liked his unique definition of depression as a state of high energy turned inward and negative. He states that you will never come to terms with your depression if you suppress it. He advises that you learn to own your depressions, appreciate them, and transform them, thus constructively using the energy they contain in the process.
I highly recommend this book to people of all ages who want common sense advice and recommendations involving achievable behavior on how to obtain good health.