Eight Weeks to Optimum Health: A Proven Program for Taking Full Advantage of Your Body's Natural Healing Power - Hardcover

Weil, Andrew

3.89

2,317 ratings by Goodreads

9781579545772: Eight Weeks to Optimum Health: A Proven Program for Taking Full Advantage of Your Body's Natural Healing Power

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1579545777 ISBN 13: 9781579545772

Publisher: Rodale Pr, 2002

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Now expanded and updated: The book in which one of America's most brilliant and respected doctors gives us his famous program for improving and maintaining health�€”already the program of choice for hundreds of thousands.

Eight Weeks to Optimum Health focuses all of Andrew Weil's expertise in both conventional and alternative medicine on a practical week-by-week, step-by-step plan, covering diet, exercise, lifestyle, stress, and environment�€”all of the aspects of daily living that affect health and well-being. And he shows how his program can be tailored to the specific needs of pregnant women, senior citizens, overweight people, and those at risk for cancer, among others.

Dr. Weil has added the most up-to-date findings on such vital subjects as cholesterol, antioxidants, trans fats, toxic residues in the food supply, soy products, and vitamins and supplements, together with a greatly enhanced source list for information and supplies.

Preventive in the broadest sense, straightforward, and encouraging, Eight Weeks to Optimum Health has proved to be, and in this updated version will continue to be, an essential book.

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Review:

"Health," Dr. Andrew Weil writes, "is a dynamic and temporary state of equilibrium destined to break down as conditions change." In other words, there's no such thing as the type of health that allows you to feel equally great every day of your life. Instead, Weil suggests, your goal should be to improve your resilience to disease, and while you're at it, feel more joy and strength.

As to how you should gain this strength, joy, and resilience, Weil doesn't come on with a hard sell to give up every bad habit or all of the foods you enjoy. Instead, he suggests gradual changes: clean your pantry of whatever cooking oils you have there, except olive oil; start taking vitamin C three times a day; walk a few minutes a day; eat some fish and broccoli. The program is so simple and sensible that anyone trying it probably will feel better in a week.

The program then gets progressively more involved--more supplements; more of a shift toward a diet based on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables; more exercise. Besides these steady changes, each week's program has a focus: In week 2, you start drinking bottled or filtered water; week 3 focuses on organic produce; week 4, on sleep; week 5, using a steam bath or sauna; week 6, trying a "universal tonic" like ginseng; week 7, volunteering in your community; and finally, in week 8, figuring out how to integrate permanently the elements of the program into your life.

Even those who don't go for the entire program will probably find something here to like--the recipes, maybe, or the suggestion that you cut back on strenuous types of exercise like running and competitive sports in favor of brisk walks. It's perfectly useful either way: as a total lifestyle overhaul, or a series of suggestions, any one or two of which will probably help you feel better. --Lou Schuler

From the Publisher:

When my mother went on the Sugarbusters diet recently, she had made a decision to change not only her eating habits, but her physical exercise habits as well. She'd heard about Eight Weeks on Oprah and asked me to get her a copy. We now have lengthy discussions about the principles of Dr. Weil's approach, and she is leading a much healthier life. It's been a great way for us to bond as well.
A. Scheibe, Editor, Ballantine Publishing Group

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