Natural Health, Natural Medicine. A Comprehensive Manual for Wellness and Self-care. - book reviews

Nutrition Health Review, Wntr, 1991

Dr. Weil is a pioneer in advocating self-care. He has little patience with those who have erected shrines in which medicine is practiced and the patient need be only a willing supplicant.

He is a strong advocate of preventive medicine and believes it is the doctor's responsibility to give the patient the confidence to use it. "Many people sense the value of preventive maintenance in caring for their cars," he says. "They get regular check-ups, oil changes and tune-ups, and they pay attention when warning lights come on. It is strange that more of us do not apply the concept to our bodies, which are infinitely more valuable."

Dr. Weil is convinced that the most likely reason for this neglect is lack of information about what to do. "I have always felt," he says, "that the main work of doctors should be to educate and give people the information they need to stay healthy most of the time. Prevention of disease should be primary, treatment secondary."

The author is critical of the layman's almost religious faith in professional medicine. "Conventional (allopathic) medicine," he declares, is very good at managing trauma, acute bacterial infections, medical and surgical emergencies, and other crises. It is very bad at managing viral infections, chronic degenerative disease, allergy, autoimmunity, many of the serious kinds of cancer, mental illness and 'functional' illness. Regular medicine often uses powerful and dangerous drugs to treat diseases without considering how the body's own healing resources can be mobilized. Healing is the birthright of every human being. Don't forfeit it."

The book serves as a compendium of rules and guidelines for dealing with vitamin supplementation, herbal medicines and home remedies. It is also an excellent commentary on the need for establishing preventive measures to deal with the killer diseases that shroud our existence. How not to succumb to heart attacks, stroke and cancer, and the need to fortify the immune system are cardinal principles of Weil's arsenal.