The Well Body Book,

My copy of this book is now fragile - it's pages well worn. I have turned to this book countless times and passed the information on to my child now nearly full-grown. It is a testament to the value of the information it contains. As the forward states (written by another medical doctor, clinical faculty member of University of California School of Medicine at San Francisco-William B. Goodheart, M.D.): "It is exactly what its title states and more...it is inviting and often leading you before you are aware of it into some very tranquil spaces within your own consciousness and your own body...ot de-mystifies the practice of medicine and the drugs used but also pays respect and reverence...to the body as its own three million year old healer, to the individual's capacity to assume responsibility for the care and preventive medicine of his own body's health and well-being...to those areas of medicine that truly are miraculous and helpful and requires no "mystique" to be recognized and sought after....It is a readable, practical, reliable handbook of diagnosis and treatment for the layman, a workbook towards well-being and the prevention of disease (covering suggestions about diet, clothing, meditation, sleep, muscle relaxation, massage, image-control and non control. A life style book". I found the medical information in this book to be worthwhile especially the sections on preventive medicine, relaxation techniques, meditation, and visualization, diagnosis, treatment, doctor as a resource, drugs as helpers, rare diseases are rare. Most important to me was (and is) the idea of the body helping itself. The concept of not allowing problems to fester. Visualizing the mind/body connection which over many decades I have come to understand and verify first hand. Without one's health/wellness, there is nothing. One cannot work or care for family or have a happy marriage. Eternal vigilance of self and children is the prescription. Health is not a pill or a resolution. It is a daily responsibility to eat with consciousness, maintain physical activity and mental stimulation. Cultivation of an attitude of gratitude also helps. There's so much truth here. So much so that in many ways the medical profession has finally wedded traditional healing arts, eastern medicine, alternative medicine and western medicine. What was once seen as "far out", "hippie" stuff is now mainstream in many places. Major hospitals have mind/body connection classes, referrals to alternative medical providers in addition to typical doctors. My own child had the gift of a holistic peditrician practicing in his converted barn with birds in the waiting area and antiques all around. A place mixing the usual paraphernalia in a doctor's office with the unusual. A doctor practicing a mix of approaches including restraint (one doesn't always get a drug), humor, and a holistic approach infused with modern medicine and ancient understandings now verified by science. The child is now a

Even if the health information in this book was not valuable, the historic nature of what the authors accomplished is valuable and noteworthy. It is too much to say that The Well Body Book founded the alternative medicine movement but it blasted the awe in which the general public beheld the medical profession up until that time. It also was a necessary resource for a generation that rejected the wisdom of its parents and grandparents, in the process throwing away the accumulated folk knowledge of medicines and health practices that had worked for centuries. Iconoclastic, The Well Body Book did lay the foundation for the health self-help movement that today exists as physican/patient partnerships for health and well-being in which the "health partners" are equal participants in staying healthy and recovering from illness. This 31-year old book is not out-of-date.