Customer Reviews

Chinese Natural Cures: Traditional Methods for Remedies and Prevention

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book by Henry Lu is, by far, the most comprehensive to date. This book included a discussion on Chinese medical theory. For any practicioner of Chinese Medicine, these are wasted pages. For those unfamiliar with Chinese Medicine, this section may be helpful (though I would recommend other sources for a better discussion). I found Henry Lu's numberical weighting of symptoms to diagnose a condition to be confusing and ultimately not helpful. While I liked the section for specific ailments and their dietary recommendations, they are not organized in alphabetical order so that finding what you are looking for is very frustrating. The section on the stories behind the herbs is great and helps them stick in your mind - a nice resource for those who need to memorize the herbs for classes or practice. Overall, this book has a lot of great information that hasn't been presented before, but the poor organization really cuts into it's usefulness when picking it up off the shelf to quickly gather information. Definitely not a "handbook", but pretty good price for the information - if you are willing to pour through it.

This is a comprehensive collection of healing, preventive cures and long-term health regimen using traditional chinese methods such as herbology, food cures, and chinese acupuncture formula. The chinese healing and energy principles are discussed in the beginning chapter and is a mandatory reading before skipping to the details of the proceeding chapters.

This book is fairly thorough and comprehensive. It is very well-researched and definitely not a fluffy introductory "For Dummies" read. I especially enjoyed the folk tales about the major herbs. Out of all the books (that are written English) on Chinese herbal medicine out there in print, I would definitely recommend this one. The only flaw that I would like to point out that the index of this book is very poorly organized. Also, please note that this book is not in any way as comprehensive as the ancient Chinese medical text "Ben Cao Gang Mu".

I use this book often.

Of course, acupuncture and herbs are very important.

However, trying to find and correct the underlying cause is what seperates a practioner from the "master".

Since I am no master, I take all the help I can!

I use this book to make diet recommendations/changes.

The stories of the individual herbs are FANTASTIC! Instead of memorizing "pingying", its far easier remembering the stories! (like the chinese do!)

I wish they had more stories of the individual herbs/foods, however its still a great book to use as a reference!

Henry is truly a master and a gift to us in the west. He makes it far easier to access TCM than many others writing for a western audience.

As a student of TCM, I would argue that this book is in no way comprehensive, and shouldn't be looked at as a manual or a text book. Instead, we have an interesting read about some of the patterns, and the various dietary and herbal cures out there for them. I found the stories behind the herbs a real pleasure to read, and the food cures for disease patterns was fairly enlightening.

That said, this book will be virtually useless to a non-practitioner, and it certainly won't be replacing my Bensky or my Wiseman texts any time soon. It is acu-candy, pure and simple.

Although this book has a lot of good information, it will take you awhile to find what you need. It is poorly organized and sometimes wordy. While at first the books unique size and silky appearance are alluring, the book is heavy, does not fit well in my bookshelf and the shiny pages can make it difficult to read.

(Written by Monica)
I enjoy learning about alternative healing methods. I also like to impliment what I learn.
A lot of the things in this books are very interesting, but for me, were far from practical.