Customer Reviews

Chinese Natural Cures: Traditional Methods for Remedy and Prevention

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

 

 

If you are interested in traditional chinese medicine(TCM), you will definitely love this book! Firstly, its such a thick book with tons of information. There are several sections in the book. There is a section where he lists out diagnostic of conditions and how to trace it to the cause of the problem (eg. kidney deficiency in yin; or heart and kidney not communicating, or heat in lungs etc). Then there is another section which lists the natural properties of each food (almost any kind of food you can think of, from duck eggs to strawberry, gancao(herb) to mulberry, honey to rice. Another section he talks about the origin of each herb, and what the herb is used for (eg treating false fire condition). Great book! I am buying another one for my mum to read!

Other books have come out on the topic of Chinese cures - but this is the most comprehensive yet, created by world-famous practitioner Dr. Henry C. Lu who uses his expertise to explain both Chinese medicine and its underlying philosophy of health and illness. Treatments are organized by complaints and include easy reference for treatment and cure and advice on hundreds of foods and herbs as well. Literally hundreds of Chinese herbs and their uses receive clear, specific mention; right down to the formulas and potions which make them useful. Very highly recommended: a must for any serious herbal treatment collection.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

Dr. Lu does a great job at tabulating and categorizing food cures for TCM diagnosed conditions. However, his chapters on TCM theory (Taoism, ying/yang) and method of diagnosis is far too basic to give any real help (they come acrossed as an exploded outline rather than a meaningful paragraph with "meat" in it). In addition, while he identifies foods for a condition, he offers almost no recipes or means of making these foods actually a meal (I'm not into eating raw pork kidney). At times, I felt I was reading an author's notes and outline for a great book with lots of missing information and information that was not cross checked before publication (The index has problems). Frequently food is listed as yin energy on one page and yang energy on another page without explanation. Also, there is no explanation of the titles and keys in the tables (Tonic verses Regulatory). Some tables repeat information without explanation (as if the publisher didn't understand what the author's intent was for having the two different tables) Now those are pretty easy terms to understand but it was necessary for me to read two other TCM books to really appreciate some of the information in this book. At least for me, this book is a "Buy" but only with the condition to also buy another book (like D. Reid's) on the introduction of TCM and a Chinese healing cookbook on how to actually take the foods and make them meals.

This book is extremely helpful in understanding Chinese Medicine. My acupuncturist recommended this to me and it really explains this different point of view for health care.

Very impressive and even better if the herb illustration drawings come with actual photographs. If the herbal formula titles also carry their Chinese characters in them, I can't fault this wonderful book. Overall, money well spent.

this is for the person who is tired of western medicine. the herbal remidies are really helpful

Its amazing how many natural cures there are... I love this book. As a massage therapist its always good to have around...

This book does have information that herbalists will appreciate. I keep it as a reference resource and would recommend it.