Customer Reviews

Doctor Yourself: Natural Healing That Works

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Doctor Yourself is titled and based on a simple premise: every person is responsible for their own health care. When a person abdicates that responsibility, they often place themselves in the hands of the "disease care" industry, a monolithic and profit-driven enterprise where getting well isn't the bottom line.

Through lively anecdote, personal history and accounts of patient education and treatment, Dr. Andrew Saul (not an M.D., by way of disclosure) takes the reader down a path most M.D.'s never dare to tread. Without a hint of pretension or medical braggadocio, the reader shares Dr. Saul's encounters with individuals as they seek relief from common maladies feeding the trillion dollar medical monsters of the Western world; arthritis, cancer, schizophrenia, depression, obesity, allergies, heart disease and many more.

We're also introduced to a "Who's Who" of unjustly ignored medical pioneers like Abram Hoffer, Robert F. Cathcart, Wilfrid and Evan Shute, Linus Pauling and Frederick Klenner. These unconventional M.D.'s and researchers ignored the scorn and censure of their peers in order to treat patients with nutrition and lifestyle change rather than dogmatic, pharmophilic (drug loving) therapies that most often do not cure, but merely attenuate a sufferer's condition.

Doctor Yourself is a page turner, written in a friendly, conversational style that takes you inside the interactions between healer and client, unafraid to detail the skepticism and even fear shown by patients when alternative medical advice runs counter to the normal drug, cut and radiate school of thought. In addition, Dr. Saul lists specific protocols for the use of nutrients as therapy; the reader is never left on their own to experiment or wonder at the possible safety of a potential cure.

It is clear that Dr. Saul has profound respect for the science and art of medicine, but far less for physicians and their patients who willfully remain blind to the value of nutrition, for hospitals that "serve green jello and white bread to cancer patients", to drug companies who relentlessly market to a gullible, insured public.

Based on what I've learned from this book, from Dr. Saul's website and from the many reference materials provided by both sources, I've been fortunate to cure sciatica that hobbled me for three months, and rid myself of hay fever to boot. My wife, an allergy sufferer of 30 years, hasn't touched prescription meds in two seasons. My two boys are healthier because of the changes the family made in diet, supplementation and exercise. Does that make readers of this book "health nuts"? Dr. Saul would ask, "Who wants to be a disease nut"?

Single or married, young, middle-aged or older...any person who lives in a human body will find inspiration and education in the pages of Doctor Yourself. You will find yourself turning to it again and again as a reference and "owners manual" for the body you're using.

DOCTOR YOURSELF is easy to read, lively, humorous and packed with practical, easy-to-follow suggestions for maintaining and improving ones health. I agree with the author's comment that folks need "education, not medication."

I highly recommend this book to others because it helps people to help themselves. In these times of rising medical costs, along with the fact that many lack health insurance, Dr. Saul's book gives hope and confidence, almost like a personal consultation with the author. It sets out dozens of well-documented nutritional protocols for treating ailments using supplements rather than prescription drugs, thereby avoiding drug expense and side effects. The book deals with with quite a few chronic and serious health conditions, as well as more common concerns. DOCTOR YOURSELF provides down to earth and well-researched information.

John I. Mosher, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus Biological Sciences

Having worked in the natural health care business for many years, I've read many, many books on the subject. While many of the books that I've read were quite good, I've found that even the best of these seem to be merely facts tied together with words. Dr. Saul's work, Doctor Yourself stands out in a market that has long been saturated with books of varying degrees of quality. Doctor Yourself is not only the best of the best in the marketplace, it is book with a voice. Reading Dr. Saul's book, I can clearly hear the unique voice of the author in it's pages. Dr. Saul's vast knowledge of his subject is presented with clarity, logic and humor. If I was to have one health care book in my library, it would clearly be Doctor Yourself.

Expertly written by biologist and naturopathic teacher Andrew Saul (who has served as a consulting specialist in natural healing for more than twenty-five years), Doctor Yourself: Natural Healing That Works is a straightforward and "non-specialist reader friendly" guide to organizing one's diet to promote health and nutrition. Promoting nutritional therapy as a preventative and treatment for many diverse ailments, and offering solid advice for adjusting one's diet plan to better live with everything from Diabetes, to PMS, to Parkinson's Disease, Doctor Yourself is a very helpful guidebook which is filled from cover to cover with gems of information that aren't usually discussed in most other nutrition books. It should also be mentioned that Andrew Saul has also developed an impressive website at DoctorYourself.com with additional information on the scientific studies behind the protocols referenced in his book and offers any interested party more than additional 4,000 references.

I bought my mom & myself a copy of this book and both of us keep it handy for ready reference. I've bought a lot of health books and this is the best that I've ever read. I'm very glad to have it, have told many friends about the book and the website, and expect to read and reread both the website and the book many, many times.

This book quite good but nowhere near as good as 'Fire your doctor' by the same author.

Instead of quoting studies, this book relies too heavily on case studies of single patients, I thought.

In the section at the back which makes up most of the book, different diseases are each given a section on treatment. Some of these sections were okay, but many did nothing more than relate a single case study which was almost always completely resolved following the use of high dose vitamin C or similar.

What was lacking was information on how typical such results were and what could be done if the remedies listed did not work. At the very least, it would have been better to include at least a few case studies rather than just one.

This book, as with 'Fire your doctor' just does not have enough information about chronic diseases, and long-term illness. There is little talk of how much high dose C's effectiveness is limited by years of damage caused by the disease, and how long to keep C at bowel tolerance if your disease is long term, and some case studies of what can happen in long-term disease with orthomolecular medicine. This is a problem I have found with most books on this topic, so little is written about long-term illness. I suppose it's just not as 'sexy' as writing about getting amazing and very quick results treating a serious infection in its first few weeks etc.

Many of us have the non-sexy diseases though!

I'd highly recommend 'Fire your doctor' before this book, but it is still far better than almost all books on this topic that are out there. Other good books include 'Orthomolecular medicine for everyone' and 'Dr Atkins' Vita-nutrient solution' as well as all the books by Dr Sherry Rogers.

To be clear, I very strongly support the basic message of in this book and am convinced by the benefits of orthomolecular medicine, I just think that this book does nowhere near as good a job as others in presenting this information to the reader, it's a bit simplistic and vague. There was nothing in this book I hadn't already read in 'Fire your doctor' as well.

Jodi Bassett, from the Hummingbirds' Foundation for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

Very good read........Filled with information that I had never given thought to before. Since reading this book my energy, health, and overall well-being have increased dramatically. Would recomend this book to anyone who is looking to take charge of their heatlh

I've lowered my blood pressure 10 points with the author's advice to take niacin. That alone was worth the purchase price. I have found many of his recommendations helpful and look forward to improved health in the future.

This book is very easy to read. It's also very easy to understand where the author is coming from regarding his strategies for healthcare.

This author does a great job of addressing many diseases that doctors today don't have the answer to. Modern medicine wants to keep you sick whereas this author writes to get you well. However, he still advocates you keep an MD. Then he tells you to take personal responsibility of your healthcare so you won't need your doctor.

The best thing this book has going for it is that it's real world and you can put the techniques in practice immediately. Also, the book is well researched and the studies mentioned are very thorough.

This should be on every person's bookshelf be you young or old.

Answer: The decision whether to go to a doctor or whether you should "doctor yourself". I can't tell you whether you should go to a doctor or not, because I don't know you. Certainly if you break a bone, whole wheat flour won't help (actually, you can make glue from white flour in an emergency). Make your decision cautiously, because you may be stepping into a vortex. First, there's the yellow pill; then the green one to counter the side-effects of the yellow; then the blue... You get the idea.

Doctoring yourself begins at the table, and Andrew Saul tells you how to eat to stay healthy. If you do develop a health problem, you may be able to treat yourself, and Dr. Saul helps you with that also. This book is written in a very entertaining style, which has helped Dr. Saul to become one of the most recognized figures in nutritional medicine. His website, [...], is, in my opinion, the best health site on the web, and a major source for information about the orthomolecular approach to healing. This book is jam-packed with information and helpful in gaining a new perspective about life, medicine and the health of your family.

Dolev Gilmore, author of Nutrition and Your Child's Soul: Don Quixote's Heart-Cry