Customer Reviews

Healing from the Heart: A Leading Heart Surgeon Explores the Power of ComplementaryMedicine

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What is impressive about this book is the author's concepts of healing both heart and mind as he points out just how closely the two are interconnected. The writing style is one that will grasp the reader's attention from start to finish. The approach to holistic health is a welcome approach to healing. It is a concept that is gradually increasing in the health care field, but one that still has a long way to go before it is universally accepted by all physicians. More education and information needs to be provided in this area to all health care providers. Using the holistic approach, there can be fewer side effects from medication, less depression and a general feeling of well being during the most trying and difficult times. There is much to be said on combining Western and Eastern traditions in the process of healing. Our world can benefit dramatically from this approach and the author vividly explains why throughout the pages of this well-researched and superbly written book. It is highly recommended reading material and most deserving of a five star rating.

Dr. Oz is an accomplished heart surgeon in the field of cardiac transplantation. He describes how he combines complementary medicine (e.g. hypnosis, reflexology, yoga, message, acupuncture. Etc) with orthodox Western medicine. There is an excellent forward by Dr Dean Ornish, and an interesting epilogue containing an overview of the complementary medicine techniques. The bulk of the book contains stories of patients Dr. Oz treated using this revolutionary way. I am a cardiologist, and I have a great interest in combining western medicine with complementary medicine, which is the reason I bought this book. However this book was a bit boring to read and was also a bit of a disappointment. Nevertheless, those interested in this new medicine, which I think will be the medicine of the new millennium, will want to read this book.

A heart-transplant recipient myself, I was doing research on how to support my body to relieve the many side-effects of the immune suppressing drugs I must take when I happened to see Dr. Oz' book. I literally cried tears of joy as I read that there is a revolution finally taking place in medicine which understands that the body and mind work together for our health. Dr. Oz' book confimed my own discoveries of a thirty-five year avocation of clinical nutrition: there is a way to support a body after transplantation so that one can reduce the drugs and, in my case, I could have all medications held except one. This alone will reduce the wear and trear on my body, particularly the cleansing organs. My well-documented research is awaiting publication. In Dr. Oz we finally have the best of both worlds...the best allopathic and the opportunity for the best complementary medicine. Thank you, Dr. Oz, from the bottom of my new heart and may you be the beginning of a new era in the healing art of medicine.

I have just finished reading Dr. Mehmet Oz's "Healing From the Heart'. Dr. Oz and others at Columbia Presbyterian have done a landmark job with this publication. It is by far the most reader friendly presentation of hope supported by the scientific method that I have yet to read from the brave new world of mind/body medicine. I, myself, am one who has used the methodology described in this thought provoking work to beat a fatal disease. In my case, it was a huge renal cell cancer that featured all the elements of morbidity such as recurrence, metastasis, killer therapy and, worse, cautions from the medical community against "false hope". My visit to Columbia where I first met Dr. Oz was after the fact of a self directed program that returned me to the world of the living. I had heard of their program and it sounded so familiar that I wanted to experience it firsthand for my own reassurance. They must have found me interesting as well in view of page 136. I have become very proactive in the war against RCC, having recently been elected to the National Kidney Cancer Association board of directors. It is in this capacity that I view Dr Oz's book with some degree of urgency. The real power of this stimulating book is that Mehmet, perhaps without intending to do so, has put the question squarely to the medical community that if access to this patient friendly treatment modality as a compliment to good medical technology is beneficial to heart patients, why then is it not just as important to cancer patients? This book should be a must on the reading list of every cancer patient and care giver. If it is not too much to hope for, I can see this as required reading for oncologists. I should emphasize what Dr Oz points out many times in the text, this is most certainly not "alternative medicine". It is correctly and wonderfully called "Complimentary Medicine" and is designed to enhance rather than supplant the best in modern medicine.

Dr Oz has shown a literary skill that puts him in there with the best of writers. I daresay that even the most forlorn patient will become infected with the optimism that radiates from beginning to end. In the short time that it has taken me to write this review, over 20 Americans will have died of cancer. I am convinced that complimentary care as described in this book could have prevented many of these deaths. Read with interest my friends, the life you save could well be your own.

Dr. Mehmet has given me a new perspective on holistic health and disease. As my mother is going through the breast cancer battle, I am incorporating many of his suggestions for heart patients: soothing music after the mastectomy, foot massages as she fades in and out of conciousness, arranging to have someone loved at the bedside constantly. I am looking into getting a masseuse to come in and perform foot massage as her body receives chemotherapy. As a result of this, her attitude is positive and I believe that has a grave impact on how her body reacts to all of this trauma. I'm waiting impatiently for his next book.

Having a doctor at the peak of western medicine like Dr. Oz talk about "healing" is an incredible inspiration for everybody whether or not they are related to any kind of illness. It combines the pieces of a puzzle that should never have been seperated into two in the first place. All doctors, patients, everybody that wants to be reminded of having a heart and caring for it should read it. It is also an inspiration for me to see how a human being, Mehmet Oz, has found his mission in life and is out there successfully carrying it out.

Great information and easy read. I learned more in one book than the other 5 I read on the heart and the things we can do to help heal. As a yoga instructor I will recommend this to my ailling students.

A great book describing an insiders view of what total healing can mean in today's complex medical care system. The book has deservedly won the Books for Better America award for Best Wellness Book of the Year and should be required reading for all patients contemplating surgery.

Gee an open-minded surgeon willing to consider alternative medicine for the benefit of his patients. What a novel idea...and a sad commentary on the current state of Western medicine. It's interesting that in some of the cases the patients were reluctant to try any Eastern techniques. But once they did, both the patient and Dr. Oz found them helpful and healing. This book should be required reading in medical school. If I ever need a heart surgeon, this is the guy.

a real insight into how complementary and integrative medicine works in the hands of a master