Customer Reviews

My Beautiful Life

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I read this book and I am forever changed. I have adopted the macrobiotic lifestyle( for 3 years now) My brain tumor is gone as well as my high blood pressure, High cholesterol. arthritis and I also lost 45 pounds.I am also off of my seizure medication that I took for 17 years and the doctors told me I would never be able to go off of.I have been seizure free for 3 years also!! This way of life has been practiced by the Chinese and Japanese for thousands of years. I think it is about time that the American diet is put under scrutiny so that we can all be healthy. Richard Myer- 61 years old

After reading Mina's book my husband and I were given a shred of understanding that had eluded us for 3.5 years. The warning that should be given is, do not attempt to do this plan without a qualified Macrobiotic teacher. Our do it yourself mentality added more conditions that did not exist before this journey began. We had danced around the edges of macrobiotics and struggled through the diet for his disease found in Michio Kushi's book. However, when it became clear we were in over our heads, we took a chance and called the number in the back of "My Beautiful Life".

After a few weeks dealing with the financial enormity of traveling to Boston and studying for a week-long intensive course there, we realized it would be a matter of 'your money or your life' and our life was becoming the loser. Like the story Mina shared, my husband's family came to his rescue and sent him down there. He found a very vibrant 70 year old woman with a bright smile and confident demeaner. She discovered several conditions that had been overlooked or left as a mystery by the medical establishment. She diagnosed and then sent him home with internal and external remedies, a book of how to make these and a weekly menu to follow.

I highly recommend Mina as the Premier expert of Macrobiotics, with the caveat that you help your patient by simplifying the schedule of drinks and plasters to put on the fridge (DAY, TIME, How Long, etc)and either dictate on recorder or laminate the menu in bullet point form for ease of flow. The menu was not user friendly, especially to a 71 year old man who had never cooked more than a steak in his life and was too ill to decipher the overload of information. It is important that the patient cook for themselves and the support team just hangs on for the ride. If there are questions, read them over, then ask in one phone call as she insists on fostering independence. Be sure to read the complete booklet and recommendations in the beginning so you know what to expect and where to find the impossible to find groceries.

The good news is his condition drastically improved, most notably a tremor that had dogged him for 4 years disappearing in 2 weeks. Also recent blood work confirms that his Prostate Cancer (PSA)numbers are retreating which is also good news. Lastly, he has become more confident and has that feeling of value back that was lacking in retirement.

"My Beautiful Life" is the story of a truly extraordinary life. Whatever misgivings one might have about this book - and I agree that it could have been better written and/or edited - to conclude from it that Mina is a quack, as one of the reviewers on Amazon has done, is quite a stretch. From my own experience, nothing could be further away from the truth.

In 1996, after starting to have arthritic pains in the joints of her fingers and shoulders, my wife went for a consultation with Mina who was recommended by a friend. Mina prescribed a "medicinal macrobiotic" diet based mostly on organic grains and vegetables and said that the pains would be gone in about three weeks. I was rather skeptical about this claim, but my wife's arthritic pains did indeed vanish after about four weeks and have not returned since. After about three month of medicinal macrobiotics we started following a little less restrictive diet, still based on macrobiotic principles as delineated by Mina, and Michio Kushi in his books, and we have been on it ever since.

During the last six years I have not had as much as a common cold (my wife had a flu three years ago, but has completely recovered after only three days, and has suffered from a "cold", for two days, last year). For about ten years now we have not been taking any medications (pharmaceuticals), nor vitamins and other dietary supplements. My wife is 60 years old, I am 62 and we never felt so healthy before.

Five month ago, after experiencing blurriness in my vision, I was diagnosed by my ophthalmologist as having a cataract in my left eye. I have consulted Mina, who has told me that most of eye problems derive from liver deficiencies (which has not surprise me since I had Hepatitis B 30 years ago, and my liver was damaged as a result). She advised me to give up on my daily glass of wine and prescribed again a strict medicinal macrobiotic diet, combined with shiatsu massage and ginger compresses. The first thing I noticed after about three weeks of dieting was a surge in energy, and how calm and collected I was feeling. After three weeks, my wife has noticed that the wrinkles between my nose and my month have started flattening, exactly as Mina predicted. After less then a month I started noticing an improvement in my vision, and the blurriness in my left eye has completely disappeared after three month of dieting. Besides I have lost 11 lb. in the process.

We have known Mina for ten years now. All we can say is that she is a dedicated and experienced macrobiotic counselor who has tremendously helped me and my wife, as well as my wife's entire family, and a number of our friends and acquaintances. Both Mina and her husband are the most generous and loving friends, and we are immensely grateful to them for introducing us to macrobiotics and considerably improving our health and the quality of our lives.

Please note that there is a big difference between subscribing to a macrobiotic diet as part of a healthy lifestyle and using it to cure cancer.

Macrobiotics may indeed promote general well-being and good health. But it is a tragic mistake to believe that it can rid the body of cancer.

I only write this because I lost a dear friend to cancer who tried to cure himself by following the precepts in Ms. Dobic's book. Her claims with respect to the macrobiotic diet's ability to cure cancer are inflated and dangerous.

"This book is simple but lovely. I have personally had Mina Dobic as my teacher and councelor for over 3 years now and can honestly say she and the macrobiotic lifestyle have made a tremendous difference in my life. I look and feel younger, and when I follow her instructions I feel just like "super-woman!" If there was one perfect individual to recommend this book to it would have to be to a person who is suffering from a serious illness such as cancer. From this book you'll learn that there IS hope and there is another option in the way of healing. Mina Dobic's "My Beautiful Life" is proof that macrobiotics really does work!"

~Alicia Silverstone

a friend in california suggested this book to me, though she had never read it. i ordered it, thinkingit might be useful to me as a vegan (though macrobiotics is not entirely vegan). i agree with the negative reviews below. the book isn't helpful at all. this woman seems obsessed with herself and the cancer 'cure' seems suspicious. and it's obvious dobic got all her friends to write positive reviews for her-- none of them mention the book! this site is for buying the book, people, not talking up your friends! i couldn't care less that alicia silverstone knows her or that she makes a mean miso soup.....so does my japanese grandfather.

there are better books out there that are not so culty. for a good cookbook, i recommend the candle cafe cookbook...

Mina Dobic's story is a vibrant, heart-felt account describing the odyssey that she and her family made from sickness to health, from war to peace, and from chaos to harmony and balance. Over the years, as a macrobiotic teacher and counselor, she has helped many people in her native Yugoslavia as well as her adoptive Southern California heal themselves from serious illness.

Thanks to Mina Dobic and other courageous women and men seeking healthful alternatives, an expert panel of the National Cancer Institute recently reviewed a series of medically documented macrobiotic cancer recovery cases and unanimously approved clinical trials of the macrobiotic approach to cancer.

The National Tumor Institute in Milan, Italy, has undertaken a series of rigorous case-control studies of post-menopausal women and reported in leading medical journals, including Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, and International Journal Biol. Markers, that the macrobiotic approach could significantly reduce the likelihood of breast cancer among women at high risk of the disease, as well as recurrence in actual breast cancer patients. In their most recent study, the Italian scientists concluded "recent trials have proven" that metabolic and endocrine imbalanced associated with breast cancer can be "favorably modified through comprehensive dietary modification, shifting from Western to Mediterranean and macrobiotic diet." (F. Berrino et al., "Adjuvant Diet to Improve Hormonal and Metabolic Factors Affecting Breast Cancer Prognosis," Annals of the New York Academy of Science 1089:110-118, 2006)

Researchers at the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Moores UCSD Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, reported last year that 14 patients with recurrent prostate cancer who observed a modified macrobiotic diet reinforced by exercise and stress management experienced a significant decrease in their PSA, a major risk factor. Mean PSA doubling time increased from 11.9 months in controls to 112.3 months in the macrobiotic group, a nearly tenfold improvement. (G. Saxe et al., Potential Attenuation of Disease Progression in Recurrent Prostate Cancer with Plant-Based Diet and Stress Reduction," Integr Cancer Ther 5(3)206-13, 2006.)

Mina Dobic and her family, colleagues, and associates have been in the forefront of the modern diet and health revolution. My Beautiful Life is a testament to the power of the human spirit and a reliable guide for individuals and families seeking an effective natural approach to their health.

Luckily, this book came to me at a time of crisis. Mina's story inspired me to change my own life and health. No matter what medical science has to say about how diet, lifestyle or emotions affect our healing there is one indisputable fact, Mina after being diagnosised with terminal cancer is still here almost 20 years later to tell her story. I personally will be forever grateful to her for sharing her story. A story that has helped so many others to create their own stories of healing in their own lives. I thank Mina and macrobiotics for my wonderful health and for helping me to create my own wonderful life.

This book is the inspirational journey of the strong, dedicated, compassionate healer, teacher, friend and parent. Mina's story, her strenght and her teachings inspired and continue inspiring hunderds (thousands) of people leading them from sickness to health. I am very proud to be her friend and her student, and honored to be part of this book, that I am sure will touch many people and help them in their search for health and ultimately in their transition to true balance and happiness in life.

This book has changed my life. My husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor two years ago. We decided to use non-traditional methods to heal his tumor. We read Mina Dobic's book and we took a leap of faith. We completely changed our lifestyle.We now are totally macrobiotic. My husband's brain tumor is gone. His arthritis, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are also gone! He lost 45 pounds and has never been healthier in his life.I lost 35 pounds, my acid reflux and tumors under my arms! We went from planning a funeral to planning what we will do when we retire.I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be healthy without drugs!The word macrobiotic means "Great Life" and that is what we now have! We will never go back to the American diet.Katie Myer age 47 teacher .