Customer Reviews

Perfect Health

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....Deepak Chopra is a prolific and successful author. He also creates great titles--who can resist the offer of “Perfect Health?” I checked it out at the library because I was compelled to see if the book lived up to the title. Chopra introduces us to what he calls the “quantum mechanical human body.” His theory is that “by treating the underlying quantum mechanical body itself, Ayurveda can bring about changes far beyond the reach of conventional medicine, confined as it is to the level of gross physiology.” Sounds good to me. Let’s get to those devils, the details. First we take tests to learn which body type we are, Vata, Pitta, or Kapha, or a combination thereof. We learn that these names also refer to doshas, “metabolic principles.” By implication, we surmise that we must keep these doshas in balance or our health will suffer. We learn about the twenty-five gunas, or fundamental qualities. We learn about the subdoshas. We address How To Balance Your Doshas: diet, exercise, daily routine, seasonal routine. Then we get right to it, Opening the Channels of Healing. This encompasses panchakarma, meditation, primordial sound, pulse diagnosis, marma therapy, bliss technique, aroma therapy and Gandharva music therapy. That’s where my problems with this book began. After convincing me of the value of meditation I learned that “meditation needs to be learned from a qualified instructor, it cannot be learned from a book.” Primordial sound, I read, “is a medical treatment taught by a qualified Ayurvedic doctor after a complete diagnosis of the patient’s condition.” Then “any patient who comes in for a consultation with an Ayurvedic doctor is routinely given pulse diagnosis.” “Most Ayurvedic clinics offer a special marma therapy that includes instruction for home treatment.” As for the bliss technique, “Instruction is by a qualified teacher who is also an Ayurvedic physician and takes about an hour; a complete medical evaluation precedes the actual teaching.” Finally, at aroma therapy, we find something we can do for ourselves, but we are pointed to page 317, where we may find sources for oil, aroma pots and diffusers. Ghandharva music also requires no instruction beyond the book, except of course we are told to buy the tapes and CDs “from the sources listed on page 317.” The marketing continues with Ayurvedic herbs, called rasayana. After selling us on the value of same, “You can obtain further information regarding these rasayanas by writing to Quantum . . .” We are also encouraged to drink teas appropriate to our body types--yes, from sources on page 317. My biggest disappointment, though, came in the section on diet. I learned that I should not be eating many of the items that have kept me healthy for sixty-five years, onions, garlic, carrots, spinach, tomatoes, bananas, yogurt, cheese and eggs, and that I should be drinking cow’s milk which I’ve not touched in decades, and I should be eating ghee, which is butter with the water cooked out of it. Chopra writes that I should minimize raw foods, which flies in the face of everything I have learned about food over the last many decades.
This book contains some reasonable ideas. The rub is that the book buyer gets only a few ideas they can use and a lot of ideas for which the author tells us we need an Ayurvedic doctor or products. As usual in his books, he provides scientific tidbits, sensational anecdotes and little scientific data.
Ayurvedic theory and practice dates back in India more than 5,000 years. Chopra urges us that Ayurvedic practitioners and practices will give us longevity and perfect health. Ayurveda is “the science of life” or, as Chopra prefers, “the knowledge of life span.” Others say it is the science of longevity. I checked that out. According to The World Health Organization, India ranks 134th of the 191 countries recognized for “healthy life expectancy.” (The USA ranks 24th.) There are other reasons why Indian health statistics are so poor, but it is difficult to take seriously an ancient practice that seems to have failed in its native country. I think that Deepak Chopra is an essentially good person who has been caught up in the American mania for fame and fortune. I suggest that our money is better spent on books that give instructions we can follow without travelling to a doctor’s office or buying exotic foods, herbs and essences.

I purchased this book in hopes of finding a book that would be an introduction the the science of Ayurveda for the students at my yoga studio who were unfamiliar with the topic. Chopra presented the information in terms a Westerner might easily grasp. He succeded, from my point of wiew, in translating some of the more esoteric ideas and ways of looking at the interplay between nature, our minds and our bodies.

My main frustration with the book was that it seemed to be very much an published advertisement for the Chopra Center in La Jolla, CA. For instance, he would suggest a person of a particuar constitution would benefit from drinking an herbal tea specific to their "type." But rather than mention the herbal ingredients in the tea, he would suggest it could be purchased from the website listed. As well, suggestions for aromatherapy as a support of health mentioned no specific essential oils, but once again, directs the reader to a website from which they can make apurchase. To my disappointment, this theme continued throughout the book.

If you are looking to simply get an overview of what Ayurveda is in clear consise language, this is a good STARTING point. For more specifics, David Frawley and Vasant Lad have much more to offer in the many books they have authored on the topic.

Perfect Health offers a good introduction to Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of healing introduced to the larger American audience by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1970's and popularized by Chopra himself. Chopra presents the ancient healing art in a modern idiom, blending insights from the ancient Ayurvedic sages with modern-day information on quantum physics, diet, and lifestyle. He presents a perfectly accessible tool for any reader who is interested in learning more about Ayurvedic methods for influencing health. A body-type questionnaire in the beginning of the book sets the stage for the information that follows. By following the listed recommendations for your body-type (including exercise and diet) Chopra believes you will improve your health dramatically.

My only concern with this book, and Chopra's books in general, is the subtle way he blends advertisements for Maharishi Ayurvedic services and products in with the information. He presents the benefits of Transcendental Meditation, for example, without offering any insights on how to perform the meditation. Want to learn? Chopra advises you to call your local Maharishi Ayurveda clinic. It maybe true that TM has to be taught face to face, but Chopra's veiled advertisements extend to almost every suggested healing exercise in the book, from aromatherapy to primordial sound techniques, to specific herbs that can be mail-ordered from the Maharishi Ayurveda center. To be fair, he does offer helpful diagrams on yoga postures as well as very specific diet techniques, but after reading the inspiring book, Quantum Healing and now Perfect Health, I have to admit: I am a little disappointed in Chopra's style. But I guess I should have known, perfect health, like most things in life, is not free.

This is an overly long book on eastern medical theory. It hooks the reader with a quiz to discover their body type. In the end very little is offered as practical ways to change the balance, except to check into the Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, CA.

The first few chapters of this book were extremely interesting to me, but the more I read the more confused I became. Prehaps it was because when I took the body type test I came out 50-50 between two types. Chopra gives an excellent overview to Ayurvedic medicine and does have some help for people who are not clearly one body type or another, but the bulk of the book is spent on helping people who are clearly a Vata, Pitta, or Kapha. In fact some of the information for 50-50 types was contradictory which only heightend my confusion.

I recomend to borrow a friend's or library's copy and take the body type test first. If you are clearly one body type over another and interested in Eastern medicine I would highly recomend this book. But it didn't help me personally.

I'm amazed at the controversy here over the "diet" that Dr. Chopra recommends. This is not a "diet book." It is an excellent introduction to the world of Ayurveda, the ancient Indian health system that teaches everything is a balance, and that there are no wholesale answers that work for everyone. We must all weigh our own circumstances and needs and conditions, and make smart decisions based on our own unique situations. Lemmings need not look for answers here-buy Dr. Atkins and follow it to the letter if what your looking for is instructions, rules, and someone else to do the thinking for you. Everyone else, get this book to learn how to think about your health intelligently and for yourselves.

When you pick up a "Health" book these days, you read things mainly about what to eat, and what supplements to take. In Perfect Health, Deepak Chopra does not speak one word about supplements, which I found to be very refreshing. There's a lot of conflicting views on supplements today. There's even more with diet. Ayurveda is a new way of looking at what to eat. When I applied which foods I was supposed to eat in what climate I was living in, I experienced a surge in energy, mental clarity, and well-being. And that's only the diet aspect of the book. Individuality is very important when speaking of diet.

This book also includes chapters on meditation, essential oils, massage, getting in touch with nature, freeing the mind from stress, etc. It's an excellent book for a beginner or for seasoned veterans in the health field. It just may change your opinion on MANY different issues. It sure did for me.

This book which describes the methodology of Ancient life science of India, called Ayurveda is a good reading as it gives newer meaning (very different from Wersten Medical System's own interpretation of these issues) to things realted to mental and physical health of human beings.

What has been practised in India for many centuries and forgotten by us Indians thereafter for many centuries has been brought to lime light in this book, which seem to be a result of demand in the west to understand Indian science of health and healing.

The explaination of various concepts of Ayurveda, namely body types and their highlights and drawbacks, concept of Doshas and their balancing and also a thing or two about every thing related to Ayurveda e.g. meditation, Yoga etc have been done in a scientific but simple manner. Coming from an MD, That Dr Chopra is, it also sounds very convencing, though there are occasions where you feel that some of the results quoted in the book are beyond the relms of reality (as percived with current contemperory understanding of medicines).

But for the recommendations for his own or Maharshi products (well, I think when the book was published, there might not have been any other outlets selling Ayurveda products in US), which a reader is any way at a libirty to disregard, this is one facinating book on ancient life science from the ancient country called india. Even if one does not believe in what is said in it, one should still read it to learn about a different perspective on healing and well being.

In all of Deepak Chopra's books, I've admired his extraordinary compassion for his fellow man. This book is no exception. In it, Chopra recognizes the basic differences among body types and he offers us a lifestyle plan for maximizing the health of each, based of the ancient Indian tradition of Ayuveda. Recognizing the fact that you can't fit a square peg into a round hole, Chopra doesn't make the mistake of suggesting that we all strive for the severely anorexic look that is destroying the health of so many today. A few of the previous reviewers have attacked Chopra, saying he is overweight. I've never noticed that and I've seen him many times. Even if he were, his weight should not be an issue here. And isn't it time that SOMEONE put wellness before superficiality? Besides, what could be more stunning than glowing, radiant health?

Chopra has an interesting, quantum view of the body. Instead of considering it as something solid, he sees the boy as interweaving systems of energies that are constantly being consumed and renewed. Ayurvedic medicine gives us the tools to intervene at the quantum level where we are being recreated every day.

This book provides an exhaustive step-by-step programme of mind-body medicine adapted to individual needs, based on the person's mind-body type. This typology forms the basis of a focused Ayurvedic program of stress reduction, diet, neuromuscular integration, exercise and daily routines.

Part I, A Place Called Perfect Health, explains these various body types.

Part II, The Quantum Mechanical Body, explains the channels of healing via meditation, healing sounds, marma -, music - and aromatherapy.

Part III, Living In Tune With Nature, deals with diet, exercise and a seasonal routine that fits your type.

The book concludes with an appendix, glossary, bibliography and index.