Customer Reviews

Recalled by Life

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

For years cancer patients and fans of alternative healing have shared this book with each other. That is how I was introduced. Mercifully I am not a cancer patient and as a chiropractor I am not legally able to treat cancer or advise patients on teatment other than to point out the obvious. (That is still legal, thank God.) People are free to take control of their own treatment and there are effective alternatives.

This book is an excellent starting point for any one who has cancer, has a friend or family member with cancer or who whishes to prevent cancer (that should include pretty much the whole squad!) The story follows an M.D. who is very much instilled with the standard medical philosophy of healing as he makes a complete 180 degree turnaround in his basic belief system, which saves his life. Feel free to e-mail me for more info or insight. There are definitely two very different approaches to dealing with disease in the US today. Conventional cancer therapy, sometimes refered to as cut burn and poison, verses diet, herbs, vitamins and healing energy.

I have read both books "Recalled to Life" and "Living Well Naturally" (which contains recipes) written by Dr. Sattilaro. Dr. Sattilaro evoked a complete life change, spiritual, dietary as well as physical, after meeting some young men in a very unusual way who persuaded him to pursue a macrobiotic diet.

Its true that Dr. Sattilaro died a number of years after he was told he was going to die but not because of a change of diet as reported by many vegetarians. He actually was having a great deal of pain in his hands which was believed to have come from a previous medical treatment. It was believed that this pain was brought about by a lack of testostrone and he was injected with same which caused the cancer to flair.

I actually spoke to doctors who knew Dr. Sattilaro prior to his death. It was they who related this story to me.

I highly recommend this book as required reading for those newly diagnosed with cancer(particularly prostate cancer) as well as those who have friends or relatives that have been diagnosed with this disease. The Doctor's approach may not be for everyone but it has worked for many and may be coupled with conventional treatment.

My father was diagnosed with cancer and given six months to live. This book became a bible of sorts. My father changed his diet and followed other guidelines found in this book. After five months the cancer was completely gone and he's been cancer free for 17 years now. This book was primarily important for it's underlying mesage that "You Can Beat cancer" and my dad is proof.

This is a wonderful book and should be read by anyone who is serious about implementing an alternative in curing cancer and/or anyone who wants to prevent cancer. The reader/critic (below) who trashes this book would do well to re-read it. Unfortunately, it is only a testimonial and doesn't prove that macrobiotics is THE cure. Nevertheless, with the suggestive evidence given by Dr. Sattilaro, the AMA and its cohorts would do well to subject macrobiotics to the usual double blind placebo controlled studies. Will they? Of course not. Too much ego and money are involved. Also, macrobiotics is "too hard" and environmentally friendly for our hedonistic, food addicted culture to embrace on any significant scale. In the end, we get what we ask for . . . degenerative disease, poisonous drugs, rich arrogant doctors whom we place on a pedestal, helpless terrified livestock, and an environment which is fast falling apart. Shame on all of us.

By the way, Dr. Sattilaro did ultimately die of cancer (more than 10 years after remission) when he abandoned macrobiotics and went back to gourmet eating. So it goes.

As a newly diagnosed cancer patient, I found this book very honest, objective (believe it or not) and informative. I believe that Dr. Sattilaro's skepticism and his own critcism at times provides for an objective look at a Western doctor's experiment with Eastern philosophy. I understand first-hand many of the tests he underwent, even if the technology has changed somewhat, but what is most surprising is that Western medicine has not been able to make that much improvement in the last quarter century since this book was written. If we look at cancer as an immune deficiency and where cells go into overdrive, isn't it even conceivable that balancing your system could be of some benefit and that strengthening the system with good nutrition and exercise is better than weakening it with toxic chemicals? It's food for thought (pun intended).

Anthony J. Sattilaro did die, of his cancer, I understand. But it was due to a change of his diet, away from a strict macrobiotic diet that had previously cured his cancer. This book is very good and should be read by anyone who has a serious health problem, especially cancer. Then go on to other sources to learn how to implement the macrobiotic diet.

I just want to point out that, yes, Dr. Sattilaro died in 1989, as one of the reviewers points out. However, Dr. Sattilaro died of pneumonia, not prostate cancer. I also met him in person about a year before his death. He had by then stopped following the recommendations he describes in his book and he was very weak. I'm not rating this book [...]because I don't want to influence anyone. Read the book and make up your own mind.

I knew Dr. Sattilaro personally from my days as a reporter in New York. I interviewed him when the book was published. He had the typical western skepticism and scientific approach and this was an asset in analyzing macrobiotics. His body was riddled with cancer, he was in excruciating pain and his own medical colleagues (he was president of the hospital) had given him up for dead. His adoption of an extremely low protein and no-sugar diet (and by that is meant no fruit juice, no honey, so sweets period, not just sugar) gave him relief from the pain and sent him into remission. He wanted it emphasized that he had also undergone western treatments including surgery and felt that helped too. The macrobiotic diet is not infallible. Disease is partly a matter of genes, diet and perhaps above all, the hidden thoughts, motivations and desires within our own psyche. But in my opinion, cancer cells need protein and sweets in order to grow, and they recede when denied those things. This book is a superb introduction to the subject. I give it five stars. Also recommended: "Healing Miracles from Macrobiotics" by Jean Kohler.

I have memories of my grandfather dying of cancer, so when I saw this book I immediately read it. This book is very inspirational and the author's story of surviving cancer holds your attention throughout. I like the fact that he didn't just talk about diet, but also mentioned how his faith helped him through. However I am not entirely sure if macrobiotics (the diet mentioned in this book) is the way to go for cancer patients.

Dr. Sattilaro's book it well written, seems honest and is informative. However, the plural of anecdote is not data. For the sake of full disclosure, I have eaten a mostly vegetarian diet (no red meat or poultry with some fish) for 38 years. The simple diet at the core of macrobiotics makes good general health sense. It is not the prescription rather the fanaticism of the prescribers that I question. I have known very few people who make more absolute claims with less data than those who push macrobiotics. In my experience, their zeal fits them with religious fanatics of all flavors. but, like all doctors (and all witch-doctors), they bury their mistakes.

As Mark Twain wrote long ago: "Be careful when you read health books; you might die of a misprint." I believe that resistance to absolutism and fundamentalism is a quality of life issue. As a general observation, fanaticism lowers the quality of life for the fanatics and for those around them. After I watched my dear friend, Bill Neal (a world-class macrobiotic fanatic), die of aggressive cancer complicated by macrobiotic-faith-healer misdiagnosis, I became more vocal in asserting that no approach to medicine can claim to have all the answers... especially those practices with almost none of the data.

My dad's mother had 13 children. My grandmother died of a heart attack after carrying a big vacuum-cleaner up three flights of stairs at the age of 85. She said something I've never forgotten: "This world would be a far better place if people paid as much attention to what comes out of their mouths as they do to what they put in'em." There's more to good health than good eating. Believing that you have all the answers while possessing almost none of the research is bad mental hygiene that leads to lousy medicine.

"Recalled By Life," is a good book. If you have cancer, or worry about getting it, certainly look at improving your diet, but don't fire your doctor; find a holistic healer, who did not skip medical school.

Joey Tranchina, M.A.
... Lest anyone take this as professional medical advice, my Master's Degree is in poetry.


PS. The title quote: "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime..." from Reinhold Niebuhr's 'Irony of American History," is very beautiful.