Customer Reviews

Taking Charge of Your Health : Understanding the System Could Save Your Life

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I just wish I had had this book when my mother was fighting cancer. It's a winner.

Concise, well written, and packed with valuable information and suggestions on understanding and managing one's interaction with the medical world, this book makes a great gift for someone facing a health challenge - or for yourself. You or your friend will certainly find this book more useful than a potted plant or a hot casserole.

I am not facing a health challenge, but found this book interesting, informative, and good advance prepartation for any future health challenge to me or members of my family. One tip, alone, is worth the price of the book - if a doctor tells you unpleasant news, ask him to put it in writing. So often, when one gets home and tries to repeat the dignosis and options to family, one forgets important facts or has misunderstood what the doctor said.

The book is full of incredibly useful information, charts, and examples. If you or a loved one are seriously ill, it will become your Bible. I am so impressed by this book that I plan to send it to my friends and family as a Christmas gift this year.

Informative book with many practical tips for people with serious health problems or chronic diseases. I especially like chapter 3...Getting It Together, regarding putting together a medical resume. This is great advice for people who are seeing multiple physicians. I wish this book had been available when I was visiting several neurologists prior to the diagnosis of essential tremor.

This is a fabulous "hands on" read - simple, direct and succinct. Not a lot of medical jargon. Touches topics we all need to consider such as "If You Are Having Problems With Your Doctor" and a sample letter for changing doctors within the same practice. There's also one if you choose to go outside the medical practice. The authors offer a pragmatic sensitive approach to daily hassles such as navigating the insurance company maze, and what to do when you and your doctor disagree. Get this book before you need it.

It is clear to me from personal experience that it is very difficult, even for a physician, to navigate the medical care maze. A physician, however, is usually armed with the ability to make decisions based on a background of extensive medical training. In most cases, patients are passive subjects who must trust that their physicians and their system are making the correct decisions for them. This trust must exist in the current medical economic climate of cost containment and the resultant financial pressure on physicians. The outcomes are, unfortunately, not always ideal. "Taking Charge of Your Health" is an extremely thoughtful, practical, open and honest tool which can be used to effectively guide a patient through this maze. The concepts are not difficult and may seem to some to be common sense. It is the guidance and permission the authors give to the patient in how to implement the concepts that gives this book its unique character. And it is the implementation that will accomplish the objective - to empower patients to feel that they have greater control over their lives. - Detlef Kutzscher, CEO, Pacific Neurosciences Institute, Orinda, Californi

"Taking Charge of Your Health" is a valuable resource that will help anyone dealing with a significant illness learn about what questions to ask, where to get more information, how to avoid numerous potential problems, how to deal with the insurance and medical systems, how to cope with the stresses and emotional aspects - in all, how to be more involved in the decisions that affect your health care.- Jeffrey Lindenbaum, Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, University of Washington

When confronted with illness, many of us tend to lose some of our basic reflexes and coping strategies as well as the ability to make informed and rapid decisions. This book is unique in its perspective of offering insightful advice that ranges from the very basic to the more detailed and subtle..."Taking Charge of Your Health"...is a helpful addition to the medical literature at large, but particularly useful in the very important matter of facing adversity in a proactive and positive way. - Debasish Tripathy, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF/Mount Zion Cancer Center

"Taking Charge of Your Health" is a book that every HEALTHY person should own. This compassionate hands on guide will arm you with the best patient do's and don'ts, so that if the day comes that you find yourself ill - you will be empowered and know how to be the integral focus of your health care team. - Nancy L. Snyderman, M.D., Medical Correspondent, ABC News