Customer Reviews

4 Weeks to Healthy Digestion: A Harvard Doctor’s Proven Plan for Reducing Symptoms of Diarrhea,Constipation, Heartburn, and More

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There is really nothing in this book that isn't already widely available for free through other sources. Basically, it's a book for novices, especially those who are ignorant of health and nutrition and eat the typical high fat, high sugar, industrial nonfoods that make up much of the American diet. But long-time sufferers of any of the conditions addressed in this book have probably already done their research and tried multiple strategies, including those suggested here. Save your money.

WHY I BOUGHT THIS BOOK: When there is something wrong with me, I get the best advice. A four year bio-medical science degree in nursing and work in advanced management consulting underscores this quest for the finest information. My strategy came into high use when, at 47, I entered what became a perimenopausal transition from hell.

CHIEF COMPLAINT: Eights weeks ago and two years post-menopausal, I encountered severe painful ongoing gastro-intestinal dysfunction and near failure. Coupled with this gastric upset was my usual (but more intense this fall) ragweed and leaf mould allergies/rhinitis. I immediately sent for '4 Weeks to Healthy Digestion'(2009)by Harvard's Dr. Greenberger, a professor of gastroenterology, now in his 51st year of practice. (Harvard's the best, right?)

WAS THIS BOOK HELPFUL?: Greenberger's book created mostly questions. FIRST, about the co-author, no information is given. In the Library of Congress fine print her 1952 date of birth and another gastro book title is revealed and that's it. What contribution did each of these authors make to the book? Is it, on the whole, ghost-written?

NEXT, except for celiac sprue, there are no footnotes and no reference section of replicated, reliable, valid bio-science literature. The reader is being asked to accept Dr. Greenberger's un-footnoted advice as current and correct. After 50+ years of practice, would it not be effortless for Greenberger to cite the biomedical scholarship that his elimination diets, treatments and other information are based on?

LAST, chapter 9 Communicating with Your Doctor, Greenberger is not for do-it-yourself doctoring. He is against patients doing research and presenting in the physician's office with a substantiated idea/opinion of what their diagnosis is and how it's to be managed.

DIY DOCTOR RATIONALE: I think Greenberger's position that patients (especially women) not present as sophisticated and highly informed is wrong-headed and potentially lethal*. This belief stems from my experience of futilely trying to get quality science-based medical help for a near disabling, decade-long transition.

In the late 30s to early 40s estrogen in the human female is NOT decreasing but has been found to become chaotic and high(Prior, JC. Endocrine Reviews 1998:19:4:397). This is the start of perimenopausal transition. [One of the pleiotropic/many effects of higher estrogen is to enhance inflammatory/allergic response by increasing macrophage proliferation ( Smith, RC. Med Hypo 1991:36:2:178).]

Three large recent studies - Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS, 1998), Women's Estrogen for Stroke Trail (WEST, 2001), and Women's Health Initative (WHI,2001) - are amazingly concordant that estrogen replacement puts menopausal women at high risk of stroke or cancer. Yet, many doctors and gynaecologists are still prescribing estrogen replacement therapy (PloS Med 2010:7:9e10003350). *Two of my friends accepted estrogen replacement. One, age 64, has just died of stroke, and the other, age 69, is dying of cancer. As recently as last summer I, age 57, was offered estrogen while presenting with a boat-load of chaotic/high estrogen symptoms.

TREATING IN THE DARK: www.pubmed.gov (world's largest med library) turned up an astonishing study just release online in Gatroenterology 2011, lead researcher H.P. Parkman M.D. Of 243 patients with a recognized complex of severe gastric symptoms to include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, bloating, abdominal pain, constipation and heart burn (gastroesophageal reflux disease, GERD) 88% (214) were female, with a mean age of 41 years. 19% revealed an inflammatory illness at an earlier date (I had allergies.) This cluster of symptoms - varyingly and in-exactly referred to as idiopathic gastroparesis (IG) if severe or dyspepsia if milder - is reported in this study to be NOT well understood and the precise clinical features UNKNOWN and NOT measured before this study!

To discover doctors were fumbling around in the dark, not exactly sure what they were treating in what may turn out to be a largely female-specific gastro phenomenon is most un-reassuring. IG appears greatly over-represented in women. Given the mean age of onset of 41 years, IG is probably tied directly to perimenopausal transition and driven by midlife chaotic/high estrogen.

GENDER BIAS: In 227 pages, Dr. Greenberger has just two paragraphs (p142-143) to offer women in transition - a cohort potentially making up 80+% of his client load given the 2011 study. He indicates while irritable bowel syndrome (80% of IBS patients are female) and diarrhea may improve with menopause, this is not the case with GERD and heartburn. Already beaten down by days of unrelenting alimentary agony, an enormous bereft feeling swept over me when I read this seemingly thin, pitiless, un-helpful information. I could be wrong, but I think these meagre paragraphs speak to disinterest, indifference and neglect of the adult female's health needs.

I have continued on to find quite a lot in pubmed that is helpful.
By April Heather Ewart Andrews RN BN

I bought this book for my wife and she likes it.

When it comes to medical, I prefer a book that is by a medical doctor as opposed to a book that is merely opinion or self taught. This book being written by a Harvard Doctor was the selling point for me.

However, If one has severe or a long history of symptoms, I would see a doctor before doing what any book says. I am a firm believer in not only good doctors, but in more than one doctor's recommendation when necessary.

Conclusion: This book can be useful in identifying which foods may be causing a minor digestive problem. However, again, no book is a substitute for good medical attention and advice.

I am actually a patient of Dr. Greenberger (I see him for mastocytosis) and I think he is a phenomenal doctor, very easily one of the best I have ever had. This book is enjoyable and easy to read...giving a lot of useful information without being overly dense.
a+