YOU: The Owner's Manual: An Insider's Guide to the Body that Will Make You Healthier and Younger [Hardcover]

Michael F. Roizen (Author), Mehmet C. Oz (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 3, 2005

Between your full-length mirror and high-school biology class, you probably think you know a lot about the human body. While it's true that we live in an age when we're as obsessed with our bodies as we are with celebrity hairstyles, the reality is that most of us know very little about what chugs, churns, and thumps throughout this miraculous, scientific, and artistic system of anatomy. Yes, you've owned your skin-covered shell for decades, but you probably know more about your cell-phone plan than you do about your own body. When it comes to your longevity and quality of life, understanding your internal systems gives you the power, authority, and ability to live a healthier, younger, and better life.

You: The Owner's Manual challenges your preconceived notions about how the human body works and ages, then takes you on a tour through all of the highways, back roads, and landmarks inside of you. After taking a quiz that tests your body of knowledge, you'll learn about all of your blood-pumping, food-digesting, and keys-remembering systems and organs.

Just as important, you'll get the facts and advice you need to keep your body running long and strong. You'll find out how diseases start and how they affect your body -- as well as advice on how to prevent and beat conditions that threaten your quality of life. Complete with exercise tips, nutritional guidelines, simple lifestyle changes, and alternative approaches, You: The Owner's Manual gives you an easy, comprehensive, and life-changing how-to plan for fending off the gremlins of aging. To top it off, you'll also get the great-tasting and calorie-saving Owner's Manual Diet -- a thirty-recipe eating plan that's designed with only one goal in mind: to help you live a younger life.

Welcome to your body. Why don't you come on in and take a look around?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If there ever was a pair of docs who can make the small intestine seem truly intriguing, here they are. Dr. Mehmet Oz is an alternative-medicine maverick and a cardiologist known to implement acupuncture during open-heart surgery. Dr. Michael Roizen developed the RealAge concept of calculating one's biological, as opposed to chronological, age. Here they've whipped up a witty guide to the workings of the entire body, appropriate not just for those who can't tell their pancreas from their pituitary. Even Cheers’ Cliff Claven types who think they know it all will likely be humbled by the 50-question "body-quotient" quiz that starts off the book.

With much sassy humor (they describe the adrenals as similar in shape to Mr. Potato Head's hat), they give a guided tour of the body's anatomy and major systems (hormonal, nervous, digestive, sensory, etc.) including plenty of fascinating trivia along the way. How often should you get your thyroid level checked? How much gas does the average person produce in a day? And, most important, how many times a year do most people have sex?? Drs. Oz and Roizen know. They also reveal plenty of bizarre (and potentially life-saving) facts such as this: If your earlobe has a prominent vertical wrinkle, it's likely that your arteries are aging faster than they ought to be. If only 8th-grade health class had been this fun.

The docs' main goal in presenting all this info is twofold: first, it's your body, so shouldn't you finally learn how it works? And, second, they want to help teach ways of preserving the body's health and youthfulness. To that end, they've included an "Owner's Manual Diet," a 10-day menu plan designed not for weight loss, but to make you feel "years younger." Its simple recipes are each meant to benefit a certain body system, such as Tomato Bruschetta, packed with the antioxidant lycopene, which has been proven to boost immunity. --Erica Jorgensen

From Publishers Weekly

Anti-aging guru Roizen and celebrated heart surgeon Oz combine their popular approaches to patient-centered care in this assessment of how much, or more to the point, how little, readers know about their bodies. After taking the quizzes in the book, readers may feel shocked by their ignorance of basic anatomy and the processes required to maintain physical and mental functioning. Each chapter focuses on a body part or system (heart, brain, digestive, reproductive, etc.) and discusses diseases associated with it; genetic and lifestyle influences on its aging process; and foods, supplements and habits that can prevent or reverse related illnesses. The book has an entertaining feel: friendly elves guide readers through illustrations of the body and cartoons feature alien creatures that enter the body and cause illness. The humor is irreverent (e.g., muscle cells surrounding dead heart tissue "start fighting with each other, like Jerry Springer's guests, instead of supporting each other, like Oprah's" [incidentally, the authors will appear on Oprah in May to promote the book]). Despite a 10-day, 30-recipe food plan and a less-is-more exercise regime, however, readers may have trouble using the information to create a lifestyle that will fulfill the authors' promise of weight loss, disease prevention and longevity. Even the recipes target one specific area of the body and weaken the overall conceptual framework. This lighthearted book will be most useful to those who like their health lessons served with a side of humor. (May 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Collins; 1 edition (May 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060765313
• ISBN-13: 978-0060765316
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (418 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #245,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

254 of 257 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Anatomy and physiology for dummies January 10, 2008

By MaryL.

Format:Hardcover

In short, just a very fun and informative book with several worthy goals. For one, it educates your average person in the inner workings of the human body. It does this quite entertainingly through frequent quizzes, trivia, facts, and interesting pictures- for instance the authors use a lot of elf cartoon. Corny, but fun.

Additionally, the book also gives one many helpful tips on how to keep their body running smoother. Since there is a lot of medical information, I really would like to have seen a reference section though at the end of the book. That being said, however, it is a pretty informative and amusing read and should enhance the well-being of many- especially middle-agers like me who want to learn more about how their bodies work so they can keep it running smoothly in the years to come.

281 of 290 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A good, basic manual addressing total body health needs May 4, 2005

By Beth Cholette #1 HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

As the subtitle to this book suggests, the main purpose of this manual is to help you live a long, healthy life through educating you about your body and its needs. The first author, Michael Roizen, is the pioneer of the RealAge concept--i.e., the idea that age is better measured by lifestyle factors rather than chronology--and he incorporates much of this concept into the current work. In order to get a baseline sense of how much you already know about your body, the first chapter includes a self-assessment, The Body-Quotient Quiz. This multiple-choice questionnaire offers some surprising answers to questions as diverse as "What is the genetic reason that men typically want more sex than women?" and "What is the main purpose of skin?"

The book proceeds to devote a separate chapter to each of the following areas/systems of the body: the heart; the brain and nervous system; bones, joints, and muscles; the lungs; the digestive system; the sexual and sensory organs; the immune system; hormones; and cancer. Each chapter provides basic educational information, much of which is conveyed in easy-to-read "myth busters" and "factoid" formats. Then, once you have learned all the essential information about that area, the authors present a "Live Younger Action Plan," which is a step-by-step guide to making the lifestyle adjustments that can help you to live a longer, healthier life. Some of these actions involve simply making yourself more aware of your own body--eg, finding out your cholesterol levels--while others involve an actual behavioral change such as modifying what you eat.... The final 50 pages of the book provide a simple diet plan based on very general guidelines; for instance, the authors offer recommendations under the categories of "foods to eat daily," "foods to eat weekly," and "foods to avoid." Also in this section is a suggested ten-day menu schedule which includes approximately 40 recipes.

This book contains a wealth of important information about general health and well-being. However, readers who already have a fundamental understanding of the factors which contribute to a healthy lifestyle may find this manual to be too basic. Adding to the book's sometimes primitive presentation are the illustrations, which, while clear and helpful, also border on juvenille in that they include depictions of strange, elf-like figures. Overall, however, this book imparts a great deal of vital knowledge in a simple, straight-forward manner, and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking to learn basic facts about their body's needs. Read more ›

175 of 188 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Your heart, lungs, and liver want you to buy this book August 19, 2005

By M. D. Copeland

Format:Hardcover

This is a truly great and informative book. I've been a practicing physician for almost 25 years, and I can't tell you how many patients suffer from the most basic ignorance of their own body!

I couldn't put it any easier than this. Roizen does a terrific job of squeezing years of medical training into a human body user's manual that's fun and easy to read. I now recommend it to all my patients!

Don't skip this book. Do your body a favor and learn a little about it.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A great BASIC OVERVIEW of how to take care of yourself. June 7, 2006

By streem

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book may be a five star read for those people who do not already know its contents, but for me, and anyone else who is generally health-conscious and up to speed on diet and exercise habits, it was old news. For example, if you already know that asprin thins the blood and therefore reduces risk of brain and heart disorders, if you already know that omega-3 fatty acids contained in salmon help the heart function properly, if you already know that peanuts, olive oil, and multivitamins are necessary parts of your diet, if you already know that 20 minutes of aerobic exercise three times a week is healthy, then you probably will not learn too much by reading this book.
As far as the way it is written...there are way too many cheesy analogies that stray from the facts. It seems the book is written for teenagers but geered for adults.
Overall it is a good general health guide, but it is by no means revolutionary or even deeply informative. I would recommend it to anyone who has not previously researched diet and nutrition.

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent primer on health and wellness January 1, 2006

By David

Format:Hardcover

This book is for people who want a breezy overview of the human body and how its internals work. The authors cover everything from (literally) head to toe, with chapters on your senses, your internal organs, your brain, your muscles, your bones, your hormones, and so on. There is of course a chapter specifically devoted to everyone's favorite body-related subject (sex), and another one devoted to everyone's least-favorite body-related subject (cancer). The final chapter consists of an "Owner's Manual Diet." (More about that below.)

This isn't an anatomy textbook -- you get a description of all the important parts of your body, but the scientific names are incidental to the information about how care and treatment of all your various parts contributes to your health. And to make it more "readable," the text is full of rather cheesy jokes, and the illustrations are embellished with humorous variations on Latin names as well as little elves crawling around inside plumbing apparatus representing your internal organs. "You: The Owner's Manual" does not look or read like a textbook, but the humor is a bit sophomoric at times. Overlook that, and you'll learn a lot of interesting facts that even a fairly savvy student of health and fitness might not know. They even talk about how often you should poop and what it should look like! So maybe that's not something you thought you wanted to know, but now that you know it's actually another indicator of your health, aren't you curious?

Throughout the book, the authors refer to your "RealAge," which is supposedly the biological age of your body based on your habits. Practice good habits and your "RealAge" can be less than your chronological age, while bad habits will age you prematurely.... The advice is good, though one wonders exactly how they are able to determine how many years you can add to your life by having frequent sex or by eating three bananas a day (1.6 and 0.6, respectively, according to the authors). (Yes, I know, it's based on statistical averages -- which to me makes it seem a little misleading to suggest that doing a certain thing will increase your lifespan by some specific, measurable amount.)

Overall, I found this to be an informative, interesting, often enlightening book that taught me quite a bit I didn't know before. There were a few bits of advice I'd take with a grain of salt (some of the alleged benefits of certain foods haven't been proven), and a lot of other advice that, while probably a good idea, is not going to be practical for everyone. (How many people will really put on SPF 45 sunblocker EVERY TIME they go outside? Or throw away every sponge they use to wash dishes after one use?) But all this information is good to know, and you can read through the entire book pretty quickly.

The Owner's Manual Diet at the end, I'm afraid, falls in the "impractical" category. The recipes look good, and they are certainly healthy, but first of all, the authors lay out a one-size-fits-all 1600 calorie-per-day meal plan that is not appropriate for everyone, male and female, regardless of your current weight and activity level! And if you engage in a regular, vigorous exercise program, their diet is also a little lacking in protein, I think. But more importantly, while they claim that many of the recipes are "easy," I found that the majority were either NOT easy or contained lots of high-end specialty ingredients you won't easily find at every neighborhood supermarket. "Grilled vegetable sandwich with fresh goat cheese"? "Teriyaki tofu with red bell pepper and shiitakes over whole-grain jasmine rice"? OK, not ALL the recipes are that yuppified, but how many of you regularly stock your kitchens with arugala leaves, whole wheat gemelli pasta, mirin, light silken tofu, and wasabi powder? (Ingredients among each of several recipes I just flipped open to at random.) If you are never short of various kinds of vinegars, oils, spices, and fresh produce, then you might have the ingredients on hand to make most of their dishes, but I really can't see these meals being the sort of thing most working people can prepare on a regular basis. It's a great mini-cookbook full of healthy, flavorful recipes, but it's certainly not a sustainable diet plan.

However, since that's just the last chapter in the book and doesn't detract much from the overall message, I deducted only one star from an otherwise exemplary "owner's manual," for the small number of items that I found to be impractical and/or questionable. Read this book with just a little bit of skepticism, rather than accepting everything as gospel truth, and you'll find it to be quite worthwhile. Read more ›