Customer Reviews

Is Your House Making You Overweight, Sick, or Tired?

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The author of this book provides a wealth of information, based on her own experiences, showing how a wide range of health problems can be traced to products used in the home, faulty installation and maintenance of appliances, and - most of all - improper electricity. It is amazing how many ill effects can be created by something that surrounds us every day! I found especially useful her clear statements of the Possible Symptoms that raise red flags leading us to examine an array of Possible Household Problems which, upon close inspection, reveal ways for us to improve our well being. This book makes clear that we need to assess our grooming products and home furnishings, as well as inspect the mechanical devices and systems that surround us. The author does a wonderful job of making us aware of how all aspects of the environment affect our bodies and mental health. The section "Voltage Detectors" on page 150 was especially useful and practical. The "House Electrical System Check Up" beginning on page 152 provides specific step-by-step procedures for eliminating electrical problems. Readers are thankful to the author for sharing her health problems, and those of her family, then doing the research that turns those problems into a valuable resource that benefits those who are willing to take the time to become aware of details in their environment.

After reading this book by Margaret Shontz, you will look at your environment and house in a different light. With 20 years of observation and research as background, she shows the reader that eating well and exercising are only the tip of the iceberg when caring for your body. Margaret has the obvious desire to share her experiences and help others, as she relates how everything in her home affected the lives of those in her family. She makes a powerful case for many of our ills coming from our environment and what to do to create a home more conducive to health and wellness.

In these days of attempting to cure an ever-increasing number of ills with more chemicals, it's refreshing and encouraging to read "Is Your House Making you Overweight, Sick or Tired?" Dangers we never even think of lurk in our homes and environment. Margaret's prescriptions are not always easy but provide much needed answers where other sources of help have failed. Indeed in some cases they may be lifesaving.

This book is a welcome addition to my holistic health library. It points up the fact that even when we eat right, exercise, and do other things to optimize our health internally, our living conditions (which she calls the external diet) are often ignored as a possible source of ill-health. The author's book takes you to the next level of holistic living. I also appreciate her apporach, to inform without frightening the reader, with excellent suggestions drawn from her many personal experiences throughout the book. It's encouraging to know that so many of the possible helath hazards are easily remedied, often at little or no cost. I think it would make a great housewarming gift, and it's a valuable selection for anyone interested in making their home a true safe haven.

I found this book, Is Your House Making You Overweight, Sick, or Tired?, written by a highly educated wife and mother of three, to be a fascinating read. Backed by a great deal of references, facts and experienced conjecture, Ms. Shontz has woven an information packed guide and reference book. Her style is easy to read, and alternates between health indications, possible reasons, possible solutions and personal experiences, so that it reads almost like a diary interwoven with a how-to guide.

This book is based on the theory that there are definite connections between external factors, in this case in our homes, and health. After being diagnosed with cancer, I found the subject matter even more interesting than I may have before. Ms. Shontz writes a compelling argument for her theory, and a great deal of what she describes has wide spread impact.

I agree with this author that outside factors can have a huge impact on health and wellness. We are creatures of our environment; she makes sense when she tells about how everything that touches our skin can and will make some impact on us. And her descriptions of how her house, electricity, plumbing and other factors influenced and directly caused serious health issues for her and her family, kept me reading, page after page.

This is an interesting book, and I am glad I got it and read it. There is a lot of information packed between the covers, so reading it several times will really help you to digest it all...it did for me. Every time I read it, I notice something new, or something makes more sense to me.

If you are interested in environmental health cause and effect, holistic and/or alternative health and medicines, or just aren't sure why you feel worse at home than you do at work, then I would suggest you read this book. It's obvious Ms. Shontz put a great deal of time, work and dedication in the production of this book. It's also very obvious that it was a work of earnest compassion...she wants to help people, and this book is a way to do that.

This book will make you sit up and pay attention to your environment. There is an enormous amount of research that this author has done and you would be well advised to check it out! She has had personal experience with most all of the areas that have made her family ill. It will make you get up and look around your house and be thankful that you did!!

Margaret Rouse Shontz has set out to alert the reader that an improper external diet has a big effect on the human body. Her twenty year study and observations suggest that the major cause of ill health is houseitary instead of hereditary. The book is intended to get the reader to think about your house and what effect it might be having on your health.

Shontz reminds the reader that she is not an electrician nor a technician or a health professional of any kind. Her book is a compilation of what helped her family in a particular house with a particular electrical system, living in the country, on acreage in Iowa. Much of the book was devoted to relating experiences that demonstrate how the body works electrically and the related body symptoms result with improper electricity. She goes on to establish that making the electricity proper in the house, is essential to health and to well being.

Margaret has cleverly created a vocabulary to cover her chapter titles such as "Itmitis". This chapter deals with personal items used in daily routines that introduce external items into our internal body systems. "Bedroomitis" discusses how external conduits can impact our sleep patterns. Tongue in cheek she introduced the possibility of inventing a "Lazy Susan" bed.

The format of the book lends to easy reading and assimilation. Although somewhat technical in places I found myself engrossed in the concepts being considered and have been reading labels of body wash, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. to determine the ingredients. I have not yet visited my fuse box to tighten the screws or redo the house wiring, but I have made a note to call my electrician to check out a trouble spot I am aware of to be sure I am not asking for trouble in the days ahead.


"Is Your House Making You Overweight, Sick or Tired?" is a valuable book and offers proactive steps to be taken in light of the "External Diet." This is a truly remarkable approach to alternative medicine.

Having been through many health problems herself, Ms. Shontz has written a book that endeavors to inform people of the improper use and connections of electricity that may contribute or cause your families various health problems.

She opens the book with a full page Disclaimer-Warning as the information contained in the book is from the authors 20 years of personal independent study and observations as to the causes of ill health and how to get well. It is the story of how she improved her health by improving her living conditions. Her purpose of the book was to let people know how their house might be affecting their health. It is a personal account of how her body reacted to the improper voltage and wiring in her home.

Each chapter is set up by listing the item, then the possible symptoms from its use followed by the possible household problem. Ms. Shontz has used items from our every day lives. The chapters go from personal items, to rooms in the house, plumbing, appliances, telephones, to automobiles.

Distributed throughout the book are statements called "cause or coincidence'" that states a common problem and when its use is changed, the problem disappears. Small nuggets of thought provoking sentences.

In the conclusion, Ms. Shontz reinterates that the 'External Diet' of a house is important for everyone to think about and see if there might be reasons your family may be ill.

She proudly states at the beginning and end of the book that she believes in salvation and christianity. Ms. Shontz uses interjections of scripture at various places in the book that may help state her thoughts on certain issues. She also states it is a Christian book and gives her firm beliefs on the last two pages ending with a call on how to accept salvation in Jesus Christ.

This is an interesting book with a unique way of showing how salvation and christianity have worked in her life allowing her to find the causes of her health problems.

With so much in our culture focused on "diet and exercise," it is refreshing to have an author write about our external diet and the effects it can have on our health and lives. The author explains how she and her family have been affected by many factors in the external environment. Her systematic review of home and personal products provides checkpoints for enhanced wellness. The author details numerous items in the home and encourages modification for better health. I have never seen such a book and am more informed by reading it. Thanks!

I have been studying alternative medicine on an informal--but very committed--basis for more than thirty years. I am aware of some of the concepts outlined by Margaret, such as the ill effects of microwave ovens, cell phones, portable phones and computers for example. They can have very serious health side effects.

But Margaret's book shows us how to take the concept a little further and look for other sources of negative health issues in our house. I am going to have everything thoroughly checked out in my own home now.

An essential read for anyone who has tried every natural therapy and still isn't making much headway with their health.

This book covers various experiences that Margaret encountered over many years and how she finally decided that her house was making her and her family sick.
She describes different household and health issues of what she thought caused this to happen. It is her story, and how she was able to deal with it, and the outcome of how she felt after discovering this, and putting to use the information she found out.
I personally have not experienced this, but her experience was quite real.
Margaret did do a lot of research on a number of different subjects and you can make your own decision as to how this could affect your own life.
I would recommend all to read this book.