Spontaneous Healing: How to Discover and Enhance Your Body's Natural Ability to Maintain and Heal Itself (Paperback)

by Andrew Weil (Author) "LET ME TAKE YOU with me to a faraway place I visited more than twenty years ago: the sandy bank of a wide river on..." (more)
Key Phrases: medical pessimism, guided imagery therapy, primary respiratory mechanism, Mari Jean, Bob Fulford, New Age (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
It is clear that all organisms have highly developed mechanisms for self-repair and healing -- but according to Dr. Weil, Western medicine often interferes instead of working with these systems. In the course of his argument, he describes several extraordinary case studies of drastic spontaneous healing. Perhaps the most valuable feature of the book is his more gradual eight-week program of strengthening the ability of your immune, endocrine, circulatory, and nervous systems to provide such spontaneous healing.

From Publishers Weekly
As others argue the politics of health care, Weil (Health and Healing) turns away from the usual practice of Western medicine, which is focused on alleviating symptoms rather than strengthening internal mechanisms of health, to closely consider the nature of the healing process. "At every level of biological organization, from DNA up," he writes, the "mechanics of self-diagnosis, self-repair and regeneration exist in us." To buttress his point, he cites such evidence as the placebo effect, inexplicable remissions and the commonplace repair of wounds, often marginalized by the medical community. In an effort to make the process of healing seem less obscure, Weil reports a wide range of dramatic case histories. Other sections detail various means, e.g., diet and breathing exercises, available for optimizing one's healing system, and suggestions for approaches to illnesses. Also included are an "Eight Week Program for Optimal Healing Power" and a guide to finding practitioners, supplies and information.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (April 23, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0449910644
• ISBN-13: 978-0449910641
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #449,327 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Using your natural ability to heal and maintain your body, January 3, 2000

By	James L. Grubb "[e-mail]" (Scottsdale, AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The idea that your body possesses natural ability to heal and maintain itself is usually not within the realm of believability for many. But this Harvard M.D. presents evidence and explains body mechanisms that can overcome life-threatening illness and pain.

A "how to" book, on the one hand, Dr. Weil also points out shortcomings of our medical system. He calls it "medical pessimism" because the end result is that often nothing more can be done. This comes about, he contends, because modem medical practice is based on the view that human beings are an assemblage of structures that can be neatly programmed. Western medicine, the Chinese, for example, believe the human organism has defensive spheres such as ~onsils, adenoids and appendix, which can be stimulated and are components of an immune system. Modem medicine, he believes, also writes off the importance of the mind, looking instead for physical causes of changes in health or illness.

A realist, Dr. Weil concedes that life is uncertain and while we don't have control over life and death, we have the ability to understand how the human organism can heal itself and this is reason enough for doctors and patients to be optimistic.

"My purpose in writing this book," he states, "is to convince more people to rely on our innate potential for maintaining health and overcoming illness but, he goes on to say, "I cannot easily give you a picture this system (I) because there is a lack of organized research (2) the human organism is complex and (3) the ability of the body to repair itself is a complex function."

The DNA healing system: Is always on call and works continuously; it diagnoses damage; removes damaged structures and replaces them; acts to neutralize injury and make corrections. The challenge is to discover how to turn the right switches to activate this process. The author maintains that the final cause of all cures is the healing system with or without outside treatment. When treatments work, they do so by activating innate healing mechanisms

You can boost the efficiency of your healing system but this does not necessarily produce immediate, noticeable change. It is a long-term investment in the future. These areas seem to be emerging from current studies of diet and health: Modify diet to reduce calories; eat a limited diet one day a week; reduce animal fats (replace with fish and soy protein); increase consumption of polyunsaturated fats found in corn, soy, sesame, safflower, olives, canola, peanut and avocado oils; eat more fruit, vegetables and whole grains such as wheat and oat bran.

Greatest threats to everyday health and well-being: Toxic overload from harmful substances in the environment including chemical fertilizers, toxins in the workplace, water we drink, air pollution. The author suggests some anti-toxin formulas: Vitamins C and E, Selenium, Beta Carotene, Ginseng, Garlic, Ginger, Green Tea, Milk Thistle, Astragalus, to name a few.

The seven strategies of successful patients: (1) Don't take "NO" for an answer. Believe there is help to be found somewhere. (2) Search for help. Ask questions; read books; go to libraries; ask for ideas, visit promising practitioners. (3) Talk to others who have been healed. (4) Form partnerships with health professionals who support your search for answers. (5) Don't hesitate to make radical lifestyle changes. (6) Regard illness as a stimulus to change (7) Remember that change is more likely to occur in a climate of self-acceptance than in one of confrontation with the universe.

This popular book suggest ways to optimize your healing system and paints this upbeat scenario of the level of good health we have a right to expect. Says Dr. Weil: "We pay little aft ention to our health when it is good. "You recover from illness and injuries heal uneventfully "Stresses of ordinary life may be annoying, but they don't derange digestion or blood pressure. "Sleep should be restful, sex enjoyable. "Aging of your body occurs gradually, allowing you to moderate your activity appropriately and live out a normal life span without discomfort. "You would not get heart disease or cancer in middle age, be crippled by arthritis in later life or lose your mind to premature senility. "This scenario is possible and worth working toward because the body wants to be healthy," says Dr. Weil.

Well worth reading if you want to live in better health whatever your age.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Being your own doctor, October 19, 1999

By	Kristina Ribbing ([e-mail]) (Stockholm, Sweden) - See all my reviews

This uplifting book desribes very well when alternative medicine can be an option, e.g. for allergies and stomach problems and when it isn't such a good idea, e.g. when one has operable cancer or a serious bacterial infection. This, I believe, gives this book high credibility. It combines the best of worlds and focuses on the ability of self-healing that can be enhanced by, for instance, better living, a change of attitude, new eating habits and learning hos to breath right.

I became very interested in finding out more about visualization therapy, something that Weil strongly recommends trying, but in Stockholm where I live, I haven't been able to find a therapist in this field.

The book includes lots of "things to try" or advice you might call it. These things have made me more observant of my body and mind, my breathing and how I feel. I might add that I am not exactly sick, but stressed a lot and find it difficult to relax. I have problems saying no and always feel pressure at work that I should be getting more things done. My interest for alternative medicine started when I started seeing a homeopath that has done wonders for my immune system. I used to get sick all the time and that has changed.

I don't know what I would think of this book if I had a serious disease. One very good idea of Dr Weils for sick patients is trying to connect them with people that have survived similar illnesses. I myself would like to discuss my everyday problems with people that experience the same thing and have found a solution or a way to live a more relaxed life.

I have recommended this book to several people already.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weil is a Pioneer, June 30, 2000

By	Courtney L. Lewis "Sassy Librarian" (Kingston, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This was book that really put Andrew Weil on the map and public speaker circuit and it was totally deserved. A wonderful mix of Weil's personal journey of being disaffected with the medical system, his travels abroad to look for answers he could only find at home, stories of patients that taught him key concepts about the body's inherent capacity to heal itself, and discussion of herbal and mind/body research that has influenced his work are only some of the main concepts he expounds upon in this volume. The main crux of the book is short and sweet: the body can heal itself because it is a healing system.

Weil links the lack of doctor's belief in this healing system directly to their education. Medical students work in teaching hospitals populated by patients who represent only one end of the total spectrum of illness - the very sick. Since in this group healing responses occur less frequently than in the general population, doctors develop pessimistic attitudes that are applied across the board to all seen patients in their practice and often these attitudes are conveyed through thoughtless remarks that are the equivalent of a "medical curse". These powerful words expressing little optimism for healing are often internalized by the patient (although a chosen few will rebel and fight against them just to prove the doctor wrong) and rob the patient of belief in their own capacity to respond to their illness.

Building on these concepts, Weil describes several of his patients and friends who, against traditional medical odds, have undergone "unexplained" spontaneous healing often from life-threatening conditions. In almost all cases, acceptance of the illness rather than struggle characterized a key part of the healing process and indicated a mental shift that Weil believes can initiate a transformation of the personality with it a healing of the disease. It's a relief for anyone finding hope for the medical profession while reading this book that Weil has begun a revolutionary medical school program in his home state of Arizona that begins to incorporate many of the "radical" ideas found in this book. This is a medical volume that should be on everyone's shelf.