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Books on Health and Fitness - Reviews 

The Sierra Club Guide to Safe Drinking Water by Scott Alan Lewis 
For an incisive overview of water quality concerns, it would be tough to beat this slim volume. Lewis not only enumerates the problems common to U.S. drinking water but also considers remedies ranging from home treatment to global strategies to preserve the total water supply in a healthy condition.  Although its various appendixes and tables are impressive, the most attractive feature of the book is chapter 4, "The City List," a summary of all Safe Drinking Water Act violations reported by the 202 largest U.S. public water systems during 1992-94; water drinkers throughout the land (including U.S. territories) will want to see how their water rates. 
-- Mike Tribby, Booklist, Copyright © 1996, American Library Association. All rights reserved 


Clear Body Clear Mind by L. Ron Hubbard 

Something inside you is blocking your way to a healthier, happier life. 

Throughout our lives each of us is exposed to a continuous onslaught of harmful chemicals.  Street drugs, medicines, preservatives, chemical weapons (such as Agent Orange), insecticides, insulation, etc.  We do, indeed, as the author points out, live in a chemical society.  What happens to these toxins after we ingest them? 

While the body eliminates some of them through normal waste processes, some of these poisons remain behind, lodged in our adipose (fat) tissue.  The results range from annoying symptoms that may just seem like "part of life,"  until you get rid of them, to severe health impairment. 

There has not been a way to substantially reduce the accumulations . . . until now.  In Clear Body Clear Mind, L. Ron Hubbard defines the only proven method of significantly reducing levels of toxins in the body.  Countless people from all walks of life have done the program, reporting results from wonderful to miraculous. 

Read the book for a clear explanation of the facts.  Then do the program for a surprising, happy change in your life.  It takes a little effort, but you'll be rewarded a thousandfold.  -- The Editor, Are We There Yet?


The Essential Guide to Stretching by Chrissie Gallagher-Mundy 
Unless you're a dancer or professional athlete, you probably do very little stretching in your regular exercise routine. This book won't do much to change your feelings about flexibility exercises if you already love or hate them. But it's hard to beat as a practical guide. It gives you pre- and post-exercise stretching routines that you can memorize and then modify with more challenging movements as you progress. In addition, you get routines geared to specific sports, such as golf and soccer, and there's even a chapter on stretches for pregnant women.  -- Health and Fitness Editor's Recommended Book, Amazon.com
Cloning of the American Mind: Eradicating Morality through Education  by Beverly K. Eakman How do we win against an out-of-control "illiteracy cartel"? 
CLONING OF THE AMERICAN MIND focuses on America's "illiteracy cartel" which, the author maintains, is built around an out-of-control psychographic consulting industry. The book details how student and family records have assumed a "commodity" status under new education mandates coupled to rapid advances in "predictive" computer technology. 

As unethical behavioral scientists team up with school testing companies, computer specialists, and information brokers to produce polls and predict workforce needs, a political weapon is being created that holds a youngster’s future employment prospects hostage to a set of quasi-political, psychological criteria . . . while the nation's cognitive and cultural knowledge base is systematically eradicated. Eakman argues that psychology has assumed a messianic political mission. An unwary public and its distracted elected representatives have bought in to the education reform movement’s bogus agenda, which is being sold under the dual umbrellas of "mental health" and "testing standards." 

The book traces the contributions of two distinct factions within the behavioral science community -- one that emerged from the old Hitlerian Right and one on the Marxist Left -- and shows how their two disparate agendas eventually merged for the purpose of introducing psychological screening instruments and experimental therapies into the schools. The author demonstrates how this screening process takes on new meaning as students and their families are unknowingly assessed for supposed "markers" of psychological disorders, the most recent example being to label Attention-Deficit Disorder (ADD) as a "marker" for schizophrenia. 

The results of the various tests, analyses, and therapies designed to locate ADD students are placed into sophisticated, cross-referenceable electronic transfer systems, such as the SPEEDE/ExPRESS. The book describes how information thus collected can be overlaid with other public and private records, and downloaded at any time by "research groups" and underground information brokers for a small fee. A mathematical, computer model enables experts to predict probable future behavior and reactions. Psychological assessments masquerading as academic tests and curriculum, maintains the author, have frightening implications for both individual privacy and learning. Part IV provides a step-by-step guide on countering psychological manipulation by professional agitators-cum-“facilitators” in small- and large-group settings, and Part V recommends corrective measures that the author believes citizens and government should undertake.  -- The author, Beverly K. Eakman, October 24, 1998


Eat Right for Your Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight  by Peter J., Dr. D'Adamo, Catherine Whitney If you've ever wondered why the latest fad diet doesn't work for you . . . well, there are lots of reasons, mostly the fact that it's a fad diet. But it could also be that you're the wrong blood type for the kinds of foods the diet recommends. Peter D'Adamo makes a persuasive argument that your blood type is an evolutionary marker that tells you which foods you'll process best, and which will be useless calories. He covers the entire range for each of the four blood types, from entrees to condiments and seasonings, and also makes type-specific exercise and lifestyle recommendations.  -- Health and Fitness Editor's Recommended Book, Amazon.com
Prescription for Nutritional Healing: A Practical A-Z Reference to Drug-Free Remedies Using Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs & Food Supplements by James F. Balch, Phyllis A. Balch 
Written by a medical doctor and a certified nutritional consultant (James F. Balch, M.D., and Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C.), this revised and expanded edition of Prescription for Nutritional Healing is one of the most complete, up-to-date guides to nutritional, herbal, and complementary therapies available.  Prescription for Nutritional Healing starts with the premise: "Good nutrition is the foundation of good health." In the 600 pages that follow, the authors expand on this concept, explaining how to heal the body, achieve optimum health, strengthen the immune system, and increase energy levels using vitamins, minerals, herbs, and dietary food supplements. 

The book contains three sections. "Understanding the Elements of Health" provides a thorough introduction to nutrition, diet, and wellness; offers guidelines for selecting and preparing food; and discusses hot topics such as aspartame (Is it safe?) and phytochemicals. "The Disorders" gives an A-Z reference to handling more than 300 health problems, including the latest research for treating AIDS, chronic fatigue syndrome, infertility, and for slowing the effects of aging. The final section, "Remedies and Therapies," explains how to implement the suggested treatments. Easy to understand and use, this book is an indispensable medical resource for both health professionals and laypeople.  -- Amazon.com


The Encyclopedia of Natural Healing by Gary Null 
This unique and reliable health reference picks up where other sources leave off, offering a comprehensive listing of some of today's most common diseases and their simple, natural, inexpensive cures Telephone interviews .  -- Synopsis by Amazon.com
The Green Pharmacy by James A. Duke, Michael Castleman, Alice Feinstein 
There's still a lot to learn about the healing power of plants, James Duke points out, but what we do know is already prodigious. Much of that knowledge is gathered in The Green Pharmacy, an A-to-Z guide to that relies on plant-based medicines to cure what ails us. Between the listings, Duke crams personal anecdotes from a lifetime of studying herbs, berries, and bark. For example, he relates how he worried about telling a pregnant niece that ginger could help alleviate her morning sickness because he'd learned from a pharmacologist that ginger could also induce miscarriage. Then he solved the mystery: he'd recommended ginger tea, which contains about 250 milligrams of ginger. The Chinese, he learned, use about 80 times that much to end pregnancies--another testimony to the amazing versatility of these natural medicines.  -- Health and Fitness Editor's Recommended Book
Miracle Cures : Dramatic New Scientific Discoveries Revealing the Healing Powers of Herbs, Vitamins and Other Natural Remedies by Jean Carper 
For a growing number of Americans, the time for alternative medicine has come . Miracle Cures, written by CNN's former senior medical correspondent, highlights several of the most exciting natural remedies currently under investigation. There's St. John's Wort (also called hypericum), which has proven effective in combating depression; gingko biloba, a circulation-enhancer that retards Alzheimer's and other age-related memory problems; grapefruit fiber, which combats cholesterol; and many others. All of the compounds and alternative treatments listed in Miracle Cures are regularly practiced in Europe, Asia, or both. So why aren't they used in the United States? Carper points out that since "nature owns the patent," there's little financial incentive for American pharmaceutical companies to investigate natural compounds. Secondly, most American doctors are simply unaware of the testing that has been done on these techniques; most research has been done by non-English speaking physicians and written up in foreign journals. Responsibly toting up the risks and benefits of each, Carper is hoping for a sensible integration of natural remedies into American medicine. 
-- Amazon.com 
Supplement Savvy: A Shopper's Guide to Brand-Name Supplements 
by Gail L. Becker 
At last, one reputable source provides all the answers about the vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, and other substances that can help people stay healthy and reduce the risk of illness. This up-to-date and easy-to-use guide reviews thousands of products, helps readers choose the supplements appropriate to them in reference to age, gender and lifestyle. It warns about prescription drug-supplement interactions and much more.  -- Synopsis, Amazon.com 
Body Shaping With Free Weights: Easy Routines for Your Home Workout by Stephenie Karony, Anthony L. Ranken
When the fitness movement began to crank up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was all about running, and it was also predominantly a guy thing. Aerobics classes in the early '80s gave women an appealing way to get in on the movement. But it wasn't until the '90s, really, that fitness enthusiasts began to see weight training as the best method for changing body composition instead of just something for muscleheads to do to impress each other. Body Shaping with Free Weights draws the distinction between lifting for maximum bulk, as bodybuilders do, and training to create a more shapely appearance. It gives detailed descriptions and photo illustrations of the best exercises for toning muscles, and it issues cautions for each movement, helping people with specific physical problems (bad knees, especially) to avoid the exercises that will aggravate those conditions.  -- Health & Fitness Editor's Recommended Book, Amazon.com
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