Rating: 
Summary: Please, Step Out of the Sun...
Review: Because your big Santa-Clause booty is blocking the light. So Mr. Weil has sold out to the lucrative health industry, and has a great marketing thing going with the happy go lucky grandaddy image with the big beard and rotund face and all. But please be informed, genral public, that you have firstly bought into image marketing, and then to the authors money-making recommendations. If Mr. Weil told you what you really needed to do to get healthy and stay healthy, 99% of you would be turned off. After all, who likes wheatgrass juice, fasting, and rejuvelac? Do you? Surely we'd rather go on our jolly ole ways down to Safeway and stock up on Weil favorites, such as nutrasweet and soyburgers. You will see how many negative 'did this review help you' counts I get, because the type of people (maybe you, unfortunately) who have been suckered into Mr. Weils diet (and pocket-book) are staunchly afraid of anything that threatens their easy 'health' plan. Please read Ann Wigmore's 'Hippocrates Diet' if you are truly concerned about your health.
Rating: 
Summary: Simple, Concise Directions to Health!
Review: Dr. Weil is a Harvard-trained botanist and MD. More importantly, he has branched out into Integrative Medicine [his new name for alternative medicine] and is making the principles understandable to the general public.
He recently started a 2 year Post-Doc program for medical students and already practicing MD's at the University of Arizona teaching integrative medicine and an integrative clinic for practice. That clinic now has a waiting list of over a thousand people!
As the title states, this book breaks down the information into 8 weeks, simplifying the complicated process of changing one's whole life. Weil takes the reader by the hand and takes baby steps instead of huge leaps. [Which is acceptable if there are no current health crises].
One week, he asks you to find out about the water you drink, demonstrates a breathing exercise and asks the reader to go on a "news fast." No newspapers, evening news, or radio for a day.
The following week he asks the reader to research organic produce and requests that flowers be bought for the home environment.
These are tasks that are understandable making the reader feel successful each week. This work is grounded in good data, simply put and achievable over time. Weil "pads" the radical changes in between easy-to-make additions to one's life. One goes away feeling empowered instead of overwhelmed. An essential ingredient for changing one's lifestyle!
This book is a great beginning for the beginner on the path to wellness and prevention!
Dr. Weil is to be commended for breaking away from the myopic thinking of the traditional healthcare practitioner [which is changing!] and incorporating a broader picture of empowering the patient with practical, hands-on information.
This book would have garnered a "10" had Weil moved a bit more to the left. But, as previously noted, this text is a wonderful place to begin!
My hat! is off to him!
Rating:
Summary: Not a good book on health at all
Review: Dr. Weil seems nice enough but his recommendations are generally pretty bad for true health. Eating salmon and getting rid of transfat foods are a good idea but his recommendations for soy products which are full of antinutrients (not just phytates) and his recommendations against animal products or a lowering of their use and lowering fat intake and his recommendations for increase grain consumption will make you fat and give you type 2 diabetes in the long run if not something much worse. His spiel about complex carbohydrates over simple or refined carbohydrates is nonsense. Too much carbohydrates is the problem. While simple carbs are pretty bad, complex carbs the way he recommends them are just as bad if not worse because of the quantity he recommends. The guy basically pushes vitamins and herbal supplements. There are many studies happening now that will soon put his message (and many others) to a long deserved rest. High carbohydrate diets are very bad for health. Animal products are necessary for good health. Saturated fat is very important in the diet. All studies done in this area show that meat and fat protect against heart disease. High carbohydrate diets play havoc with hormones causing every disease in the book. This will soon be common knowledge as studies begin bearing this out, ending untold suffering for so many people. If you want a good book based on science (not guru worship), read Life Without bread. The whole low fat/high carbohydrate diet is a fraud and any honest look at the studies already done will bear this out. New studies are being done now but this time it will be in the context of "is fat bad?" instead of "fat is bad - lets prove it".
And I don't know if I'm ready to accept [the], "but that's what we were taught" excuse when the studies come back condeming the nonsense they spew. Back to Weil, the guy is overweight, bald and pushes vitamins. He shrugs off studies showing vitamin c toxicity or soy toxicity. Eventually, even he probably won't be able to shrug off the evidence that his diet is worse than bad for health. Avoid.
Rating:
Summary: Practical and Informative
Review: Dr. Weil's methodology of introducing concepts a week at a time, along with specific tasks and lifestyle changes, breaks his program into reasonable pieces. I don't believe in diets or diet books, and I've read plenty about stress, so I wasn't prepared to like this book. It's not too New Age-y, or over the top. Dr. Weil trained as an allopathic (traditional) physician, and weaves in alternative and mainstream advice. It seems balanced, and it changed my life.
Rating:
Summary: Practical and Informative
Review: Dr. Weil's methodology of introducing concepts a week at a time, along with specific tasks and lifestyle changes, breaks his program into reasonable pieces. I don't believe in diets or diet books, and I've read plenty about stress, so I wasn't prepared to like this book. It's not too New Age-y, or over the top. Dr. Weil trained as an allopathic (traditional) physician, and weaves in alternative and mainstream advice. It seems balanced, and it changed my life.
Rating: 
Summary: a great book for healthy living
Review: Dr.Weil's book takes into account the whole person
-constituted of physical,spiritual and psychological
elements - when it deals with the healthy living.
I myself have put into practice some of his insights
and I found that it really works... This book is
a great contribution to holistic health.
The book is interesting , useful, and very practical.
Rating:
Summary: Five Stars!
Review: Dr.Weil's book takes into account the whole person -constituted of physical,spiritual and psychological elements - when it deals with the healthy living. I myself have put into practice some of his insights and I found that it really works... This book is a great contribution to holistic health. The book is interesting , useful, and very practical.
Rating:
Summary: This book is a life changing experience for all ages.
Review: Eight Weeks to Optimum Health is a book anyone can read and benefit from. The program is outlined in detail and is very easy to follow. It is unlike other self-help books in that it gives the reader a "map" to follow and does not leave the reader hanging. The emphasis placed on just trying to make oneself happy is a guaranteed way to improve health and boost spirits. My grandmother has suffered from severe knee pain for more than ten years. After completing Weil's eight-week program, her knee pain has disappeared! She claims that she has never felt better. I have no physical ailments, but now I feel a greater sense of well being and happiness. After reading this book, I feel that I can take a deep breath and face the world with a true feeling of peace and confidence. Reading Andrew Weil's book is certainly a life changing experience that can help readers of all ages.
Rating:
Summary: Read these reviews closely!
Review: Everyone, please pay close attention to the reviews posted for this book. The negative reviews are full of typos, anger and poorly constructed thoughts. This book advocates healthy, compassionate eating. Eat wisely and live lightly on the earth. While some of the ideas put forth by Dr. Weil may be slightly unconventional or to some, even extreme... you certainly do not need to implement them all. Just a handful could change your life. Just give it a try!
Rating:
Summary: Read these reviews closely!
Review: Everyone, please pay close attention to the reviews posted for this book. The negative reviews are full of typos, anger and poorly constructed thoughts. This book advocates healthy, compassionate eating. Eat wisely and live lightly on the earth. While some of the ideas put forth by Dr. Weil may be slightly unconventional or to some, even extreme... you certainly do not need to implement them all. Just a handful could change your life. Just give it a try!
| 
