The Body Clock Guide to Better Health: How to Use Your Body's Natural Clock to Fight Illness and Achieve Maximum Health

Rating:
Summary: Book on Body Time a Fascinating Read
Review: As an adult, I've always known that I'm sharper at certain times of the day than others. Lamberg's book explains what many of us already know but don't understand. The Body Clock presents the facts in a straightforward way, but the underlying point is that we need to take all of this a lot more seriously than we have been. Teenagers need to go to school later. Companies need to respect the stress night-shift workers endure and protect against the consequences. Drowsy drivers are as a much of a hazard as drunk drivers.

With their carefully layering of facts and approachable presentation, Lamberg and Smolensky make their case without shouting it. They let the material speak for itself. After reading this book I'll have a lot more respect for my own body clock and the consequences of ignoring it. A definite thumbs up!

Rating:
Summary: My 50 year old Body Clock is ticking better!
Review: Because angels don't have bodies they don't need to read THE BODY CLOCK GUIDE TO BETTER HEALTH. For the rest of us - because we are human - it is a MUST read. And what a read! The book is just terrific! It must have taken years to summarize all the research about how the body is influenced by time be it hours, days, weeks, season, or years. After introducing the subject, The Body Clock helps the reader figure out if she or he is a lark (morning person) or an owl (night person). It explains what this means for your job, your marriage, and your social relationships. I learned from this book how to use the body's natural rhythms to my advantage and how to modify them if I need to. I found out when is the best time of day for me, personally, to make important decisions. The Body Clock's comprehensive section about insomnia and how to deal with it in all of its various forms is spectacular. The tools are there to figure out exactly what kind of insomnia one has and how to work around it. It also wisely points out when one should see a doctor about the problem. Things I have experienced all my life and never really understood, such as that mid-afternoon drag when I feel like taking a nap, are explained. This book is a how-to-guide for travelers who move between time zones and for those who must do shift work. It has fascinating information about the optimal time of day to consume vitamins and when to avoid coffee. But these are just a sampling. This book has changed the way I live my life, for example when I work out and when I go to sleep at night. On the topic of exercise it corrects out-of-date information with the latest research results. This eye-opening book includes information on why teenagers act the way they do. Often neglected topics relating to aging are considered including male hormones. I am going to buy this book for everyone on my holiday gift list-no kidding! There is something in it for everyone. The last half of the book summarizes what is known about time and every imaginable illness and disease. I believe I will return to The Body Clock to re-read the sections that are relevant for me again and again. This is because there are time related elements for so many health problems. The Body Clock is a book I don't want to loan out because I want it handy to consult when I get a cold or if I develop back pain or any of the other 30 to 40 medical problems assessed, each of which has a chapter of its own. Everything from high blood pressure to nosebleeds, from skin problems to toothache, from gout to heart disease is discussed. If you care about your body, you need this book. The Body Clock is a pleasure to read. Authors Smolensky and Lamberg make complex topics easy to understand because they write clearly and succinctly. They avoid complicated medical terms altogether and for this I am grateful. I don't have a lot of time for reading but this book is efficient - it doesn't waste a minute or a page. It gives enormous value for your time and money investment. It is so interesting that I didn't want it to end! It is a fun book too - and I learned so much. I can't remember a book I have been able to say this about in a long long time. Authors Smolensky and Lamberg - this reader wants to thank you for writing it.

Rating:
Summary: Keeping In Time With Your Body
Review: Did you know that the majority of people don't know how to tell time? Body time, that is, and "everybody" includes a lot of doctors and other health professionals. The Body Clock Guide to Better Health explains about your body's personal body rhythms and a new field of medicine called chronomedicine.

Body time matters in almost every phase of your life. It's especially essential in keeping you healthy. The time of day you take your medication can affect how well the medicine works and whether there will be side affects. The time of day you take diagnostic tests - blood tests, urine tests, even your blood pressure, can make a change in what results the test shows.

The study of the body and time has been going on for many years. Way back in 1735, an astronomer in Paris noticed the way a plant responded to morning and night. He wondered if it was the light that caused the responses, and to find out, locked the plant in a dark closet. Much to his surprise, despite the lack of sunlight, the plant still raised its leaves in the morning and lowered them at night. It took many more years to discover just how the system worked.

Are you a lark, an owl or a hummingbird? Smolensky and Lamberg explain just what these three types of body rhythms are and how they affect you and your lifestyle. They suggest you should study your own body rhythms to find out if you are a day or a night person or somewhere in-between.

Your body clock affects not only your physical reactions, but your mental ability as well, and can explain a lot of mood swings. The Body Clock Guide talks about the different stages of sleep from very light sleep to the deep, healing sleep everyone needs. What is REM sleep? You'll find the answer in this book, and also discover just why you need to get adequate sleep and what sleep deprivation does to you.

Chapter Eight takes you through the years from babyhood to the teens and explains the differences for each age group. Babies are already cyclic in their sleep patterns, and tend to sleep more at night than during the day starting on their second day of life. Do you know why teens are like zombies in the morning? The Body Guide explains the changes in sleep needs for these difficult years.

Your body clock and rhythmic cycles affect so many things. Exercise and sports, for instance. Should you exercise in the morning or later in the day? Does your menstrual cycle make a difference? When you exercise and the type of exercise can make a difference on how well or how poorly you sleep. How our bodies handle food is also governed by when we eat, and the food we eat has an influence, again, on how well we sleep.

The Body Guide also covers sexuality and the best times to engage in sex. Want to get pregnant? Keep track of your body's rhythms. Most people know about the hormonal changes in a woman's body as she moves into menopause. But were you aware that men approaching mid-life also experience hormone changes? The Body Guide goes on to discuss how to cope with jet lag and about the use of chronobiology in the workplace to improve working conditions and accommodate those with a different body rhythm or those who have to work shift work.

Healing depends on your own body rhythm. The Body Guide gives a list of illnesses from A (AIDS) to U (Urinary disorders,) and explains when their symptoms are most and least troublesome over the day and when it's best to treat them.

And what is to come? The authors believe that in the twenty-first century, there will be better health through the use of chronotherapy. Computers will facilitate the way we keep track of our body rhythms and the times our bodies exhibit unusual patterns. Further research and education will foster a deeper understanding of chronobiology.

Throughout the book you'll find charts, illustrations and self tests to help you understand chronobiology and your own body rhythms. Also included are diaries to help you keep tabs on your health. For those who want to learn more, the authors have included an extensive list of resources.... I would recommend The Body Guide to Better Health to anyone who wants to learn what makes his or her body tick.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough as I wanted.
Review: Good information and tips, but most of them already known before. However, it`s ok if you know absolutely anything about body cycles

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I bought this book on the strength of its good reviews but was disappointed. It did not deliver the depth of information which I expected. A much better coverage of related issues can be found in Dennet's "Promise of sleep".

Rating:
Summary: INTRIGUING - HOLDS THE READER'S ATTENTION!
Review: I found this book to be thoroughly amazing from start to finish. From my studies in psychology, it was apparent to me that our lives are composed of patterns. We often awake at the same time and often become tired at the same time each evening, especially if a regulated sleeping pattern is followed. We generally have a schedule, or a certain order, in which we complete tasks when we do arise. Where sit at the dinner table, what time we leave for work and arrive home again, the order in which we dress ourselves, the order in which we perform our household chores, the path we take around the aisles of the supermarket - all these, and many more, comprise the patterns of our lives, and the patterns are unique to each individual person.

This book allows one to develop a personal record monitoring such factors or "patterns" as alertness, pain threshold, hunger, sleeping patterns, etc. Our biological clock tells us when the best time is to perform a number of functions each and every day. Just as some individuals are more productive first thing in the morning others are more productive, particularly creative people, late at night or at 3 a.m. when others are sleeping soundly. Based on chronotherapy, "The Body Clock Guide to Better Health" suggests how to synchronise your health care and internal clock, based on your individualized body rythms. Your heart rate, body temperature and hormone production vary with your personal internal clock. This, in turn, influences such things as the best time to take medication, the easiest time to detect disease and even assists you in determining the ideal time, if their is such a thing as an "ideal" time, to have dental work completed. Generally, there is a time when each individual is more tolerant of pain, so if you are planning to have root canal work, you probably should not have this completed when your tolerance for pain is at its lowest.

The material has clearly been thoroughly researched from a scientific approach and well written by authors who have extensive exerience in their chosen fields. What most impressed me about the book was the "completeness" of the subject matter. The material is in-depth, easy and enjoyable to read, and the content holds your attention from start to finish.

Rating:
Summary: INTRIGUING - HOLDS THE READER'S ATTENTION!
Review: I found this book to be thoroughly amazing from start to finish. From my studies in psychology, it was apparent to me that our lives are composed of patterns. We often awake at the same time and often become tired at the same time each evening, especially if a regulated sleeping pattern is followed. We generally have a schedule, or a certain order, in which we complete tasks when we do arise. Where sit at the dinner table, what time we leave for work and arrive home again, the order in which we dress ourselves, the order in which we perform our household chores, the path we take around the aisles of the supermarket - all these, and many more, comprise the patterns of our lives, and the patterns are unique to each individual person.

This book allows one to develop a personal record monitoring such factors or "patterns" as alertness, pain threshold, hunger, sleeping patterns, etc. Our biological clock tells us when the best time is to perform a number of functions each and every day. Just as some individuals are more productive first thing in the morning others are more productive, particularly creative people, late at night or at 3 a.m. when others are sleeping soundly. Based on chronotherapy, "The Body Clock Guide to Better Health" suggests how to synchronise your health care and internal clock, based on your individualized body rythms. Your heart rate, body temperature and hormone production vary with your personal internal clock. This, in turn, influences such things as the best time to take medication, the easiest time to detect disease and even assists you in determining the ideal time, if their is such a thing as an "ideal" time, to have dental work completed. Generally, there is a time when each individual is more tolerant of pain, so if you are planning to have root canal work, you probably should not have this completed when your tolerance for pain is at its lowest.

The material has clearly been thoroughly researched from a scientific approach and well written by authors who have extensive exerience in their chosen fields. What most impressed me about the book was the "completeness" of the subject matter. The material is in-depth, easy and enjoyable to read, and the content holds your attention from start to finish.

Rating:
Summary: Invaluable, just when a friend needed it
Review: I had bought this book but hadn't really paid attention to it -- bought it for one thing, found that, then put it on my medical reference shelf. Then a friend started having a sleep disorder that was really ruining his life. He went to one sleep specialist who put him on a medication for which even the pharmacist thought she had prescribed an awfully large dosage, and it didn't help that much, so she sent him to another specialist, who recommended a light box in the morning. He bought the thing, but thought it was kind of nutty, and after I set it up for him I came home and looked in this book and found a whole section explaining various forms of sleep disorder, with three or four possible explanations for his, including why and how the light box might work. I also realized that he and his wife do not close the blinds in their bedroom, which is a factor I don't think they ever considered. So I am buying a second copy of the book for them. What doctors fail to do, so often, is explain why they are doing something -- or explain it skimpily, or you can't take in what they do say because you are hearing new information that sounds weird...whatever, I know the explanations in this book are going to be useful to my friend, and now I will look through the other sections to see what else is there. Thank you, Smolensky and Lamberg.

Rating:
Summary: Great gift!
Review: I'm in the process of reading "Body Clock" and am overjoyed with some of the new facts I have discovered in the book. I'm finding it most informative on questions I've always thought about but never could find the answers to--even from my own doctors. For example, I never knew NOT to take my calcium WITH my thyroid as no internist ever told me that before. The book is full of information that is new to me and will be a wonderful addition to my library and a handy reference book. It is well written, easy to read,and full of information regarding the various diseases that many of my friends and family suffer from. I give this book a 5 star and I will be recommending it to everyone and I plan to give it to other members of my family as holiday gifts.