5 Natural Health Books You Must Have!

Your Home Health Library

As the person responsible for writing the content for our health blog I need reliable information at all times. I do have the web that I research and then I have 5 of my “Go To” books on my bookshelf. These books I would highly recommend to anyone who is serious about their health. The 5 books I recommend are all written by physicians.

There are many books out there to choose from. But I would highly recommend these 5 books as a good foundation.

How Not To Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven To Prevent and Reverse Disease. Michael. Greger M.D

In, “How Not to Die”, Dr. Michael Greger, the internationally-renowned nutrition expert, physician, and founder of NutritionFacts.org, examines the fifteen top causes of premature death in America–heart disease, various cancers, diabetes, Parkinson’s, high blood pressure, and more–and explains how nutritional and lifestyle interventions can sometimes trump prescription pills and other pharmaceutical and surgical approaches to help prevent and reverse these diseases, freeing us to live healthier lives.

“The simple truth is that most doctors are good at treating acute illnesses but bad at preventing chronic illness. The fifteen leading causes of premature death-illness such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s, high blood pressure and others claim the lives of 1.6 million Americans Annually.” From Michael. Greger M.D

The Reviews:

“We strive to make the best of our lives by maintaining our physical health and mental happiness. As food is the fuel for our survival, how healthily we survive and how well we recover from illness may also depend on what we eat. Michael Greger’s How Not to Die suggests different preventative and curative measures for tackling ailments we are all vulnerable to. I hope that this book may help those who are susceptible to illnesses that can be prevented with proper nutrition.”

―His Holiness the Dalai Lama

“The news that a plant-based diet is the healthiest way to eat is spreading. Dr. Michael Greger presents the groundbreaking science on how simple plant-based food choices help us live healthier and happier lives.Dr. Greger describes which foods to eat to prevent the leading causes of disease-related death and shows how a diet based on fruits, vegetables, tubers, whole grains, and legumes might even save your life.”

―Brian Wendel, Founder, and President of Forks OverKnives

Eat To Live The Amazing-Rich Program For Fast and Sustained Weight Loss Joel Fuhrman M.D

The Eat To Live 2011 revised edition includes updated scientific research supporting Dr. Fuhrman’s revolutionary six-week plan and a brand new chapter highlighting Dr. Fuhrman’s discovery of toxic hunger and the role of food addiction in weight issues. This new chapter provides novel and important insights into weight gain. It explains how and why eating the wrong foods causes toxic hunger and the desire to over consume calories; whereas a diet of high micronutrient quality causes true hunger which decreases the sensations leading to food cravings and overeating behaviors. It instructs readers on how to leave behind the discomfort of toxic hunger, cravings, and addictions to unhealthy foods.

This is a book that will let you live longer, reduce your need for medications, and improve your health dramatically. It is a book that will change the way you want to eat. Most importantly, if you follow the Eat To Live™ diet, you will lose weight faster than you ever thought possible.

The Reviews:

Americans spend more than $40 billion annually on diets and weight-reducing programs, many of which work temporarily, fail, or may be dangerous. Fuhrman’s nutrient-packed, healthful approach to nutrition combined with quick weight loss can be expressed in this equation, health=nutrients intake/calories intake. The more nutrient-heavy the intake, the less caloric and more healthy it is.

Encouraging, engaging personal stories from Fuhrman’s treatment of more than 10,000 patients demonstrate his supposition that eating ever-larger portions of healthful, high-nutrient foods decreases desire for low-nutrient foods, loosening their addictive hold on people. Pictures work effectively in this newly revised update of a nutrition-weight control classic.

Drawings show, for instance, the stomach-filling efficiency of 400 calories of high-nutrition intake versus 400 calories of high-fat and oil consumption, which leaves a nearly empty stomach hungry. With FAQs, glossary, endnotes, and an index for user-friendliness. Pass the eggplant!

–Whitney Scott

Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease The Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven, Nutrition-Based Cure. Caldwell B Esselstyn Jr. M.D

Based on the groundbreaking results of his twenty-year nutritional study, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn illustrates that a plant-based, oil-free diet can not only prevent the progression of heart disease but can also reverse its effects. Dr. Esselstyn is an internationally known surgeon, researcher and former clinician at the Cleveland Clinic and a featured expert in the acclaimed documentary Forks Over Knives. Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease has helped thousands across the country, and is the book behind Bill Clinton’s life-changing vegan diet.

The proof lies in the incredible outcomes for patients who have followed Dr. Esselstyn’s program, including a number of patients in his original study who had been told by their cardiologists that they had less than a year to live. Within months of starting the program, all Dr. Esselstyn’s patients began to improve dramatically, and twenty years later, they remain free of symptoms.

The Reviews:

“One of the most outstanding projects in health research of the past century. It’s relevant, it’s caring, it’s innovative, it’s extremely well executed and it’s very, very useful.”
—T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., author of The China Study

“Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn has directed pioneering research demonstrating that the progression of even severe coronary heart disease can often be reversed by making comprehensive changes in diet and lifestyle.“
Dean Ornish, M.D, founder, president and director of Preventive Medicine Research Institute and author of Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease

“I highly recommend Dr. Esselstyn’s book.”

—Kathy Freston, author of Veganist

“Dr. Esselstyn has always been ahead of his time. His focus on the healing powers of proper nutrition on diseased coronary arteries has now proven right, raising another unthinkable notion—that heart patients can cure themselves.”

—Bernadine Healy, M.D., former Director of the National Institutes of Health

Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself. Lissa Rankin M.D

Through her research, Dr. Rankin discovered that the health care she had been taught to practice was missing something crucial: a recognition of the body’s innate ability to self-repair and an appreciation for how we can control these self-healing mechanisms with the power of the mind. To better understand this phenomenon, she explored peer-reviewed medical literature and found evidence that the medical establishment had been proving that the body can heal itself for over 50 years. Using extraordinary cases of spontaneous healing, Dr. Rankin shows how thoughts, feelings, and beliefs can alter the body’s physiology.

Your Vibrant Heart Restoring Health, Strength, and Spirit From Your Bodies Core. Cynthia Thaik M.D

In Your Vibrant Heart, you will discover:

• – How to recognize the warning symptoms and your risk of heart disease
• – Strategies to improve your health, nutritional status and detoxify your body
• – Tips to gain physical strength and improve cardiovascular endurance
• – Steps to achieve mental clarity and spiritual enlightenment
• – Keys to allow abundance, health, wealth, and wisdom into your life
• – How to harness positive affirmations
• – How to achieve heightened energy and increased creativity

Life is a gift, and good health and a good heart should be our most prized possessions. Yet many people fail to treasure their health and their hearts until those blessings are gone. In Your Vibrant Heart, acclaimed cardiologist Dr. Cynthia Thaik explores the dynamic growth and healing processes of our ever-evolving hearts. Forging the missing links between Eastern and Western medicine, Dr. Cynthia covers the wisdom of conventional practices and beyond, unearthing a mind-body connection that takes us to the edge of what we thought we knew and placing the power of healing back in the hands of patients.

That is just the list of books that I recommend. Here is to learning to take better care of ourselves and not leaving our health in the hands of others.