Laurel of Leaves

getting back to my roots: my journey in true health and natural living

Reviews

Book Review: Doctor of the Future

This isn’t necessarily a book I would have picked from the bookstore shelf myself. Admittedly the cover is incredibly cheesy.

This came as required reading for staff meetings at work.

And I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much new information I learned from it!

The first page describes the book as a ‘guidebook for how you and your family can transform American health care. It shows you what you need to know today to take better care of your health, and your family’s tomorrow. It also illustrates how to use the body’s own power of self-healing to produce greater health and vitality.’

It is obvious that the author was using the book as a promotional tool for his clinic (based on the number of times he references it by name and offers the phone number, website and mailing address ad nauseum). But if you can look past that, the book really does skip over the fluff and offers information you can really sink your teeth into.

Maybe you’re curious about the spine on the front cover. How can a small segment of the medical field–an offshoot of ‘alternative medicine’–be considered the answer to true health?

That, my friends, is something I have learned much about in the past couple years.

As it turns out, God needs no help healing us, just no interference.

The author of this book does a really fantastic job explaining in layman’s terms how misalignments of the spine can wreak havoc on your health.

After all, if your brain runs and controls every single function of your body, what happens if the nerve impulses from the brain get stopped or delayed because there is pressure on a nerve due to a misalignment in the spine?

And he doesn’t stop there. There are chapters on the history of medicine, nutrition, stress, & exercise.

I think I underlined and highlighted half of the book, but here are some really great nuggets of wisdom:

“The history of pharmaceutical misinformation can be traced to the Rockefellers and the Carnegies at the turn of the nineteenth century. That’s who started pumping tons of money into the drug industry. They saw a tremendous opportunity to make lots of money, so they started funding medical schools. At that point in time, medical schools were designed to just teach surgery. The Rockefellers and Carnegies introduced the drug industry because they knew that by doing so they could expand and glean huge profits.” -p. 25

Rather reminds me of the snake oil salesman and the history of the pharmaceutical industry.

“Isn’t it funny how the practice of good spinal health, maintaining excellent nerve function, nutrition, detoxification, exercise, and vitamin supplements, which are all vital to great health and well-being, are called alternative medicine? Wellness practices should be considered primary health care. Traditional medicine is emergency, urgent crisis care, involving drugs and surgery; it is not health care. This should really be called the alternative.” -p. 45

I love this explanation of salt vs. sea salt and high blood pressure:

“Alarmingly, table salt is poisonous to the nervous system. Ninety-four percent of the world’s sodium is used commercially for shellacs and abrasive cleaning agents. Table salt is created by heating up ocean salt to extract sodium chloride for its commercial use as an abrasive; whatever is left over is that you find on the typical dinner table. When combined with the eighty-plus minerals indigenous to natural sea salt, sodium chloride is highly beneficial. When you take in sodium chloride by itself, it’s a toxic poison to the body. That’s why salt causes blood pressure to rise. You put a toxin in your body, and arteries immediately constrict. Your heart has to work harder, which causes blood pressure to go up.” p. 103

And I had to include all this info on avocados. Who knew they were so amazing?!

“Avocados contain compounds that lower cholesterol and help prevent certain types of cancers, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Avocados have antioxidant as well as antacid properties. They contain fourteen minerals, notably iron and copper, which aid in red blood cell regeneration, and potassium. They are one of the best sources of vitamin A, contain no starch, and minimal sugar. Avocados are 80 percent fat, all of it good fat. They are a good source of protein and have more potassium than bananas without all the sugar. They are rich sources of phytochemicals and glutathione, a powerful antioxidant and anti-aging chemical. Avocados are also the richest source of lutein, which protects against cancer and eye diseases. They are also very high in vitamin E.” -p. 113

Whew! I’m just saying…..

The Final Verdict

Pros:

  • Packed full of really useful, practical information
  • Very easy to read–scientific information presented in layman’s terms
  • Offers a wealth of resources (websites for products, organizations, etc.)

Cons:

  • Evidently self-published (full of grammatical errors & typos)
  • Blatant promotion of his Florida based clinic

Overall though, a really good choice if you want to learn more about how to be proactive with your health.