Eight Weeks to Optimum Health (Proven Program for Taking Full Advantage of Your Body's Natural Healing Power)

The Eight-Week Program sets up a foundation for healthy living that is preventative in the broadest sense. Not only does Dr. Weil provide information with which you can keep your body's inherent healing system in peak working order as you encounter the challenges of day-to-day life; he also shows you how to construct a lifestyle that will protect you from premature illness and disability, and teaches practices and skills that will enable you to prepare for any eventual health crisis you may face. With clearly explained and authoritatively informed recommendations, Dr. Weil guides you in fine-tuning your current eating habits - to eat less fat and animal protein, more whole grains and other complex carbohydrates, and more fruits and vegetables - so that your diet becomes more nutritious and increasingly beneficial to general health (he also includes simple, flavorful recipes to help you make the dietary changes quickly and easily). He shows how walking and stretching will satisfy all your exercise requirements throughout your life, and provides a gradual plan by which you can make brisk forty-five-minute walks and some simple stretches part of your weekly regimen. Dr. Weil recommends the addition of four antioxidant supplements - vitamins C and E, selenium, and mixed carotenes - to further protect your healing system. He provides instruction in five basic breathing exercises that can impart both greater relaxation and energy. He discusses the benefits and techniques of visualization. He explains ways to overcome sleeping problems; to test and filter your water supply; to eliminate toxins from your diet; and to avoid environmental hazards such as the sun's ultraviolet rays. He suggestsways to make art, music, and the natural world more important parts of your life. For those who wish to experiment further, he outlines several projects and activities such as cleansing fasts. There are a dozen additional programs that concentrate on the specific needs of pregnant women, senior citizens, overweight people, and those at risk for cancer, among others. And throughout the book, there are case histories and firsthand accounts that attest to the remarkable success of the plan.