8 Weeks to Vibrant Health

by Hyla Cass, MD, and Kathleen Barnes
McGraw-Hill, 2005
334 pages

If you are perplexed by PMS or menopausal symptoms, or wondering about HRT versus herbal remedies, 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health will help answer your questions. It's like an encyclopedia of information regarding women's health concerns, portrayed in a user-friendly, practical manner.

Self-assessments are supplied to help women discover the possible root causes of their health concerns and journal entry samples are provided to help keep track of progress.

Women are more susceptible than men to weight gain, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety, and hormonal swings. Dr. Cass and Kathleen Barnes provide helpful, natural solutions to these conditions, supported by research and years of clinical experience. Natural treatments are safer and more user-friendly with fewer, less harmful side-effects because they work with the body's chemistry.

Dr. Cass strongly believes in integrated medicine and that doctors and patients should work as partners to solve problems and optimize health. She gives expert advice on when to consult physicians and how to create an effective partnership with them. The book is based on the following practices:

• looking beneath the symptoms for the root of the problem
• applying a continuation of treatments, always beginning with the most natural
• treating the body, mind, spirit, and environment of a person

One concern many of us share is the slow deterioration of our memory. The questionnaire in this chapter helps to determine how good or bad our memory really is. One of the author's suggestions for preventing memory loss is to exercise: "The more you use it the better it will work." A quick way to gain control of memory loss is to reduce the stress in our lives it takes as little as two weeks of exposure to high cortisol levels for the communication among brain cells to begin deteriorating.

Years of exposure to daily toxins impairs the immune system and promotes symptoms "out of nowhere." The authors offer natural, healthy solutions for cleansing our bodies and strengthening our immune systems by neutralizing or rejecting toxins.

This helpful book also includes a supplement guide explaining usage, cautions, and recommended daily dosages. For new information, readers are encouraged to visit Dr. Cass' website drcass.com, which is updated regularly.