BOOKS
Healing Home Spa
By Valerie Gennari Cooksley, R.N. (Prentice Hall Paperback, $19.95)
The spa experience is not only about pampering; equally, if not more important, are the healing aspects that spa treatments provide. Spa treatments and philosophies have the ability to cure, heal, and benefit your health. Cooksley’s recent book Healing Home Spa focuses on spa treatments, practices, and health tips to help cure or heal more than one hundred different ailments, from arthritis and asthma to lethargy and PMS. She introduces twelve different spa modalities and methods that you can use in your own healing home spa and explains, in simple terms, how they can benefit your health. Using her knowledge as a registered nurse as well as her background in aromatherapy for reference, Cooksley suggests various healing techniques that involve diet, breathwork, hydrotherapy, massage, herbs, and music therapy. She recommends different techniques for different ailments, but always provides several options. My favorite? The Goddess Tea recipe for PMS, which is a blend of herbs such as raspberry, chamomile, rose, ginger, licorice, and rosemary. Most importantly Cooksley teaches us how to take care of ourselves, while addressing common ailments that send many of us to the doctor.
—Melissa Billie Scott
Staying Healthy With the Seasons
By Elson M. Haas, M.D. (Celestial Arts, $16.95)
Elson M. Haas is a leader in the field of preventative and integrative medicine. Staying Healthy with the Seasons, 21st Century Edition (originally published in 1981), clearly demonstrates why Haas has such a reputation to uphold. In his recent book, Haas explores the cyclical aspects of nature, our environment, and our bodies, explaining why all three of these things change, grow, prosper, and die. In order to truly be healthy he suggests that we let go of the need for monotony and embrace change—be open to what each day, person, location, and event can bring you. To stay in harmony with nature and its changing seasons Haas emphasizes the need for seasonal diets, detox programs, and lifestyle patterns. Using Chinese medicine, allopathic medicine, mind-body approaches, homeopathy, and preventative medicine, Haas covers all of the bases, including health-sabotaging foods and immune-enhancing herbs. This book is for anyone who seeks a greater understanding and appreciation of their health, and wants to understand their body and its relation to the Earth’s seasons.
—M.B.S.
The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health
By Michio Kushi and Alex Jack (Ballatine Books, $27.95)
Two of the world’s most foremost authorities on the subject come together to explore macrobiotics and its healing potential. Although many associate macrobiotics with svelte celebrities in the know-how, it isn’t just for those that have personal chefs and trainers (although it wouldn’t hurt)—it is a lifestyle approach to eating that anyone can master. Macrobiotics derives from the Greek words macro, meaning long, and bios, meaning life. The foundation of the diet revolves around whole cereal grains, vegetables, beans, sushi, tofu and other soy foods, sea vegetables, a variety of seasonings and herbs, and very little animal products. The emphasis, however, is on how to eat in order to feel well each and every day. The first portion of the book explains the macrobiotic diet in detail, providing information on diet, balancing the yin and yang in your body, harmful foods and cooking techniques, and adopting a natural approach to health. The second half of the book addresses more than two-hundred different chronic conditions, illnesses, and disorders, and explains in detail how to heal yourself using macrobiotic principles. Although it may seem complicated at first, it is a unique approach to diet because it takes into consideration a variety of factors that many other diets ignore, namely your location, environment, age, sex, and food preferences.
—M.B.S.
September/October 2003
