Total Renewal: 7 Key Steps to Resilience, Vitality and Long-term Health [Hardcover]

I must, at the outset, declare an interest in my review. I am a diabetes sufferer currently being treated with a regimen of drugs living in a country where the foods one buys from any supermarket are diametrically opposed to the maintenance of good health.

My concern here is with the book per se as opposed to the beneficial effects that I may have gained from following the guidance contained within. It should not, therefore, be taken as a testimony about the good works of the doctor's method.

Given these qualifications, the authors, Dr. Lipman and Stephanie Gunning have done an excellent job. Essentially the focus of the book is that western medicine has become too narrowly focussed on the treatment of the symptoms of diseases throught the widespread use of manufactured drugs. Dr. Lipman's background has led him to explore alternative methods of dealing with the diseases themselves and found that some of these methods have generated results which are hard to ignore.

The book chronicles a series of steps which people should follow in order to restore a sense of balance in our bodies and in our lives and thus enable us to be fit and well.

I would stress that Dr. Lipman is not advocating a wholescale rejection of western medicine. Instead he embraces a holistic paradigm which incorporates best practices from everywhere, utilising approaches from yoga and acupuncture as well as herbalism and other areas in concert with the traditional enlightenment medical science perspective. He advocates utilising our physicians as partners in our health which we need to take personal responsibility for and advising us to be assertive with our medical practitioners if we feel that our concerns are not being addressed.

There are some drawbacks however, to implementing some of the steps he advocates. Firstly, in my experience, it is not easy being a vegetarian in the United States even though he is not advocating a vegetarian approach. Similarly, for working parents in corporate America, there is often not the time nor the capability to prepare food in the right way. To those who say that one must make time, I would only say that those people have the means to sculpt their schedules the way that they want or they do not have to be like the other rats in this particular trap because their partners are bringing home enough money to allow them that luxury. The main issues are essentially twofold. The lesser of the two is the lack of provision of retail outlets where health foods and specialist vitamins can be purchased over the counter. For instance, although I only live thirty minutes away from the New York metropolis, the nearest health food store is a twenty-two mile, thirty minute car journey away. The more serious negative factor is the sheer volume of sugar and calories contained in foods of all descriptions which are available from supermarkets and food outlets all over the country. At a back to school night last week the principal was boasting of the replacement of colas in the drinks machines with healthy drinks, and healthy snacks instead of chips and candy, while across the street from the school the catchment are parents continue to chop for food at the local supermarket, totally oblivious to the damage these foods do to their health.

That aside, some of the practical problems of instituting such a program, the central point is one with which I do not dissent whatsoever. The key to a long and healthy life is clearly a sense of balance, a yin-yang from which many in the world have strayed. A recent study in England, reported in the Financial Times indicated that Britain is now the fat man of Europe indicated by the huge volume of people who are now considered morbidly obese. This problem has severe implications for life and health but also for healthcare costs directly and indirectly.

Total renewal is one guide to avaoiding such problems and I have no compunction about heartily recommending this book to all readers.