Holistic Health
High Level Wellness: An Alternative to Doctors, Drugs, and Disease, by Donald B. Ardell. This book provides a detailed overview of the 5 dimensions of high level wellness- self-responsibility, nutritional awareness, stress management, physical fitness, and environmental sensitivity. It also provides a 1986 honor roll of books related to high level wellness. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Out of print.
Supercharge Your Health! 150 Easy Ways to Get Strong, Feel Great, and Look Your Best, by Gary Null. Published in 1997. 150 concise, upbeat suggestions for improving your health, including improving your diet, exercising, and using nutritional supplements. Includes some advanced thinking. For example, not only does he recommend reducing the amount of sugar and fat you consume, but he briefly mentions food allergies, rotation diets, and some nutrition-oriented medical tests, and advocates using nutritional supplements.
The Wellness Workbook, second edition, by John W. Travis, M.D. and Regina Sara Ryan. This workbook looks at health as a dynamic process of how you use your own energy to interact with the world, and covers self-responsibility and love, breathing, sensing, eating, moving, feeling, thinking, playing and working, communicating, sex, finding meaning, and transcending. It includes a detailed wellness index so you can discover, reflect upon, and improve how healthy you are in each of these 12 categories.
Wellness: Small Changes You Can Use to Make a Big Difference, by Regina Sara Ryan and John W. Travis, M.D. This positive and upbeat book covers 32 ways you can improve your health by being kind to yourself and self-nurturing. It is a welcome change from many spartan health-improvement programs.
Bodymind, by Ken Dychtwald. The body and the mind are very much related. (For example, muscle tension and mind tension go together, and exercise will flush out stress-chemicals in the bodymind and replace them with relaxation chemicals.) This book covers the bodymind connection in detail, and allows you to learn about yourself by observing how your life has molded your bodymind over the years. See also bodywork.
Be-good-to-your-body Therapy, written by Steve Ilg, illustrated by R.W. Alley. This mini-booklet provides affirmations, encouragement, and friendly advice for being good to your body. Lovingly written, illustrated, and calligraphied. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Exercise
The Aerobics Program for Total Well-Being: Exercise, Diet, Emotional Balance, by Kenneth H. Cooper, M.D. M.P.H. Note: If you exercise, be sure to stretch the muscles that you tighten through exercising. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Smart Exercise: Burning Fat, Getting Fit, by Covert Bailey. Note: If you exercise, be sure to stretch the muscles that you tighten through exercising. Reviewed by Amazon.com. (See also Smart Eating: Choosing Wisely, Living Lean under the section losing weight.)
Stretching
Stretching, by Bob Anderson. Illustrated by Jean Anderson. Stretching makes you more relaxed by reducing muscle tension, which also reduces mental tension. Stretching also helps prevent muscle injuries by stretching and lengthening the muscles that you tighten during exercise. Over 2 million copies sold. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Stretching at Your Computer or Desk, by Bob Anderson. Illustrated by Jean Anderson. Jan. 2000 edition. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
I view yoga as an advanced form of stretching.
Stress Control
Book
Deal- Buy The Book of Stress Survival for $1.25-$5.00 as
of 9/2/01.
The Book of Stress Survival: Identifying and Reducing the Stress in Your Life, by Alix Kirsta. A Gaia original book, beautifully illustrated, that provides a relaxing, holistic approach to relaxation. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
Publisher out of stock in Nov. 2000.
Stress, Anxiety, and Insomnia: How You Can Benefit from Diet, Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs, Exercise, and Other Natural Methods (Getting Well Naturally), by Michael T. Murray, N.D. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, by Martha Davis, Ph.D., Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman, M.S.W., and Matthew McKay, Ph.D. A quality workbook covering many different ways to relax. Over 200,000 copies sold, and the book won the Medical Self-Care Book Award. "An excellent resource for putting together your own tailor-made approach to dealing with stress." - Medical Self-Care Magazine. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, by Edmund Bourne. A workbook for overcoming fear. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
You can also use nutritional supplements for stress control. For example, using the herbal tonic ginseng strengthens your adrenal glands and increases your resistance to stress. Also, you can use 5-HTP to increase your self-confidence.
2 quick fixes for relieving stress include GABA and valerian root. GABA is an amino acid and valerian root is an herb. Valerian root is available at most health food stores, while GABA is found in fewer health food stores. GABA has a gradual, mind-calming effect. Valerian root, if you chew a very small amount of it, produces an effect almost immediately. Valerian is a primarily a muscle relaxant which also relaxes your mind. GABA is described in The Healing Nutrients Within: Facts, Findings and New Research on Amino Acids and is recommended by Dr. Julian Whitaker, among others, and valerian root is described in The Magical and Ritual Use of Herbs. Both relaxants are mentioned in Stress, Anxiety, and Insomnia: How You Can Benefit from Diet, Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs, Exercise, and Other Natural Methods (Getting Well Naturally), by Michael T. Murray, N.D. .
- See also exercise and stretching, both of which relieve stress.
- See also joy, happiness, and pleasure, which often relieves stress.-
Women's Health
Our Bodies, Ourselves for the New Century: A Book by and for Women, by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective. Published in 1998. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
The New Ourselves, Growing Older: Women Aging With Knowledge and Power, by Diana Laskin Siegal and Paula Brown Doress-Worters in cooperation with the Boston Women's Health Collective. A book for women over 40. This book takes a positive, empowering approach to the physical and emotional health and social well-being of midlife and older women by providing frank and complete information on personal health. Reviewed by Amazon.com.
The Women's Health Products Handbook: Smart Buys for Healthy Bodies, by Carol Ann Rinzler. Describes more than 600 over-the-counter and prescription brand-name products and includes 54 pages of information on birth control products. Published in 1996. You can also purchase a new 2000 edition that should be published soon. Reviewed by Amazon.com.