The Hepatitis C Help Book, Revised Edition: A Groundbreaking Treatment Program Combining Western and Eastern Medicine for Maximum Wellness and Healing

"Very user friendly. Good information, all in one book. All you need to know in order to take good care of yourself and a live good quality life without the commercial western killer medications during a period of such a delicate disease."
~ Written on 2008-05-03

"As someone who's had hepatitis C for 40 plus years (diagnosed about 10 years ago) and who went 35 years without health insurance, I've depended on alternative/complementary medicine a great deal.

As I prepare to begin treatment with interferon/ribavirin, I find this book invaluable for the practical information that it provides, which I'm certain will better enable me to deal with the side effects of the treatment.

The chapter and sections I find most helpful are those dealing with Western Medical Treatment options, Chinese Nutritional Therapy, Acupuncture, Qi Gong, and the section on the Integrated Treatment Program (especially the chapters dealing with digestive, fatigue, depression and pain issues, which I understand are common side effects.)

Finally, the Resource Appendix will be a great help in enabling me to find current information about helplines, networking, educational materials, chat rooms, message boards, lectures and workshops, and financial assistance; all of this will be essential to my clearing the virus and healing."
~ Written on 2007-11-29

" This is a "must read" book for anyone with hepatitis C, especially those interested in complementing Western medical advice with more holistic approaches such as acupuncture and herbs. The first edition helped me when I was going through treatment for hepatitis C and this revised edition is even more helpful. I was given a very low chance of success in clearing the virus with interferon & ribavirin, but since I had cirrhosis I needed to try. I credit weekly acupuncture, herbs, meditation, and qigong/tai chi, and other suggestions in this book for my beating the odds, and getting rid of the hepatitis C virus and the cirrhosis. Well, you can read more about my story on www.hepCmeditations.org if you want. I'm really grateful to have gotten through treatment successfully.
The Hepatitis C Help Book has info you don't find anywhere else. The explanations of how Eastern medicine can help people with liver problems are illuminating. Certainly take this book to your acupuncturist, but the recommendations of foods to eat or avoid for particular symptoms is invaluable for everyone, and there are also recipes worth trying. Getting advice from both the Western and Eastern perspective made me feel like I had some choices and that I was getting the best of both worlds. And there's advice on mood, sex, fuzzy thinking, aches & pains, why stress is harmful, how meditation helps, and lots of self-help advice. Unique things and up-to-date explanations of the basics. I'm teaching a course on Hepatitis now and I refer to this book, and recommend it to people who ask my advice on dealing with hepatitis C and other liver problems.
"
~ Written on 2007-11-01

"I read this book as a nurse working with hepatitis C patients, and as someone without any knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). I'm not sure who the book's ideal reader would be, but I don't think it's me or my patients. It takes the unusual approach of alternating chapters or half-chapters between Dr. Gish, a GI/hepatology physician of some renown, and Dr. Cohen, a Chinese medicine practitioner at a clinic that sees some of the same patients. The two halves have virtually nothing in common: Gish's side is more or less like other mainstream books on the subject, although not the best-written of them (that's probably Living with Hepatitis C: A Survivor's Guide), while Cohen starts every section with something along the lines of "In TCM, [whatever organ, cell, or other concept Gish just explained] has nothing to do with this disease; it's an imbalance between [nondescriptive name of some principle in TCM] and [another one of those]"... basically a lot of terms that, to anyone who hasn't studied TCM, will just sound like gibberish and not really give any basis for understanding what the doctor thinks you should do. Now I know that that's more or less how even the simplest "Western" medical teaching would sound to someone who's never heard of any of its concepts, but the fact is that just about everyone here has heard of at least the very basic ones, so it's possible to describe even something as complicated as the immune system in simple terms and, if necessary, explain how those concepts can be tested and applied. Gish sort of does that, but - at least for me, and I think for any reader without that training - Cohen doesn't. I'm left with the impression that they have two totally contradictory approaches, and it's not clear whether they really think there's a way that they can both be accurate, or whether they've just decided not to argue. In any case, I'm not sure what a patient would take away from the book itself; it seems more useful as a guide to further reading, or an incentive to ask your doctor more about everything."
~ Written on 2007-10-17