Vitamins, Herbs, Minerals, & Supplements: The Complete Guide

"My mother recommended this book to me and I use it often. Very good! "
~ Written on 2007-01-23

"The supplement industry moves at light speed at introducing new products, so the fact that this book is six years old is somewhat of a hindrance. However, that being said, it has a unique medical perspective on just about every vitamin, herb, and mineral you could think of.

Each supplement included in the book includes short sections starting with "Basic Information" that shows foods that include the supplement, if any exist. Also there are sections on known effects (studied and proven), possible additional effects (proven via anecdotal evidence), warnings and precautions, and notes for those who are breastfeeding, infants and children, and senior citizens. There is also information on storage, safe dosage, toxicity, and adverse reactions.

This book is written by an M.D., so it does seem a bit overly cautious at times, but in the age of the Internet with so many snake oil salesmen claiming they have the cure for everything from Alzheimer's to diabetes in a nutritional supplement, I find this voice of caution refreshing. I consider this book just one more weapon in my arsenal of nutritional knowledge.

I also recommend the book "Prescription for Nutritional Healing". That book focuses on specific illnesses, while this book focuses on the herbal remedies and nutritional supplements mentioned in that book. They definitely make good companion reading.
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~ Written on 2006-08-08

"I found your book very useful, from a medical point of view. "
~ Written on 2006-02-19

"I found this book to be quite helpful. It provided natural sources, effects, deficiency and overdose symptoms, side effects, warnings, and toxity. This ranged from generally safe for adults under 45 to slightly dangerous or do not take. Side effects of an overdose ranged from none known, diarehha to coma. I looked up several different things and they were all there. This is a reference guide, not a how-to. I like having a balance to whatever marketing information is out there. "
~ Written on 2004-10-12

"We (a class of about 20) used this book in a Nutrition Class. This was one of two books recommended for reference for in-class discussions. We would talk about something and then look it up in one of two or three books we had and someone would read the data. I would say that if we took an opinion poll of the 20 folks in the class, they all would say they were frustrated at the lack of "how to use", "when to use" information in this book. In fact the book goes a long way [or is it's main theme seems to be to Warn us of the dangers of the herb, mineral and supplements]. I can completely see that a Doctor wrote this and is protecting himself from lawsuit being excessively careful in the discussion. However, I don't understand the reason why this book was written in this fashion. It's marginally useful - low scale of usefulness. There are better books.

To me it apperared that the doctor that wrote this book never practiced dispensing the material for healing purposes - he just wrote this book as a "translation" of medical information. No indication was given if the author is an opponent or proponet of alternative medicines.

The bottom line is that the book was all but useless to us in our Nutrition Class...where we were working towards a "practitioner" level.

The sections are heavily weighed to show "Warnings and Precautions", "Overdose/Toxicity", "Adverse Reactions or Side Effects". In fact they could shrunk the book by 1/2 as most of the text was related to warnings and it droned on with the exact same warning text in pretty much every thing that was discussed. A symbol to reflect the dangers could have been posted to each item.

Who is this book good for? The book is [relatively] cheap so anyone wanting to start out in getting the "vocubalary" of this type of information = names of supplements, minerals, and herbs - their origin - alternate names and latin names and a very brief [one or two words] on when to use. If nutrition or healing is but a passing fad to you, you'll do ok with this book - it'll bore you sufficiently to pass on the subject.

If you are even the least bit serious about learning or understanding herbs and supplements and want to try and experiment with these, then DO NOT get this book - it will not help you - you won't learn dosages or how to make a tea or an infusion with this, what it looks like, when to use, how to get access or how it's taken [pill, liquid] look elsewhere, there are much much better texts for the "practical" people.

An alternate book could be "Prescription for Nutritional Healing" found as a customer-reference in lots of health food store. It's written for the same audience but conveys acutal and practical information. [This was our other in-class reference, by the way].

Also, don't hesitate in buying a book solely on Herbs, then one on Minerals and then one on Supplements - the data will be more useful that way. Some books come with pictures so you can identify Herbs or the sources of Supplements."
~ Written on 2004-07-05