The Secrets to Great Health: From Your Nine Liver Dwarves

I noticed all the reviews are either 5 stars or one star. I'm casting my vote with the 5 stars.I have had hepatitis back in '95-'96 and have studied health since 2003 when my doctor seemed intent on killing me slowly with Big Pharma chemicals. That's a whole 'nother story so I'll stay focused on this book.In 2003 I made the decision to take responsibility for my own health. No more depending on a doctor. I still use doctors but I no longer let them use me. So, for the past decade I've been educating myself via the internet. With the aid of the internet I find books to read helping me to understand things that doctors never tell you about because they are never taught about health when they're going through medical school. They primarily learn how to treat sickness using patent drugs.I've been learning how to use what Mother Nature put on earth for us to use. There's a lot of flim-flam being spread around net but the more you read and the more you learn, the easier it is to sort out the b.s. from the real knowledge. One of the things I've learned to be wary of is any treatment that claims to cure everything. That's an immediate turn-off for me.One of the things I have learned over the years though (I'm now 70) is the importance of keeping the right flora growing in your gut. I'm reluctant to name any products but there is a brand of pro-biotic-gut-flora that claims to come from soil as well as the more common sources and after using it for several weeks I noticed that the odor of my poop had changed in a way I couldn't identify. Then it finally came to me. My poop now smelled like it did when I was a child.If you read the literature, there are literally thousands of organisms living in a symbiotic relationship with our bodies. In fact, there's more of "them" than there is of "us". I don't know how many times I've had antibiotics over my lifetime but it had to have been a lot. In 2003 when I was in the hospital, I caught some kind of infection and they put me on IV Cipro. That's the one they give you for the weaponized anthrax. So I had to repopulate my gut with friendly flora. And I've come to think of my gut as a long, skinny garden and it's my job to keep that garden in good shape.I've come a long way in the past 10 years. All the way from putting my trust in doctors to putting my faith in a higher power and trust myself to figure out whether I need a doctor's help in treating what ails me. I still get regular checkups and I don't tell my doctor how skeptical I am of his trade but I do still need him for prescribing tests, x-rays, etc.The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. Nevertheless I do know I'm making progress and slowly getting wiser. Several months ago I found someone talking about this book so I got it and read it. I've been extremely happy with it.It's not for everyone. For one thing there's a lot of very technical jargon in this book. If you're not prepared it could be overwhelming. And second, there's the presentation. He assigns personalities to parts of the anatomy and it looks like that doesn't sit well with some. I haven't yet decided if I like it or not. I've only read it one time so far and this is a book I'll probably read 5 or 6 times. There's so much information condensed into those pages I'll never be able to get it in one sitting. Another book I have that was like that was Udo Erasmus' book "Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill". I had to read that book at least 6 times and still keep it sitting around for reference.I'm not going to try to tell you what's in the book. I'd rather tell you how this book has filled holes or gaps in my knowledge base that I didn't even know were there. I do a lot of reading and this is, by far, the most important book (to me) that I've got hold of in a very long time. If you want to know what happens to different kinds of foods between the time it enters your mouth and it comes out the other end, this book is for you.This would be a difficult "FIRST BOOK" to read about health. You'll need some background before going into it. But, if you're ready for it, this book will take you to a whole new level of understanding of a very complex process. You'll be amazed at how easily some of the medical racket's hardest problems are solved by the food you eat.Some 2,400 years ago a guy named Hippocrates said "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food."This book will convince you that's still good advice.

Wanna know about your health and how the whole body is interrelated? Easy read, funny and interesting. With enough complexity to keep the scientific mind engaged.

I have read this book over and over and keep getting more information from it. This is not a medical "test" book but explains how the liver works - keeping it simple and easy to read. If you are looking for a real good book that makes learning something totally weird "like how a liver works" then try this book!!! It presents the processes in way that is fun to read so it "sticks" in your head for later use. I'm sure there are way more technical books out there but not as easily read or understood. My husband is an EMT and even he enjoyed reading this plus he learned a lot from it. If you have a liver condition and are overwhelmed by all the technical jargon - then try this book. It will get you educated on your live and how to understand why it works the way it does along with helpful information.... I totally recommend this book!!!! Plus - it's fun to read.

Don't bother with this book if you want to learn how to improve your health because it will irritate you so much in trying to read through it that you'll blow a gasket.Tedious and silly. I can picture this writer giggling the entire time he wrote this complete silliness, thinking it was cute and clever. What, am I four years old?If I wanted a bedtime story I'd read Anderson or Grimm's.I am bewildered that this book ever made it past the editors desk and was published. It's insulting to the intelligence.

Matsen's second book was equally astonishing as his first book, Eating Alive, if not more so. In it, he delves far deeper then his first book into the intricacies of how the body works and what we can do to heal nearly anything that's not a major pathology. He goes about this by introducing us to 9 fictional characters who he calls the 9 liver dwarves, that represent different elements of ourselves. Each one guides us through a different part of ourselves; Burpy specializes us on digestion, Bloaty specializes on the portal vein, Gaspy guides us on our hearts, spacey guides us on our brains, Achy guides us on our immune systems, Itchy guides us on our kidneys, Bitchy guides us on our liver enzymes, Sluggy guides us on our mitochondria and Docque shows finishes up on what we can do to help ourselves out.In terms of major pathologies, it's unclear how much even the best naturopath can deal with this, but he has given some hints that you can atleast partially ameliorate the problem. He recommends that anyone with a serious pathology see a registered naturopath instead of merely self administering remedies for themselves, however. His book is great, but I seriously recommend reading his first book before reading his second; I think that his first book provides a lot of basic concepts that his second book seems more to build on then anything else. Well, here's to hoping his methods will become the modus operandi of all good health practioners of the future.If anyone would like to contact me concerning this book or Matsen's last one, my email address is [email protected]

Brilliant book. Dr Matsen is a genius

Its fine. Thank you.

This is the best book i have ever read

this book is expensive, but well worth the cost! a great primer on how the body works. If you have any health issues, and particularly digestive, I highly recommend. very easy to understand complex issues.

This is a great book. If you have a stubborn health issues, please pay attention to your liver. Is a life worth living? That depends on the liver.