"YOU: The Owner's Manual" Lives up to the Hype

By now you have probably heard about YOU: The Owner's Manual—a best-selling guide to your body, written in an entertaining style by two physicians, Michael F. Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. I noticed that this morning the book is #4 in Amazon.com sales rank. From my previous post on sales rate versus Amazon sales rank, you know that means huge online sales. I finally had a chance to make one complete pass through my copy of the book (also purchased online from Amazon), stopping at interesting points and checking all the myths and facts. Here's my quick take on the book.

The 430-page hardcover book has 12 chapters, with the last chapter focusing on diet (which, I was pleased to see, jibes well with my dietary beliefs of lower-carb, more fish, nuts for snack, and so on). The ten chapters from 2 through 11 cover the major bodily functions—heart, brain, bones/joints/muscles, lung, intestines, sexual organs, sensory organs, immune system, glands—and one chapter on cancer. Each chapter has lots of relevant factoids, myths and myth busters, and a Live Longer Action Plan with specific actions for the bodily functions covered in that chapter. The action plans seem practical with lots of details. For example, the Live Longer Action Plan for the bones/joints/muscles chapter (Chapter 4) recommends the following four actions:

1. Do the right amount of physical activity (weight or resistance training, cardio/stamina training, and stretching or yoga). By the way, they don't endorse training for or completing marathons because of the pounding the joints take—a good excuse for me to skip the marathon :-)
2. Eat for strength (calcium, vitamin D and magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids from fish and walnuts, vitamin C).
3. Think of alternatives (where they mention glucosamine and chondroitin supplements to regenerate cartilage in knee and hip joints as well as use of acupuncture for pain relief).
4. Make minor changes such as stand up straight wear well-cushioned shoes, and stop smoking.

The book includes tons of other useful facts as well such as the ideal blood pressure is 115/76 (no matter where you live in the world), the ideal weight for a 5-foor tall person is 100 pounds (plus 5 pounds per inch for taller persons), and the ideal daily calorie count for losing a pound a month is about 9 times the ideal weight in pounds plus the calories expended through physical activity and exercise.These examples should give you an idea about the kind of information the book provides.

I have lots more to read in this book, but the nice part is that you don't have to read it sequentially—you can use it as a reference guide and just turn to the chapter that relates to your current question about your body. All in all, I think the book lives up to the hype and provides health and diet information you can really use.

Tags: diet exercise glucosamine vitamins omega3 acupuncture chondroitin healthyliving

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