Review of The Healthy Gut Workbook
10/28/2010 2:01:51 PM
The Healthy Gut Workbook: Whole-Body Healing for Heartburn, Ulcers, Constipation, IBS, Diverticulosis & More
Victor S. Sierpina, MD, Oakland, California: New Harbinger Publications, Inc, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-5724-844-1
Now Available at www.amazon.com (click here to purchase)
One of the most common health issues — gastrointestinal (GI) problems —
and one of the important systems within our bodies — the digestive
system — are the focus of this clear, practical and science-based
workbook that will aid both health care providers and patients.
The book starts with an explanation of the functions of the various
parts of digestive system and then moves into a broad overview of
healthy eating, which includes instructions for keeping a food diary and
exercises to develop mindfulness skills around dietary habits.
In the chapter on superfoods, Dr. Sierpina points out that, “Your food
choices affect health not only in the digestive system but in every body
system. The body is like a factory where raw materials are processed.
High-quality materials are processed into high-quality products. Eating
well helps build healthy bones, blood, heart, muscles, eyes, kidneys,
brain and other essential components.” Short explanations of each of Dr
Pratt’s fourteen superfoods are presented, along with an understanding
of how consumption from each these categories improve digestive health.
The Healthy Gut Workbook
addresses the most common digestive conditions, citing both symptoms
and suggested diet-based solutions for leaky gut, food allergies, gluten
intolerance, food hypersensitivity, and inflammation, which can affect
joints, blood vessels, the brain and the heart.
Rather than being repetitive of other books on diets and digestion, Dr
Sierpina offers a new way to think about food. He says, “Food can be
understood as calories made up of carbohydrates, protein, and fat but
food is also information. The food you put in your body can
significantly alter the risks incurred for many diseases. This happens
through signaling pathways with cells affected by the food you eat. This
concept has grown into the ever more sophisticated science of
nutrigenomics (the science of how food modifies the activity of genes).
Food choices give information to our metabolic system and modify
chemical reactions.”
The intricate relationship between the digestive system and emotions is
explored. “Memories of trauma, painful experiences, injuries, insults
and emotional upset can be felt in our gut,” he says. Dr. Sierpina calls
our guts, “the fourth eye” and offers proven techniques for reducing
stress.
The last half of the book contains remedies for specific conditions
cause by GI disorders, such as gingivitis, heart burn, acid reflux
disease, gastritis, ulcers, diarrhea, constipation, flatulence,
gallstones, liver and pancreas, hepatitis, irritable bowel syndrome,
inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis,
diverticulosis, and hemorrhoids. A chart for each condition gives the
lifestyle options that would have a healing effect, conventional options
for treatment such as surgery or pharmaceuticals, botanical and
supplement options and other integrative strategy that have proven
effective.
The book ends with instructions for an elimination diet, which can help
people figure out the exact diet that is best suited for their unique
condition, and a detoxification program that will jump start the healing
process.
The Healthy Gut Workbook is an important
contribution to the literature on digestive health. As Dr. Sierpina
points out, the information and processes offered in the book develop
“tools for life.”
Bonnie Horrigan
Editorial Director, EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing