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Recommended Reading2018-06-22T12:22:35-05:00

The Woodlands Institute for Health & Wellness staff recommends the following books to help you in your goal of obtaining and maintaining optimal health.

Highway to Health: A Nutritional Roadmap

By: Mila McManus, M.D.

Are you still trying to figure out how to eat right for life? Are you having trouble staying on track? Is it hard to navigate the grocery store today and know if you are making the right choices? Do you understand the magnitude of the impact your diet has on your health and well-being?

Topics included in the book include organic requirements, genetically modified foods, All about Soy, lists of Carbohydrates, Fats, Proteins, water, sweeteners, beverages, seasonings, and additives all identified as Ideal, Good, Limit or Avoid. We also cover aspects of food including acid-alkaline balance, inflammatory vs. anti-inflammatory foodsallergies and sensitivities and the latest news on digestive enzymes, and calorie counting.

Highway to Health: A Nutritional Roadmap is available for purchase in our office or by clicking here. 

Highway to Health

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Exploring the links between GM foods, glyphosate, and gut health

With chronic disorders among American children reaching epidemic levels, hundreds of thousands of parents are desperately seeking solutions to their children’s declining health, often with little medical guidance from the experts. What’s Making Our Children Sick? convincingly explains how agrochemical industrial production and genetic modification of foods is a culprit in this epidemic. Is it the only culprit? No. Most chronic health disorders have multiple causes and require careful disentanglement and complex treatments. But what if toxicants in our foods are a major culprit, one that, if corrected, could lead to tangible results and increased health? Using patient accounts of their clinical experiences and new medical insights about pathogenesis of chronic pediatric disorders—taking us into gut dysfunction and the microbiome, as well as the politics of food science—this book connects the dots to explain our kids’ ailing health.

What’s Making Our Children Sick? explores the frightening links between our efforts to create higher-yield, cost-efficient foods and an explosion of childhood morbidity, but it also offers hope and a path to effecting change. The predicament we now face is simple. Agroindustrial “innovation” in a previous era hoped to prevent the ecosystem disaster of DDT predicted in Rachel Carson’s seminal book in 1962, Silent Spring. However, this industrial agriculture movement has created a worse disaster: a toxic environment and, consequently, a toxic food supply. Pesticide use is at an all-time high, despite the fact that biotechnologies aimed to reduce the need for them in the first place. Today these chemicals find their way into our livestock and food crop industries and ultimately onto our plates. Many of these pesticides are the modern day equivalent of DDT. However, scant research exists on the chemical soup of poisons that our children consume on a daily basis. As our food supply environment reels under the pressures of industrialization via agrochemicals, our kids have become the walking evidence of this failed experiment. What’s Making Our Children Sick? exposes our current predicament and offers insight on the medical responses that are available, both to heal our kids and to reverse the compromised health of our food supply.

Whats Making Our Children Sick

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Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride set up The Cambridge Nutrition Clinic in 1998. As a parent of a child diagnosed with learning disabilities, she is acutely aware of the difficulties facing other parents like her, and she has devoted much of her time to helping these families. She realized that nutrition played a critical role in helping children and adults to overcome their disabilities, and has pioneered the use of probiotics in this field. Her willingness to share her knowledge has resulted in her contributing to many publications, as well as presenting at numerous seminars and conferences on the subjects of learning disabilities and digestive disorders. Her book Gut and Psychology Syndrome captures her experience and knowledge, incorporating her most recent work. She believes that the link between learning disabilities, the food and drink that we take, and the condition of our digestive system is absolute, and the results of her work have supported her position on this subject. In her clinic, parents discuss all aspects of their child’s condition, confident in the knowledge that they are not only talking to a professional but to a parent who has lived their experience. Her deep understanding of the challenges they face puts her advice in a class of its own.

GAPS

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Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride created the term GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome or Gut and Physiology Syndrome) in 2004 to describe the plethora of health problems that stem from an unhealthy gut. Since developing the GAPS nutritional protocol, Dr. McBride has received letters from GAPS sufferers all over the world: stories written by real people who have overcome their real health problems. Every one of these people has learned valuable lessons on their healing journey: lessons they are keen to pass to others who may be struggling through the same difficulties. These stories can be utilized as case studies for how to progress through personal healing and how to deal with problems that one may have to face along the way. There is nothing more valuable than real life experience! Those who have lived through something, fought the battle and won, know what is true and what is false, what works and what doesn’t. Many of these stories are humbling–the kinds of horrific problems that people have had to deal with are hard to imagine for the majority of us–yet told with humor and grace!

GAPS stories

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With more than two hundred straightforward, nutrient-dense, and appealing recipes, The Heal Your Gut Cookbook was created by GAPS Diet experts Hilary Boynton and Mary G. Brackett to help heal your gut and to manage the illnesses that stem from it.

Developed by pioneering British MD Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, who provides the book’s Foreword, Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) refers to disorders, including ADD/ADHD, autism, addictions, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, stemming from or exacerbated by leaky gut and dysbiosis. GAPS also refers to chronic gut-related physical conditions, including celiac disease, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes type one, and Crohn’s disease, as well as asthma, eczema, allergies, thyroid disorders, and more. An evolution of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, the GAPS Diet will appeal to followers of the Paleo Diet, who are still struggling for optimum health, as well as anyone interested in the health benefits of fermentation or the Weston A. Price approach to nutrition.

In The Heal Your Gut Cookbook, readers will learn about the key cooking techniques and ingredients that form the backbone of the GAPS Diet: working with stocks and broths, soaking nuts and seeds, using coconut, and culturing raw dairy. The authors offer encouraging, real-life perspectives on the life-changing improvements to the health of their families by following this challenging, but powerful, diet.

The GAPS Diet is designed to restore the balance between beneficial and pathogenic intestinal bacteria and seal the gut through the elimination of grains, processed foods, and refined sugars and the carefully sequenced reintroduction of nutrient-dense foods, including bone broths, raw cultured dairy, certain fermented vegetables, organic pastured eggs, organ meats, and more.

The Heal Your Gut Cookbook is a must-have if you are following the GAPS Diet, considering the GAPS Diet, or simply looking to improve your digestive health and—by extension—your physical and mental well-being.

Heal Your Gut Cookbook

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By Dr. Natasha Campbell

Review: We all know somebody who suffers from heart disease or who has died from it, including members of our own families. Heart disease is our modern plague. We hear about it in the popular media, every time we see a doctor, every time we talk to friends and neighbors, and every time we buy our food. It has become a background noise for many of us, so we don’t stop and think: what on earth is heart disease and should I be concerned about it?

Put Your Heart in Your Mouth

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Another blockbuster from Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, the creator and author of the GAPS Protocol—Gut And Psychology / Gut And Physiology Syndrome. Her GAPS Nutritional Protocol has been used successfully by hundreds of thousands of people around the world for treating a plethora of chronic health problems, from mental illness to physical disorders. Her book Gut and Psychology Syndrome has been translated into sixteen languages. She has now undertaken an intense study into the value of plant foods versus animal foods. Vegetarianism Explained: Making an Informed Decision is the result of this study. Dr Campbell-McBride gives a full scientific description of how animal and plant foods are digested and used by the human body. This information will give the reader a good understanding on how to feed their body to achieve optimal health and vitality.

This book is an essential read for those who are considering a plant-based lifestyle and those who are already following a vegetarian or a vegan diet. The subject of fasting is covered and will give the reader a good understanding on how to use this method for healing and health. This book will also answer questions on where our food comes from and how it is produced, how to eat in harmony with your body’s needs and how we should introduce small children to the world of food.

Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride is known for her ability to explain complex scientific concepts in a language easily understood by all. Vegetarianism Explained will be enjoyed by all ages of adults – from young teenagers to mature professionals. For those who are scientifically minded the book is fully referenced.  

Vegetarianism Explained

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Cancer survivors Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly offer the first comprehensive ketogenic cookbook based on the most exciting new research on nutritional approaches to the prevention and management of cancer.

For decades, the ketogenic diet—which shifts the body’s metabolism from burning glucose to burning fat, lowering blood sugar and insulin and resulting in a metabolic state known as ketosis—has been used to successfully manage pediatric epilepsy. More recently, it has been used by the Paleo community as a weight loss strategy. Now emerging research suggests that a ketogenic diet, in conjunction with conventional treatments, also offers new hope for those coping with cancer and other serious disease.

With endorsements from leading researchers and oncologists such as Dr. Thomas Seyfried (Cancer as a Metabolic Disease), The Ketogenic Kitchen offers more than 250 recipes, as well as meal plans and comprehensive scientific information about the benefits of a ketogenic diet, with sensible advice to help readers through periods of illness, recovery, and treatment.

This North American paperback edition has been updated to include U.S. customary units of measure appearing side-by-side with metric measures.

Ketogenic Kitchen

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The Book That Started the Fermentation Revolution

Sandor Ellix Katz, winner of a James Beard Award and New York Times bestselling author, whom Michael Pollan calls the “Johnny Appleseed of Fermentation” returns to the iconic book that started it all, but with a fresh perspective, renewed enthusiasm, and expanded wisdom from his travels around the world. This self-described fermentation revivalist is perhaps best known simply as Sandorkraut, which describes his joyful and demystifying approach to making and eating fermented foods, the health benefits of which have helped launch a nutrition-based food revolution.

Since its publication in 2003, and aided by Katz’s engaging and fervent workshop presentations, Wild Fermentation has inspired people to turn their kitchens into food labs: fermenting vegetables into sauerkraut, milk into cheese or yogurt, grains into sourdough bread, and much more. In turn, they’ve traded batches, shared recipes, and joined thousands of others on a journey of creating healthy food for themselves, their families, and their communities. Katz’s work earned him the Craig Clairborne lifetime achievement award from the Southern Foodways Alliance, and has been called “one of the unlikely rock stars of the American food scene” by The New York Times.

This updated and revised edition, now with full color photos throughout, is sure to introduce a whole new generation to the flavors and health benefits of fermented foods. It features many brand-new recipes—including Strawberry Kvass, African Sorghum Beer, and Infinite Buckwheat Bread—and updates and refines original recipes reflecting the author’s ever-deepening knowledge of global food traditions that has influenced four-star chefs and home cooks alike. For Katz, his gateway to fermentation was sauerkraut. So open this book to find yours, and start a little food revolution right in your own kitchen.

Wild Fermentation

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The Healing Code

By Dr. Alex Loyd and Dr. Ben Johnson

The premise of the book is that all disease stems from physiologic stress. If you deal with psychological stress, you can be assured that your body is experiencing physiologic stress; however, even if you do not feel anxious or stressed, it’s still likely that your body is under physiologic stress.

So what does this all mean? Well, for starters, when you are under physiologic stress, your body is in survival mode (aka “fight or flight”). This involves activating your sympathetic nervous system which raises blood pressure, increases heart rate, stresses your adrenal glands, and overrides the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for digestion and for maintenance and repair of the body.

Instead of your body worrying about cancer cell over here, and virus over there, and digesting the food in your stomach, it’s worried about surviving the next few minutes. This means that people with chronic stress are bound to have digestive issues and are adversely affecting their body’s ability to heal itself.

The author of The Healing Code, Dr Alex Loyd, spent years trying to help his wife recover from depression. He even went back to school to get a PhD in Psychology to try to figure things out for her. One day, while flying home from a conference, he tells how this information appeared to him, and he knew how to help his wife when he returned home to her. He performed what he now calls the healing code with his wife and apparently she’s been great ever since. The co-author of the book, Ben Johnson, MD, DO, NMD, was diagnosed with ALS (a typically fatal auto-immune disease affecting the nervous system) and, knowing his fate, was seeking out alternatives when he came across the healing code. He began a diligent regimen of the healing code and reports that he cured his illness in 3 months.

In the book it’s explained how we accumulate memories, both good and bad, and that the bad memories can be constantly reactivated, even at a subconscious level, keeping you in a state of physiologic stress. Let’s say, for example, that you were in a terrible car accident 15 years ago with a red car. Ever since then, every time you see the color red, it may be causing you stress, whether you feel it (e.g. a random panic attack) or not (e.g. chronic high blood pressure or digestive issues without obvious cause).

The goal of this book is to teach you how to neutralize your body’s physiologic stress response with a simple 6 minute exercise done once daily which in turn would dampen the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, helping to lower blood pressure and heart rate, and allow the parasympathetic nervous system to take over again, thereby improving digestion and allowing the body to heal itself.

The Healing Code: 6 Minutes to Heal the Source of Your Health, Success, or Relationship Issue

By: Jed Diamond

Review: Male menopause, also termed andropause, is a series of chemical and physiological changes that occur in males between forty and fifty-five years of age. The author, Jed Diamond, explains male menopause and the health problems frequently connected with this condition along with the latest developments in hormone replacement therapy for men. Symptoms of male menopause include a weakened immune system, poor injury/illness recovery, decreased physical endurance, increased fat content, memory loss, irritability, anxiety, depressed moods, loss of self-confidence and sense of well being, indecisiveness and passivity, as well as decreased romantic inclinations.

By: Winnifred B. Cutler, Ph.D.

Review: “A comprehensive guide to preventing, preparing for, and maximizing health after hysterectomy – with essential information on menopause.” Dr. Cutler explains the actual mechanics of a hysterectomy along with the risks involved and alternatives available. It will help women who have had a hysterectomy understand the hormonal changes that occur and how to correct or deal with them. This book is not entirely focused on natural hormones, but it does allow you to gain an understanding of what a hysterectomy is, why it is done, and what hormonal therapy should be done afterwards.



By: Vicki Hufnagel, M.D.

Review: The decision to have or not to have a hysterectomy is one that will dramatically affect the rest of your life. For those who are facing such a decision, this book will be an influential factor. She explains that almost ninety percent of the hysterectomies performed in the United States may be unnecessary and for those that are necessary, she discusses the leading surgical procedures. Also expressed are the frustrations in dealing with uncaring professionals and the consequential suffering and emotional trauma harming multitudes of women and their families.

By: John R. Lee, M.D., Jesse Hanley, M.D., and Virginia Hopkins

Review: Once again, Dr. Lee discusses the importance of natural progesterone replacement; but he is now focusing on women between thirty and fifty years of age. Women who are experiencing puzzling mood swings, fatigue, weight gain, breast tenderness, memory loss, migraine headaches, irregular menstrual cycles, cold hands and cold feet or any variation of these symptoms are dealing with the phenomenon – premenopause. These same women are being offered multitudes of antidepressants, counterfeit hormones or even surgery as their solution. However, none of those treatments address the “simple” underlying problem of hormone imbalance, specifically a drop in progesterone levels. Dr. Lee provides information on the safest and most effective treatments.

By: Gillian Ford

Review: Listening to Your Hormones is a very thorough guide on the hormonal changes that occur in women beginning at puberty and on through menopause. The author, Gillian Ford, explains the many problems associated with premenstrual syndrome, birth control pills, postpartum depression, perimenopause and menopause, hysterectomies, breast cancer, chronic fatigue, even multiple chemical sensitivities and how they relate to the hormone fluctuations in a woman’s body during the different stages of life. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D., comments, “I encourage women of all ages to read Listening to Your Hormones. Then pass it on to your physicians, your daughters, and your friends. It may save you many dollars in fruitless therapies which are not directed to the underlying hormonal needs, and it certainly will help you find innovative ways of improving your quality of life.” This book is plainly one of the most informative books in the world of natural hormones, offering a multitude of opinions and expertise from the outstanding natural hormone physicians in the country and “real-life” testimonies from various women. The knowledge you will gain from this one book will empower you to take control of your health. You will then be able to apply this knowledge to your life and your unique symptoms.

By: Gillian Ford

Review: Listening to Your Hormones is a very thorough guide on the hormonal changes that occur in women beginning at puberty and on through menopause. The author, Gillian Ford, explains the many problems associated with premenstrual syndrome, birth control pills, postpartum depression, perimenopause and menopause, hysterectomies, breast cancer, chronic fatigue, even multiple chemical sensitivities and how they relate to the hormone fluctuations in a womanÕs body during the different stages of life. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, M.D., comments, “I encourage women of all ages to read Listening to Your Hormones. Then pass it on to your physicians, your daughters, and your friends. It may save you many dollars in fruitless therapies which are not directed to the underlying hormonal needs, and it certainly will help you find innovative ways of improving your quality of life.” This book is plainly one of the most informative books in the world of natural hormones, offering a multitude of opinions and expertise from the outstanding natural hormone physicians in the country and “real-life” testimonies from various women. The knowledge you will gain from this one book will empower you to take control of your health. You will then be able to apply this knowledge to your life and your unique symptoms.

By: Barnes and Galton

Review: This book is a landmark for physicians and patients alike. Hypothyroidism, literally the unsuspected illness, is finally recognized and explained in clear and understandable language. Chapters cover the multitude of symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, weight difficulty, recurrent and chronic infections, menstrual irregularities, and skin disorders to name just a few. Also discussed is the role thyroid plays in the human growth and maturation process and even how thyroid can affect the body’s emotional state. This is a “must-read” for everyone.

By: Doris Rapp, M.D.

Review: Dr. Doris Rapp shares her vast knowledge of allergic disorders in children and adults. She outlines specific problems that are frequently ignored or even misdiagnosed, such as hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, aggression, depression, and even poor academic performance. She then explains how inhalant allergiesfood allergies, and chemical sensitivities are oftentimes the underlying cause of so many of these conditions. Included are numerous “self-tests” for parents, to help them identify cause-and-effect relationships within their own children.