Are you the type that purchases only one new book a year or do you collect every first-edition hardcover non-fiction book that is sold? You will have to buy this book to find out. At a time when we are being told that the number one problem in medicine is going to keep the helping profession running for the next generation, Dr Daniel Amen, a distinguished clinical neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author, has written a sensible guide to a "long happy life." In The Amen Solution: The Brain Healthy Way to Lose Weight And Keep It Off" (Crown Archetype, New York, 2011-25.99/29.99 in Canada), Dr Amen has synthesized information from the most up-to-date scientific literature, his clinical practice, and specifically, two recovery and rehabilitation studies developed through his "world-renowned" clinics, to describe a rational plan for "being thinner, smarter, happier."
Much of the insight shared with the reader of this book has been generated from Dr Amen's work with the retired NFL players' study involving a group of athletes whose physical and cognitive function declined following a career in professional football. When I first started to read this book I thought how lucky these wonderful gentlemen who had thrilled audiences for years with their athletics, were to have the benefit of Dr Amen's intelligent guidance. Now, with the help of these gentlemen and Dr Amen's other "All-Stars," the plain-language descriptions of their array of experiences gives everyone the chance to "tackle" obesity, once and for all.
The things that the reader will be grateful for in this book:
1. "thoughtful" examples of the most recent scientific evidence and rationales up to and including 2010 ("why you should do it")
2. easy-to-read summaries that allow the reader to start improving their health now ("how to do it")\
3. inexpensive foods, supplements, and recipes that everyone will want to have at home ("what you should have to do it")
4. humorous anecdotes that include one of the funniest quotes about the world we live in
5. definitely gimmick-free
This ten-chapter book with supplementary guides is a "healthy brain workout" for readers. (Interestingly, reading exercises the brain's neurons when storing new information as memory). The detailed recommendations address the motivation to be actively involved in maintaining one's health. Rational utilisation of foods and supplements to decrease stress and illness, learning new skills that exercise the brain, avoiding influences that "sabotage" our health, and opting to enhance the value-for-time, -effort, and-monetary expenditures in our everyday lives, are the essentials for a strong healthy brain. Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, poor circulation, stroke, irregular heart beat, chronic lung disease, asthma, sleep apnea, chronic kidney disease, "wear-and-tear arthritis," mood disorders, and dementia, are illnesses that are all related to obesity. For this reason alone, I could find no deficiencies in this excellent written work.
The book ends with a self-assessment questionnaire. What else do you expect but a quiz at the finish. By providing options for individual differences, and not the usual "one-size-fits-all approach," this "All-
Stars" team says there is hope for everyone whose goal is a "one-page-miracle" to precondition, protect, improve brainpower at work, church, school, recreation, and professional sport.