Health2O

I interviewed Dr. Fleckenstein a while ago for my blog and read her books Health2O and Healthy to 100 around the same time; however, only recently have I gotten around to writing a review of the book.  Health2O is a practical book to use for turning your health around.  It covers a wide number of topics providing the reader with easily implemented instructions for solving a wide variety of problems.

The book is divided into five sections:

1. Water
2. Movement
3. Fresh Food
4. Herbs
5. Life Balance

These sections are listed in their order of importance and provide a broad range of topics to work on.  I am a believer in Pareto’s law or the 80-20 rule.  In this case 80 percent of  optimal health can be achieved with 20 percent of the optimal lifestyle.  In other words the initial work done in any particular area will give you most of the benefits.  Once you have covered the initial aspects of each area, you can dig into any area of interest in more depth.

A healthy life can be lived with relatively little effort and the correct guidelines.  One example from the book is the two minute workout.  Many people don’t workout because they don’t have the time or energy; however, everyone can spare two minutes a day.  This is less intimidating than joining a gym and does not require buying a new workout wardrobe.  The “activation energy” needed to begin exercising is within anyone’s reach.  After getting in the habit of two minutes a day, you can exercise more if you wish.

Another useful section of the book is the section on herbs.  I don’t generally use herbs, but her book concise, easy to understand and practical.  I refer to it when I have questions about the topic.

Even someone who is already knowledgeable about health will learn something new from this book because it covers such a wide variety of topics.  I first learned about Sebastian Kneipp in this book and learned about about the traditional herbal medicines which originate throughout Europe and the rest of the world.  I had always associated traditions such as these with India and China.

In Health2O Dr. Fleckenstein made the first reference to the Flexner Report that I heard. It was the turning point in American medical history which led to the suppression of homeopathic and traditional doctors by the political establishment.  It also allowed the American Medical Association to rise to dominance and impose its theories of health on the country by force.  You will not learn about this aspect of history in school.