andreweverett360 Book Review, Health

Forest Bathing: The Japanese Art and Science of Shinrin-Yoku


Forest Bathing: The Japanese Art and Science of Shinrin-Yoku
by Qing Li, MD, PhD

“The concept that humans have a biological need to connect with nature has been called biophilia… The American biologist E.O. Wilson… believed that, because we evolved in nature, we have a biological need to connect with it.”

Qing Li is an immunologist and associate professor at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo who studies how spending time in the forest improves our health. In Japanese, shinrin (森林) means forest and yoku (浴) means bathing. “So shinrin-yoku means bathing in the forest atmosphere, or taking in the forest through our senses.” The term forest bathing is analogous to sunbathing, nikkou-yoku (日光浴) in Japanese.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Health

Mushrooms for Health and Longevity


Mushrooms for Health and Longevity
by Ken Babal, CN

This 60-page booklet explains the nutritional and medicinal benefits of 11 types of mushrooms: Agaricus, Chaga, Cordyceps, Coriolus, Enoki, Lion’s Mane, Maitake, Meshima, Reishi, Shitake, and Tremella. “There are 38,000 species of mushrooms. Species can differ greatly in their chemical content. For example, about 50 species of mushrooms are poisonous and another 50 demonstrate medicinal value.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Health

Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada


Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada: A Photographic Guidebook to Finding and Using Key Species
by David L. Spahr

This book presents photographs and information on more than 20 varieties of mushrooms, including how to find them and prepare them. For this review I will focus on the chapter on Maitake, which is being studied for its potential to boost the immune system and fight cancer.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Health

Clean Gut

clean-gut


Clean Gut: The Breakthrough Plan for Eliminating the Root Cause of Disease and Revolutionizing Your Health
by Alejandro Junger, M.D.

Dr. Alejandro Junger is a cardiologist and a practitioner of functional medicine who concludes that gut dysfunction is the root cause of “most of the chronic diseases affecting people today as well as many acute problems.” Doctors will often treat symptoms rather than the root cause. Dr. Junger’s approach is to put the patient on a detoxification diet first. This often solves the problem; other times it unmasks problems, such as parasites and yeast overgrowth.

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