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| Perfect Health: The Complete Mind/Body Guide, Revised and Updated Edition | 
 enlarge | Author: Md Deepak Chopra
Publisher: Harmony
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy Used: $3.00
You Save: $12.95 (81%)
New (40) Used (34) Collectible (2) from $3.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 8214
Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Upd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0609806947
Dewey Decimal Number: 615.53
EAN: 9781863252928
ASIN: 0609806947
Publication Date: February 20, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Visible shelf wear -- may have some notes/markings on pages
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Product Description
A decade ago, Deepak Chopra, M.D., wrote Perfect Health, the first practical guide to harnessing the healing power of the mind, which became a national bestseller. The book described how breakthroughs in physics and medicine were underscoring the validity of a 5,000-year-old medical system from ancient India known as Ayurveda ("the knowledge of life span" in Sanskrit). Perfect Health went on to describe how to apply the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda to everyday life. In celebration of this classic work we have created this new edition, revised and updated to include the latest medical research.
Although we experience our bodies as solid, they are in fact more like fires that are constantly being consumed and renewed. We grow new stomach linings every five days, for instance. Our skin is new every five weeks. Each year, fully 98 percent of the total number of atoms in our bodies is replaced. Ayurveda gives us the tools to intervene at this quantum level, where we are being created anew each day. Ayurveda tells us that freedom from sickness depends on contacting our own awareness, bringing it into balance, and then extending that balance to the body.
Perfect Health provides a complete step-by-step program of mind body medicine tailored to individual needs. A quiz identifies the reader's mind body type: thin, restless Vata; enterprising, efficient Pitta; tranquil, steady Kapha; or any combination of these three. This body type becomes the basis for a specific Ayurvedic program of diet, stress reduction, neuromuscular integration, exercise, and daily routines. The result is a total plan, tailor-made for each individual, to reestablish the body's essential balance with nature; to strengthen the mind body connection; and to use the power of quantum healing to transcend the ordinary limitations of disease and aging--in short, for achieving Perfect Health.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 An Ayurvedic Sampler September 20, 2001
193 out of 214 found this review helpful
....Deepak Chopra is a prolific and successful author. He also creates great titles--who can resist the offer of “Perfect Health?” I checked it out at the library because I was compelled to see if the book lived up to the title. Chopra introduces us to what he calls the “quantum mechanical human body.” His theory is that “by treating the underlying quantum mechanical body itself, Ayurveda can bring about changes far beyond the reach of conventional medicine, confined as it is to the level of gross physiology.” Sounds good to me. Let’s get to those devils, the details. First we take tests to learn which body type we are, Vata, Pitta, or Kapha, or a combination thereof. We learn that these names also refer to doshas, “metabolic principles.” By implication, we surmise that we must keep these doshas in balance or our health will suffer. We learn about the twenty-five gunas, or fundamental qualities. We learn about the subdoshas. We address How To Balance Your Doshas: diet, exercise, daily routine, seasonal routine. Then we get right to it, Opening the Channels of Healing. This encompasses panchakarma, meditation, primordial sound, pulse diagnosis, marma therapy, bliss technique, aroma therapy and Gandharva music therapy. That’s where my problems with this book began. After convincing me of the value of meditation I learned that “meditation needs to be learned from a qualified instructor, it cannot be learned from a book.” Primordial sound, I read, “is a medical treatment taught by a qualified Ayurvedic doctor after a complete diagnosis of the patient’s condition.” Then “any patient who comes in for a consultation with an Ayurvedic doctor is routinely given pulse diagnosis.” “Most Ayurvedic clinics offer a special marma therapy that includes instruction for home treatment.” As for the bliss technique, “Instruction is by a qualified teacher who is also an Ayurvedic physician and takes about an hour; a complete medical evaluation precedes the actual teaching.” Finally, at aroma therapy, we find something we can do for ourselves, but we are pointed to page 317, where we may find sources for oil, aroma pots and diffusers. Ghandharva music also requires no instruction beyond the book, except of course we are told to buy the tapes and CDs “from the sources listed on page 317.” The marketing continues with Ayurvedic herbs, called rasayana. After selling us on the value of same, “You can obtain further information regarding these rasayanas by writing to Quantum . . .” We are also encouraged to drink teas appropriate to our body types--yes, from sources on page 317. My biggest disappointment, though, came in the section on diet. I learned that I should not be eating many of the items that have kept me healthy for sixty-five years, onions, garlic, carrots, spinach, tomatoes, bananas, yogurt, cheese and eggs, and that I should be drinking cow’s milk which I’ve not touched in decades, and I should be eating ghee, which is butter with the water cooked out of it. Chopra writes that I should minimize raw foods, which flies in the face of everything I have learned about food over the last many decades.
This book contains some reasonable ideas. The rub is that the book buyer gets only a few ideas they can use and a lot of ideas for which the author tells us we need an Ayurvedic doctor or products. As usual in his books, he provides scientific tidbits, sensational anecdotes and little scientific data.
Ayurvedic theory and practice dates back in India more than 5,000 years. Chopra urges us that Ayurvedic practitioners and practices will give us longevity and perfect health. Ayurveda is “the science of life” or, as Chopra prefers, “the knowledge of life span.” Others say it is the science of longevity. I checked that out. According to The World Health Organization, India ranks 134th of the 191 countries recognized for “healthy life expectancy.” (The USA ranks 24th.) There are other reasons why Indian health statistics are so poor, but it is difficult to take seriously an ancient practice that seems to have failed in its native country. I think that Deepak Chopra is an essentially good person who has been caught up in the American mania for fame and fortune. I suggest that our money is better spent on books that give instructions we can follow without travelling to a doctor’s office or buying exotic foods, herbs and essences.
 EXCELLENT! A NEW WAY OF LIFE! January 31, 2000
20 out of 23 found this review helpful
In all of Deepak Chopra's books, I've admired his extraordinary compassion for his fellow man. This book is no exception. In it, Chopra recognizes the basic differences among body types and he offers us a lifestyle plan for maximizing the health of each, based of the ancient Indian tradition of Ayuveda. Recognizing the fact that you can't fit a square peg into a round hole, Chopra doesn't make the mistake of suggesting that we all strive for the severely anorexic look that is destroying the health of so many today. A few of the previous reviewers have attacked Chopra, saying he is overweight. I've never noticed that and I've seen him many times. Even if he were, his weight should not be an issue here. And isn't it time that SOMEONE put wellness before superficiality? Besides, what could be more stunning than glowing, radiant health?
 Quantum view of the body November 8, 2003
20 out of 24 found this review helpful
Chopra has an interesting, quantum view of the body. Instead of considering it as something solid, he sees the boy as interweaving systems of energies that are constantly being consumed and renewed. Ayurvedic medicine gives us the tools to intervene at the quantum level where we are being recreated every day.This book provides an exhaustive step-by-step programme of mind-body medicine adapted to individual needs, based on the person's mind-body type. This typology forms the basis of a focused Ayurvedic program of stress reduction, diet, neuromuscular integration, exercise and daily routines. Part I, A Place Called Perfect Health, explains these various body types. Part II, The Quantum Mechanical Body, explains the channels of healing via meditation, healing sounds, marma -, music - and aromatherapy. Part III, Living In Tune With Nature, deals with diet, exercise and a seasonal routine that fits your type. The book concludes with an appendix, glossary, bibliography and index.
Advertisement or Introduction to Ayurveda? January 11, 2007
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
I purchased this book in hopes of finding a book that would be an introduction the the science of Ayurveda for the students at my yoga studio who were unfamiliar with the topic. Chopra presented the information in terms a Westerner might easily grasp. He succeded, from my point of wiew, in translating some of the more esoteric ideas and ways of looking at the interplay between nature, our minds and our bodies.
My main frustration with the book was that it seemed to be very much an published advertisement for the Chopra Center in La Jolla, CA. For instance, he would suggest a person of a particuar constitution would benefit from drinking an herbal tea specific to their "type." But rather than mention the herbal ingredients in the tea, he would suggest it could be purchased from the website listed. As well, suggestions for aromatherapy as a support of health mentioned no specific essential oils, but once again, directs the reader to a website from which they can make apurchase. To my disappointment, this theme continued throughout the book.
If you are looking to simply get an overview of what Ayurveda is in clear consise language, this is a good STARTING point. For more specifics, David Frawley and Vasant Lad have much more to offer in the many books they have authored on the topic.
 Long on theory,short on application December 22, 2002
18 out of 21 found this review helpful
This is an overly long book on eastern medical theory. It hooks the reader with a quiz to discover their body type. In the end very little is offered as practical ways to change the balance, except to check into the Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, CA.
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