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Photo from www.drmomherbs.com

I am so happy to be able to share with you today a review of one of my favourite health books, 'Be Your Own Doctor' by Rachel Weaver M.H. This book has long been one of my favourite herbal resources and is filled with so much great information. Rachel Weaver, as stated on the back of her book, is an educator, midwife, consultant and mother of nine, who has spent years learning and discovering all she can about natural health and herbal remedies, testing her knowledge on countless friends, clients and family. She has written four herbal health books to date, with Be Your Own Doctor being her first, and continues to extend and expand her knowledge whenever she can. Mrs Weaver is a certified Master Herbalist, but she makes it clear that she is not a medical doctor and says that the information in her book is not designed to keep you from going to your doctor, but rather to help you to see when you should go to your doctor and when you can meet your health care needs at home, realizing that many health care issues can be treated simply and easily at home. 

Topics Covered In The Book:

• How to deal with colds, flus and fever.
• How to stop bleeding, heal woulds and deal with emergencies.
• Re-mineralizing teeth and healing abscesses.
• Recipes to make your own tinctures, poultices, teas and salves.
• Resolving colic and making your own baby care supplies.
• How to deal with most family health problems in your home.
• Understanding hormones that are going haywire.
• And much, much more.

Pros:

• Easy to read.
• Much time is spent on day to day issues that you will actually face.
• Offers recipes for how you can make most of the remedies yourself, as well as where you can buy them ready made.
• Most of the remedies use ingredients that can be easily sourced or that you have on hand already.
• Remedies are organised both by ingredient and ailment, so if you are wondering what you can do with the parsley growing in your garden, you can go to the chapter on that or, if you have a bad sprain and want to know what you can do to alleviate the pain, you can go directly to that section without having to page through the whole book. A small thing, but so helpful if you plan on using the book often. 

Cons:

• While not really a con, this book is printed by a small publishing company and can be hard to purchase if you live outside the US, like me. However, I have found it available for purchase at places like eBay, Barnes & Noble, Better World Books and Thriftbooks.

• It can be difficult to source some of the supplies that Rachel Weaver mentions in her book if you are outside of the US. She does provide a list of suppliers at the back of the book, but many of these are US companies and will not ship to Australia. However, you can find most of the supplies at online stores such as iHerb.com.au or on eBay and Mrs Weaver does offer alternative treatment ideas for many of the health issues discussed.

What I Liked/Didn't Like About The Book:

• I love Mrs Weaver's down to earth, common sense way of looking at health. She presents health information that is detailed and accurate, but in a way that is simple to understand and interesting.

• The stories! Rachel Weaver has filled this book with over one hundred true life stories of how she, or others she knows, have used the herbs to treat heaps of different health issues, showing you what worked and what didn't. By reading these real accounts you are able to remember so much more of the information in the book and are inspired to try out different ideas for yourself.

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