This book provides a good overview of the foundations of traditional Chinese medicine and how it differs from Western medicine. A good place to start if you're trying to gain some perspective and/or an entry into alternative medicine and healing. Western trained physicians can benefit tremendously by understanding a completely different approach to healing. Highly recommended.

An accessible and readable introduction to the major aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine, including it shistorical foundation, theories of chi, the Chinese tree of life, use of herbal medicines and formulas, diet and nutrition as preventative medicine, acpuncture, acupressure, massage, and chi kung. Excellent for beginners.

As a third year student/intern of Chinese Med., I have found it difficult to convey to my patients the basic concepts and approaches used in ChMed., often due to our 'western' habits of analysis. This book is a bridge of understanding, and I plan to offer it to all of my patients.

Simply put: I bought this book out of curiosity and wound up curing a digestive disorder that had plagued me for my entire life! The book also enhanced my appreciation of my studies in Tai Chi Chuan, Qi Kung, Nei Kung, Meditation, Yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine. After reading this book I became a Taoist. It opened up the Way for further study and appreciation. Thank you Daniel P. Reid for compiling this information in a comprehensive and easily "digestible" manner. I also strongly recommend his other books, especially "The Complete Book of Chinese Health and Healing" and "Chinese Herbal Medicine". If you are serious about changing your life or curious about Tao, these books are all the introduction you will require.

This book was an unexpected, and amazing find. While not every page of this book may be for you, it will definately act like a 'slap in the face' about your current lifestyle. The insight provided into health (mental and physical), diet and longevity is priceless.

If you feel sluggish, unsatisfied, and wanting more from life, this book is for you. So many of our 'Western' habits are founded on the wrong principles, or they don't listen to the natural way of the body. This book leads you by the hand, and points you in the right direction.

By far one of the most enlightening books I've ever read. Buy it even if you could care less about 'Taoism'. It will compliment anyone's life. Contains detailed information about diet and food combinations, real-world nutritional facts (not nutritional theorems grown in a lab by a scientist working for a food corporation), great solutions for stress relief and inner peace, and so much more.

Throw out every self help book, diet book, and exercise book that you own and read The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity. It starts with the nature of your body in mind, not with a theory.

Where most books contain some helpful advice, you are often left feeling like your money was taken. This book will make you wish for more. Much more.

damn! this book is fantastic! i am 18 and stumbled across reid's 'complete book of chinsese health and healing' at barnes and noble a year ago. i then searched for 'the tao of health sex and longevity.' both books are a must for the depressed, sick, chronically sick and everyone else. i was deeply depressed before reading this book and used many illegal drugs to forget about it. but since reading his books, i have changed my diet, started the breathing exercises, practicing controlled fasting and taking tai chi lessons. i no longer use drugs and the world isn't a sad, gray place anymore, nor is my body an aching mess. this book is crammed with practical information much of which can start being practiced the very day you read it. you won't look at health care the same way ever again. also it is a greater intro to TAOISM. once you become accquainted with that word you will smile every time you read it or hear it. this is the best 12 bucks you will ever spend.

It is definitely a good overview, and if they gave prizes for design of Chinese Medicine Books, this one woud've won them all. The full color format and abundant pictures and drawings make this book a beautiful gift, but that's about it. Like Reid's other books, it is intended as an informational book for laypersons, with a couple of interesting recipes and well-narrated anecdotes and folktales. You can see in CHM, which predates Reid's other books, that his ideas and convictions regarding chinese "self-healing" and energy medicine were not yet developed. The historical overview of Chinese Medicine is very good. The descriptions of practice, however, are confusing, cursory, and/or brief.

There are a couple of mistakes, too. The page facing the full-page reproduction of Hua To, the physician reputed with the discovery and first use of anesthesics, has pictures of the Five Animal Frolic qigong, erroneously described in the picture quotation as Taijiquan. The Five animal frolic predates taijiquan, and although similar, they should not be confused. The bibliography is very short, and not very good. The recipes are a sampling, not a balanced diet, and the index is neither complete nor useful. The last part of the book is a "materia medica", the practical use of which is negligible. The book is indeed not for practitioners of TCM, and this part attests to it. The selection of items for this section, is an arbitrary mixture of the most common and the most exotic. There is no detailed information on use or preparations of the materials listed, although some of them are used in the recipes described afterwards. The glossary and the categorization of the herbs and other substances is correct, though.

Reid is a very opinionated author, although a knowledgeable one, and he doesn't restrain himself much on his views. There is a comparative description of two physicians, where Reid contrasts Taoist and Confucian outlooks on the practice of medicine. It's a bit simplistic and stereotypical to me, but perhaps it can be useful and informative as a sampling of how medicine is practiced in non-communist China. This book is beautifully designed, and I keep it mostly for the pictures, which are well-chosen and illustrating. If you are looking for information on TCM, though, Ted Kaptchuk's The Web that has No Weaver is a better, deeper introduction to the subject.

Beautifully illustrated in color, this fine book presents 200 major herbs, detailing their use and providing recipes for some common ailments. It serves as a very useful introductory text.

Chinese Herbal Medicine by Daniel P. Reid is a wonderful guide to Chinese Herbal Medicine and its philosophies. This is a breif, but understandable summary of the process of diagnosis and treatment from one of the world's most ancient forms of medicine.

Beth Anne Haigler, Medical Herbalist

I found few things I could recognize and even fewer I could actually make. There were some like "Kung Pao Chicken", Spring Rolls, and Wontons but the things I eat stopped there. There were weird things like "Squirrel fish" and Frog legs. Most of the recipes centered on duck, squid and different fish and shellfish. I don't what aduience this book was intended for but I've always known that stuff to be very expensive. And I noticed the pork and cabbage dumplings only needed to be steamed. Where am I supposed to get a steamer? I think I'll stick to the stuff I was taught to make and keep this as coffee table fodder.

What I love about this book is that the recipes don't seem to be adapted to the U.S. palate and grocery stores. (But really, how can I know for sure?) So far, everything I've made out of this book has been incredibly yummy. I like that the book covers different regions of China, and discusses how the culture and cuisine are different in each one. Every time I bring a dish from this book to a potluck, it's a big hit. In particular, the turnip cakes are very popular -- even with those who don't much like turnips! It's true that some of the ingredients are harder to find than others, but I've usually done OK. Sometimes I use the recipes more as a guide, and don't sweat it if I'm missing a few of the more esoteric ingredients. In any case... this is a great cookbook! Some of my favorites so far include "Shrimp in sweet wine sauce with chillies and garlic" on page 54, and "Stir-fried bean curd with crabmeat" on page 223.

I got well more than I payed for with this book! The history lesson alone makes this the best cook book I have ever read!

I am about half way through this book and am straining not to put it down. It is full of rhetoric reminiscent of born-again literature, which makes me question some validity. Full of fantastical stories and not one reference as to where the information comes from. As far as his allopathic understanding of physiology/biology, it is hashed, at times incorrect and simply doesn't make sense. Another book just to turn a buck. Save yourself the time a read a better book!

I was introduced to the practice of chi gung through the writings of Daniel Reid--this book and another on traditional Chinese medicine.

The descriptions of the exercises are the best of any of the books I have read since (about 8), and the practice routine he includes is extremely well-structured and beneficial. I have been doing this routine daily for about 6 months, and have enjoyed numerous substantial benefits from it. No other author I have found has provided such a complete workout routine. I have continued to use it as a basis for additional material I have learned from other sources.

I am most grateful that Mr. Reid, among others, has been willing to make this information available to us in print.

For those of you starting to learn Chi Kung, this book will give you thorough information about the whole history, the different practices and forms, and the relation body to universal chi. It?ll also give you explanations about the benefits of practicing Chi Kung for yourself as preventive healthcare as well as how it is used to heal others. It covers the various ways of working with Chi, best locations, best time and environment, and a few sets of daily practices.
This book is excellent for beginners wanting to know what they are dealing with or for curious people to get a good knowledge of Chi Kung. Highly recommended.

If the reviews tell a negative view of the publication in question, then why aren't the corresponding resources for searching the facts presented within the context of the review itself! Let other readers know what sources were used in the effort to discount a works accuracy, so that further research efforts may be undertaken also. Don't let the facts lay in tne shadows for everyone to second guess around, because your review constructs a fantom conclusion or reality! Stick to presenting an accurate conclusion, by dislosing some facts!

Certainly a useful project that promised to deliver a concise overview of Christianity in America. It is clear and concise indeed, but fails in its informative purpose on the side of accuracy. The entries are outdated and inaccurate, as I have had the opportunity to verify personally (i.e. at my own expenses). So, the information you glean from it, although concise and easily found, will not be sufficiently reliable to be be used with confidence. It is, in other words, a tool that promises to save you work in your research, but misleads you, creating double work for you instead: you still need to do your own research, but in addition you will also have to go back and correct yourself in what you stated on the basis of its entries. I would rather avoid it completely. A book of this nature is bound to be consulted not so much for the major trends in Christianity, but primarily for the lesser known branches of American Christianity... yet that's exactly where the dictionary is most lacking in accuracy.