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SOMERS HOLDING BACK THE YEARS

October 26, 2008 12:16 am

SUZANNE SOMERS wants us all to be healthy--her newest book, "Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness" documents her interviews with many physicians and health care practitioners who treat illness and aging with natural remedies, supplements and bioidentical hormones to restore good health and slow the aging process.

Somers practices what she preaches, as an avid (and apparently successful) advocate and follower of these regimens.

Somers eschews the casual use of pharmaceuticals except in the most extreme circumstances--they should be the last course of action, not the simplest, easiest first step. She states, "Let's reserve pharmaceuticals for their original intention, which would be extreme medical intervention as in acute illness, infection, mental illness, and pain; then pharmaceuticals are the miracles they are meant to be the last card in the practitioner's back pocket."

Predictably, the book repeatedly cites the suspect relationship between mainstream doctors, pharmaceutical companies and the FDA as counterproductive and even corrupt.

She asks, "When was the FDA put in charge of our health, and how did the pharmaceutical companies get this power?" She quotes many doctors who successfully treat patients' ailments with new-age remedies such as nanotechnology, bioidenticals, stem cells, energy medicine and growth hormones.

"Eight Steps to Wellness" include old standards about sleep, exercise and nutrition. Additional tips include hormone replacement therapy (to avoid "a slow but steady decline in you"), avoiding chemicals and detoxifying (intravenous treatments, colonics and hyperbaric oxygen chambers), and several others.

Somers has authored 17 books, including many best-sellers. Clearly, she has a ready market for her encouraging, digestible plan for improved health and anti-aging techniques. After all, is there anyone who wants to get old?

The book jacket refers to her as "Today's most trusted advocate of anti-aging medicine." Although her zeal and enthusiasm for the subject is apparent, she is wise to rely heavily on physician interviews for her material. Even so, a book that touts Web sites for specific product orders and newsletters, a company's payment-plan option for treatments, and a seven-page list of supplements available for purchase at the toll-free number provided, might lead readers to wonder about the commercial aspects behind the wellness "Breakthrough."

Diane Makovsky is a freelance reviewer in Spotsylvania County.