Origin Press

A return to healing; radical health care reform and the future of medicine.

Considering the many issues facing health care in the US today, Saputo suggests reforms that move beyond an exclusive focus on symptoms and the body alone. He contends that there are three main flaws in the system: the "disease-care" medical model, i.e. the over-reliance on invasive techniques to suppress symptoms; the corporatization of health care which drives up costs in the pursuit of profit; and our systematic inattention to wellness and prevention. Describing his medical training and his own journey toward integrative medicine, he argues that there should be a return to healing and preventive medicine. He proposes a holistic approach which focuses on promoting a healthy lifestyle throughout the lifespan and applying integrative, preventive, and natural techniques while turning to invasive, expensive, allopathic treatments only as a last resort. He critiques scientific medicine and the drug industry, traces the birth of the health medicine movement and his role in it, and recommends universal health care and reforms to the FDA. Saputo, a doctor of internal medicine, developed integral-health medicine and founded an integrative clinic, the Health Medicine Center, in California. Distributed by AtlasBooks. (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)