YOU: The Owner’s Manual audiobook

This is a handy manual containing a potpourri of all sorts of information about the human body and its various systems and organs with the latest advice about how to keep them all healthy. Drs. Roizen and Oz write with the same down-to-earth style and whimsical sense of humor that each shows on his various TV appearances. The book has two quizzes--one with 50 multiple-choice questions about the body in general and the other with questions that help challenge the human brain and ward off senility. (I received terrible scores on both and felt like a dork, but at least I learned a lot in that process that I needed to know). A main theme running through the book is the concept of RealAge; that is, a person may be 50 years old in calendar age, but according to his/her lifestyle, diet, weight, etc., he/she may be several years younger or older. For example, taking 162 mg of aspirin a day (two baby tablets) makes the average 55-year-old two-to-three years younger in RealAge. There are lots of other examples of this phenomenon. "If you are 55 years old, increasing the number of times you have sex from 58 times per year to 116 times has the effect of making you as much as 1.6 years younger, and having great quality sex even more than that can have an effect up to eight years" (341). But going back to the aspirin advice, the authors note than the daily 162 mg dose of "the wonder drug" is good not only for the heart, but also decreases the risk of getting cancer of the colon, prostate, and breast each by 40 percent. The docs also give detailed advice about the amounts of vitamins and other supplements we all need to obtain optimum health. Chapters focus on the heart, nervous system, digestive tract, hormones, cancer, etc., and the book ends with suggested healthy meal plans and some recipes. My only criticism of this manual is that I don't care for the black and white drawings that feature little elves crawling all over various human organs. There are also a couple of comic strips that I found annoying, if not outright obnoxious. Despite this relatively innocuous descent into unsophisticated graphics, this book is one I highly recommend for basic information on the body and taking care of it.

There are countless self-help books ranging from diet, exercise, psychology, and the like. One of the authors has really taken advantage of this new found fame, Dr. Oz, and leads me to some skepticism regarding future pronouncements. Yet, most of the advice and info in this book originates from sound, proven scientific data. Most of the data herein is the culmination of hard evidence based on theory, model and proven in labs, and the anecdotal experience by two of the nations foremost physicians. There are no secret cures, steps or magic recipes here that will produce profound medical, cosmetic changes; instead information that can lead to reducing risk of developing serious disease, and small scale improvements on maintaining quality of life and potentially improving it through diligent application of sound principles. At the end, I couldn't help but wonder why all high school children aren't exposed to something like this, in reduced form, if not the complete accounting provided here. After all, what device that we have in our life, is more important that our own bodies? And yet, many are indifferent and/or ignorant to the fundamentals that are important to getting the most out of it.

Loy Machedo’s Book Review – YOU. The Owner’s Manual by Michael F. Roizen & Mehmet C. Oz.I am old.35 years old. Ever since I crossed the 30 year mark, I have become pretty obsessed and cautious about my health. For reasons that I cannot explain, I have been on a quest to understand what I can do to keep myself fit and healthy. Where once upon a time I used to leg press over 300 kgs and dead-lift (for my back) over 200 kgs, today I am pretty happy with a 15 minute light jog on the treadmill followed by light weights that do not cross over 20 kgs. Where once upon a time I would guzzle down 36 eggs a given day – all with the egg white and yoke, expecting to become the next incarnation of Arnold Schwarzenegger, today I do my best to include some fruit or raw vegetable in my daily diet. Why all these changes?Is it because of the nagging joints pain I sometimes experience because of all this extreme physical lifestyle?Is it because I found I had a cholesterol levels a bit higher than normal?Or is it because or wanting to live a healthy lifestyle?I cannot pin-point the answer but what I can say is that I am not prepared to live my life like a lifeless sack of human fat plopped on a wheel-chair with tube running all over my body and with a caring (or may be sexy nurse) pushing my over-weight and dying body around. Sorry but no way. It may be the fear or my own mortality that lead me to hunt for a book, but I am glad to say I found this one. So let us review the book.On the plus points:•This book is very easy to read and extremely reader-friendly. •It has a lot of humor (e.g., muscle cells surrounding dead heart tissue "start fighting with each other, like Jerry Springer's guests, instead of supporting each other, like Oprah's" [incidentally, the authors will appear on Oprah in May to promote the book]). •Plenty of cartoonish drawings and quizzes to get your creative mind thinking•It has broken down areas of the body into easy chapters - heart and arteries; the brain and nervous system; bones, joints and muscles; lungs; the digestive system; sensory and sexual organs; the immune system; and hormones. And there is a chapter dedicated to cancer: how it happens, different types, and the best ways to prevent it.•At the end a 10-day, 30-recipe food plan and a less-is-more exercise regime.•Some of the information did surprise me. For instance though I have been exercising for nearly 19 years and have read every possible book related to exercising, I found a few exercises mentioned in this book that I never bothered to give importance too. So yeah, brilliant stuff. On the negative side:•At times the information can become tiresome and boring. In fact, I read in great detail only those chapters that mattered to me – like cholesterol, heart, joints and the brain. The rest, I completed them using the techniques of speed reading. •Though humor is good and easy of reading is always a welcome format, there is too much of fluff that could have been condensed the book to around one-tenth of its actual size. Overall CommentsThe medical knowledge shared in this book is simply marvelous and a great enlightenment to those who feel only the expert can understand the human body. I personally feel this is a welcome addition to my library and I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels they ought to know how to maintain the most expensive commodity they possess – their own body. Overall rating 9 out of 10.

I wish I would have learned biology or health with this book in high school. It makes the body so easy to understand. It reads as more of a reference book and I'll keep it around as such. For example, I had a sore throat recently and I remembered trying a salt water gargle in the past with little success. I looked it up in the book and I realized the only quick fix to feel better was a salt water gargle with warm water a certain number of times a day. It worked!It's also made me stick with taking a multi-vitamin every day and with the back-up of my own Dr. of course adding 1200 mg of calcium + Vit D (which I didn't think I needed at my age).

I liked this book. A bunch of information on how all of your systems work together and the little changes you can make to help your body live longer. Most of it is commonsense but there were a few nuggets of information that I really liked. Exercise (and not even that much) can make a huge difference. Diet is becoming one of the biggest factors. In my limited understanding, nutrition is a science that is grossly misunderstood. We were all taught things as recent as a few years ago and they turn out to not be true. One week eggs are bad, wait now they are good. We received so much wrong or conflicting information, most of us have simply given up. However, I do think that everyone should research more about it. Over the past couple of years some really interesting and pertinent exploration is happening all around us.

Be forewarned, by reading this amazing book, you will want to change the way you live. Even we transplant patients who carefully follow our doctor’s orders will find additional “best practices” that will add to both length of years lived as well as improving overall quality of that daily living.The underlying theme of this “manual” is to improve your life by understanding risk factors that impact how well and how long we live. Noted heart transplant surgeon, Mehmet Oz, MD along with Michael Roizen, MD, have used a Real Age theme (a concept originally created by Dr. Roizen) throughout their 416 large format book. They open with 10 pages of a 50 multiple choice “Body Quotient” quiz to help the reader identify risk factors affecting that age-that-we-feel (quality of life) as well as our life span or longevity. This Real Age test is also available on the web at www.realage.com if you want to discover your own real age even before reading the book. With a sense of humor that is carried over to many easy to understand drawings of our body’s workings, these gifted authors share their understanding of practices that affect us in these two important areas of our lives. Theirs is a book fully loaded with facts (many highlighted in even more detailed side boxes as “Factoids” and “Myth Busters”) that are easy to understand by the way they are presented, using the analogy of a house to bridge the layman’s view of body processes to their own professional medical insights. Much of what they recommend is focused on preventing conditions common to our present day society, often recommending vitamins and mineral supplements with clear insights as to why each works the way they do within our body’s processes. I was impressed enough with such insights that despite the many pills I already take to protect my 12+ year heart transplant, with my doctor’s approval I added several more to my daily regimen, even being averse to taking pills in the first place.In interesting reading style they have chapters that cover: your heart and its arterial system; the brain and nervous system; bones, joints and muscles; lungs; digestive system; sexual organs; the immune system (especially interesting to we immune suppressed transplant recipients); hormones; cancer, and finally, The Owner’s Manual Diet. Of the many risk factors discussed, being overweight was deemed so important that they included a full 60 page diet section, dedicated to weight loss and healthy living that also results in weight loss. This section includes not only the diet plan but many detailed recipes to make it even easier to adopt the plan they offer. Additionally, there is a detailed Index section that allows the reader to go back and quickly find anything they wish to review or recommend to others. In summary, between exercise tips, eating guidelines, simple lifestyle changes, and alternative approaches, this book gives you an easy, comprehensive and life changing how-to plan for protecting yourself against the ravages of aging. Once you have completed it, you will change your way of living for the better.see this and more than a hundred other organ donation/transplant related books - many with my personal reviews - at http://www.trioweb.org/resources/book...

I read an earlier edition of this book, and decided to give it another go recently as I struggled with maintaining a health-focused lifestyle since start graduate school. Despite Dr. Oz's ethically challenged practice of promoting questionable treatments, this particular book remains science-based. Yes, supplements are discussed, but generally only if there is a good reason to use them instead of food-based nutrients. Frankly, if I could I would give a copy of this book to everyone I know and make them read it from cover to cover, and then take a test afterwards.

This book is very easy for normal people like me to understand.We can change our life by changing a little bit of our habit everyday.The only problem is that this book always recommends people to use supplement. I think about 1/3 of the total recommendations.This issue makes me be doubtful of the credibility.Anyway, still very good!

This is a great book that simplifies the major ailments of our body, the myths surrounding them, the root cause(s), and how to avoid getting them. The authors make it interesting by explaining in plain English and funny quips. I listened to the audiobook version, borrowed from the local library. This is one of those books worth reading/listening to again in the future.

This book started me on my journey to really wanting to understand more about my body, and my health. It's more of a reference book in that you can jump around from to different chapters depending on what you're interested in learning more about.

I've always had a hard time understanding healthy bodily functions. This read explained every single body function and the effect of not eating proper. One of the best birthday gifts I still read up from time to time.

Easy read.. America's body bible! 😁

Human body is interesting very complex