Review: Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine for Women's Health

Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine for Women's Health: Bridging the Gap Between Western and Eastern Medicine was written by Kathleen Albertson, a practitioner of Eastern Medicine. From the description:

Effective health care for women is crucial. Women have suffered for years as Western medicine suggests drugs or surgeries to ease symptoms. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers natural resolution and has successfully treated gynecological diseases, infertility, a variety of illnesses and health problems facing women for over 5,000 years.

This book explores the potential value of TCM so that women can consider their treatment options. ... Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine for Women's Health examines nutritional and lifestyle tips to help you make better, more informed health choices, while correlating emotional health, such as stress, overwork, exhaustion and depression with physical health.

There is an incredible amount of information in this book. Clearly, it was very well researched. The author brought to it a career built on understanding TCM and acupuncture, and also went out of her way to uncover all the latest research on how TCM treats women's health issues. The nutritional information was, in particular, new and enlightening. If you are looking for a resource on TCM, holistic nutrition, and acupuncture treatments for OB/GYN problems, infertility, or a whole host of other women's health issues, you might find this book helpful.

Personally, though, I found it to be too much. I was overwhelmed reading this book. I got lost in the lengthy descriptions of symptoms for each malady and my attention wavered reading all the descriptions of published studies showing the effective use of TCM. There was so much that I wasn't quite sure whether this book was really intended for a layperson. It felt, at times, like a resource for an Eastern medicine practitioner.

I also felt like the subtitle on this book was misleading ("Bridging the Gap Between Western & Eastern Medicine") as this aspect of the book was short-changed in comparison to the rest. Instead, this part of this book can be summarized in about two or three sentences: Do you have an illness that is currently being treated by Western medicine? You should try TCM or acupuncture, too. Studies show that they really work well and usually have fewer side effects. There you go.

Its not to say that no one would enjoy this book. If you are woman getting TCM or acupuncture and would like a deeper understanding of your illness or treatment, or would like nutritional information as well, you may really enjoy it. For me, though, this book wasn't worth the labor it took to read.

Buy Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine for Women's Health: Bridging the Gap Between Western and Eastern Medicine on Amazon.

If you are in Southern California and interested in learning more, here's the website for Dr. Albertson's office in Orange County.

Friday Update

Every Friday, I update my library and share what new books I bought or received during the past week.

By the time I hit post on this, I am sure it won't be Friday anymore. Oh, well. I had a busy day. And I'm going to have an even busier weekend.

Between gifts and shopping, we got several new books since I last posted an update. I think I'll just talk about a few today.


First, I won Angels: A Pop-Up Book by Chuck Fischer from Bermuda Onion! She had a really interesting interview with the paper engineer Bruce Foster that I enjoyed. It was really cool to actually get a copy and get to see the results of his hard work. Thank you to Bermuda Onion and Bruce Foster!


For Christmas, from my boss, I got NorCalMod: Icons of Northern California Modernism by Pierluigi Serraino. It is gorgeous. And I always like know more about the architecture in the area I live.

The last book I'll mention I got today will answer the question (posed earlier) of where we spent Christmas: Hawai'i!


Hawaii's Birds by the Hawaiian Audubon Society: I'm not a birder, but I thought this was a concise, well-illustrated guide to all the different birds I saw on our trip.

The trip, by the way, was amazing. We spent a week on the Big Island. I got to go snorkeling, coffee tasting, see the volcano, and lava hitting the ocean. So cool! It was my first time and I am ready to go back again.

Where Was I?

Wondering where I spent my Christmas this year? (And it doesn't count if you are related to me or are reading this on Facebook - I think you already know the answer to that question.) How about I give you some hints?







I'll have the answer tomorrow.

Review: Thunderhead

As I mentioned when I did Thunderhead for Teaser Tuesday, this book was recommended to me by a good friend. I'm not sure I would have picked it up otherwise, as it is pretty far outside my normal range for genres. As for what genre it is - its a thriller, with a hearty dash of new West western (meaning, archaeology and Native American lore, not shoot-em-up Wild West). There was an undercurrent of spookiness that could have gone into the supernatural but didn't quite.


Thunderhead is about an archaeologist who receives a long lost letter from her pot hunter (aka, amateur archaeologist) father giving her the clues to the location of a long lost Anasazi city. Soon, she is leading an expedition to find the city and uncover the riches presumably hidden there. No surprise, of course, that road blocks occur, some natural, some man made, and there's a doubt if anyone will make it out alive.

The plot felt a little like the authors were working from a checklist - feisty heroine? Check. Grizzled cowboy? Check. Racing against a clock? Check. Etc. Check. - but it moved at a quick pace. Also, and maybe this is because I don't normally read books like Thunderhead, I learned something new (mostly about archaeology and the Anasazi) which I always enjoy. Altogether, this was an enjoyable fun read, and one that I would recommend to anyone who likes a good thriller.

Buy Thunderhead on Amazon.

Out Today - Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded

Just a heads up that Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded by John Scalzi (link goes to my review) is out today in paperback. So now you can read it on the train and not scare whoever is sitting across from you with the weird hardcover cover.

Buy Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008.

Teaser Tuesday 1/5

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!
• Share the title & author, too, so that others can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teaser!

This week's teaser is from a book that I think many people believe to be one of the classics of historical fiction: The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman.

"You are remarkably well informed, my lord Buckingham."

"I cannot afford not to be."

Buy The Sunne In Splendour: A Novel of Richard III on Amazon.

The New Year

Hello, friends. The new year has started out with a whimper here at arch thinking headquarters, as I have been laid up with the flu and husband is fading fast. We had a marvelous vacation, but it involved a lot of time spent on airplanes and in strange places, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that we managed to pick up some sort of a nasty bug. So I am extending my blogging holiday for a few more days, in the hopes that I will feel up to the task of staring at a computer screen for longer than a minute soon.