Dr. Atkins' Health Revolution: How Complementary Medicine Can Extend Your Life

The author of Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution here expands his scope, offering a comprehensive, very optimistic approach to health. More than 25 years of clinical experience and research have convinced Atkins that some of the most effective and least side-effective medical practices are those suppressed by the medical establishmentthe FDA, the AMA, conservative research foundations and the pharmaceutical industry. He grants orthodoxy its ``heroic'' successes in acute situations, but sensibly abhors chronic, debilitating drug therapies. The core of ``complementary medicine'' is a new version of the sugar-free Atkins diet. Depending on his patients' needs, he combines nutritional prudence and vitamin and mineral supplements with selected ``alternative medicine'' methods (chelation, homeopathy, acupuncture). It's an individualized approach that can't be ``proven'' except by the impressive results Atkins claims to achieve. His arguments are coherent and often convincing, his case studies uplifting, and his supporting data ample. But his effusive style reads alternately like a promotion for the Atkins Center and a textbook abstract. (Oct.)