YOU The Owner’s Manual – Prescription: Take the next 371 pages and call them in the morning

“Welcome to your body. Why don’t you come on in and take a look around?” – Michael F. Roizen, MD and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D.

It will surprise you – if you’ve been following along for lo these many (four) years – that I not only picked up YOU The Owner’s Manual by Michael F. Roizen, MD and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D., but I also bought it. You know, cuz of Health Anxiety.

It will not surprise you that in the 50-question quiz, “How Body Smart Are You?” I scored 28, or “Average”. Although, you might be surprised that I dared to take it at all with questions like, “What is the most revealing sign that you have Alzheimer’s-related dementia?” You know, cuz above. PS: The answer is that you can’t recognize information that someone told you five minutes ago.

It will surprise you that I didn’t need to take a Xanax before reading through it.

It will not surprise you that I did all of the above whilst in the midst of a health journey so am feeling especially brave and sassy and therefore threw caution to the wind and not only read though the thing but tried to absorb some (or all) of it.

It will also not surprise you (just by looking at it and also, my mention in the title of 371 pages) that there’s way too much to absorb in a single sitting and it’s not built that way, anyhow. This is a reference book that’s kinda fun, kinda serious, and kinda-like you’d imagine a way bigger and more vetted version of any book ending with the words, “for Dummies”.

This is a meaty book with tons and tons and tons of info about absolutely everything to do with the human body, from birth to death… but mostly, in-between.

There are quizzes, as mentioned above, and a smoking cessation plan, Factoids and “Myth or Fact” (I just turned to page 242 which asks”Myth or Fact? Masturbation is good for men”. Quick Answer: Yes and you won’t go blind. You’re welcome!).

There are illustrations of pretty-much everything from head to toe, mostly stuff inside the body since we can all clearly see the stuff on the outside.

There are vitamins, nutrition, food choices (with a robust recipe section) and exercise workouts…

There are also “Questions and Answers” by the doctors/authors – though, I must stop here and say that if you think Dr. Oz is less than stellar (i.e. some have called him a quack) then you may not fully appreciate his contributions. Me? I like him. Yeah, he’s a TV star and some of what he thinks isn’t my cup of tea. His ego is at-times inflated. Aren’t all doctors? I take what I like and leave the rest. Know what I mean? He and Dr. Roizen takes turns fielding topics and questions and such… just so ya know.

AND THEN…

And then… ugh.

There is an interesting comic strip about the birth of cancer.

Yikes. This is what I feared. The. Most.

I’ll just skip over that…

But guess what? I DIDN’T SKIP OVER IT.

And, I lived through it! Go me!!!

Here are a few tidbits to get your appetite for body-knowledge churning…

• You cannot “will away” depression
• 115/76 is the ideal blood pressure
• Minor changes – like something as simple as exercising 20 minutes a day – can bring about big results
• Fat is a learned taste, so you can change your desire for it
• 30 minutes of exercise also reduces eye pressure by 20%

I kinda love this book! It’s not a spiritual work… it’s physical all the way, baby!

I’m not saying it makes me comfortable – it doesn’t – but it does make me feel more proactive about my health. And that’s a very good thing!

I think this book would make a GREAT textbook for teenagers in health class. It’s easy to read but doesn’t talk down to you and assumes you’re an average person who doesn’t know all-that-much about the thing we should know the MOST about. Our bodies. Totally worth having in your collection!