About.com Rating

Updated June 08, 2015.

The Bottom Line

After having a relapse of brain cancer, 15-year survivor David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, went on a quest to learn more about cancer and the power that lifestyle choices can have on our overall health. This book tells his story and teaches how cancer cells thrive as well as what inhibits their growth. The author presents conventional and alternative ways to slow and prevent cancer, showing how we all must care for our personal "terrain" to gain balance and true health.

A very detailed and readable book, Anticancer is a worthwhile read for anyone open to change and ready for action.



Pros

• Compelling personal cancer story
• Clear explanations of basic cancer science
• Easy ways to make anticancer lifestyle choices
• Well-researched, referenced and accessible to an average reader

Cons

• His own cancer diagnosis and treatment was lacking specific details.
• His precautions on cell phone use are not based on research (but this section is the only exception)

Description

• Author:David Servan-Schreiber, MD, PhD, author of "Healing Without Freud or Prozac" and "The Instinct to Heal"
• Publisher: Viking
• ISBN: 9780670020348
• Copyright: 2008
• List Price: $25.95
• Book Details: Hardcover, 13 chapters, 256 pages. Color section devoted to anticancer foods and actions.
• Also available in large print and audiobook editions.

Guide Review - Anticancer - A New Way of Life Book Review

"All of us have cancer cells in our bodies. But not all of us will develop cancer."

Dr. Servan-Schreiber, a psychiatrist, neuroscientist and cancer survivor, was unsatisfied when his oncologist told him that he could do whatever he liked in regard to diet and exercise.

"If it comes back, we will detect and treat it early," he was told. Determined to understand and seek out effective alternative and complementary therapies, Dr. Servan-Schreiber explains how cancer thrives on a typical Western diet, why refined sugars feed cancer, the role of stress and unresolved emotions on health and the impact of environmental toxins. He then goes on to lay out a four-way plan, based on his research, that may boost your resistance against the development of cancer. According to Dr. Servan-Schreiber, we can guard our personal environments, choose our diet wisely, heal old emotional wounds, lower stress levels and live a life of balance with a strong immune system that is tumor-resistant. He does not advise us to avoid standard cancer treatments, and he advocates change based on scientific research.

Along the way, Dr. Servan-Schreiber tells the story of his own accidental diagnosis as well as how it affected his marriage and family life and his own practice of psychiatry. The compelling blend of stories, with the science and research of cancer, keeps you reading and may challenge how you think about lifestyle choices. Most of us would like to avoid cancer, or a recurrence of cancer. In Anticancer, Dr. Servan-Schreiber gives us much food for thought, as well as an outline for anticancer action. This book will interest anyone with a real desire to make changes that can protect both present and future health.