Book Review: Herbal Medicine by Dian Dincin Buchman

The book "Herbal Medicine: The natural way to get well and stay well" by Dian Dincin Buchman contains instructions on how to use herbs for natural healing. The ISBN is 0-517-32093-2. It was published 1979 by Random House.

Sections included in this book are: My Favorite Herbs, Other Favorite Herbs in Brief, A Herbal Selector, How to Make the Herbal Medicine, and Resources. It contains a listing of 89 herbs that are easily obtained by the average person and how to use them. Also included are herbal preparations and recipes for healing mixtures.

This book is mediocre, in my opinion. There is a lot of info, but it is mostly in the form of "this herb was used by someone for "X" ailment". I dislike that kind of information because it doesn't tell if it worked or not. I could use sugar for everything that happens to me, but that doesn't mean it would work. And, while this is the way that useful information is found, the results are more useful to others than descriptions of the experiments.

The section "A Herbal Selector" is more informative, with more solid details as to the use of herbs for specific ailments. My favorite section of this book is "How to Make the Herbal Medicine". In this section there is an abundance of information on growing and harvesting herbs and how to prepare herbal remedies. In my opinion, this section is what gives this book most of the its value.

While the content of this book leaves something to be desired, the writer's style does not. Ms. Buchman's writing style is easy to read and engaging. Even though she has a Ph.D. and is clearly highly knowledgeable on the subject, her writing style does not go over the head of the average reader. This makes the book easy to read and get information from.

Dian Dincin Buchman has a Ph.D. in Health Sciences. She lectures on natural medicine at several universities. She is the author of several books on natural health in addition to the book reviewed above. She also writes for the journal "Health Quarterly".