Abstract

The traditional medicines of Middle Asia are rich and varied - from the Ayurveda and Siddha medicines of India, to the Unani and Sufi healing practices of the Middle East.

Dr. Marc S. Micozzi unfolds the compelling idea that vital energy, expressed as "prana" in the Indian practice of Ayurveda, is the unifying concept that underpins and connects all of these traditions. Describing the origins, health strategies, diagnostic approaches, and modern-day uses of each tradition, he also draws parallels to, and finds correlations with, mainstream Western concepts - and demonstrates how all these therapies fit within the context of their own cultures and ours.

This groundbreaking book will be of interest to practitioners of all Middle Eastern and Asian medical traditions, complementary and alternative health practitioners, and anyone with an interest in Middle Eastern and Asian approaches to health and well-being.

Marc S. Micozzi, MD, PhD, was the Founder and Director of the Policy Institute for Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He is former Executive Director of the College of Physicians, and Director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine. For many years, Dr. Micozzi has pioneered vital health information to professionals and consumers, collaborating with former US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop and other leaders in the growing wellness movement. He has frequently shared the speaker's podium and the radio and television airwaves with leaders such as Drs. Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, Mehmet Oz, and Dean Ornish. Dr. Micozzi has a consulting medical practice in Bethesda, Maryland, and Rockport, Massachusetts.
This book offers a great outline/overview of multiple healing traditions - including also the larger context of how Western medicine went astray from this understanding and the results of that distorted allopathic focus (wasteful healthcare spending and chronic illness). Readers from many backgrounds can appreciate this scholarly work. This book is suited to both professionals in the healing arts as well as laypersons. If medical students were to read this we might have a much more effective health care workforce, where people would have a better understanding of health and the forces that govern our well-being. This book is well-researched and it even includes an appendix of Asian medicine treatment approaches for common health concerns.
Jed Shlackman, Licensed Mental Health Counsellor and Certified Hypnotherapist
Dr. Marc Micozzi, a physician and anthropologist, promotes the notion that insights "have been converging on a new... understanding of energy in human physiology as related to [healing]." He explains Ayurveda's Indic roots, South India's Siddha healing, yoga, Tibetan and Sufi healing, and the Unani Greco-Arabic Tibb system. Common threads in these "lesser known Middle Asian ethno-medical traditions" affirm ancient wisdom, expand the healing spectrum, and offer practical alternative care.
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