YOU ARE THE NEW PRESCRIPTION

Two doctors provide information on daily, actionable choices to improve one’s overall health.

This book by siblings Raja Ramaswamy and Rani Ramaswamy offers readers a simple, easy-to-read guide that asserts that good health is achievable, and with specific, actionable tips, one can make important life choices to accomplish it. They offer chapters that discuss a wide variety of health topics, including but not limited to mental health, mindfulness, heart health, blood circulation, and personal habits, as well as an extensive bibliography and guided checklists that many readers will find encouraging. The book effectively shows the “interconnectedness of the physical, mental, and emotional parts of ourselves [that are] key to healthy living,” and the format presents the information in an arrangement that busy readers with little medical knowledge will find easy to access. It’s also laid out in way that allows one to dip into a particular topic and begin to apply the authors’ recommendations without having the read the work in its entirety. Moreover, although readers might expect occasionally the health advice here to be occasionally dry—and some of it, involving the importance of eating well, sleeping adequately, and exercising, could have become monotonous—the information still manages to feel fresh and compelling, thanks to the authors’ use of regular anecdotes that draw upon each writer’s clinical and personal experiences. Lastly, the doctors’ consistently encouraging tone is noteworthy; it’s clear, in their inspiring words, that they wrote this book with a strong belief in readers’ ability to take personal responsibility for their wellness (“This is your life. This is your health”) and to change their own lives for the better.

An often engaging blueprint for pursuing a healthier lifestyle.