Symptoms: Their Causes & Cures : How to Understand and Treat 265 Health Concerns

The Doctors Book of Home Remedies II came out just the other day, but here the Prevention mag guys are again with lots of the same info in a new format they expect will justify a 75,000-copy first printing. They probably expect right, for many think of their discomforts not in terms of proper-named illnesses and syndromes but as irritants they'd just like to know whether to bring to a doctor or handle themselves. Such will warm to this reshuffling of the Prevention database because the first thing each entry counsels is "WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR": e.g., under "Canker Sores" appear two when-to conditions--"A sore in your mouth does not heal within two weeks" and "You develop a painless sore in your mouth." After the when-tos come, in each entry, succinct instruction on "What Your Symptom Is Telling You" and suggestions for "Symptom Relief." Occasional flashes of humor--e.g., "Somewhere between watching a rerun of `Gilligan's Island' and being branded with a hot poker is a torment called anal pain"--make it enjoyably as well as informatively readable. Ray Olson

The creators of The Doctors Book of Home Remedies identify the likely causes of many common symptoms and suggest authoritative relief techniques, in an alphabetically arranged, family health reference. BOMC Alt. Prevention Main. QPB.