Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness

As a research scientist, I would have to say that this is the type of book that gets consumers in trouble. There's some excellent advice, but it is mixed with information that is downright wrong, presented by "experts" whose credentials are outright fraudulent. Take, for example, she devotes her last chapter to David Schmidt's pseudo-research, a man with dubious credentials (on some of his youtube videos, he has people with false credentials endorsing his claims about energy patches, etc., and Schmidt and his products are amply featured on scam-watch websites). Her negativity about statins is also biased and flawed. A search of the national medical database (free abstracts at pubmed.gov) will show that statins improve health; but if you really want to encourage people not to take them, Somers could have looked closely at the findings that these drugs lower cardiovascular risk by 25%. That may sound meaningful, but when you dig a little deeper, you'll find that your risk of having a medical crisis is lowered from 5% to just under 4%. Statistically, you've made a 25% improvement, but you've only lowered your chances by 1%. So is it really worth the expense, and potential side effects for that 1%? That choice is the reader's, but we should be given more accurate information. Somers' book miserably fails, leaving the average reader oblivious to which data are factual or fictional. Why do people believe celebrities more than good researchers? I and Dr. Newberg at the University of Pennsylvania answer these types of questions in our book, Born to Believe: God, Science, and the Origin of Ordinary and Extraordinary Beliefs. Her info on hormones is mixed and confusing, but her information on low doses of lithium I found intriguing. Ultimately, you, the reader, are going to have to do a lot of research on pubmed.gov to separate the truth from the bunk, which is why I recommend other books and authors. Overall, her advice to eat fruits and vegies and to stay away from processed food is probably the best overall advice in this book.

I was told to purchase this book & it would help me in so many ways.
When I received it I started reading it & couldn't put it down. It is truly insightful.
I am suffering from parasites for the last 4 years. Doctors have been unable to help me. This book helped me in so many ways. I have also been diagnosed with cancer. Again there is info here to help me too.
Believe me, buy this book, get it at the library, whatever you have to do to sit down & thoroughly read it. This is a MUST TO READ BOOK.....

Sommers is 62,looks 32,has been cancer free for 7 years,without chemo,I'm taking her word and buying "Breakthrough".
I just saw Suzanne on Larry King,and her anti-aging healthy living makes sense.Sommers has over 300 Doctors with advice in her new book,and I agree that were using too many chemicals,not eating our food right,and not eating the right food.
She has even had stem cells taken from her to replace organs and bones when needed.This process takes 4 hours,but its a one time deal,and cost under $8.000.
Her dream is to have her own wellness retreat one day.
I haven't bought "Breakthrough" yet,but I have to get this book after seeing this show.

EVERY PERSON SHOULD READ THIS GREAT BOOK. DOCTORS AND PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT THEY PUT US THROUGH. HOW ARROGANT TO NOT LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO HEALTH. I DO NOT WANT TO GROW OLD FEELING LIKE I'M 100.

I see some big positives and big negatives to this compendulum of interviews with a selection of big names from alternative and preventative medicine, some summaries of what Suzzane considers the most important agents in preventative and restorative medicine, and discussions of what she and her husband have been up to in this regard for the past decade or so. As a media celebrity, she no doubt induces many people to take a more detailed look at some of the possibilities of specific alternative medicine therapies and preventives, as well as putting multiple agents and therapies together to produce greater effects. However, the reader will ultimately realize that her total program would comsume far more money and attention than most of us could possibly afford and be willing to devote themselves to. Some of these agents are still quite experimental, especially in combinations, and the validity of some agents she talks up is questionable in my mind. Inevitably, some of her statements are clearly wrong. By limiting her interviews to just a few of the leading authorities, she misses many potential treatments that may be more useful and practical to many of her readers. Supposing her total program works to make most people youthful into thewir 90s, if the majority of the world's people were somehow to suddenly adopt this program, huge numbers of people would starve from overpopulation, unless the birth rate were to fall precipitously for perhaps a century.
Nonetheless, I applaud the enthusiasm of some people to serve as "guinea pigs", to find out the potential pluses and minuses of adhering to expensive complicated efforts to dramatically slow down and even reverse aging processes. Most of us will settle for the cheaper, less complicated, less ambitious, possibilities of what has been discovered in the last century and will continue to be discovered in this regard in making our lives reasonably long and more comfortable in our declining years.