Ayurveda is the oldest treatment method. It was proud to me as i was born in the country where ayurveda originated.........This book is a great book to be owned........

I would like to thank Quarto Publishing Group - Ivy Press for providing me with a free electronic ARC of this book, via Netgalley, in exchange for an open and honest review.

Okay, so this book seems to be similar to ‘Secrets of Aromatherapy’ – which I also read around the same time…. And, sadly, the same issues I had with ‘Secrets of Aromatherapy’ happened with ‘Secrets of Ayurveda’ too.

It is another book that starts out well, and I found the whole history and logic of Ayurveda fascinating… as I’d honestly not heard much about it before. And I totally felt a connection to its logic and holistic approach to health. Has quite a few good principles and ideas.

However, the layout and formatting was another let down. Jumbled, all over the place and, although the book was supposedly broken into the four sections, the jumbled formatting seemed to just go wherever and not really match to the section of the book it was shown in. Perhaps this would have been easier to read as a paper book – where I could flip through the pages easily? Perhaps it would have worked better for me if I knew more about Ayurveda and wasn’t such a newb that the cluttered appearance got me lost and put me off.

I seriously feel someone who has more of an idea about Ayurveda is going to get MUCH MORE out of ‘Secrets of Ayurveda’ than I did. As I got the feeling a lot of its secrets… remained a secret to me. :-/

So, it’s another good book simply given to the wrong reader - me. Gosh I am good at finding these, aren’t I? ;-) Seriously though, it did have a lot of really interesting information in it that has had me start looking into where to find local Ayurveda practitioners… but I strongly feel this book isn’t one for a newb, I should have should me a ‘Dummies guide to Ayurveda’ as this book is far more suited to those already educated in its holistic principles and already practicing some, if not all, of them.

Would I recommend this book to others?

I think I would… but only to those who already know all about Ayurveda and aren’t just learning like me. This is because people as clueless as me may find it as overwhelming and hard to follow the more you read it. Definitely a better guidebook for those in the know.

Would I buy this book for myself?

Probably not. Even if I do look into Ayurveda more and start seeing a practitioner of it… this book is still more for them than me. I think something more on Ayurveda and everyday life would be better suited. The ‘Secrets of Ayurveda’ comes across more as a book for people who wish to practice it on themselves as well as others, where I just was curious in how to incorporate it into my own life. My Ayurveda training wheels still need to be attached!

In summary, a very interesting and informative book… I was just the wrong reader.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Secrets of Ayurveda is a great guide for beginners interested in learning.

I briefly read about Ayurveda in magazines so I was interested to know about the subject. I found this to be one of the best introductions guides I have read, it clear with bite sized chunks so I could read the advise and work on it before going onto the next. It was interesting to read about the three different doshas and using that knowledge to determine my own (there is also an easy quiz to find your own out). For me being a holistic practitioner to see how the different therapies are inter woven in the Ayurveda philosophy. I had hours of interesting and pleasurable reading, recommended in the discovery of the inner you.

This is a gorgeous book - condensed in size and in content. It is meant as an overview not a substantial text. That being said, I enjoyed it as an introduction to the practice. This is actually a book I would prefer to own as a hard copy just because of its inherent beauty.

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Secrets of Ayurveda is a clear, concise guide to this unique holistic healing system, and is a perfect introduction for beginners. This book is divided into four chapters. The first is about the history of Ayurveda, and there is a questionnaire to help you learn your own Ayurvedic 'constitution’, or make-up. The next two chapters look at various therapies and dietary concerns. The final chapter focuses on ways you can use Ayurveda at home, but stresses you should seek a practitioner's guidance, most especially in learning your dosha, which provides the framework for everything in an Ayurvedic program.

I was fascinated to learn that, despite being thousands of years old, Ayurveda put forth that the body is made up of cells, and that 'invisible’ (microscopic) organisms can cause disease. I took the questionnaire to find my dosha and came up with nearly even between pitta and vata. I found the diet information useful, along with the yoga suggestions. Reading this book has triggered my interest in learning more about this millennia old healing system, and has me considering finding a practitioner to work with.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book is completely different than many of the others that I have read/reviewed in the past year. There were several things about this that caught my eye on NetGalley . One of those things was that the people who had written it, were people with the right credentials and therefore would provide the right approach to someone who knows little of the subject. I was right about that assumption. I have had a very interesting time with it.

Having had passing familiarity with 'alternative' medicine (both Ayurvedic and Homeopathic in the context of having used them to improve health conditions), I was curious about what I could learn from pursuing such a book. The presentation is very motivating, providing a very academic approach to something deeply rooted in our culture back home. The detailed notes and explanations gave me new insight into what constitutes the Ayurvedic approach to all aspects(diet,exercise with yoga tips included as well as minor remedies for colds and other smaller annoying troubles). Tailoring advice based on categorization explained in certain chapters could help individuals reading, to apply the suggestions in actual daily life while indicating precisely when we should just go to a doctor instead of self-analyze.For a casual reader who does not have any intention of actively using the information provided, it would still be a worthy read.

I want to thank the publisher, Quarto Publishing Group-Ivy press and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.
I really like these books from this publisher. The covers are attractive and if you get the others in the series, such as The illustrations and the page layout are very well done, which makes this book not only attractive but also easy to read.
This book is about Ayurveda. The authors do a great job of providing so much comprehensive information about the topic in this beautiful little book.
The illustrations and the page layout are very well done, which makes this book not only attractive but also easy to read.
The book explains the principles behind Ayurveda; the history, the therapies and routines of Ayurveda and the Ayurveda diet. The final chapter explains when you should see a practitioner and how to use Ayurveda at home.

Very interesting start into starting to the topic, getting the baseline of understanding and if you are interested in the topic, this is defiantly a great book to pick up!
I am sure that my edition was not yet completed, since i had a lot of black blocks instead of pictures, so i am sure that the end result will be even more interesting.

I've been curious about Ayurveda, so I thought I would give this a read, given that I had access to it for free via Netgalley. Even though my professional life is in the field of western medicine, I find alternative medicine intriguing and am always open to reading about it, because I think there's something to be said for natural approaches and the mind-body connection.

But, this book is the worst I've read on the topic thus far. This book is an irresponsible, poorly done cliffsnotes joke on an ancient practice. At best, it makes a mockery of Ayurveda, but at worse, it could do some serious harm to the health of readers who take it seriously. (I'm certainly not saying that Ayurveda itself is harmful, but instead that the way the material in this book is presented could be harmful if the reader isn't educated enough to understand the problems in the material). I don't know whether to blame the authors, the editors, or the publishing company for this monstrosity. They're probably all equally responsible, but ultimately whoever made the final decision to publish this mess should be fired.

The ridiculous stock photography (or what looks like bad early 90's stock photography, anyway) is inexcusable, but it's hardly the worst part of this book. This book does a huge disservice to Ayurveda. Some of the ideas are interesting and may have merit, but the material is presented in such a basic way that it's hard to take it seriously. One particular paragraph toward the end of the book is particularly memorable. It says: "they also suggest avoiding masturbation and oral sex, which are considered a waste of energy" [p. 153]. And that's literally all it says before it jets off to the next topic -- no further explanation. Also, I don't know who "they" are in that quote, because there isn't plural noun anywhere in the paragraph that "they" could be referring to. Oh, and apparently if you have asthma, you're NEVER supposed to exercise. Ever. To that end, this book has multiple authors and I'm pretty sure they alternated writing each paragraph, because there isn't any cohesion, even within sections on the same topic. It's so disjointed.

But what REALLY bugs me about this book, and the part that I think borders on dangerous (and will be the subject of the next few paragraphs), is that it does present some information rooted in western medicine — generally in the context of research being done on various phenomena, and traditional/academic research supporting Ayurveda practices for it — but it could all entirely be made up. For example, on page 119 it says the "recent research indicates yogic breathing can successfully relieve conditions such as asthma, eczema..." (and the list of ailments goes on). But there isn't a single research reference/citation in this entire book...not for the Ayurveda stuff, and certainly not for the mainstream academic research it allegedly refers to. I'm not asking for a full literature review of randomized controlled trials on the topic, but just a footnote listing the study would be nice.

As a college faculty member, I would have to fail the authors of this book if they were my students for plagiarism, because there is not a single citation or reference anywhere. It would be so much more beneficial if they would include a citation to the research, because it would give more credibility to their sweeping claims. For example, they say: "it is believed that evil spirits can be at the root of some problems. Although this may not be a popular Western view, research into multiple personalities disorders has, in some instances, given this theory credence" (p. 28....see, I'm citing my source! How hard is that? It's something they should learn to do). As someone who studied psychology in college and took several classes on personality disorders and psychopathology, I was really intrigued by this because I don't ever remember coming across any research to that effect -- it's not that I don't believe that the research exists, because I'm sure it does. I was in college over a decade ago, and I'm sure there's some new stuff that's happened since I last read an abnormal psych journal. But NOWHERE in this book does it mention the study they're referring to, so while I doubt it's completely fabricated, there's no way to know. They could be referring to a research article from 1850 for all I know, some complete pseudoscience article from a non-reputable site, or it could be a totally legit source. But, who knows? If I was the author of the study they're referring to, I'd be pissed for them not attributing the work properly.

And even as a knowledgeable reader, I'm not about to go search PubMed for that article (actually, I did, and "evil spirits and multiple personality disorder" yields exactly zero results. A broad google search led me only to "research" essays on religious websites, which in turn only cited other religious texts, essays, and opinion pieces from ministers. Nothing peer-reviewed as far as the eye could see). Given that, frankly, I'm more educated (at least in research methodology) than a good portion of the people who will be reading this book and I know not to buy any of the claims they're selling, most will probably just look at it and be like "oh, it's in a book. It must be true. They said research proves it! I have no reason to doubt them that my aunt's dissociative identity disorder is caused by demonic spirits. Let's schedule an exorcism! Or lets just give her the herbs listed in this book, teach her to meditate, and take her out of the psych hospital." Despite my reductio ad absurdum example, in all seriousness a reader has no way of looking up more information on any of the topics presented in this book without starting from scratch themselves, and given that everything is so superficially presented, that's concerning...and it's even more concerning, given that this is a book people will turn to for medical advice (despite the disclaimers that it shouldn't be used in place of medical care, blah blah etc etc.) This book makes a lot of strict rules about diet, exercise, medications, general health, etc. that is presented as though it's rooted in research, but without proper attribution. Therefore, it is highly irresponsible.

This book encapsulates the basic tenets of Ayurveda. If you want to understand the thinking behind this and also understand the different aspects of treatment using Ayurveda.

The book has detailed pictures, notes and explanations, with no ambiguity. The language used is simple and elegant.

If you are considering to explore an Ayurvedic treatment for any of your ailments, I would strongly urge you to read this book first so that you can better appreciate the treatment and also understand the logic behind the treatment.

This is a really good beginners guide to Ayurveda, if you are already knowledgeable about the subject I say look elsewhere because it will just be a rehash, however if you are new to it then this book is a great intro. Though the title did seem a bit misleading, I think Intro to Ayurveda or something along that line would have fit more since I thought this was a more advanced read.

I liked the layout of the book and the illustrations (that I could see, a lot of them in my preview file were corrupted sadly, but I did really like what wasn't) and liked what it said, just wish it would have been more since there was nothing really new here.

This book is a pretty good introduction to the complex practice of Ayurveda, which I knew little about before reading this. It's easy to read and has helpful photos, illustrations and charts.

I don't think I'll be undertaking any strict Ayurvedic practices in my own life, but that's a conversation beyond the scope of this review. I'll just say that my one big beef with this book is the same one I have with a lot of "diet" and "health" and "wellness" books: lots of "should" and "shouldn't" absolutes and not a lot of proof or real-world flexibility. I do wish the authors included more scientific information (even basic scientific facts or just links to supporting information) to show any proven efficacy of the practice's claims and techniques.