How to Be Your Own Doctor

Written in plain English from the point of view of experienced M.D. Carl E. Shrader, How to Be Your Own Doctor is full of practical suggestions you can use to give yourself a vital advantage when it comes to your health. Dr. Shrader will tell you everything you need to know to save yourself many times the cost of this book by:
• Preventing costly accidents and diseases
• Using inexpensive home remedies
• Saving money on prescription drugs
• Avoiding unnecessary doctor's visits, misdiagnoses, and expensive surgeries

This book has information to help keep every member of your family in excellent health. You'll learn about everything from pregnancy and infant care to arthritis and Alzheimer's, including choosing a doctor, dealing with HMOs, allergies, drug addiction, sex after 60, and over a hundred other health and safety issues you and your family face every day.

This book offers excellent advice for every day (and not so every day) maladies that will allow individuals to, in effect, provide "self-triage."

Often, Dr. Shrader advises his readers to check with their own physicians, but more often, he gives medical advice that makes a trip to the doctor unnecessary. He also gives pointers on how to save money on perscriptions. For quite some time, I've been searching for a book written by a person with legitimate credentials. Thankfully, this is now available to the public.

This book is also a fun read. It's full of anecdotes that will make you laugh and appreciate this Doctor's warm humor.


A good resource for family healthcare   April 17, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This book is full of commonsense advice on how to be your own doctor and reduce expensive and unnecessary trips to the doctor. It has fun anecdotes about his years as a family practice physician, starting from the years when house calls were still common practice.
In addition to advice about when to be your own doctor, it also gives you warning signs about when it is necessary to seek medical care. As an RN with 9 years of emergency room experience, I have seen how the high cost of an emergency room visit can transform a simple problem into a large expense. This book will help you decide.


Good Doctor, Good Book   June 12, 2007
S. Jett (Munds Park AZ USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I purchased this book because Dr. Shrader, my doctor, mentioned he had written a book.Having had wonderful care and advice from this gentleman, I wanted to see his book and his ideas on subjects other than my individual health issues. This book is written in an easy-to-understand format. Very informative and relevant to the health issues we all face. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in keeping themselves healthy and cutting down on doctor appointments (and their expense) by acquiring knowledge regarding their own health issues.


Practical with common sense   April 17, 2004
Ryder Whitmire (Boise, Idaho)
I found this book to be very practical, full of common sense information that is not seen too often in the medical profession these days. The anecdotes were fun to read and gave a feel for what life is like for a family doctor, one in the old style, when house calls were still common place. The high cost of medical care these days makes it a priority to be able to determine when to spend your money to go see a doctor. This book helps do that. I would recommend this book to anyone.


Stop taking unnecessary trips to the doctor   May 13, 2004
I am the mother of two young children and constantly am taking my kids to the doctor. I saw this doctor on television with Heidi what's-her-name on ABC and got his book. There's lots of good common sense doctor stuff in there. Stuff that you don't have to go take your kids and sit in a waiting room with a bunch of sick people to find out. Sometimes I think sitting in the waiting room can make you sicker than you are. Especially kids. So I'm happy to be able to flip to any topic I need: Food poisoning, cuts and bruises, etc, etc, and find out what to do right at home. And the title's right, I've already saved a bunch of money. Thanks Dr. Shrader!!