Abstract
For years I have relied on comprehensive tomes such as Sleisinger and Fortrans's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease as the definitive source for information on digestive disease—whether common or obscure. Definitive sources such as this—with multiple editors and many more authors—have a special place in the reference section of medical libraries. Eric Yarnell, ND—having always been a prolific writer—has now published a single-handed effort that fits into that level of resource on gastroenterology from the natural medicine perspective.
For the last 10 years Naturopathic Gastroenterology, the first edition of the book, has been a required text for my gastroenterology course at the National College of Natural Medicine. It was the only text of its kind, so I looked forward to the updated second edition, but never expected such an extensive work as this. The chapter on Crohn’s disease alone is 89 pages and is the most complete discussion of this topic that I have seen.
Each chapter is organized into sections on history of the condition, clinical summary, epidemiology, etiology and pathogenesis, risk factors, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, therapeutics, prognosis and complications, and a case study. To save space, references for each chapter are cited online. Although botanical medicine is Yarnell’s forte, diet and nutraceuticals (as well as acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in some sections) are discussed. Standard biomedical treatments including surgery are at the conclusion of the therapeutics sections.
Many useful quality of life and diagnostic questionnaires, clinical activity indexes, and symptom checklists are included at the end of the book.
A quirky thing about this 2-volume work is the order of its contents. Volume 1 begins with the liver and gall bladder followed by the anus, colon, and gastrointestinal infections. Volume 2 begins with the small intestine followed by the stomach, esophagus, mouth, pancreas, and miscellaneous topics. There are also a fair number of typographical errors that have made their way into the hardbound printing.
I highly recommend this text for all serious students and practitioners of natural and integrative medicine who treat patients with gastrointestinal disease.