Book Review: Prescription for Life By Richard Furman

PRESCRIPTION FOR LIFE
Three Simple Strategies to Live Younger Longer

By: Richard Furman, MD

Published: October 7, 2014

Publisher: Revell

Non-Fiction

Dr. Furman has spent 30 years fixing clogged arteries as a vascular surgeon. He knows what has clogged the thousands of arteries and watched patients leave his hospital only to consume the same foods that caused the patient to end up in his operating room. In his book, PRESCRIPTION FOR LIFE, he completely lays out his plan for your best life. He gives you the foods to eat and not eat. He gives you an exercise plan for even those who are currently couch potatoes. Then he offers the drastic news of what will happen if you don’t follow these steps. He doesn’t mince words and tells you this plan won’t be easy, but is necessary for living a longer, healthy life.

When I am reading books like this, I want a straight-forward approach.  I don’t want the author to be wishy-washy and leave room for judgment.  I don’t want the book to be bogged down in medical terminology or studies. I want the author to convince me, whole-heartedly that this is what I should do and give me ways to make it happen.  Richard Furman does exactly that. Reading this book will scare you, shock you, and make you realize what you are putting in your body, no matter what age you are, really does make a difference.

Richard Furman began this plan at the age of 42. I read this book at the age of 42. It is never too late to make a change in your life. The parts of the plan that were helpful for me included his basic explanation for reading nutrition labels and what exactly to look for in the food you are buying. I also appreciated that Dr. Furman gave examples of people who were either his patients or just his friends and how the plan changed their life. In contrast, he gave examples of people who were given the plan and didn’t follow it.

Richard Furman lays out the six foods you must remove, not cut back on, but remove from your diet right now. These six foods are guaranteed to be foods you eat on a regular basis. I would bet that the one food he insists you give up is one you eat nearly every single day. In fact, this one food was his absolute favorite food. One he was given as gifts from his co-workers and patients. Once he realized what this one food was doing to his arteries, he stopped eating it and it was his absolute favorite food. He doesn’t just tell you to remove the foods, but explains, in lay-man’s terms, why you should remove them from your diet and what they do to your body. This part of the book was an eye-opener for me. He explains why you need to stop them cold-turkey and not just eat them once in a while. Dr. Furman offers his ten minute plan as a way to give up things like smoking, snacking, and giving up certain food items.

This book opens your eyes to the food you eat, the lifestyle you live, and the future you deserve. His patients that followed his plan, as well as those who didn’t, give great examples of his program. This “prescription for life” isn’t for just the overweight or obese, or for those with heart problems, diabetes or cancer. This plan is for everyone including the physically fit. He gave one example of a man who was very active as a coach, running and lifting weights every single day. But, because of the food this coach was eating, he was a walking heart attack waiting to happen. Thankfully, he took Furman’s advice with amazing results.

It is never too late to begin this plan to be healthy and active. You deserve to live a long life and a quality life. The author doesn’t stop here in his “prescription for life”. He wants your soul to live on into eternity. As you read, the author shares Bible verses and guidance to make sure, once death comes, that you are living out your life in eternity.

If you are concerned about the health of a friend or loved one or if you want to enhance the years you have left on this Earth, then I highly recommend you read this book and start the plan. It certainly won’t be easy, but the results will be worth it.

The proceeds from this book will be donated to Samaritan’s Purse for World Medical Mission to help build housing for doctors serving at mission hospitals abroad.

Richard Furman, MD

Richard Furman, MD, FACS, spent over thirty years as a vascular surgeon. He is passionate about helping people prevent the problems that kill over half of all Americans. Furman is past president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, past president of the North Carolina Surgical Society, and a two-term governor of the American College of Surgeons. He is cofounder of World Medical Mission, the medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse, and is a member of the board of Samaritan’s Purse. He lives in North Carolina. For more, visit his website, http://www.prescriptionforlife.com/.

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