num_pages: 136
description: A fascinating and compelling look at an everyday aspect of one of the world's best-known historical personalities. The author offers a new approach to understanding by way of an ordinary (rather than extraordinary) aspect of his life. With careful research, John Holmes documents a Jefferson mistrustful of the medical practices of his time, fully prepared to grow and prescribe his own medications, and actually achieving through his self-treatment, a long and relatively healthy life. The reader will see Jefferson engaged in the fight for good health, and under such conditions as the modern man can hardly envision. Jefferson lived in a time when medicine was practiced in the most literal sense of the word. A doctor's training, even for those graduated from the finest European medical schools, consisted almost exclusively of theory. Very little was known or understood about the complexities of the human body. As a consequence, patients, rich and poor alike, believed that they could treat themselves as well as (or better than) the doctor by using medicines obtained from woodland plants or herbs grown in the home garden. Like his contemporaries, Jefferson followed this traditional approach to home health care. At Monticello he cultivated many varieties of herbs and plants that held therapeutic properties. Together, these herbs and plants comprised Jefferson's mountain-top pharmacy. Jefferson also developed an understanding of preventive health maintenance. Combining exercise, diet, and learning, he devised a holistic regimen of daily health care. He was determined to stay physically and mentally healthy and, as much as possible, away from the doctor.
language: English
title: Thomas Jefferson Treats Himself: Herbs, Physicke, & Nutrition In Early America
titlecomplete: Thomas Jefferson Treats Himself: Herbs, Physicke, & Nutrition In Early America
ratings_count: 5
publisher: Loft Press