Christopher Hobbs - Vitamins For Dummies

by Christopher Hobbs, L.Ac, and Elson Haas, M.D.

Vitamins For Dummies

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Copyright 1999 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 99-65859

ISBN: 978-0-7645-5179-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Christopher Hobbs, L.Ac., is a fourth-generation herbalist and botanist his grandmother and great-grandmother were professional herbalists, and his father and great-uncle were professors of botany with over 30 years experience with herbs. He studied acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and Chinese medicine at Michael and Lesley Tierras East-West Acupuncture Program, Five Branches Institute of Traditional Medicine in Santa Cruz, and The Hangzhou School of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hangzhou, China, earning his license in acupuncture in 1995. In 1989, he founded the American School of Herbalism in Santa Cruz, California (with Michael Tierra, O.M.D., L.Ac.) to educate professional and lay persons in the safe use of medicinal plants. He is currently the director of the Christopher Hobbs Clinic of Phytotherapy and Acupuncture, as a licensed primary health care provider in California.

In 1985, Christopher co-founded the American Herbalists Guild, the only national U.S. organization for professional herbalists, and along with David Winston, is a senior member on the admissions committee. As a consultant to the herb and natural foods industry, he was vice president and a board of trustee member of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) for seven years, has formulated many nationally-sold products, and is a member of a number of top companies. In 1984, he started a line of herbal products now known as Rainbow Light Herbal Systems. Christopher has acted as director of herbal formulations for Rainbow Light since 1984. He currently consults for the pharmaceutical and natural products industry and is a major contributor to the successful herbal Web site, www.allherb.com. Christopher is a member of the Society for Medicinal Plants, the Society for Economic Botany, and the Society for Ethnobiology. He has lectured at Yale and Stanford Medical Schools; is a regular teacher at the University of California, Santa Cruz; and has taught at numerous schools, conventions, and symposia throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. Christopher regularly contributes a clinic column in Herbs for Health, and his articles have appeared in HerbalGram, Natural Health, Vegetarian Times, Lets Live, and other national health magazines. Christopher is currently on the advisory boards of the American Botanical Council, United Plant Savers, Lets Live magazine, Herbs for Health, and other organizations and magazines. He owns one of the most extensive private libraries on medicinal plants, with over 6,000 volumes, including herb books that date from the sixteenth century. He is in the process of developing a medicinal plant preserve and educational center called the Living Farmacy.

Elson Haas, M.D., has been in medical practice for over 25 years and has helped develop the field he refers to as Integrated Medicine. He is the founder and director of the Preventive Medical Center of Marin, an integrated health care facility in San Rafael, California, where he specializes in Nutritional Medicine and Detoxification. He is also the author of five previous books on health and nutrition: Staying Healthy With the Seasons, Staying Healthy With Nutrition, A Diet for All Seasons, The Detox Diet, and The Staying Healthy Shoppers Guide.

After his graduation from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1972, Elson received his further training in Northern California, where he has since resided. After his internship, he began further studies in many health-related fields nutrition, herbology, Oriental medicine, exercise physiology, body therapies, and mind-body medicine fulfilling his goal to learn something about health and healing after so many years of studying disease. Over the last two decades, Dr. Haas has incorporated, or to use a better word, integrated, these many healing disciplines into his family medical practice. He wrote about this process in his first book, Staying Healthy with the Seasons,