Book Review: Nature\’s Sports Pharmacy

I was sold on this book as soon as I saw the author’s name: Fred Hatfield. Having read many of Fred’s books in the past, I couldn’t wait to dig into this one. He has really solid information.

Original source: here.

            But in this book, the quality slipped a bit.

Here’s what I liked about this book:

• It gives some herbal theory. It helps the person who knows nothing about herbs understand more about that topic.
• It classifies the different herbs based on their action. Whether they improve your immune system, nervous system, cardiovascular system, etc.
• In every chapter, he discusses the physiology of different body systems as they relate to whatever he will talk about in any given chapter. For a geek like me, that’s great.

What I wasn’t too happy with was the recommendation of several unproven herbs. When Hatfield mentioned a particular herb for a particular purpose, I scanned the medical literature on that to see if any research has been done on that, and in many cases, couldn’t find any. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. But it does mean that we don’t really know if it works or not.

Nonetheless, with the exception of this, I would highly recommend Nature’s Sports Pharmacy to any athlete seeking natural ways to improve performance.