It is estimated that some 54 million people in the U.S. act as informal caregivers for ill or disabled loved ones. We can add to these countless workers in the fields of health and human service, and yet there is still not enough help to go around: as many as three fourths of our informal caregivers report "going it alone." It's no wonder that "caregiver burnout" and depression afflict so many.

Sure to be welcomed by caregivers of all types, the groundbreaking new Medicine and Compassion can help anyone reconnect with the true spirit of their caregiving task. In a clear and very modern voice, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche and Dr. David R. Shlim use the teachings of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy to present practical tools for revitalizing the caring spirit. Readers, in turn, will find their patience, kindness, and effectiveness re-energized.

Offering practical advice on dealing with people who are angry at their medical conditions or their care providers, people who are dying, or the families of those who are critically ill, Medicine and Compassion will strike resonant cords with medical professionals, hospice workers, teachers and parents of children with special needs, and those caring for aging and infirm loved ones.

Medicine and Compassion: A Tibetan Lama's Guidance for Caregivers, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, David R. Shlim, Wisdom Publication, Paperback, 192 pages, 2006, $17.95

Ch�kyi Nyima Rinpoche is the abbot of one of the largest monasteries in Nepal, with over 250 monks. He was born in 1951 in Tibet and fled that country with his family when he was eight years old. He trained in Sikkim, then founded his monastery near Kathmandu in 1976. He has focused on making authentic Tibetan Buddhist teachings available to Westerners. He has authored six books, and he regularly visits and teaches at retreat centers in many countries, including his North American retreat center in California, Rangjung Yeshe Gomde.

David R. Shlim MD ran the world's busiest destination travel medicine clinic in Kathmandu, Nepal, for fifteen years, and was the attending physician for all the survivors of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster chronicled in Jon Krakauer�s Into Thin Air. He currently lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.