Content tagged with “health”

“This is probably the most comprehensive, raw perspective of the early years of the AIDS crisis. A couple contextual notes – First, this book was written back in 1987, when the AIDS epidemic was still raging. Second, the author was gay (he died of AIDS in 1994). Those two facts are important,…”

“This is and outdated term for a stroke. It was used to refer to someone dying spontaneously, usually due to some internal bleeding, often cerebral. As an adjective, to be ‘apoplectic,’ is to be angry to the (figurative) verge of having a stroke. I don’t think anyone was every literally apoplectic….”

“This is an old name for what would be called a ‘pharmacist’ today. I’m not saying it was a pharmacist, because usage of the name stretches back thousands of years, and we wouldn’t call what they did back then ‘pharmacy.’ However, it filled the same basic role. Apothecaries prepared medicines, old…”

“This is any number of different conditions where the human body’s immune system attacks healthy systems – the body essentially fights itself. The descriptor ‘autoimmune’ is a category, not a specific condition. Common autoimmune diseases include: Arthritis (the body attacks joint tissue) Crohn’s…”

“This is a sobering book. It’s about dying, and what we can and should do at the end of someone’s life. But it’s a necessary book. The American medical system is designed to keep people alive, no matter what. But is that always the right answer? When is life not worth living? The book is not about…”

“I love Atul Gawande, but I didn’t love this book. It wasn’t what I expected, which I normally take as my own fault, but I don’t think it’s what anyone would expect from this book. But, first, the book is really interesting. He has a total Malcolm Gladwell thing going on with this book – it’s a…”

“This is a book about pooping. Not personally, but as a species. How we deal with our poop, around the world. It’s what I call a ‘vignette book.’ Over 10 or so chapters, the author tells disconnected stories that each explain some aspect of the story of poop. Examples: The World Toilet Conference…”

“I’m a terrible eater. I generally eat too much, only to be partially saved by very good gym habits. I’ve been actively trying to cut back my caloric intake. While counting calories get a bad rap, the fact remains that most people in The First World consume far too many calories daily. Left to my…”

“This is a supposed treatment for hyperventilation. Hyperventilation is when someone starts breathing rapidly due to stress. It’s become a common trope to represent a character reacting unfavorably to something. For most people, this is rare. When someone breathes too rapidly, this lowers the carbon…”

“Calculus is the hard substance that plaque turns into if it’s not removed – otherwise known as ‘tartar.’ This is the stuff that the dental hygenist is scraping off your teeth during your visit. It can also refer to a hard mass of some kind, often one in the kidney or the bladder. The name comes…”

“This is from the Greek ‘kataraktes,’ which means ‘downrush.’ Clearly, most people know ‘cataract’ from the disorder of the mammalian eye. So, how did that get named for a waterfall? Wikipedia has some theories : As rapidly running water turns white, so the term may have been used metaphorically to…”

“I read this because I’m a fan of Francis Collins, who is the current head of the NIH, a devout Christian, and who wrote one of my favorite books about faith: The Language of God . This is the story of the Human Genome Project, which was something I was only vaguely aware of. I’ve never been…”

“I heard something that resonated with me the other day (I forget where I heard this): Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. This, of course, is a play on this common saying: Anything worth doing is worth doing well. But, rather than making fun of an earnest, feel-good aphorism, what the…”

“An interesting book, mainly about addiction. I was a little disappointed with this, because I wanted it to be more about ‘casual’ dopamine, like overeating and spending too much time on our phones. But it goes hard into scary addictions. It starts with (and continually revisits) a guy with a very…”

“A shockingly good book about the history of the greatest disease Man has ever known. The author tracks the history of cancer from when it was first identified in 4,500 BC through to the present day. The approach is holistic – the author examines cancer clinically, scientifically, politically,…”

“A good look at the Christian/Biblical teachings behind physical fitness and a health diet. Turns out, sloth and gluttony are the two deadly sins we tend to cast a blind eye to, because they’re considered socially acceptable sins. Not an Earth-shattering book. If you’re looking for practical diet…”

“I love Steven Johnson. He’s one of my favorite authors. He writes mainly about the history of science and technology. This book is about the history of how we began to live longer. The average lifespan has gone up so much in the last couple of centuries, and what caused that? Here’s the list:…”

“This book could be boiled down to three words: ‘Eat more plants.’ That’s it. That’s the whole book. This is one of situations where someone has a small idea, and they just beat the hell out of it for 275 pages because they had to get to a trade hardcover length to get on the shelves at Barnes and…”

“This is a story of a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina. It lost power, was surrounded by water with backed-up sewers, and there weren’t enough boats or helicopters to evacuate everyone. Lots of people died. Maybe too many people. When the hospital lost power, all the ventilators shut…”

“Thrilling story of a cholera outbreak in London in the 1850s, and the physician who tracked down the source. At the time, illness was thought to come from ‘bad air,’ but a physician named John Snow mapped the illnesses and determined that they were clustered around a water pump in Broad Street. No…”

“A very mainstream self-help book, with the ‘hook’ that it digs deep into the hormonal science of the brain. It discusses happiness in terms of four chemicals – endorphin, serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine – why they make us happy, and what we can do to maximize their levels. It’s…okay. The book is…”

“This is not a self-help book. It doesn’t really give you any strategies for getting over depression, it just points out that there’s a problem. It identifies ‘covert depression,’ which is often masked in men – it comes out as anger, infidelity, or addiction. Men don’t want to admit that they’re…”

“A client is considering a project having to do with community health, so I read this for background. It’s an introductory textbook and succeeds in providing a broad view on the topic. I was surprised at the range of factors that play into community health: disease, addiction, injuries, environment,…”

“I love the idea of this book, but I think the practical application is going to be tough. Basically, the book seeks to teach ‘mindful’ eating practices, which is the idea of eating intelligently – understanding when and why you’re eating, not eating more than you should, etc. Basically, the book…”

“There are five conditions which are very common among people who are generally unhealthy. They are: High blood sugar Low levels of HDL (‘good’ cholesterol) High levels of triglycerides Large amount of abdominal fat High blood pressure If you have three of these conditions, that is considered to be…”

“Once, when I was in the military, I was doing a PT with the Marines. I was 19-year-old gym rat at the time, never far from my copy of Muscle and Fitness , and I thought it wise to explain to the drill sergeant that sit-ups were inefficient. They used too much of the hip erector muscles, not the…”

“I enjoyed this article about the myth of water intake: You Don’t Need 8 Glasses Of Water A Day . This idea has been floating around for decades: you must drink more water – specifically eight glasses per day. This threshold appears to be a long-standing medical myth. It’s not even clear where it…”

“In any driving course, when learning how to recover from a skid, the instructor will always hammer the same thing into you: ‘Look where you want to go because you tend to go where you look.’ it’s good advice, and I can vouch that it works ( seriously ). The same thing is true of your self-image,…”

“This is a book about the start of the pandemic and how public health officers and departments responded to it. It’s sort of a sequel to The Fifth Risk , which was about how the Trump administration failed to staff critical government departments. I didn’t love it, largely because of Lewis’s writing…”

“Okay, it’s time to commit to my next fitness goal. Here it is – At the age of 40, I intend to pass the U.S. Army Ranger entrance exam. This is the physical fitness test you have to pass to be considered for Ranger School . (Keep in mind that this just means you might get to go to the training…”

“This book is…different. I think you have to be a certain place emotionally and mentally to appreciate it, and I just wasn’t there. Cecily Strong is one of my all-time favorite SNL players. She’s hilarious. I bought this book brand-new, specifically because I wanted to support her. You need to…”

“This is another nutrition book that claims it has discovered ‘the secret’ to the obesity epidemic. It goes like this – We don’t eat actual food anymore. We eat what was once food, but which has been broken down almost to a molecular level, combined with a bunch of other stuff, and reconstituted in…”