A handy introduction to readily available nostrums, although web-savvy readers may find most, if not all, of this...
A debut collection of health-based folk remedies using natural items.
“I love simple answers,” writes Canelo, the manager of a holistic healing center in Montclair, N.J., as he introduces this book of ancient and modern remedies. His slim collection proves this assertion with an appealingly brief account of mixtures, methods and practices dedicated to healing without prescription drugs or conventional treatments. According to the author, vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, sea salt, raw bee products, olive oil, colloidal silver, castor oil and activated charcoal, among other items, form the building blocks for health. However, he also reminds readers “with any serious health problem” to consider his suggestions only after they consult with their “regular health care practitioner and/or medical doctor.” The discoveries here aren’t new; for example, D. C. Jarvis’ Folk Medicine: A Vermont Doctor's Guide to Good Health espoused the cure-all properties of apple cider vinegar mixed with honey back in 1958. Readers can easily find the identical text and pictures in “Six Air Purifying House Plants” on numerous blogs and Pinterest boards online. Readers may also wonder if the cures proposed here come from the placebo effects or the actual treatments; Canelo supplies little supporting evidence, other than his own testimony. Nonetheless, readers may wish to try his “Sleepy Time Tonic” of apple cider vinegar mixed with freshly boiled water, bee pollen, and lemon juice, or drape a simple black scarf over the face to enhance sleep. It’s true that baking soda and salt clean almost anything, and that using natural ingredients found around the house saves money. Readers may find these natural healing mixtures appealing compared with commercial chemical products; after all, olive oil does wonders for skin and digestion.
A handy introduction to readily available nostrums, although web-savvy readers may find most, if not all, of this information online.Pub Date: May 9, 2013
ISBN: 978-1482618648
Page Count: 74
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Some surprising answers to questions about why our bodies are designed the way they are and why we get the diseases we do. Nesse, a physician (Psychiatry/Univ. of Michigan) and Williams (Ecology and Evolution/SUNY, Stony Brook) first teamed up to write an article on Darwinian medicine, which applies the concept of adaptation by natural selection to medical questions. That article, published in 1991 in The Quarterly Review of Biology, has been expanded into the present book, in which the authors look at the design characteristics of the human body that make it susceptible to disease. Their conclusions? First, sometimes it's our genes that make us vulnerable to disease. Some genetic defects arise through mutations, but more often, genes with deleterious effects are maintained through natural selection because their benefits outweigh their costs. Second, there's a mismatch between our present environment and the one that over thousands of years shaped our hunter-gatherer ancestors. There simply hasn't been time for our bodies to adapt, and we suffer the consequences. Third, disease results from design compromises. For example, the structural changes that allowed us to develop from horizontal four-footed creatures to upright two-footed ones left us vulnerable to back problems. Fourth, our evolutionary history has left us some troublesome legacies, such as the unfortunate intersection in our throats of the passages for food and air. Some of the areas Nesse and Williams apply their Darwinian approach to are infectious diseases, allergies, cancer, aging, reproduction, and mental disorders. Happily, they write with impeccable clarity, and when they are speculating (which they do freely), they are careful to say so. They also offer numerous suggestions for research studies, thoughtful proposals for reshaping medical textbooks and medical education, and a scenario dramatizing Darwinian medicine's possible clinical application. Fascinating reading for doctors and patients alike.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8129-2224-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Times/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A Wall Street Journal science reporter's colorful, people-centered account of the fierce competition among scientists to find the genetic causes of cancer. Waldholz (coauthor, with Jerry Bishop, of Genome, 1990) focuses on Bert Vogelstein of Johns Hopkins University, who developed the tumor-suppressor theory of cancer that has become the foundation of cancer research today; Mary-Claire King, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, who proved the existence of a breast cancer gene on chromosome 17 in 1990, although she couldn't pinpoint its precise location; Francis Collins, a researcher at the University of Michigan, who joined forces with King in the hunt for the elusive gene; and Mark Skolnick, a Utah geneticist who found BRCA1, the breast cancer gene, in 1994. Through interviews with these and other scientists who worked with them or competed against them, Waldholz shows the pressure of the race to be first. He reveals these denizens of the labs to be fierce competitors, often skilled at manipulating people, keeping secrets, and working the press. His secondary story, one fraught with quite different emotions, concerns the women in ``Family 15,'' the raw material used by a group of scientists tracking down the breast cancer gene. Through them Waldholz explores the ethical problems created when scientists are able to tell a woman that she has the gene but physicians are unable to either prevent or cure the cancer. Despite his optimistic title, Waldholz makes clear that curing cancer remains ``a lengthy and risky enterprise.'' He also touches on the problems and possible conflict-of-interest issues posed by the burgeoning number of biotechnology companies that are exploiting university research. Vivid portrayals of the principal players combined with clear descriptions of the science involved.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-684-81125-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997
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