A well-written guide to medicinal herbs full of illuminating theory and practical information.
Herbs can help alleviate chronic illnesses and much else that ails you, according to this sprawling primer.
Rawls, a physician, bases his account of the medicinal action of herbs on an analysis of processes that can sicken and kill cells called “glycation,” which is the tendency of glucose molecules to stick to proteins, caused by eating too many carbs; the buildup of free radicals; the wearing out of mitochondria that supply cells with energy; the corrosive effects of constant physical and mental stress; trace environmental toxins that poison cells; the pervasive presence of microbes that infest and kill cells. To ameliorate these problems, Rawls recommends a diet heavy in vegetables and low in starch, plenty of sleep and exercise, water and air filters to remove toxic contaminants, social distancing, masking and condom usage to avoid microbes, and a low-stress lifestyle. Most of all, he suggests herbal supplements—powdered extracts are his preferred form—with antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and other properties. (Among the dozens of herbs he covers, from achyranthes to yohimbe, his personal favorites include the rhodiola herb, a Siberian “adaptogen” taken by Vikings to enhance endurance; reishi mushrooms; the herbal “brain revitalizer” gotu kola; and shilajit, a mixture of phytochemicals and minerals collected from Himalayan crevices.) Rawls lays out the medicinal uses of each herb along with recommended dosages, contraindications (many herbs are blood thinners, for example), and the occasional smoothie recipe. He goes on to prescribe herbal regimens for specific ailments from loss of bone density to low testosterone levels. Rawls knits together a wealth of sophisticated medical ideas, supported by citations from the scientific literature and his own case studies, in prose that’s lucid and down-to-earth but stocked with evocative metaphors. (“The immune system can target infected cells with antibodies, but in the process, it also inadvertently targets normal cells of the same tissues. You might recognize this as autoimmunity. It’s like fighting terrorists hiding out in a city full of civilians.”) Readers interested in trying out natural remedies will find this an eminently useful and reassuring starting point.
A well-written guide to medicinal herbs full of illuminating theory and practical information.Pub Date: June 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-9823225-6-7
Page Count: 594
Publisher: Vital Plan, Inc.
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sophisticated, mind-stretching argument for psychoanalysis as a way of understanding why we want a good life.
You can’t always get what you want.
The British psychoanalyst Phillips recognizes that, while psychotherapy may not be a flawless science, it offers a means of coping with the world and understanding the relationship between desire and happiness. This collection of essays brings together the legacies of Sigmund Freud and the American pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty, both of whom were concerned with integrating human needs into a fulfilling social life. The result is a self-help book of a very high order, rich with quotations and explications of literary and philosophical texts phrased in an aphoristic style. “People always do things for good reasons, even though often they do not know what these reasons are. Psychoanalysis is there to help us work out what our reasons might be, and what we think about them.” The reader will work hard to find such clear statements, though. Much of the book delves deep into the work of thinkers such as D.W. Winnicott and Gilles Deleuze, trying to find concord between those who focus on the unconscious and those who focus on everyday lived life. “The psychoanalyst is an essentialist who believes in the unconscious…the pragmatist is an anti-essentialist, unwilling to believe in determinisms and committed to human agency and choice-making.” Psychoanalysis begins with resistance; pragmatism begins with acceptance. If you take Phillips at his word, you will go into psychoanalysis to struggle with unfulfilled desire while recognizing that the life you want will not be provided by others but found for yourself, both inside your head and outside in the world. Not a book for the casual reader.
A sophisticated, mind-stretching argument for psychoanalysis as a way of understanding why we want a good life.Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780374617974
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
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