An appealing introduction to healthy living.
A simple guide to active living aimed at women over 60.
Stewart-Roache and Yarnell met on a Semester at Sea voyage and realized that they shared the same dedication to fitness, despite having different body types and being 62 and 70 years old, respectively. The two decided to create a basic fitness handbook for older women complete with information addressing frequent senior health problems such as arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis and loss of vision, taste or hearing. Noting that most fitness articles aimed at older people promise to extend life or reverse aging, the authors focus on fitness as a way to improve the overall quality of one’s life rather than a way to erase wrinkles or turn back the clock. Stewart-Roache and Yarnell’s refreshing, no-nonsense attitude toward aging can be summed up by their brusque, introductory statement that “old can be active old or rocking chair old.” The book continues in a similarly conversational tone, with the first half consisting of a quick introduction to nutrition and aerobic exercise, interspersed with notes of friendly encouragement. Much of the nutrition wisdom is somewhat typical (such as encouragement to eat antioxidants and avoid high-fructose corn syrup), but the book also includes useful information on eating to avoid diabetes and the authors’ personal tips for maintaining a healthy weight. The fitness section includes information on achieving one’s target heart rate and proper warm-up and cool-down procedures, followed by tips to avoid injury and advice for staying goal-oriented. The remaining half of the book consists of useful reference information including charts of vitamins and minerals, exercise plans, goal sheets, healthy recipes and examples of the fitness plans followed by other older women. The authors provide short exercise plans for running, bicycling, yoga and swimming, but encourage women to explore other, equally healthy activities, such as ping-pong, scuba diving, skiing and golf. Fitness veterans may find the book lacks sufficient research or depth, but it’s a excellent start for beginners.
An appealing introduction to healthy living.Pub Date: April 24, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-913478-11-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An eye-opening exposÇ of the workings of the tobacco industry, based on the leaked internal documents of a leading cigarette company. The setup is that of a thriller: In the spring of 1994 an express-mail box filled with 4,000 pages of tobacco-company documents turns up on the doorstep of longtime industry critic Glantz (Medicine/Univ. of California, San Francisco); the return address read ``Mr. Butts,'' the name of the fast-talking cigarette from Doonesbury. Glantz assembles a team of medical doctors and policy analysts to comb through the papers, which he lodges in the special collections division of the university library so that Brown & Williamson, the tobacco company in question, cannot block public access to them. The documents are astonishing, describing research projects with codenames like ARIEL (which sought ways to boost the nicotine kick of a cigarette), giving a behind-the-scenes look at the company's maneuverings around various lawsuits and congressional inquiries, and showing beyond any doubt that B&W, at least, was well aware of the cancerous effects of smoking decades ago, although it continues to maintain that ``causation has not been proved'' and that nicotine is not addictive. (Smokers may also be interested to know of B&W's experiments with various additives, including benzo(a)pyrene, cocoa, and deer tongue, a plant substance known to cause liver damage in test animals.) The editors' commentary helps make sense of the often arcane papers, which are couched in the language of law, chemistry, and medicine; even with their help, however, this makes for tough slogging. ``Stall any disclosure by industry as long as possible,'' one B&W memo urges. Difficult as it is to work one's way through this book, the labor yields disclosures of the sort that doubtless makes for an industry insider's worst nightmare—revelations that will add new fuel to the widening debate about smoking.
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-520-20572-3
Page Count: 410
Publisher: Univ. of California
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996
Insightful, scholarly, and wonderfully readable analysis of Americans' misconceptions about teenage pregnancy and the impact of these beliefs on public policy. The unwed teenage mother, especially the black unwed teenage mother, has become the symbol of social, sexual, and economic trends that are causing increasing anxiety for Americans. Sociologist Luker (Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood, 1984) asserts that current welfare reforms aimed at reducing teenage pregnancy rates are doomed to fail because they are based on a basic misunderstanding of the problem. In her words, ``Early childbearing doesn't make young women poor; rather, poverty makes women bear children at an early age.'' Luker traces ideas about early childbearing from colonial times to the present and demonstrates how the notion that the country is witnessing an explosion in teenage pregnancy came to have broad acceptance among both policy makers and the general public. Of special interest is her argument that poor women and affluent women are choosing two different solutions to their common problem of raising children in a society that offers little support: Poor women adopt the traditional American pattern of early childbearing, having babies before they enter the work force and relying on family help, whereas affluent women postpone childbearing until they are well established in their careers. Given the circumstances, she says, it makes sense for poor women to have their babies at an early age. The real problem is the underlying social and economic forces that compel women to make such choices. ``Society should worry not about some epidemic of `teenage pregnancy' but about the hopeless, discouraged, and empty lives that early childbearing denotes,'' she concludes. She offers no ready solutions, but her fresh perspective on the issue of teenage pregnancy is an important contribution to the current debate over welfare reform. Commonsensical, timely, and very persuasive.
Pub Date: May 15, 1996
ISBN: 0-674-21702-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1996
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