For those who take their medicine with an air of mayhem.
An overlong but informative tale of civilians versus the medical establishment—set, in this case, in the disease-ridden 18th century.
The world has largely forgotten the horrors of smallpox, writes journalist and literary historian Carrell in this debut. Though the last known case was recorded in 1977, smallpox had claimed “a victim count in the hundreds of millions,” killing “more people than the Black Death and all the bloody wars of the twentieth century put together.” The tide began to turn in London and Boston when two who had survived the disease, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, employed folk medicine to protect their families, learned in Montagu’s case from Turkish servants and in Boylston’s from African slaves. Involving a rudimentary kind of inoculation, their borrowed cures earned them a reputation for quackery at first, and plenty of jeering from local folk and medical authorities alike. But Bostonians and Londoners eventually came around, with invitations “to try it on a child or two”—understandably, inasmuch as inoculation, and later vaccination, reduced the odds of dying of smallpox by orders of magnitude. The best parts of Carrell’s narrative involve her careful accounting of the effects of Montagu and Boylston’s daring experiments: “The Earl of Berkeley’s son did marvelously well: only 70 or 80 small pustules which clung to him a mere nine or ten days and then scurfed off, leaving no trace of their passage.” But Carrell inclines toward a too-inclusive use of historical material, resulting in a narrative that runs on far too long, one less well controlled and less compelling than those of, say, medical mysterians Laurie Garrett (The Coming Plague) and Richard Preston (The Hot Zone). Still, there is much good information here—and even a somber warning that, though apparently eradicated, any number of possibilities exist for smallpox to make a comeback, as well as for some equally deadly disease to sweep across the world in its stead.
For those who take their medicine with an air of mayhem.Pub Date: June 2, 2003
ISBN: 0-525-94736-1
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2003
Useful but disappointingly commonplace tips.
In a follow-up to The End of Illness (2012), which explored how technological advances will transform medicine, Agus (Medicine and Engineering/Univ. of Southern California) restates time-tested but too often overlooked principles for healthy living.
The author outlines simple measures that average citizens can take to live healthier lives and extend their life spans by taking advantage of modern technology to develop personalized records. These would include a list of medical tests and recommended treatments. Agus also suggests keeping track of indicators that can be observed at home on a regular basis—e.g., changes in energy, weight, appetite and blood pressure, blood sugar and general appearance. He advises that all of this information be made available online, and it is also helpful to investigate family history and consider DNA testing where indicated. Along with maintaining a healthy weight, Agus emphasizes the importance of eating a balanced diet, with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and a minimum of red meat. Avoid packaged vitamins and food supplements, and if possible, grow your own vegetables or buy frozen vegetables, which will generally be fresher than those on supermarket shelves. The author also warns against processed foods that make health claims but contain additives or excessive amounts of sugar or fat. Regular mealtimes and plenty of sleep, frequent hand-washing and oral hygiene are a must; smoking and excessive time in the sun should also be avoided. Agus recommends that adults should consider taking statins and baby aspirin as preventative measures. He concludes with a decade-by-decade checklist of annual medical examinations that should be routine—e.g. blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterol screenings, from one’s 20s on; colonoscopies, prostate exams and mammograms later—and a variety of top-10 lists (for example, “Top 10 Reasons to Take a Walk”).
Useful but disappointingly commonplace tips.Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-3095-0
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Oncologist Agus (Medicine and Engineering/Univ. of Southern California) predicts that the application of advanced technology for modeling complex systems will transform 21st-century medicine.
The author writes that a remark Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Mann made to him in 2009—“Look at cancer as a system"—transformed the way he views his own specialty and the entire field of preventative medicine. It made him realize that “[r]ather than honoring the body as the exceedingly complex system that it is, we keep looking for the individual gene that has gone awry, or for the one ‘secret’ that can improve our health.” Agus writes that although the ability to sequence the entire human genome is a great step forward, it is insufficient for achieving a significant breakthrough. Even though it may start with a mutation, cancer “is a dynamic process that's happening…far from the confines of a static piece of DNA”—it involves the body's immune system, its ability to regulate cell growth, metabolism and more. Agus directs his university’s Center for Applied Molecular Medicine and is the co-founder of two personalized medicine companies, Applied Proteomics and Navigenics. His hope is that their research will contribute to developing better analytical tools for preventative medicine and for the treatment of cancers. These will address the functioning of the body as a whole, applying digital technology already used by physicists to provide virtual models of cancers and model the action of proteins that regulate cell communication in the body. He also hopes to develop tools that will provide information on the concentration of different proteins in a drop of blood taken from a patient, which may reveal the onset of disease. The author also includes some guiding principles and warnings about certain healthy practices that may not be so healthy. A refreshing change of pace in the medical field, but by venturing beyond his field of expertise to pontificate on a wide range of subjects, Agus makes his otherwise intriguing narrative difficult to follow.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1017-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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