A sometimes-illuminating exploration of herbs interlaced with memoir.
Baker combines a personal essay with plant lore to explore the healing power of nature in this debut herbal-medicine guide.
The author—an herbalist, acupuncturist, and world traveler who works with PTSD sufferers—asserts that people who interact with plants can achieve a healthier, more peaceful state than those who don’t. “Plants miss the deep connection that humans once had with them,” Baker writes. “They know our mental and physical illnesses are due to that loss of relationship.” To highlight this relationship, she interweaves accounts of her life with profiles of various plants, combining reflection, description, recipes, and the “song” of each species in the form of a very short poem. The entry for nettle, for instance, begins with the herb’s properties (such as prickliness) and effects (“The vigor you experience from an infusion of freshly harvested nettle is like that of Popeye with his spinach”). Baker then recounts a trip to Nepal that she spent “trying to score as much hash as I could” and hiking in the Annapurna Mountains. There, she encountered a massive nettle plant that, she claims, said, “Pay attention. You know what you need to do.” She then discusses the traditional uses of nettle, reveals its song (“Pay attention / Heed the call”), and offers recipes for nettle tea and juice. Throughout this book, Baker offers spiritualism-tinged views of plants that frequently drift into the realms of the animistic and unprovable. However, her stories do possess an appealing mixture of mysticism and earthy relatability, and her knowledge of plants and their lore is undeniably deep. She shares compelling beliefs about and uses for plants that readers will find, by turns, familiar (pine), exotic (Reishi mushroom), and even widely maligned (tobacco). Readers who are interested in either the practical or the romantic side of plants will both find engaging material to read in this essayistic compendium.
A sometimes-illuminating exploration of herbs interlaced with memoir.Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5043-9357-7
Page Count: 168
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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