A useful guidebook on fibromyalgia that encourages sufferers to explore nontraditional treatments.
A chiropractic physician offers a holistic approach to understanding and managing fibromyalgia.
Van der Merwe, with contributions from Demartino, provides a guide to understanding the history, possible causes, management and treatment of one of the most painful, debilitating and complicated medical conditions known today: fibromyalgia. Van der Merwe writes that fibromyalgia, which causes chronic muscle pain, “is a global failure of the central nervous system” affecting 4 to 5 percent of the population, making it as prevalent as diabetes or coronary heart disease. The author asserts that the condition still isn’t well-understood by the public today; this is chiefly due to the fact that it’s not fatal but also because it has so many symptoms and possible causes, which makes diagnosis difficult and treatment perplexing. The guide includes a brief history of the condition, which was originally known as muscular rheumatism and thought to be a muscular-nervous disorder. In the early 1900s, it became known as “fibrositis” and was believed to be an autoimmune disease; the name “fibromyalgia” was adopted in 1976, and in 1987, the American Medical Association officially recognized it as a disease. Readers suffering from fibromyalgia will find Chapter 3’s list of symptoms a valuable resource. Several other chapters address possible causes, such as thyroid- and adrenal-gland dysfunctions, sugar substitutes such as Aspartame, cosmetics, acidic diets, emotional stress, toxic chemicals and sleep apnea. One chapter addresses conditions that may overlap or be confused with fibromyalgia, such as Lyme disease or chronic fatigue syndrome. In Chapter 5, the author emphasizes the fact that many patients with fibromyalgia share “a history of neck pain or trauma.” The book presents solid advice for dealing with family members, employers and doctors who doubt that fibromyalgia is real; it also provides recommendations for vitamin supplements and dietary changes, along with the author’s case studies of patients and a four-step plan for healing. Overall, this well-organized guide is filled with helpful information about a complex and often frustrating disease.
A useful guidebook on fibromyalgia that encourages sufferers to explore nontraditional treatments.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491089903
Page Count: 270
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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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