A reassuring manual for those interested in learning more about GLP-1 weight-loss treatment.
In this guide, Salas-Whalen, a board-certified obesity and endocrinology physician, demystifies GLP-1 receptor agonists—blood-sugar regulation drugs that can be used to treat obesity.
The author’s ethos throughout her discussion of GLP-1 medications is that obesity is a chronic issue that doctors treated from the wrong perspective: “For too long, we approached chronic conditions such as obesity as ‘willpower problems’ or moral failings….We treated the symptoms but did nothing to treat the disease because we didn’t fully understand it as a medical condition.” Her reframing of readers’ viewpoints on obesity is crucial to his guide’s argument, as GLP-1s only work when patients commit to holistic treatment plans that include adequate protein intake and strength training. The author writes that one need not rely on fad diets that “fight your body into changing”; instead, she asserts that GLP-1s, when used for an extended period, “create the conditions that make change easier.” Considering the cultural primacy of Ozempic, a GLP-1 drug, readers will be interested in the long-term effects of continued use of such pharmaceuticals on the body. Salas-Whalen shares that minor side effects include nausea, constipation, and dehydration, but is upfront about the fact that one should not suffer to lose weight; if a side effect is bad enough, she says, injections should stop. Her tone is personal and warm throughout, even addressing the audience as “Dear reader,” and she has a patient-first approach, constantly reassuring and encouraging the reader. A large downside to GLP-1s, she says, is the cost, and Salas-Whalen doesn’t shy away from this; instead, her guide provides tips on navigating health insurance to find the best and most cost-effective treatment. The book also warmly offers anonymized anecdotes from Salas-Whalen’s patients and practice, as well as first-person stories from her own experience taking GLP-1s. Aptly placed graphs, tables, and timelines help to make this a useful guidebook for those curious about GLP-1 medications.
A reassuring manual for those interested in learning more about GLP-1 weight-loss treatment.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9780593981207
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Rodale
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
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
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.
A study of swimming as sport, survival method, basis for community, and route to physical and mental well-being.
For Bay Area writer Tsui (American Chinatown: A People's History of Five Neighborhoods, 2009), swimming is in her blood. As she recounts, her parents met in a Hong Kong swimming pool, and she often visited the beach as a child and competed on a swim team in high school. Midway through the engaging narrative, the author explains how she rejoined the team at age 40, just as her 6-year-old was signing up for the first time. Chronicling her interviews with scientists and swimmers alike, Tsui notes the many health benefits of swimming, some of which are mental. Swimmers often achieve the “flow” state and get their best ideas while in the water. Her travels took her from the California coast, where she dove for abalone and swam from Alcatraz back to San Francisco, to Tokyo, where she heard about the “samurai swimming” martial arts tradition. In Iceland, she met Guðlaugur Friðþórsson, a local celebrity who, in 1984, survived six hours in a winter sea after his fishing vessel capsized, earning him the nickname “the human seal.” Although humans are generally adapted to life on land, the author discovered that some have extra advantages in the water. The Bajau people of Indonesia, for instance, can do 10-minute free dives while hunting because their spleens are 50% larger than average. For most, though, it’s simply a matter of practice. Tsui discussed swimming with Dara Torres, who became the oldest Olympic swimmer at age 41, and swam with Kim Chambers, one of the few people to complete the daunting Oceans Seven marathon swim challenge. Drawing on personal experience, history, biology, and social science, the author conveys the appeal of “an unflinching giving-over to an element” and makes a convincing case for broader access to swimming education (372,000 people still drown annually).
An absorbing, wide-ranging story of humans’ relationship with the water.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61620-786-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
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