A thought-provoking reinterpretation of how vitamins affect wellness.
A psychiatric physician makes a case for focusing on the key role of two specific molecules on one’s health.
In this debut health book, Zablow lays out his argument that the beneficial effects of two crucial forms of vitamin B are often overlooked and that if everyone consumed sufficient B12 and folate (B9) in forms most easily used by the body—the “vitamers” of the title—it would result in substantial improvements in individual and public health. The book opens with an explanation of how vitamins work, with a particular focus on B12 and folate, and a detailed account of how nutrition affects the expression of genes. It also presents a rundown of the biochemistry of metabolism and the different forms that B12 and folate can take. The body, Zablow says, responds to stress with inflammation, and if people are able to find ways to reshape their body’s response to stress, they can minimize inflammation, which, in turn, can improve their overall physical well-being. He addresses the dietary and lifestyle changes that he says are necessary to incorporate vitamers at appropriate levels and provides suggestions for reframing the medical field’s understanding and treatment of vitamin deficiencies. The book takes a fanciful turn when it uses questions about astronaut nutrition and an eventual mission to Mars to demonstrate the practical implications of particular B-complex deficiencies and suggest mitigation strategies, but Zablow effectively pulls the focus back to how his concepts might be applied to everyday circumstances on Earth. Ultimately, his book makes an intriguing argument for his health-management system.
Zablow does a good job of making a complex topic comprehensible for those who might lack a background in nutrition or biochemistry while also providing more detailed information for those who are able to approach the topic from a more technical perspective: “Without ample supplies of B12 and folate to generate energy, regulate genetic expression, and keep the cells clear of metabolic waste, all other efforts to improve health will be of reduced benefit.” The author ably breaks down the various elements of what it takes to use vitamers properly—processing them into forms the body can use, consuming the compounds in sufficient quantities, and being aware of symptoms of deficiencies, which may also be present due to other conditions. The book is realistic about practical aspects of treating such deficiencies; for instance, it notes that folate supplements are readily available in stores, but it also warns that they’re often in forms that are harder for the body to process, making them less effective than their packaging might suggest. Zablow’s challenges to medical orthodoxies, such as that the body retains a usable store of vitamin B in the liver, will likely raise eyebrows, but his persuasive arguments, supported by research, make his ideas worth looking into further. Overall, the book provides readers with a new framework for understanding functions of the body—one that can serve as a basis for productive conversations with medical providers.
A thought-provoking reinterpretation of how vitamins affect wellness.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-948181-86-0
Page Count: 214
Publisher: Hybrid Global Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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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