Book picks similar to
Prescription for a Healthy Nation: A New Approach to Improving Our Lives by Fixing Our Everyday World by Tom Farley
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public-health
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Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
Harriet A. Washington - 2007
Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions.The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers—and indeed the whole medical establishment—with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.
Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus
Bill Wasik - 2012
The most fatal virus known to science, rabies — a disease that spreads avidly from animals to humans — kills nearly one hundred percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. In this critically acclaimed exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years of the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh and often wildly entertaining look at one of humankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
Steven Johnson - 2006
John Snow. It's the summer of 1854, and London is just emerging as one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure—garbage removal, clean water, sewers—necessary to support its rapidly expanding population, the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure. As the cholera outbreak takes hold, a physician and a local curate are spurred to action—and ultimately solve the most pressing medical riddle of their time. In a triumph of multidisciplinary thinking, Johnson illuminates the intertwined histories and inter-connectedness of the spread of disease, contagion theory, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, offering both a riveting history and a powerful explanation of how it has shaped the world we live in.
Coming Apocalypse
Vernon Coleman - 2020
In Coming Apocalypse he explains how and why the 'crisis' developed and explains the sort of future we can expect now that lockdowns have destroyed the global economy and changed our way of life. Our world will never be as it was in January 2020. Dr Coleman explains what he believes we can expect.
Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction
Maia Szalavitz - 2016
But despite the unprecedented attention, our understanding of addiction is trapped in unfounded 20th century ideas, addiction as a crime or as brain disease, and in equally outdated treatment.Challenging both the idea of the addict's "broken brain" and the notion of a simple "addictive personality," The New York Times Bestseller, Unbroken Brain, offers a radical and groundbreaking new perspective, arguing that addictions are learning disorders and shows how seeing the condition this way can untangle our current debates over treatment, prevention and policy. Like autistic traits, addictive behaviors fall on a spectrum -- and they can be a normal response to an extreme situation. By illustrating what addiction is, and is not, the book illustrates how timing, history, family, peers, culture and chemicals come together to create both illness and recovery- and why there is no "addictive personality" or single treatment that works for all.Combining Maia Szalavitz's personal story with a distillation of more than 25 years of science and research, Unbroken Brain provides a paradigm-shifting approach to thinking about addiction.Her writings on radical addiction therapies have been featured in The Washington Post, Vice Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, in addition to multiple other publications. She has been interviewed about her book on many radio shows including Fresh Air with Terry Gross and The Brian Lehrer show.
Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital
David M. Oshinsky - 2016
From its origins in 1738 as an almshouse and pesthouse, Bellevue today is a revered public hospital bringing first-class care to anyone in need. With its diverse, ailing, and unprotesting patient population, the hospital was a natural laboratory for the nation's first clinical research. It treated tens of thousands of Civil War soldiers, launched the first civilian ambulance corps and the first nursing school for women, pioneered medical photography and psychiatric treatment, and spurred New York City to establish the country's first official Board of Health. As medical technology advanced, "voluntary" hospitals began to seek out patients willing to pay for their care. For charity cases, it was left to Bellevue to fill the void. The latter decades of the twentieth century brought rampant crime, drug addiction, and homelessness to the nation's struggling cities problems that called a public hospital's very survival into question. It took the AIDS crisis to cement Bellevue's enduring place as New York's ultimate safety net, the iconic hospital of last resort.
Transforming Health Care: Virginia Mason Medical Center's Pursuit of the Perfect Patient Experience
Charles Kenney - 2010
In 2001, Virginia Mason Medical Center, an integrated healthcare delivery system in Seattle, Washington set out to achieve its compelling vision to become The Quality Leader and to fulfill that vision, adopted the Toyota Production System as its management method.Transforming Health Care: Virginia Mason Medical Center's Pursuit of the Perfect Patient Experience takes you on the journey of of Virginia Mason Medical Center's pursuit of the perfect patient experience through the application of lean principles, tools, and methodology. Over the last several years Virginia Mason has become internationally known for its journey towards perfection by applying the Toyota Production System to healthcare. The book takes readers step by step through Virginia Mason's journey as it seeks to provide perfection to its customer - the patient. This book shows you how you use this system to transform your own organization.
The Upstream Doctors (TED)
Rishi Manchanda - 2013
But that picture is vastly incomplete. In this eye-opening book, physician Rishi Manchanda says that our health may depend even more on our social and environmental settings than it does on our most cutting-edge medical care. Manchanda argues that that the future of our health care depends on growing a new generation of health care practitioners. We need doctors who look upstream for the sources of our problems, rather than simply go for quick-hit symptomatic relief. These upstreamists, as he calls them, are doctors and nurses on the frontlines of medicine who see that health (like sickness) is more than a chemical equation that can be balanced with pills and procedures administered within clinic walls. They see that health begins in our everyday lives, in the places where we live, work, eat, and play. If our high-cost, sick-care system is to become a high-value, health care system, the upstreamists will show us the way. (Description taken from TED Library: http://www.ted.com/pages/tedbooks_lib...)
A Parkinson's Primer: An Indispensable Guide to Parkinson's Disease for Patients and Their Families
John M. Vine - 2017
Well, I was diagnosed 24 years ago, and I still learned something new on every page.”—Michael Kinsley, Vanity Fair columnist and author of Old Age: A Beginner’s Guide Here is the book that John Vine and his wife, Joanne, wish they could have consulted when John was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease—a nontechnical, personal guide written from the patient’s perspective. Relying on his experiences over the past 12 years, John writes knowledgeably about all aspects of the disease. John also interviewed other Parkinson’s patients and their partners, whose stories and advice he includes throughout the book. “I wish we’d had John Vine’s book when my brother-in-law was diagnosed. The book is highly informative, unflinchingly honest, and reassuringly optimistic. It’s just what the doctor should have ordered.”—Cokie Roberts, best-selling author and political commentator on ABC News and NPR “John Vine details, in a compelling and accessible way, his experience with Parkinson’s disease. His book is an extraordinary guide to living successfully with Parkinson’s, and a must read for all who want to better understand the condition. Although diagnosed with Parkinson’s, my father lived an active and productive life until his death at age 94. As the book makes clear, while each patient’s journey is unique, common approaches are indispensable in treating the symptoms of the disease.”—Eric H. Holder, Jr. served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015 “John Vine has written the best primer I’ve ever read for newly diagnosed Parkinson’s patients and their families. It helps them cope with the shock of diagnosis, gives them (jargon-free) the scientific basics they need to know, describes the symptoms they may experience (making clear that every case is different) and catalogs the resources available to navigate living with Parkinson’s. John humanizes the book by describing his own experience and that of 22 other patients and their partners. I’d urge every neurologist to have copies of Vine’s primer on hand to help new PD on their journey forward.”—Morton Kondracke, author of Saving Milly: Love, Politics and Parkinson’s Disease and a member of the Founders' Council of the Michael J. Fox Foundation “My husband has PD, and I devoured this book. It’s wise, wonderfully readable, and, above all, helpful. Since John Vine has PD, he speaks with great authority about the challenges, both physical and psychological. If you have Parkinson’s, live with someone who has it, or just know someone battling the disease, A Parkinson’s Primer is for you.”—Lesley Stahl, award-winning television journalist on the CBS News program 60 Minutes “This is a remarkable book describing the personal experiences of many individuals, including the author, living with Parkinson’s disease. It captures the fact that although there are many possible symptoms in this disease, each person experiences different symptoms and copes with them in various ways. The thoughtful and insightful comments and coping strategies should be helpful for persons with PD, and their partners, regardless of the stage of the disease.”—Stephen Grill, MD, PhD, Director of the Parkinson’s & Movement Disorders Center of Maryland John M. Vine is a lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, DC, where he is the senior member and former head of the firm’s employee benefits group. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2004.
Dr. Lani's No-Nonsense Bone Health Guide: The Truth About Density Testing, Osteoporosis Drugs, and Building Bone Quality at Any Age
Lani Simpson - 2014
Fentanyl, Inc.: How Rogue Chemists Are Creating the Deadliest Wave of the Opioid Epidemic
Ben Westhoff - 2019
is the first deep-dive investigation of a hazardous and illicit industry that has created a worldwide epidemic, ravaging communities and overwhelming and confounding government agencies that are challenged to combat it. "A whole new crop of chemicals is radically changing the recreational drug landscape," writes Ben Westhoff. "These are known as Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and they include replacements for known drugs like heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana. They are synthetic, made in a laboratory, and are much more potent than traditional drugs"--and all-too-often tragically lethal. Drugs like fentanyl, K2, and Spice--and those with arcane acronyms like 25i-NBOMe-- were all originally conceived in legitimate laboratories for proper scientific and medicinal purposes. Their formulas were then hijacked and manufactured by rogue chemists, largely in China, who change their molecular structures to stay ahead of the law, making the drugs' effects impossible to predict. Westhoff has infiltrated this shadowy world, becoming the first journalist to report from inside an illicit Chinese fentanyls lab and providing startling and original reporting on how China's vast chemical industry operates, and how the Chinese government subsidizes it. He tracks down the little-known scientists who invented these drugs and inadvertently killed thousands, as well as a mysterious drug baron who turned the law upside down in his home country of New Zealand. Poignantly, Westhoff chronicles the lives of addicted users and dealers, families of victims, law enforcement officers, and underground drug awareness organizers in the U.S. and Europe. Together they represent the shocking and riveting full anatomy of a calamity we are just beginning to understand. From its depths, as Westhoff relates, are emerging new strategies that may provide essential long-term solutions to the drug crisis that has affected so many.
The Chronic Cough Enigma: How to recognize, diagnose and treat neurogenic and reflux related cough
Jamie A. Koufman - 2014
The Chronic Cough Enigma is written for people who have been coughing for months or years and cannot get useful answers from their doctors.More than 20 million Americans suffer from what is known as enigmatic chronic cough. This book provides insights from Dr. Jamie Koufman’s almost forty years of successfully managing thousands of long-suffering cough patients. Indeed, the typical chronic cough patient who comes to her office has been coughing for more than a decade. This book provides the many who suffer from chronic cough new and potentially life-changing information and the potential to be cured.
Can We Live 150 Years?: Your Body Maintenance Handbook
Mikhail Tombak - 2003
Our looks, longevity, as well as our physical and mental conditions result from the way we eat, breathe, and take care of all our physical and psychological needs. The question is not limited to nutrition only, as is the case of dieting programs.
Tiny Medicine: One Doctor's Biggest Lessons from His Smallest Patients
Chris DeRienzo - 2019
Most arrive safely and go home with their families in a matter of days. But not all babies come into the world healthy and almost half a million arrive well before they are expected. These newborns need tiny medicine. Told from the first-person perspective, Dr. Chris DeRienzo—a neonatologist, health system leader and frequent keynote speaker—walks readers through the human experience of caring for the world's smallest and sickest patients. His stories share the absurd and the sublime parts of being a doctor and detail how they have shaped who he is as a husband, father, and person. Readers will learn the secrets of the NICU, the loneliness that comes with life and death decisions, and the incredibly powerful sense of purpose and triumph that comes with just making it through the night and keeping everyone alive. In the end, this book delivers an insider's view of a doctor's life never before accessible without a white coat.
Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body
Jo Marchant - 2016
Recently, however, serious scientists from a range of fields have been uncovering evidence that our thoughts, emotions and beliefs can ease pain, heal wounds, fend off infection and heart disease and even slow the progression of AIDS and some cancers.In Cure, award-winning science writer Jo Marchant travels the world to meet the physicians, patients and researchers on the cutting edge of this new world of medicine. We learn how meditation protects against depression and dementia, how social connections increase life expectancy and how patients who feel cared for recover from surgery faster. We meet Iraq war veterans who are using a virtual arctic world to treat their burns and children whose ADHD is kept under control with half the normal dose of medication. We watch as a transplant patient uses the smell of lavender to calm his hostile immune system and an Olympic runner shaves vital seconds off his time through mind-power alone.Drawing on the very latest research, Marchant explores the vast potential of the mind's ability to heal, lays out its limitations and explains how we can make use of the findings in our own lives. With clarity and compassion, Cure points the way towards a system of medicine that treats us not simply as bodies but as human beings.