Average customer rating:
- One of the Better Books!!!
- you only need two books for chrohns and colitis this is one of them
- The BEST book for IBD patients and parents of children with IBD
- very helpful and seems to work
- Helpful Advice
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The New Eating Right for a Bad Gut : The Complete Nutritional Guide to Ileitis, Colitis, Crohn's Disease, and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
James Scala
Manufacturer: Plume
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Binding: Paperback
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Breaking the Vicious Cycle: Intestinal Health Through Diet
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The First Year: Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis: An Essential Guide for the Newly Diagnosed (First Year, The)
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Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor
ASIN: 0452279763
Release Date: 2000-02-28 |
Book Description
In this completely revised and updated edition of his classic book on treating "bad gut" diseases, Dr. James Scala presents a new dietary plan that has been proven to help inflammatory bowel disease go into remission. Scala firmly believes that nutrition is preventative medicine and food is the vehicle of its practice. His drug-free food and lifestyle program offers relief from the pain and embarrassment of living with these mysterious and chronic ills while providing reassuring step-by-step guidance on:
Developing a personal-testing program
Identifying "safe foods"
Fitness and stress-reduction techniques
Dietary and vitamin supplements
The New Eating Right for a Bad Gut offers a solid program for health that is uniquely focused on an area of major concern to a wide segment of the population.
"Frank and concise . . . Scala provides straightforward recommendations for healthy eating that's easy on the gut. He knows his subject well and always comes across as hopeful and helpful-without preaching."-Publishers Weekly
Customer Reviews:
One of the Better Books!!!.......2007-08-18
He speaks in easy to understand terms.
I bought at least six books over the last 18 months - this is by far my favorite one.
you only need two books for chrohns and colitis this is one of them.......2007-05-15
I was diagnosed with chrones a month ago and had no idea what foods were good or bad ive bought tons of books this one is one of the two i kept i take it everywhere with me the other book is 100 Q&A about chrones and colitis i realy belive from all the books ive got these two are the only ones you need.
The BEST book for IBD patients and parents of children with IBD.......2007-04-25
Knowledge is power. As a Crohn's sufferer for 15 years, this book changed my life. I highly recommend it, not only to people with IBD, but to anyone looking to take charge of their eating habits and general well being. Proactive, not reactive!
very helpful and seems to work.......2007-01-23
I've suffered from UC for the last 30 years. This is the first time I have heard of any solid nutrional advice for this disease. I have been following the advice given--especially the vitamin suppliments and avoiding meat and fried food and dairy for the last 4 weeks and have noticed a difference already! I do need to keep taking medication of course but hope to reduce the dosage by April. I most certainly have more energy and feel better overall. I only wish the author had been more specific when he said he conducted interviews. How many people did he actually talk to, and what the break-down was between Crohns and ulcerative colitis sufferers. It does matter after all to know whether a 100 people said something or 1000 said it.
Helpful Advice.......2006-02-22
This book has some very helpful information about the balance one must maintain between omega 3 and omega 6 oils. I have been living with ulcerative colitis for 10 years now. It has helped me a great deal after only one month. I urge anyone with IBD to read this book on this balance or get the info. somewhere else. You will likely benefit from it.
Average customer rating:
- "Mad in America" by Robert Whitaker
- Wish some reviewers would read more carefully
- Now I'm Mad!
- Read this book and share it with someone
- If the author only knew what it means to have a sick family member
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Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill
Robert Whitaker
Manufacturer: Perseus Publishing
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Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital
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ASIN: 0738203858
Release Date: 2001-12-24 |
Amazon.com
Hot on the heels of an optimistic film about Nobelist John Nash's schizophrenic journey comes medical journalist Robert Whitaker's disturbing exposé of the cruel and corrupt business of treating mental illness in America. Mad in America begins by surveying three centuries of mental health treatments to discover why positive outcomes for schizophrenics in the U.S. for the last 25 years have decreased--making them lower than those in developing countries. Whitaker asks, "Why should living in a country with such rich resources and advanced medical treatments for disorders of every kind, be so toxic to those who are severely mentally ill?"
One of Whitaker's answers draws upon the historic and current assumptions of a physical cause for schizophrenia. This resulted in cruel and unusual physical treatments--from ice-water immersion and bloodletting to the more contemporary electroshock, lobotomy, and drug therapies with dangerous side effects. This physical cause model leads to Whitaker's more provocative explanation: that mental illness has become a profit center. He offers disturbing details about how good business for drug companies makes for bad medicine in treating schizophrenia. From drug companies skewing their studies and patient/subjects kept in the dark about experiments to the cozy relationship between the American Psychiatric Association and drug companies, Whitaker underlines the mistreatment of the mentally ill. This courageous and compelling book succeeds as both a history of our attitudes toward mental illness and a manifesto for changing them. --Barbara Mackoff
Book Description
A riveting social and medical history of madness in America, from the 17th century to today.
In Mad in America, medical journalist Robert Whitaker reveals an astounding truth: Schizophrenics in the United States fare worse than those in poor countries, and quite possibly worse than asylum patients did in the early nineteenth century. Indeed, Whitaker argues, modern treatments for the severely mentally ill are just old medicine in new bottles and we as a society are deluded about their efficacy. Tracing over three centuries of "cures" for madness, Whitaker shows how medical therapies-from "spinning" or "chilling" patients in colonial times to more modern methods of electroshock, lobotomy, and drugs-have been used to silence patients and dull their minds, deepening their suffering and impairing their hope of recovery. Based on exhaustive research culled from old patient medical records, historical accounts, and government documents, this haunting book raises important questions about our obligations to the mad, what it means to be "insane," and what we value most about the human mind.
Customer Reviews:
"Mad in America" by Robert Whitaker.......2007-09-30
"Mad in America" is a book that should be read by all mental health providers. It chronicles the history of the treatment of mental illness for the last 100 years. It details the period in the early 1800s called "Moral Treatment" when patients were treated with compassion and respect, and, for the most part, recovered. However, neuroleptics intervented, and we now have a much poorer outcome for such serious mental illnesses as schizophrenia. Actually, Third World countries, where neuroleptics are used less frequently have a better outcome.
Soteria House in California in the 70s and 80s implemented this 'moral treatment' and had wonderful results as Mr. Whitaker points out. However, funding ran out. (Pharmaceutical companies, of course, would not sponsor such a concept.) However, there is a Soteria-Alaska soon to open in Anchorage (early 2008) that replicates Loren Mosher's Soteria House in California. It behooves anyone interested in the treatment of mental illness (and that should encompass most of America) to not only learn about Soteria-Alaska, but to do their part to help it succeed.
Read this book!
M. Weiss
Wish some reviewers would read more carefully.......2007-09-14
I'm amazed at the reviews here that have the book saying things it flat-out doesn't say: that "mental illnesses are not diseases," "mental disorders are not biological in nature," "we are no better off in understanding and treating mental illness than we were in the 1700s" and "the book offers no alternatives" to psychopharmaceutical drugs with poor track records and destructive side effects. Actually it's very pointed about the most effective known alternative: provide for the patient an environment of safety, caring, respect and simple day-to-day structure and let the brain's natural healing process do the rest.
That we haven't been doing this all along can be attributed to the enormous stigma attached to mental illness in this culture, which is something I wish the book had said more about. Few schizophrenics are dangerous, but because of our attitude of horror and disgust, people who can treat them with caring and respect are hard to find. Also barely mentioned is the abuse of the mental health system by families wanting to get rid of socially nonconforming relatives. It's only been ten years since teenage boys and even men in their twenties were being locked in the bin for "gender-inappropriate behavior" in the South and only fifty since white middle-class girls were getting sent there for showing romantic and/or sexual interest in men of color.
There are also reviews urging readers to look to mainstream scientific literature for the truth when the book's point is that the research done in this field is corrupted from top to bottom, not only by pharmaceutical money but by the desire of mental health professionals to be seen (and to see themselves) as scientific and medical rather than as what they are: a profession of janitors assigned to sweep out of sight those people we find disruptively messy. This accusation may be true or false - I'm certainly in no position to plunge into the raw source material and find the truth - but to ignore it is to misrepresent the book.
Now I'm Mad!.......2007-04-27
"Mad in America" is a riveting read. Whitaker has put together a comprehensive, insightful history of the "treatments" that have been wrought upon the mentally ill. My attitude towards medicine and science has been forever changed as as consequence of reading this book. Read it. It will open your mind.
Read this book and share it with someone.......2007-02-13
This book will shock the sensibilities of those whose knowledge of mental illness has been constrained by media sound bites, folk wisdom, and the rhetoric of many "experts" in the field.
Whitaker first gives a concise history of mental illness, it's social context, and treatment paradigms over the past 150 years. This portion of the book is not just a collection of dry facts, anecdotes, and horror stories.
Somewhere towards the end of the book the reader will realize what is being done today is in fact a continuation of what has been done in the past. Certainly newer technology plays a role, but basically it's still "same old-same old".
It is well to revisit history. There is a close parallel between the somewhat bizarre treatments of the late nineteenth century and what is being done pharmaceutically today. The reader may be astounded to discover the oldtimers had far better outcomes than we have in the modern world.
Equally astounding to some readers might be the question of recovery. Can a person recover completely from such a dire diagnosis as schizophrenia? Haven't the "experts" told us for years such a thing is impossible?
Well, the "experts" are wrong. The World Health Organization conducted massive long-term studies comparing outcomes of third world countries such as India with that of the developed countries. It turns out one would have a far better chance
of recovering fully and leading a normal life on the streets of New Delhi than on the streets of Scarsdale, NY. Far better.
Now here is the key question. Are these nations doing something right, or have we done something horribly wrong? The reader must make up his own mind on this.
This book is not just a "keeper". It is a book to read, reread, and shared with someone who needs it's powerful message.
Vince Boehm, Wilmington, DE
If the author only knew what it means to have a sick family member.......2006-09-21
As a psychiatrist and person with mentally ill family members, I can only bemoan all of the misinformation contained in this book. The truth is that many of the mentally ill in America do not get the treatment they need precisely because they believe the things said in this book, on tv, etc. As someone who has lived outside of the US and in the developing world, I can tell you that their mental health treatment pales compared to what is available in the United States and is much more primitive and coercive. Although it is true that many psychiatric medications have serious side effects, the consequences of living with symptoms of a serious mental illness can only convince you of how devastating that can be to both the ill person and his or her family. Furthermore, as someone who is also experienced in administering ECT, I can personally attest to the wonderful success rate of this treatment for persons with severe depression who have failed all alternatives and who would rather be dead than live out their lives. (And many, unfortunately, do decide on death as a last resort).
As far as lobotomies, ice baths, and forced stays in hospitals or other facilities, these are things of the past in the United States. In fact, one of the biggest problems I face in my practice is the extreme difficulty I have in placing someone in the hospital when they actually need a brief stay (typical stays are 5-7 days) because of a lack of psychiatric beds ( more than 90% of psychiatric beds were eliminated from American hospitals in the last 15 years as a cost-cutting measure). The other problems faced by modern psychiatry still includes stigmatisation of the mentally ill and then all the more mundane issues such as needs for help with housing, employment, and job development. But I bet you wouldn't find the author writing a book about that.
Customer Reviews:
Tuskegee Experiment & Crack Epidemic.......2005-12-27
Bad Blood points out that the US Surgeon General at the time was Hugh Smith Cumming. In 1939 he was responsible more than any other person for creating the system we now have in place that controls narcotics and other banned substances which San Jose Mercury News journalist and Pulitizer Prize Winner, Gary Webb, said was controlled by a handful of power elites through the CIA.
Fearing a race war when Webb's information was exposed, Bill Clinton, who apolgized for the Tuskegee Experiment, also sent CIA Director John Deutsch to LA to quell a groundswell of complaints among blacks who feared (rigtly) that their goverment was poisoning inner city youth with drugs.
Hugh Smith Cumming's close kin married Chase Untermeyer, the US Navy Officer who became the Texas State Representative from the exclusive Tanglewood area of Houston where GHWB had his disputed Texas address while in office. Untermeyer's bride is from the Hugh Smith Cumming family and was on the staff of GHWB's legal counsel. Untermeyer is now Ambassador to Qatar.
Webb's work shined a light on the Reagan/Bush backed CIA Iran-Contra drug distribution in the US. Webb's book DARK ALLIANCE, when combined with BAD BLOOD shows how close we have come to a Fascist State.
Remember that next time CNN, FOX or the rest report on the White House's interest in bugging your telephones.
Corpus Christi, TX
African-American Victims Of Government Laboratory Experiments!!!.......2005-09-16
One of the least known facts of U.S. history is the government sponsored syphilis experiment conducted upon 399 African-American men from 1932 to 1972. Over the course of these five decades, the U.S. Public Health Service exploited African-American sharecroppers in its effort to determine if the long-term affects of syphilis were different for black people than it was for white people. During the trials, the doctors who conducted the experimentations intentionally denied these men treatment; never informed them of syphilis' destructiveness to their health; and ignored the fact that these men were infecting their respective wives and sexual partners with the disease. As the experiments continued, doctors calculatedly deceived the subjects, informing them that they were suffering from what was categorized as: "bad blood". As the disease ravaged the minds and bodies of these unsuspecting men, no effort was made by the physicians of the Public Health Service to either inform them regarding the disease or provide them with treatment in an effort to curtail its devastating effects.
Jones presents a detailed, non-sensationalized writing that delves into the ignorance, racism and outright inhumanity that was entrenched throughout the United States; the medical arena; and society in general prior to and during these horrific experiments. He provides a plethora of documentation to substantiate the bigotry and callousness of the medical field during the era, and acknowledges the data provided by individuals who participated in the experiments or who conveyed valuable information. By the end of the experimentation, at least 28 of the men had died of syphilis; over 100 died of related complications; at least 40 of their wives had been infected, and over 20 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis.
Bad Blood should be read by all those who are of the opinion that the upper echelons of U.S. society (in this case, the medial profession and the government itself) are above despicable acts that border on genocide. Clearly there is no conspiracy "theory" here...instead we find conspiracy FACT! Perhaps former U.S. President Bill Clinton's statement regarding the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments encapsulates the incident best in his speech to the last eight survivors of the experiments in 1997: "The United States government did something that was wrong-deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens...clearly racist".
Something In This Milk Ain't "White" Blues.......2005-05-28
During the 40 years of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, the school had threee usa negroid ethnic presidents...
Dr. Robert R. Moton
Dr. Frederick D. Patterson
Dr. Luther H. Foster
Interesting, also is the little mentioned fact that more than 200 USA Negroid ethnic medical students and 600 USA Negroid ethnic nursing students did clinic rounds within the Syphilis Study...
Why did not one of these "professional and educated" Negroes sound the alarm that something was ethical wrong about what was being done to those 200 or so "sexually diseased "poor country" negroes"?
This story is less to do with so-called "white racism" but rather humankind's condition since it "climbed out or fall out" of the trees of that "misty and forever lost" Eden...
Which is the reality that...
Educated, powerful, "cold and greedy" human beings (dark pale or otherwise) will always screw "illiterate, materally poor and mentally weak" human beings - when the "High/Holy with little moral character" feel that they can get away with it.
Blues at you
or, How racism permeates..........2004-03-21
I am not a doctor, a researcher nor an ethicist. I am an African American woman who grew up in southern Virginia, has heard off-the-cuff references to the Tuskegee incident almost all of my conscious-life, and finally wanted to read its details. While I agree with one reviewer who pointed out that the text does not read like a "thriller," I found the writing easy to understand as an indictment of racism whether systemically or individually manifest. I appreciate that the author took great care to provide a general framework of how people respond to the medical establishment (e.g. "follow the doctor's orders") while also detailing the way by which the doctors deliberately manipulated that trust to ensure the compliance of rural black men and black members of the profession. The latter is important - the author shows compliance and allegiance among the black medical officials who were pulled into the experiment, subtly encouraged by monetary or status rewards. I also like how the author painstakingly pulled together the text of meetings, memos and memoirs to show how bureaucracy, tradition and group think work to create racist outcomes - it suggested a universality to it, not a "only in the medical establishment" or "only in the South" version of events. And the author's telling of how all the institutions and individuals, when caught, backpedaled or otherwise covered up their role in the experiment was just amazing... Highly recommended.
A Shocking Medical Experiment in the American South.......2003-05-04
This book was excellent and informative. However, readers should know that it is written in a research style, almost like a text book (sometimes putting the reader to sleep-and the reason I am only rating it four stars), as opposed to being written by an investigative reporter (and reading like a thriller). The book is extremely well documented. The author was intimately involved with helping lawyer Gray (Rosa Parks' lawyer) prosecute the case against the federal government, by providing much of the documentation given in this book. He began work on the book while a student in Harvard's bioethics program in 1972, and only subsequently becoming involved with lawyer Gray.
The book is a complete history from the conception of the experiment, until its termination, including the viewpoints of ALL participants. In addition to learning about the experiment itself, I learned a lot about life in the rural American South, which I had not previously known, and a lot about the disease of syphilis that I hadn't known. Some examples: I didn't know that 30-40 percent of blacks in the rural South were infected, nor that the disease crosses the placental barrier, which caused a lot of syphilitic babies. The book includes pictures of syphilitic skin lesions, and discusses multiple complications of the late stages of the disease.
The book also delves into the moral and racial issues extensively. There is an updated chapter at the end comparing the syphilis crisis to the AIDS crisis, and discusses why so many blacks are distrustful of doctors and hospitals-this experiment simply being one of the most recent examples of how this segment of our society as lied to, and taken advantage of.
What was MOST shocking to me about this book was that I was born in 1955, and this experiment continued into the mid-1970's. The FIRST time it was questioned on moral grounds was about 1962, and throughout the 60's, most doctors did not even QUESTION the morality! The story was broken the same day as Sargent Shiver's having obtained psychiatric counseling-the latter story I heard about extensively, and the former not at all! Before buying this book, I had never even heard of this medical experiment, and I just can't believe things like this were taking place IN
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA until the mid-1970's!!!
Book Description
Exposing the most controversial, little-known practices of America’s most flawed system, Time magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative team pulls back the curtain on the health care industry to explain exactly how things grew so out of control.
Dirty examination and operating rooms in doctor’s offices and hospitals . . . Health care executives pulling in millions in bonuses for denying treatment to the sick . . . More than 100 million people with inadequate or no medical coverage . . . This may sound like the predicament of a third-world nation, but this is America’s health care reality today. The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation, yet our benefits are shrinking and life expectancy is shorter here than in countries that spend significantly less per capita. Meanwhile, HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital chains reap tremendous profits, while politicians—beholden to insurers and drug companies—enact legislation for the benefit of the few rather than the many, while the entire system is on the verge of collapse.
In Critical Condition, award-winning investigative journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele expose the horror of what health care in America has become. They profile patients and doctors trapped by the system and offer startling personal stories that illuminate what’s gone wrong. Doctors tell of being second-guessed and undermined by health care insurers; nurses recount chilling tales of hospital meltdowns; patients explain how they’ve been victimized by a system that is meant to care for them. Drug companies profit by selling pills in the same manner that Madison Avenue sells soap, while Wall Street rakes in billions by building up and then tearing down health care businesses. And politicians pass legislation perpetuating the injustices and out-right fraud the system encourages.
By analyzing the industry and offering an insightful prescription for getting it back on the right track, Critical Condition is an enormously compelling investigative work that addresses the concerns of every American.
Download Description
Exposing the most controversial, little-known practices of America's most flawed system, Time magazine's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative team pulls back the curtain on the health care industry to explain exactly how things grew so out of control.
Dirty examination and operating rooms in doctor's offices and hospitals…Health care executives pulling in millions in bonuses for denying treatment to the sick…More than 100 million people with inadequate or no medical coverage…This may sound like the predicament of a third-world nation, but this is America's health care reality today. The U.S. spends more on health care than any other nation, yet our benefits are shrinking and life expectancy is shorter here than in countries that spend significantly less per capita. Meanwhile, HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital chains reap tremendous profits, while politicians—beholden to insurers and drug companies—enact legislation for the benefit of the few rather than the many, while the entire system is on the verge of collapse.
In CRITICAL CONDITION, award-winning investigative journalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele expose the horror of what health care in America has become. They profile patients and doctors trapped by the system and offer startling personal stories that illuminate what's gone wrong. Doctors tell of being second-guessed and undermined by health care insurers; nurses recount chilling tales of hospital meltdowns; patients explain how they've been victimized by a system that is meant to care for them. Drug companies profit by selling pills in the same manner that Madison Avenue sells soap, while Wall Street rakes in billions by building up and then tearing down health care businesses. And politicians pass legislation perpetuating the injustices and out-right fraud the system encourages.
By analyzing the industry and offering an insightful prescription for getting it back on the right track, CRITICAL CONDITION is an enormously compelling investigative work that addresses the concerns of every American.
Customer Reviews:
Has to be the next book you read!!!!!.......2007-07-27
Everybody who is fed up with the current U.S. health care situation needs to take the time to read this book. It is written for the masses who need a general understanding of how this for-profit system is ruining the quality of life of millions of Americans. Especially with the 2008 presidential election in full gear, this book will give you enough basic information about our existing health care system to put the pressure on all of the 2008 presidential candidates to endorse a national single-payer health care system covering all Americans. Finally, putting us on par with every other "developed" and "civilized" nation on Earth. Excellent work by Barrett.
Excellent book.......2007-06-20
I watched Sicko and loved it. I hated the reality it showed. The problem is I didn't want to jump on his bandwagon until I did some more reading on my own.
On some website, someone wrote that they highly recommend this book. I borrowed it from the library.
This takes Sicko and multiplies its intensity by 10. It's too bad the authors couldn't get the power of visuals and sound that movies, like Moore's enjoys. Otherwise this book would HAMMER this country so hard, it would tremble.
If you liked Sicko, but want more, READ THIS BOOK! If you hated Sicko, READ THIS BOOK, to get a dose of reality. Anti-moore fans can't say much after reading this book because Moore has nothing to do with this.
While I would have liked some graphs/charts or some another illustrative, visual way to reinforce the facts, this book is GREAT! Please read it!
Good research, but flawed.......2007-03-22
This seems to be a well-researched book and I think they do an excellent job of exploring the problem of health care in the USA today. In my opinion, however, they don't go far enough in their exploration.
The authors talk about the high cost of medical treatment. There's no denying the expense. I'm aware of more than one time when a patient has received needed care only because family and friends raised the money to pay for it. However, the way that government interference contributes to the jacked up prices is barely mentioned. (An example from a few years ago in the news, in a western state, all insurers were required by law to cover everyone who came to them, even those dying of incurable diseases. As a direct consequence of the new law, the prices of both medical treatment and insurance rates rose dramatically.)
The authors talk about how many pills are marketed and overprescribed (and I agree with them on this), but again, they don't consider in any depth the government's contribution to the problem. The DEA is waging major war on painkillers. Physicians are intimidated into not prescribing needed painkillers. This artificial market control is raising prices, as well as lowering the quality of health care and hurting people who desperately need those drugs. The authors also ignore how very affordable drugs are kept illegal by federal regulation, despite state voters voting to make them legal.
Where they really flounder, however, is when they propose their solution. They give an unconvincing plan of getting the government involved to wisely and charitably make sure everyone gets the competent medical services they need. This seems to me to be more about what government *should* do rather than what it likely would do. The government is a major part of the problem now. How is it going to change and become the solution if it takes direct control?
It seems to me that they haven't thought through their position. For instance, they write:
"Resistance [to our suggested health care reform] would come from health care providers themselves; from insurers, some of whom would go out of business; from some in the U.S. government bureaucracy who would lose control; from the antitax community; from some physicians and individuals who are content with their personal situations, and most of all, from members of Congress who benefit so handsomely from free-market health care."
I was confused by this because of how often they said most of these people were desperate for change. For example, this statement:
"We have a system in such constant turmoil that almost everyone is unhappy--patients, doctors, nurses, aides, technicians. Almost everyone. But for a lucky few, the turmoil is worth a lot of money."
If all but a "lucky few" are unhappy, then why would they resist change? This goes against what they said repeatedly before the chapter on their propopsed remedy, including some compelling anecdotes of these people who'd resist having been disillusioned and alienated from the system as it is. And why would this government that already has control dread losing control by getting even more control? For that matter, if the government is dysfunctional now, why wouldn't it continue to be dysfunctional later? And if their remedy wouldn't add any costs to society but replace existing taxes, then why would antitax people resist it so bitterly? While the antitax folk might resist any taxes, I'm pretty sure they'd rather taxes go for health care than for the wars at home and abroad and the other things that make people ashamed or angry to be forced to pay for.
I also wish they had spent more time considering how health care works in other countries. I'm not sure that the Scandinavean model could work for the USA because of how different the two places are in population and character, but I would've liked more discussion of the possibilities. I was intrigued by what they said about the system in France, but again, they didn't go into details. I'm also interested in hearing more about Thai health care, which I understand is affordable and excellent despite no national coverage (and popular with some Americans who can afford to go there to get it).
In general, I wish that they'd have explored other, already functioning systems more, and looked at why our FDA is so inferior in ethics and practice to its counterparts in other countries, as well as considering in more depth why (or why not) another country's system could work for us.
Also, from their description, it sounds as if health care was good in the USA until Wall Street, supported by their cronies in Congress, took the medical business over. If that is true, why not focus on getting Wall Street out, instead of the government in? Especially given how badly the government has done so far?
Overall, I think this book is important in understanding the problem of health care in the USA today, though not sufficient all by itself. I'm sorry the authors didn't put more thought into proposing solutions for us to get out of this mess.
More than food for thought.......2006-01-04
The book could have been shorter, without a lot of the individual "sob stories", which I know help sensationalize a news article, but made the book drag on for me.
The authors hit the nail on the head when they bring up all the bankruptcies and foreclosures in our country due to health care costs, and also the horrible cost-shifting that gets placed onto the uninsured among us to support the deep discounts that Medicare, Medicaid and now a plethora of insurers have negotiated with providers.
I'm a dentist, and do not participate in plans which would insist on my discounting services to certain groups. If I am going to discount them (and I do) they are to those less fortunate in life financially, and are not determined by someone's age, race, or employer.
The fact that we have a bizarre system where your health care is tied to who you work for is perverse. The fact that this very system drives up costs for uninsured people, while taking more money out of direct health care and more into insurance company administration and profit is sickening.
I don't have the answers to our problem, but I think that this book is the foundation for much dialogue and debate.
The Time Is Now For Health Care Finance Reform!.......2005-08-23
I am running for Congress in Maryland's first district with health care finance reform as my number one priority. This book contained valuable data to help shore up my position. Read this book, make sure you're registered to vote, then let's elect a progressive, reform-minded Democratic majority into Congress!
Visit [...] for information on how to contribute to our campaign for health care finance reform.
Book Description
When the daughter of Senator Yellowhair is killed in a suspicious car accident, the Senator accuses Ella and the tribe's medical examiner, Dr. Carolyn Roanhorse, of falsifying the autopsy results. An outbreak of meningitis leads to more trouble when many of those who are vaccinated against the illness begin dying from a different, unidentified disease. Riots between Indian and white workers at the Navajo-owned mine stretch the resources of the tribal police even thinner.Convinced that solving one mystery means solving them all, Ella plunges into her investigations despite threats from all sides and her suspicions that Navajo witches are somehow involved. Ella Clah has sworn to protect her people from all menaces--spiritual or physical--and she's not going to back off now.
Customer Reviews:
Not Hillerman, but not bad.......2000-04-18
Readers who follow the jacket blurb and go into Bad Medicine expecting a Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee mystery will be sorely disappointed.
First, the Thurlos don't have nearly the lyrical voice of Hillerman. You have much less of a feel for time and space and terrain in the Ella Clah books.
Second, the Thurlos spend much more time on external circumstances than on their characters' internal struggles. Even Ella's constant conflict over being a cop and not having time enough for her family seems forced.
Third, the Thurlos give far more play to the supernatural than Hillerman. Progressive though Clah is, her family and her enemies are not. If you're not willing to suspend disbelief, this book won't work for you.
That said, it's not a bad book. I enjoyed reading it, and found it a faster read than all but the most recent Hillerman (i.e. Hunting Badger). The characters are not as deep, but the action is paced well enough to keep the story interesting.
cardboard characters and repetitious writing.......1998-06-02
Having read that Ella Clah was a counterpart to Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, I started this book with great expectations. These were destroyed when I discovered that the book bore little resemblance to reality. Protagonist Ella, unlike most policemen, seems able to interrupt whatever work she's doing to jump in her car and drive to 'nearby' towns at a moment's notice. She always arrives ready and eager to tackle yet another emergency. Of course, the Four Corners region is huge, and travel between towns would have her driving incredible distances. The reader can't help but know that Ella possesses some sort of sixth sense because, in the first 70 pages, Ella feels 'uneasy' at least 70 times. Each colleague, (again mentioned repeatedly), gives great respect to her famous hunches. When an author repeates himself, it's usually because he doesn't have much to say. And neither does Ella!
Terrific work in the tradition of Tony Hillerman.......1997-09-01
Navaho tribal investigator Ella Clah is isolated form the Navaho
community she is sworn to protect because of her FBI training and her
family heritage of being vessels of powerful magic. Ella herself is torn
between the traditional beliefs of her people and the scientific method
employed in the Anglo world. When the Anglo miners form the Brotherhood, a
group that preaches hatred and violence, several Navaho retaliate by
forming a counter-group, spouting the same violent intolerance.
Both groups operate in secrecy, but when one of the miners is
murdered, the escalated tension between the two groups is noticed by the
police. Ella, who is in charge of the investigation, concludes that some
powerful person, working behind the scenes, is manipulating events to
further drive a schism between he two communities. Before the reservation
explodes into more deaths, Ella must learn who the enemy is and why he has
brought evil to the peaceful area.
This is the third book in the Ella Clah series and it is by far the
best one to date, an amazing accomplishment since the first two novels were
quite good. Readers feel a real connection to the heroine's angst as she
struggles with an inner turmoil caused by having her feet straddle two
worlds. It should not surprise fans of the terrific Thurlo twosome that
this novel has a haunting quality reminiscent of Tony Hillerman and Louise
Eldrich.
Harriet Klausner
A great work in a great series.......1997-08-30
Navaho tribal investigator Ella Clah is
isolated form the Navaho community she is sworn to
protect because of her FBI training and her family
heritage of being vessels of powerful magic. Ella
herself is torn between the traditional beliefs of
her people and the scientific method employed in
the Anglo world. When the Anglo miners form the
Brotherhood, a group that preaches hatred and
violence, several Navaho retaliate by forming a
counter-group, spouting the same violent
intolerance.
Both groups operate in secrecy, but when one of
the miners is murdered, the escalated tension
between the two groups is noticed by the police.
Ella, who is in charge of the investigation,
concludes that some powerful person, working
behind the scenes, is manipulating events to
further drive a schism between he two communities.
Before the reservation explodes into more deaths,
Ella must learn who the enemy is and why he has
brought evil to the peaceful area.
This is the third book in the Ella Clah series and
it is by far the best one to date, an amazing
accomplishment since the first two novels were
quite good. Readers feel a real connection to the
heroine's angst as she struggles with an inner
turmoil caused by having her feet straddle two
worlds. It should not surprise fans of the
terrific Thurlo twosome that this novel has a
haunting quality reminiscent of Tony Hillerman and
Louise Eldrich.
Harriet Klausner
Book Description
"Christopher Wanjek uses a take-no-prisoners approach in debunking the outrageous nonsense being heaped on a gullible public in the name of science and medicine. Wanjek writes with clarity, humor, and humanity, and simultaneously informs and entertains."
-Dr. Michael Shermer, Publisher, Skeptic magazine; monthly columnist,
Scientific American; author of Why People Believe Weird Things
Prehistoric humans believed cedar ashes and incantations could cure a head injury. Ancient Egyptians believed the heart was the center of thought, the liver produced blood, and the brain cooled the body. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates was a big fan of bloodletting. Today, we are still plagued by countless medical myths and misconceptions. Bad Medicine sets the record straight by debunking widely held yet incorrect notions of how the body works, from cold cures to vaccination fears.
Clear, accessible, and highly entertaining, Bad Medicine dispels such medical convictions as:
- You only use 100f your brain: CAT, PET, and MRI scans all prove that there are no inactive regions of the brain . . . not even during sleep.
- Sitting too close to the TV causes nearsightedness: Your mother was wrong. Most likely, an already nearsighted child sits close to see better.
- Eating junk food will make your face break out: Acne is caused by dead skin cells, hormones, and bacteria, not from a pizza with everything on it.
- If you don't dress warmly, you'll catch a cold: Cold viruses are the true and only cause of colds.
Protect yourself and the ones you love from bad medicine-the brain you save may be your own.
Customer Reviews:
Better than I expected - and funny........2007-01-08
I didn't have any particular expectations about "Bad Medicine" when I purchased it, except what the title (and the subtitle) told me. In fact, the subtitle was somewhat misleading - it had led me to expect that this book was an encycopdeia of bad ideas in medicine or healthcare (a bit like "the Skeptic's Dictionary"), but it isn't.
"Bad Medicine" is a series of short chapters covering such topics as common myths about physiology and diet, and ineffective alternative medicine. The very first chapter is an introduction that provides a history of medicine from the dawn of recorded history to the modern day. This introduction, in itself, is facinating and worth the price of the book.
The information presented in this book is drawn from reputable scientific sources - a bibliography for each chapter is provided at the end. In addition, internet sources are also listed for interested readers to pursue the topics in the book further.
Although drawn from science, the material in the book is presented in a truely understandable format. For example, when talking about theraputic magnets (and how they don't attract the iron in blood) the author used a good analogy to Magnetic Resonance Imagining (MRI). He points out that the if the theory behind theraputic magnets were correct the very strong magnets used in MRI should rip the blood from your body - but they don't.
After about 10 pages of "Bad Medicine" it dawned on me that not only was the content interesting and well written, the author was also very funny, so I wanted to know more about him. Turning to the back cover, I discovered that not only had Christopher Wanjek written for major newspapers and university publications, he's also written jokes for tv comedy shows. As such, if you read "Bad Medicine" I expect you'll find yourself amused, as well as well informed.
interesting, readable, funny.......2006-02-02
Some reviewers were a little skeptical about the author, but a quick search on google will show that he is indeed qualified to write about medicine.
But about the book: I found this book to be written in a very readable and easy to understand way. Many times I chuckled outloud at the authors sarcasm.
While most people know why homeopathic medicine is bunk, he goes onto explain why it is bunk. He also has an interesting chapter on diets and on milk.
This book is full of interesting information, and i highly reccomend it to everyone who is interested in real medicine.
Bad Medicine - Good Book.......2005-10-20
A spirited defence of evidence-based medicine with a wry sense of humour, this is an entertaining and informative read. The chapters break it up into easily digestible chunks for dipping into, although it is just as suited for reading straight through.
The core message is eat well and exercise: you'll save a fortune.
A Good but Incomplete Book.......2005-05-10
+++++
This book, by joke writer and science writer Christopher Wanjek, explains "Bad Medicine." He does not define this term but upon reading his book, it seems that it is medicine that does not have a rational cure for disease. By implication then, "Good Medicine" is medicine that does have a rational cure for disease. Wanjek implies that traditional medicine as it is practiced today with surgery, radiation, and drugs is good medicine.
This book has seven parts that encompass more than forty easy to read very brief chapters. Below I will give the title of each part and chapter (that are not the same as in the book):
(I) *Dispelling certain myths (9 chapters)
(1) How the brain works (2) Brain size and intelligence (3) How the eyes work (4) How the tongue works (5) Detoxification myths (6) The Appendix: useful or not? (7) Why hair turns gray (8) Baldness cures (9) Human race defined
(II) *Aging (5 chapters)
(1) Memory (2) Vitality (3) Disease (4) Life Span (5) Longevity and Genetics
(III) *Cause and cure of certain diseases (6 chapters)
(1) The Black Plague in the modern age (2) The common cold (3) Are all bacteria bad? (4) Radiation (5) Cancer and Sharks (6) What your genes say about your future health
(IV) *Nutrition myths (5 chapters)
(1) Antioxidants (2) Obesity (3) Cow's Milk (4) Organic Food (5) Water: Bottled versus Tap
(V) *Alternative Medicine (8 chapters)
(1) Homeopathy (2) Magnetism (3) Ayurveda (4) Aromatherapy (5) Oxygen (6) Touch Therapy (7) Herbs (8) The true dangers of vaccines
(VI) *Risk (4 chapters)
(1) Science of toxicity (2) How health studies work (3) Important health study findings (4) Rating America's health
(VII) *Bad medicine in the news and at the movies (4 chapters)
(1) Accuracy of TV medical news (2) Guns and their aftereffects (3) Getting knocked out in Hollywood and in reality (4) A Hollywood heart attack versus a real heart attack
There is also an appendix that gives almost fifteen more examples of bad medicine. These were not entered into the main narrative because (I guess) they were not bad enough. There are also a dozen illustrations in this book.
Many chapters in this book are good especially those parts of chapters where Wanjek explains how things work. I should emphasize that such information can be found in a good medical text or even on a reliable internet site. It is nice, though, to have this information in one small volume. He also does a good job in explaining medical myths.
There are many chapters that, I feel, are too brief and somewhat simplistic. One obvious example is the chapter on vaccinations. This is a huge, controversial subject that Wanjek attempts to reduce to a mere six pages! He should read the classic book "The Medical Mafia" by Guylaine Lanctot, M.D. In her book, Dr. Lanctot clearly states that:
"The big lie [that vaccines protect us] has been perpetuated for 150 years despite the: (1) Ineffectiveness of vaccines in protecting against illness (2) Uselessness of certain vaccines (3) Innumerable complications of vaccines [that go] from minor problems...to death (4) Numerous...complaints [against vaccines] continually repeated by...conscientious [MDs] (5) Parent leagues and associations [that warn about the dangers of vaccinations] (6) Legal actions...that are so numerous that they have threatened the very livelihood of certain manufactures of vaccines (7) Catastrophic and staggering consequences of extensive neurological deficiency, which effects a great number of children, following [the administering of vaccinations] (8) Frightening and unforeseen effects [associated after administering vaccinations]."
It should be of no surprise that Wanjek puts down the alternative medicine he mentions. He should read the classic book "Confessions of a Medical Heretic" by Robert Mendelsohn, M.D. In his book, Dr. Mendelsohn clearly says,
"Get used to the idea right away that no single system can or should claim to have an exclusive fix on the dynamics of health."
Another interesting thing I found in this book occurs on the last page of the main narrative as well as on the last page of the "recommended reading." The last page of the book touts the fame of "[the late LINUS] PAULING, [James] Watson, and [the late Francis] Crick." These people were true scientists and made important discoveries. They truly deserve praise. Watson and Crick won a shared Nobel Prize but LINUS PAULING won two unshared Nobel Prizes, a remarkable achievement. On the last page of the Recommended Reading section, Wanjek mentions the value of an internet site called "Quackwatch."
Quackwatch is a good site that I've visited many times since it "combats health care fraud, myths, and fads." It also interestingly enough has a list of people, both living and dead, to AVOID getting health advice from (through their books).
There are two things that any person that reads this long list will find interesting. First, most of the names on this list are, believe it or not, medical doctors!! Second, guess whose name is in the deceased column of this list? You guessed it. LINUS PAULING!!!! I wonder what Wanjek would think of this?
I found other minor problems with this book.
Finally, this book, as I have said, is easy to read. However, Wanjek writes in a smart-alecky style. Perhaps this is his joke writing skills coming through. Personally, I was not offended by this but some readers may
be.
In conclusion, this is a highly readable book on an important subject. Unfortunately, it does not delve into some of its subjects thoroughly enough.
*** 1/2
(first published 2003; acknowledgements; introduction; 7 parts or 41 chapters; main narrative 250 pages; epilogue; appendix; recommended reading; bibliography; index)
+++++
bad BOOK about Medicine.......2005-04-18
There's nothing worse than revealing misconceptions and misuses of medicine by adding new ones. "non-scientific-narrow-minded-orthodox-concepts-against-popular-beliefs.pdf" is a better name for this work, or "Help your doctor achieve the 600 sick patients target per year so he can cope with his bills" e-book.
The 'conceptions' suggested by this e-book are for "plastic human beings" who are going to live in Mars and wait 300 years to celebrate the first alfafa sprouted in martian soil.
Spend your money on much better books like: "Living Water: Viktor Schauberger and the Secrets of Natural Energy"- by Olof Alexandersson.
Heal yourself, don't be bottled by misuses and misconceptions like this one...
Book Description
Providing gentle, safe therapy for those suffering from back pain, whether caused by stress, accident, pregnancy, or obesity, this book uses proven techniques to help eliminate back pain. The author acts as a personal trainer, stressing the importance of stretching and exercising every muscle in the lower back to improve posture and overall health. Medical line drawings illustrate and teach about muscles and their relationship to posture and lower back pain. Using a mind/body approach, Scott provides visualizing techniques and gentle exercises that will begin the process of reducing stress and relaxing. Specific workouts for alleviating back pain target the psoas, lower back, and the abdominals.
Customer Reviews:
These exercises work.......2004-01-14
Ten years ago I bought the second edition of this book to help me resolve severe back pain. At the time I could not bend over the sink when brushing my teeth without putting my hand on the counter because of the pain in my lower back. I used the exercises every day for about 6 weeks. At the end of that time I was back to jogging and being pain free. The book went onto my bookshelf.
Now I am taking the book out again. I haven't been maintaining the exercises and have low back pain again. I am confident that I'll be feeling good again by returning to the exercises that Judith Scott presents so well. The pictures and descriptions are wonderful.
Book Description
Just how much good has medicine done over the years, and how much harm does it continue to do? The history of medicine begins with Hippocrates in the fifth century BC. Yet until the invention of antibiotics in the 1930s doctors, in general, did their patients more harm than good. In this fascinating new look at the history of medicine, David Wootton argues that for more than 2300 years doctors have relied on their patients' misplaced faith in their ability to cure. Over and over again major discoveries which could save lives were met with professional resistance. And this is not just a phenomenon of the distant past. The first patient effectively treated with penicillin was in the 1880s; the second not until the 1940s. There was overwhelming evidence that smoking caused lung cancer in the 1950s; but it took thirty years for doctors to accept the claim that smoking was addictive. In the 1960s there was the notorious thalidomide tragedy, while today there is the ongoing problem of unnecessary operations, especially in the United States - and this all at a time of rapidly rising healthcare costs. As Wootton graphically illustrates, throughout history and right up to the present, bad medical practice has often been deeply entrenched and stubbornly resistant to evidence. This is a bold and challenging book - and the first general history of medicine to acknowledge the frequency with which doctors do harm.
Customer Reviews:
Centuries and Centuries of Medical Failure.......2006-10-10
We are proud of humanity's progress in medicine. We like our doctors; they are consistently among the professions that the public trusts the most. There are countless books on histories of medicine, citing a proud tradition from Hippocrates on down to the latest in gene therapy. Doctors gradually but eagerly advanced to take in new techniques and new science to get us where we are today. Except this did not happen. "For 2,400 years patients have believed that doctors were doing them good; for 2,300 years they were wrong." The unsparingly pessimistic view of the overwhelming failures of doctors is that of David Wootton, a professor of history who has written _Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates_ (Oxford University Press). The world has adopted the scientific method as the way of getting information and using it, but before the dawn of germ theory, there was only a firm hold on medical traditions, and the traditions were wrong. Even worse, in many cases medical treatment became more dangerous over time, as in the case of nineteenth century hospitals causing the deaths of mothers in childbirth far more effectively than independent midwives could do. This is a grim story, and if we are past the centuries of medicine-as-tradition, there are still reasons to think that doctors may be addicted to doing the things they do because that's what they have always done.
For a couple of thousand years, medicine was based on Hippocrates and his successors, especially Galen, whose theories dealt with balancing bodily fluids, and to help nature along, doctors would induce vomiting or diarrhea, apply hot irons to the body, or drain off some blood. There was no physiological benefit in such treatments, which could do nothing but make things worse. Yet such treatments were the staple of medical practice until the middle of the nineteenth century. One reason is that people generally tend to be healthy, and when they are sick they generally tend to get well; bodies are designed to do this and do it fairly well, even without help (or hindrance) from medical treatment. Another reason is the placebo effect, which only got to be understood in the nineteenth century. A final and overwhelming reason for doctors' failure to move out of the tradition of treating humors was that having satisfied themselves that such treatment worked, and having formed a pattern of using it and taking fees for using it, they were much more interested, over many centuries, to preserve and transmit the tradition rather than to question or try to improve it. This was despite new understanding of, say, blood circulation, or the worlds of beasties revealed by the microscope.
Wootton's history is one of lost chances; medical science, he shows over and over, could have taken advantage of concepts known in biological science centuries beforehand, but did not do so. Doctors were, like any other group of people, set in their ways. They thought they had as good therapies as could be gotten, and so psychological and cultural factors kept medicine from advancing. It was not that there were gaps in equipment or pure science or intellectual resources, but bad arguments repeatedly drove out good and kept the status quo. It happened for centuries, and might happen in other ways in the future; a bit of skepticism on the parts of both doctors and patients could prove healthful.
Customer Reviews:
These exercises really work!.......2004-12-13
I suffered from lower back pain for years, and nothing seemed to help. I got this book as a gift, and didn't read it right away, thinking "I don't have time". It wasn't until I became pregnant and realized that I would not be able to deal with the added stress on my back if I did not do something. I began the exercises, and almost immediately noticed an improvement in my back pain. I went through my whole pregnancy doing the stretches (the book gives modified stretches for really pregnant women), and rarely had any issues with my back, unless I skipped the stretches for a couple of days, and then I could notice the difference. The book gives several routines of varying difficulty, plus modified stretches for pregnant women. The routines generally took me about 20 minutes to do, so it is not a huge time commitment. I got into the habit of doing them daily, but the book also says you can do them every other day. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to control their back pain without drugs.
Average customer rating:
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Slow Cures and Bad Philosophers: Essays on Wittgenstein, Medicine, and Bioethics
Manufacturer: Duke University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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A Secular Age
ASIN: 0822326469 |
Book Description
Slow Cures and Bad Philosophers uses insights from the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein to rethink bioethics. Although Wittgenstein produced little formal writing on ethics, this volume shows that, in fact, ethical issues permeate the entirety of his work. The scholars whom Carl Elliott has assembled in this volume pay particular attention to Wittgenstein’s concern with the thick context of moral problems, his suspicion of theory, and his belief in description as the real aim of philosophy. Their aim is not to examine Wittgenstein’s personal moral convictions but rather to explore how a deep engagement with his work can illuminate some of the problems that medicine and biological science present.
As Elliott explains in his introduction, Wittgenstein’s philosophy runs against the grain of most contemporary bioethics scholarship, which all too often ignores the context in which moral problems are situated and pays little attention to narrative, ethnography, and clinical case studies in rendering bioethical judgments. Such anonymous, impersonal, rule-writing directives in which health care workers are advised how to behave is what this volume intends to counteract. Instead, contributors stress the value of focusing on the concrete particulars of moral problems and write in the spirit of Wittgenstein’s belief that philosophy should be useful. Specific topics include the concept of âgood dying,â the nature of clinical decision making, the treatment of neurologically damaged patients, the moral treatment of animals, and the challenges of moral particularism.
Inspired by a philosopher who deplored âprofessional philosophy,â this work brings some startling insights and clarifications to contemporary ethical problems posed by the realities of modern medicine.
Contributors. Larry Churchill, David DeGrazia, Cora Diamond, James Edwards, Carl Elliott, Grant Gillett, Paul Johnston, Margaret Olivia Little, James Lindemann Nelson, Knut Erik Tranoy
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- The Right Attitude to Rain: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries)
- The Second Time Around: A Novel
- The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline
- The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage
- The South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for Fast and Healthy Weight Loss
- The Story of the World: Activity Book One: Ancient Times
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