Book Description
Thirty years ago, Henry Gadsden, the head of Merck, one of the world's largest drug companies, told Fortune magazine that he wanted Merck to be more like chewing gum maker Wrigley's. It had long been his dream to make drugs for healthy people so that Merck could "sell to everyone." Gadsden's dream now drives the marketing machinery of the most profitable industry on earth.
Drug companies are systematically working to widen the very boundaries that define illness, and the markets for medication grow ever larger. Mild problems are redefined as serious illness and common complaints are labeled as medical conditions requiring drug treatments. Runny noses are now allergic rhinitis, PMS has become a psychiatric disorder, and hyperactive children have ADD. When it comes to conditions like high cholesterol or low bone density, being "at risk" is sold as a disease.
Selling Sickness reveals how widening the boundaries of illness and lowering the threshold for treatments is creating millions of new patients and billions in new profits, in turn threatening to bankrupt health-care systems all over the world. As more and more of ordinary life becomes medicalized, the industry moves ever closer to Gadsden's dream: "selling to everyone."
Customer Reviews:
ver compelling.......2007-06-12
This book was a real eye-opener. The authors write very clearly, and it is well referenced. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants an introduction to just how crooked the relationship can be between 'Big pharma' and the medical profession.
Buying into SICKNESS.......2007-04-20
Ray Moynihan is a legend, and more importantly he appears to have some integrity and intelligence. While other so-called journalists unquestioningly accept what is spoon-fed to them from big Pharma, Moynihan bothers to look beneath the veneer created by PR and spin-doctoring. The book has been written so that non-medical people can understand it, but is referenced in order that health professionals can check the veracity of his claims - and he really doesn't claim anything he can't back up by referenced literature. I applaud Dr Pelton for reading the book at all, but feel a little sad that he doesn't go a little further and discover for himself that most modern theory of disease is based on little more than wishful thinking, huge profits and massive disinformation campaigns.
Think for Yourself.......2007-03-13
This book does an excellent job exposing where some companies have done wrong. I can write the same book about almost any industry in the country. Now how many of them have developed a life-changing drug like Enbrel? As others have pointed out, this book (and most others like it) do a miserable job of providing context. Our life expectancies are lower than other industrialized nations because we are the fatest people on the planet, I can only imagine what it would be like if we didn't take the drugs that keep us alive. Can people exercise and take care of themselves and avoid a lot of these issues? Sure they can-but they don't and then they go to the doctor expecting a miracle cure. Can they not feed their little kids pounds of high frucotse corn syrup and avoid turming them into 20 year old diabetics, sure they can-but they don't. Every doctor I've ever been to or talked to says they tell every patient to exercise and watch their diet first (before ever prescribing anything). When the patient fails to comply then the doctor does what they think is the best thing to keep their patient alive. Pharmas certainly do wrong things, like any other business, and they need to be policed, but they should not be the scapegoat for sensationalist journalists (who are, guess what, selling the news/books) and short-sighted politicians are are unwilling or unable to deal with the larger healthcare issues our nation now faces.
Read this book, but please read others as well (that ought to make Amazon happy!)-try some that don't agree with what the media has programmed you to think about big pharma-if you can find any.
Disappointed.......2007-03-08
The book presents ten examples of unethical conduct by pharmaceutical compnies in order to promote their products. The tactics include misrepresenting statistical facts, overstating health risks, influencing medical authorities, creating new medical conditions in order to sell drugs for them and so on.
All the facts in the book are true. But the impression the book creates is skewed. Modern medicine cannot exist without pharmaceutical industry, and the relationship between it and medical professionals is more complex than portrayed in this text. I also believe that most doctors deserve more credit when it comes to choosing treatments for their patients.
But opinions aside, the book actually is getting boring as it progresses, probably because it is clear how each chapter will end soon after the beginning. I also expected less political and more medical information. I also think the authors should have touched on other reasons of proliferation of drug culture in modern society.
Overall I was disappointed.
Should be required reading for ALL women and girls!!!.......2007-02-23
As a single woman writer with a very modest income, I have struggled and struggled for years to pay ever increasing health insurance premiums. Health costs are going through the ROOF and much of this is explained in "Selling Sickness."
And the coup de grace is Governor Perry's recent mandate that all 11 and 12-year-old girls be vaccinated against cervical cancer. In February 2007, USA Today reported that Perry *bypassed* the state legislature to force this law on the books. Three shots of this nice, new chemical will cost $360 and prevent only 70% of cervical cancers. Yet Perty is comparing this to the Polio vaccine?
"Selling Sickness" pulls back the curtain on the politically-charged (and financially inspired) machinations of the pharmaceutical industry and explains the mass manipulation. It's a very disturbing book, but also well documented, well researched and utterly fascinating.
Read it and weep - for America's health care system.
Book Description
Afflicted with cystic fibrosis since birth, doctors told Andy Lipman's parents he'd be lucky to reach age 25. Over the years, however, Andy has found strength and determination in his athletic pursuits, has surprised his doctors, and defied the medical odds. On his 25th birthday, he picked up a pen and began to write his story. Now 28, healthy, happy, and very much alive, Andy shares his bittersweet story with humor and wit.
Book Description
Beyond Morning Sickness is a convenient source of helpful information for those suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum and for the people who care for them. The book consists of medical information and personal stories.
Customer Reviews:
Vey Helpful.......2007-07-27
I found this book to be very helpful, I found everything & then some for all my questions reguarding HG.
A Saving Grace.......2007-06-26
This is my 3rd bout dealing with HG but the very first time someone stood up and said "this is a real problem". I felt so validated in my feelings by reading this and sharing the info with well-meaning friends and family members. I think this book is truly a life-saver for those dealing with HG. Thanks goes out to the author for her amazing research and heart-wrenching stories she shares.
WHAT I NEED TO SAY.......2007-06-22
I have not cried like this since I ended my pregnancy in January 2007 and I think about that baby everyday. I have not read this book yet, but just reading the reviews brought everything back. I have to amazing daughters[...], I had HG with my 11-year-old daughter, were I was tube feed the whole 9 months and still was sick everyday in bed. No one knew not even the doctors what to do. AMAZING what we know now. I got pregnant again and suffered HG again but got scared of what might happen, so with no medical support again I endd my pregnancy in 1999. I still have not recovered from that. I became pregnant again in November 2006, AND again suffered HG with meds and all, I could not get out of bed for over a month. So again scared and not sure I end my pregnancy. My husband was amazing through it all, but his heart also has been hurt, I can't even put it in words. I guess WHAT I NEED TO SAY IS TO CONTINUE TO SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT HG, so others know that there is help out there and that is is a very serious illness. May all the women who have lost a child/ren from this (HG) know you are deep in my heart .
From Angela Angel PS: I am a grandmother now and my daughter did not suffer HG, Thank GOD :)
I know now I am not alone.......2007-06-14
I loved this book. It made me cry. For once I feel like someone understands what I go through. I am 13 weeks pregnant and still battling everyday. This is a must read for anyone that is experiancing this disorder.
Excellent survival guide for women with HG and their families.......2007-04-12
Anyone who is going through or has been through HG or knows someone who has been through HG, will be deeply touched and helped by this book. Ms. McCall handles an extremely painful subject with sincerity, dignity, intelligence, thoroughness, and even humor that can make the most severe cases laugh out loud. And anyone thinking about pregnancy again after suffering from HG will benefit by reading this book in preparation for their next pregnancy.
Customer Reviews:
worth the read.......2007-03-26
This book has lots of good tips and info if you are interested in a "Clean" way of eating. Good book.
God's way to Ultimate Health.......2006-07-30
The book is packed with information on how to change over to a healthy lifestyle. Has lots of good information and some good receipes at the end.
A Few Good Concepts.......2006-05-17
I am familiar with this book and read it at the invitation of my Father who had cancer and eventually went on to be an elite Health Minister with Hallelujah Acres.
My concerns with regard to this book are not with a vegan diet which I understand and observe many to be on and to do just fine.
My concerns are with the philosophy and teachings underpinning the book and how it is used to profit the author and the organization of Hallelujah Acres which seeks not just to have you change your diet, but to buy their products.
The entire premise of this book theologically is based upon George Malkmus' interpretation of Gen 1:29 which he takes to mean that God created mankind to eat only fruits and vegetables. Based upon this interpretation, which is not accepted by a majority of Biblical Scholars, Malkmus suggests that meat entered the human diet after the Noah's Flood. While he does not suggest necessarily that eating meat itself is sinful, he does strongly push the idea that this was God's original plan for diet and therefore anyone seeking to eat optimally should consider this as the first choice.
He goes further to teach that illness is caused and/or escalated by what he deems the Standard American Diet (conveniently acronymed as SAD for emphasis.)
Chielf culprits are any and all meat products, dairy products and then sugar, flour, salt.
It would be one thing if he left it here and invited you to join him with his diet plan.
He doesn't however.
Based on this rather shaky premise of questionable theology and some pretty questionable science and nutrition teaching that suggests there is an esoteric life giving quality to eating live food as opposed to "dead" food he goes on to teach that there are things he has come up with to go above and beyond eating natural raw food.
This is the real point of the book in my opinion.
He wants you to buy BarleyMax, a product he sells through his traditional multi-level marketing business for a profit.
This is important enough to repeat.
Hallelujah Acres is not a ministry in a formal sense at all. They are a business and they sell products. Malkmus, through his weekly newsletter often appeals to what he does and calls it a ministry. He justifies it and calls "ministry" such actions as giving free seminars, free electronic newsletters, counselors etc and holds that up as "proof" of his ministry. Other companies call this "marketing."
Nutritionally their featured product "BarleyMax" (before this they uses an AMA product names "BarleyGreen" which received warning from the FDA for excessive claims beyond what science could demonstrate) is sold by them and their "Health Ministers" often serve as financial marketing partners who in turn profit from their ministry.
Recent developments in their teachings include now supplimenting their diet with vitamin B12 which is a common deficiency in Vegans and can lead to irreversible nerve damage. They resisted this recommendation for years despite overwhelming evidence of the need for this suppliment and then conveniently began to offer the suppliment themselves; another cash flow.
Often supporters of this diet frame their support for this diet in spiritual terms implying or outright claiming that this is God's diet plan and any who oppose their teaching or question their claims are attacking God and supporting Satan.
The primary method of support are an overwhelming number of testimonies regularly put out from people who are on the diet. Consistent in these testimonies are that many are on the front end of the diet and very excited about the weight loss and energy they have. Updates on these people is rare. There are always new people coming on who are caught up in the excitement and willing to claim healings and health improvement.
Medical verification of these claims is not consistent.
George Malkmus' own personal testimony of healing from cancer is based upon examinations by chiropractors and there is no pathology or medical records to substantiate his claims.
Tied into this teaching is a very strong negative assessment of the medical profession and the outright implication that they are profiteers seeking to perpetuate illness for their own gain in many instances.
Ironically, in recent years, Malkmus has suffered a stroke and had high blood pressure which his diet and herb treatments could not control. He now sees a doctor and is on medications to control this condition. There is some question as to the nature of the stroke itself and whether it might not have been caused or exacerbated by his diet's deficiencies.
In closing let me tell you how the story of my father ended. He was diagnosed in October of 1999 with kidney cancer in the 4th stage. He went on the Hallelujah Diet when the medical prognosis offered little hope. He did make remarkable progress although it was never medically verified as he refused to see a doctor.
He dropped 70 pounds, exercised and did seem to do very well and went beyond the 2 year outside window he was given as an estimate by the doctors. He was convinced he was healed and gave a great deal of credit to the Hallelujah Diet for his progress.
In July of 2004 he travelled to Shelby, North Carolina to become an elite Health Minister to step up his promoting of this diet to the many people that were encouraged by his testimony.
He submitted a testimony to Hallelujah Acres and they published it in their Health Tips Newsletter in August of 2004 emphasising his claim of healing and his praise of their diet despite the fact that in the testimony itself he acknowledged it was not verified medically.
My dad finally began to go to see 2 doctors in Mexico where he retired to when he began to have serious health issues and pain. In October of 2004, just 3 months after his testimony of healing was published, it was confirmed that his cancer had furhter metasticized and spread to 6 other organs.
Dad refused further medical treatment even for pain management, and died on Christmas morning of 2004, 5 months after his testimony.
In fairness to Hallelujah Acres, I sent them an update of his story recently asking them to publish the update in their newsletter. They did so, but only after considerable pressure on my part to get an answer from them and when they did publish the e-mail they edited out the date of death and allowed people to think by implcation that Dad lived longer than he did. They also stated, without any medical support that Dad was in remission and then inferred that he came out of "remission" due to some actions of his own, rather than any shortcomings of the diet.
I think there are many good elements to a vegan diet and than managed carefully it leads to weight loss, a correction of some medical conditions and a sense of energy and well-being for many people.
I am not against veganism or diet.
I am skeptical of the Hallelujah Diet's inner teachings, workings and their personal profiting from their diet plan which they entwine with questionable theology, questionable science and less than honest representations of their for-profit status and manipulation of testimonies and claims.
Please read this book with this in mind, do some additional research on your own. Don't accept the claims of this organization without checking their claims, teachings and science from other sources as well.
Buy Two - One for you and one to share.......2006-01-23
I first purchased this book 6 years ago when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Her cancer was terminal, but it made a difference in her mind, spirit as well as body during the last 8 months of her life to be eating well. The application of information from this book not only kept her spirits up but assisted her body in fighting off the horrible effects of radiation and chemotherapy. It has made a difference in mine and many other lives as well. I have lent this book out on so many occassions and have eventually lost track of it so I decided to go ahead and purchase another copy for myself and get an extra as my "loaner" so that I would never be without.
Wake up America! Get back to healthy food before it's too late!.......2005-12-25
I read this book a long time ago. It was a springboard for further research into the vegan/vegetarian/raw food lifestyle, which I and my husband have been following for several years.
My original goal with my research was to reduce the amount of medication my husband takes for his asthma, and to reduce my thyroid medication. I can now say that we have been able to reduce our medication. We've also both lost weight, have more energy, no longer have any aches and pains, feel so much better and at 52 years of age, actually look younger than our years.
Rev. Malkmus' book is a great starter book for people wanting to learn more about how to eliminate sickness, cut down on prescription medicine and take control of their own bodies through nutrition. Hallelujah Acres is NOT a cult, but are people who went through training to become Health Ministers, and who care about educating people in their church and families and friends about getting well and living long healthy lives.
Average customer rating:
- Great Four Corners mystery
- *Silly*
- Couldn't put it down
- A very gripping read...
- Satisfying and Mature Page Turner
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Spirit Sickness
Kirk Mitchell
Manufacturer: Bantam
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ASIN: 0553579177
Release Date: 2001-04-03 |
Amazon.com
Spirit Sickness marks the return of Bureau of Indian Affairs investigator Emmett Quanah Parker, a Comanche, and FBI special agent Anna Turnipseed, a Modoc, who first pooled their investigative talents in Cry Dance. Anna is recovering from a vicious attack and dreads returning to the field; Emmett, however, will do whatever he can to lure her back to active duty. When the bodies of tribal patrolman Bert Knoki and his wife are found in a fire-gutted police cruiser in a remote wash on the Navajo reservation, Emmett seizes the opportunity to request Anna's help. As the investigation unfolds, the agents find themselves questioning the dead cop's integrity, delving into a gritty world of poverty and prostitution (just what was Knoki doing visiting a Utah cult in the company of a hooker?), and confronting the eerie legacy of Navajo myth.
That myth centers around the figure of the Gila Monster, said to cure sickness with his trembling paw and to be charged with redeeming the sins of the first Indians by destroying them. Emmett and Anna, who have long sublimated their traditional upbringing to a more rational modernism, must struggle with a madman who has woven his insanity into the myth of the Gila Monster, creating his own reality--and his own very real victims.
The novel is workmanlike, rather than inspired. Although press releases have touted Kirk Mitchell as a threat to Tony Hillerman's supremacy in rendering the lives, secrets, and crimes of the Native American Southwest, Mitchell has yet to approach Hillerman's delicacy of touch and effortless integration of native culture into crime narratives. Mitchell's references to Navajo myth seem ponderous, distant, and irrelevant to the unfolding action. The same complaint might be made of the onerous distraction that is the subplot of romantic attraction between Parker and Turnipseed. If the reader is utterly unable to detect any hint of sexual tension between the two, one wonders why they spend so much energy--and so many pages--fretting about it. --Kelly Flynn
Book Description
In the tradition of Tony Hillerman and Joseph Wambaugh comes this suspense thriller reuniting Bureau of Indian Affairs Criminal Investigator Emmett Quanah Parker and FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed, two Native American cops torn between their heritage and the law.
A fire-gutted police cruiser found in a remote part of the Navajo reservation bears witness to a horrific crime: inside are the bodies of a tribal patrolman and his wife. As BIA Investigator Emmett Parker and FBI Special Agent Anna Turnipseed know, a cop's murder is never simple, raising countless questions and suspicions.
When another murder is discovered, the case explodes into an otherworldly realm. Both Parker, a Comanche, and Turnipseed, a Modoc, are well acquainted with the eerie shadowland between native myth and modern homicide investigation. Now they will have to touch minds with a murderer who has woven personal madness with Navajo myth to create his own reality -- and with it the need to kill and kill again.
Customer Reviews:
Great Four Corners mystery.......2007-02-11
I don't know why everyone has to compare him to Hillerman. Both are very good but very different. The only similarities are the location but it stops there. Mitchell's move a lot faster and spend a lot less time describing the scenery. They are a lot more thrilling while Hillerman's are slower pace and more relaxing. It all depends on what you are in the mood for. Both writers are great and if you like this area of the country you will enjoy both. As to the other guys criticism about Parker and Turnipseed crawling under the mobile home---give us a break--this is FICTION! It fits in with the story quite well!
*Silly*.......2006-06-28
Are we really to believe that a seasoned BIA agent and an FBI agent would actually crawl underneath a mobile with a flashlight on their bellies when they have expectations that someone with a gun may be hiding there and "might shoot them in the face" ? Please and the author is a law enforcement officer? What tactical procedure book did he get this scenario from? A canine unit would have been called in and a dog sent in, no matter if the canine unit was an hour away as the author indicates to cover his lame story line. Real law enforcement would have secured the site and waited for the dogs as there was no imminent threat. This is my first Mitchell and it will most likely be my last. When I read the preceding ludicrous scenario in the first quarter of the book I found it so silly I nearly threw the book aside and decided to spend my time with something better written. But I was curious just how silly this whole thing would get and my assumption that it would was proven correct.
Couldn't put it down.......2006-05-16
If you're a fan of Indian Country whodunits, Kirk Mitchell is tops. I could go on, but I'd just be repeating myself. This is a terrific read.
A very gripping read..........2003-03-11
I read 'Ancient Ones' and the prequels, 'Spirit Sickness' and 'Cry Dance' in one week-end, that is how un-put-down-able I consider these books. The last book kept me up well into the night.
To comment on the much debated comparisons to Tony Hillerman: I am a great fan of the Leaphorn/Chee series, but personally, I am finding I prefer Mitchell to Hillerman at this point. I find Mitchell's books faster paced and more complex, therefore more gripping. With Hillerman, it got too easy to guess who the bad guy was. It was always (or almost always) the white one.
With regard to the relationship between Parker and Tunipseed, I think it ads a great deal to the story and in no way detracts from the plot. This level of character development is rare in these types of books, and I find it a refreshing change. It makes them real, flaws and all, as opposed to being two-dimensional cookie-cutter crimefighters. Strangely, no one seems to have a problem when Hillerman's main characters are involved in relationships. I wonder if it is the child abuse angle that is making people uncomfortable here. In any case, I am looking forward to seeing how Emmett and Anna's relationship evolves in the fourth book (I hope the author has plans for a fourth book in this series, if not more!).
Satisfying and Mature Page Turner.......2002-06-10
Mitchell has taken the emerging Indian Reservation Mystery genre and transported it beyond the cliches. This satisfying novel is mature on several levels: plot development, character development, sophistication and depravity of the villians' human motives (as well as those of some good guys, too).
This is a good page-turner with fresh twists on the "torn between two worlds" modern Indian/cop conflict. The believably sketched heroes are delightfully flawed and vulnerable--though their stamina occasionally stretches credulity.
The settings of the multi-layered but comprehensible plot move us on and off the rez with gritty, believable reality. Mitchell creates credible characters without any of the tired Indian-as-misunderstood-and-victimized-mystic trappings that reduces some other novelists' efforts in the genre.
Mitchell even manages to transcend the usual, cliche conflicts between tribal police departments and federal law enforcement agencies while maintaining a realistic sense of bureaucratic functioning. And get this, not every bureaucrat is wooden and incompetent!
The inventive plot evolves with taut exposition and the believability that's born of both familiarity and homework. You'll be surprised at some developments, and smugly proud of your powers of deduction in predicting others. But you'll never feel cheated.
All in all, this is a tale as fresh, stimulating, and welcome as a spring rain over a desert in the four corners.
Book Description
Our personalities and our identities are intimately bound up with the stories that we tell to organize and to make sense of our lives. To understand the human meaning of illness, we therefore must turn to the stories we tell about illness, suffering, and medical care. Stories of Sickness explores the many dimensions of what illness means to the sufferers and to those around them, drawing on depictions of illness in great works of literature and in non-fiction accounts. The exploration is primarily philosophical but incorporates approaches from literature and from the medical social sciences. When it was first published in 1987, Stories of Sickness helped to inaugurate a renewed interest in the importance of narrative studies in health care. For the Second Edition the text has been thoroughly revised and significantly expanded. Four almost entirely new chapters have been added on the nature, complexities, and rigor of narrative ethics and how it is carried out. There is also an additional chapter on maladaptive ways of being sick that deals in greater depth with disability issues. Health care professionals, students of medicine and bioethics, and ordinary people coping with illness, no less than scholars in the health care humanities and social sciences, will find much of value in this volume. Unique Features: *Philosophically sophisticated yet clearly written and easily accessible *Interdisciplinary approach--combines philosophy, literature, health care, social sciences *Contains many fascinating stories and vignettes of illness drawn from both fiction and nonfiction *A new and comprehensive overview of the "hot topic" of narrative ethics in medicine and health care
Book Description
Stay healthy at high heights with this pocket guide—now updated with the most current information on preparing for and adapting to altitude.
·Updated guidelines for people going to altitude (heights above 7,000 feet) with pre-existing health conditions such as heart conditions, diabetes, and cancer
·A handy glossary and easy-to-read tables covering symptoms and signs, altitude illness, and high altitude drugs
·Case studies of real situations and a question-and-answer section help readers better understand general issues about altitude and its effects, and more
This new edition provides the latest information on prevention and treatment of altitude illness—from preparing for altitude to recognizing and treating the symptoms of acute mountain sickness, including high altitude pulmonary and cerebral edemas. Suited for both novice and seasoned hikers, climbers, trekkers, and skiers, Altitude Illness, 2nd Edition, also includes an updated examination of how altitude interacts with certain drugs, a new section on using the web to find more information about altitude illness, and much more.
Customer Reviews:
Going High?.......2007-07-30
If you are going on up to the mountains, this book may be of some value to you since you or those around you could be subject to altitude sickness. It seems prudent to know about since the consequences can be serious. The book is small enough to fit into your pack or even pocket easily. The book does a good job describing the symptoms and treatments for the disease. I plan to keep mine with my first aid supplies.
Concise and Authoratative.......2005-10-17
Stephen Bezruchka really doesn't want you to die of altitude illness, and this feeling permeates his new edition of Altitude Illness: Prevention and Treatment. Fortunately, anyone who reads this book will have all the knowledge they need to make the right decisions and avoid a tragic outcome. Altitude illness is common, easily recognizable, and there is no need to die from this cause. Unfortunately, as his very vivid case reports demonstrate, if you try hard enough, or make enough wrong decisions, it is possible to die from altitude illness. Anyone planning a high altitude sojourn could benefit from the knowledge in this compact book.
DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT..........2001-02-24
This is a wonderful, well written and well organized little book, sized to travel with its owner. It fits easily into one's pocket for easy access. It provides valuable information at one's fingertips. One should read this book before climbing or trekking above 7,000 feet (2,000 meters). It could save one's life.
The book is chock full of valuable information, and everything is explained in laymen's language. It explains what altitude sickness is, so that one may recognize its presence, and advises the reader on how to prevent it. It also provides treatment information for the various types of altitude illnesses to which one may fall prey.
This is a must have book for anyone who wants to stay healthy while scaling new heights. If one should think that this book is unnecessary, one need only pause to reflect upon the dedication found on the flyleaf of the book, "To those who died of altitude sickness". Enough said!
The book to bring to altitude.......2000-09-04
I just returned from a 6 000 meter climb (OK, 5 890...) and found this little book very helpful. Dr. Bezruchka gives us exactly the information needed, in clear concise form. There are flow-charts that help you assess the condition of your companions, or yourself. For a little fun around the camp pass the book around and try to pick out the authors little tiny gems of very dry wit -- not as easy as it sounds, but they are there...
Have the victim transported if possible by Yak.......2000-05-30
This is a concise little book on high-altitude illness. Though aimed at the Himilayan traveler, it is useful for more local mountains. I found my copy in Alamosa, Colorado. The best line in the book concerns measures to be taken in the case of HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema), "Have the victim transported if possible, by Yak or on someone's back if no other vehicles are available". I never leave home now without my Yak. I also recommend "Going Higher" by Houston for a more in-depth study of the subject.
Customer Reviews:
Or, one could write diary of a suffering theologian,perhaps?.......2002-04-29
Herein lies many of Kierkegaard's most vehement attacks on his utter disgust as what he sees as the shallow and hypocritical Christians of his time. In fact, the rantings rank up there with Nietzsche's tirades against what he liked to call the "rabble."
As you may have guessed by the title, this is not to be an uplifting book. Kierkegaard will never be mistaken for Robert Schuller - that much is for certain. In it, the Danish philosopher (generally considered the father of existentialism) grapples with guilt. Not just anyone's guilt, either, but Soren Kierkegaard's guilt. In page after page he discerns how man's sinful nature is corruptive to his relationship to God. What is worse, no matter how hard he tries, he can't stop sinning any more than he can consciously stop breathing.
Kierkegaard then looks up from his desk and wonders why all those so-called Christians out there aren't doing the same thing that he is. The Dane is introspective, to say the least, and the nucleus of his thought emanates from Socrates' words at his trial, as recorded in Plato's APOLOGY:
...I say again that the greatest good of man is daily to converse about virtue, and all that concerning which you hear me examining myself and others, and that the life which is unexamined is not worth living
- Plato, APOLOGY, Trans: B Jowett
Here is a great man's attempt to follow the dictum of Socrates, and examine his own life. In this sense, THE SICKNESS UNTO DEATH is comparable to St. Augustine's CONFESSIONS, albeit a bit on the morbid side.
One of the Dane's favorite metaphors was of driver falling asleep at the reigns of his wagon. So too did K believe that that is how most of us live our lives. With this in mind, it is not surprising that he anoints this work as an "awakening" for his readers.
Profound insight into the nature of sin.......2001-12-05
I am not a philosopher or even a literary person by any stretch, but I found this book surprisingly accessible. I believe it is essential reading for anyone dealing with despair (depression) in their lives- especially Christians.
The jewel that I was able garner from this book is that faith, fundamentally, is forgoing our common senses and putting our hope in God even when all our senses and previous experiences tell us otherwise. Because with God, everything is possible.
Woody Allen Gave the Best Review Ever of This Book..........2001-01-09
which, in response to Kierkegaard's brilliance Allen succintly noted, "and I have trouble writing two sentences on My Trip to the Zoo."
Accepting Despair.......2000-12-15
In perhaps his most relentless probing of the human condition, Kierkegaard's "The Sickness Unto Death" rediscovers the very notion of "sin." Having been tossed around by anyone and everyone in the Danish Christendom of his day, the word "sin" has lost much of it's original meaning; hence he chooses the term "despair." By doing this, Kierekgaard rediscovers "original sin," or that notion of sin which has been lost through misuse. For Kierkegaard, "despair" or "sin" is not simply an individual act, but it is a state of existence. Only when an individual acknowledges the inherent human situation, one that is "in despair," can one then "actively despair" and move out of the aesthetic mire of common existence. It should be noted that it is an ill advised version of Christianity which is "in despair," such a Christian wanting a simple solution without having to face the terrifying problem of our being. Kierkegaard not only documents the different levels of "despair" (no one type is exclusive of others), but he looks into why it is that we often refuse to accept our condition, such denial forcing us to remain "in despair." As he himself makes clear, "The very nature of despair is that it is unaware of being despair." There are endless implications from such an important work, not least of which is the idea that words can hold as well as lose their meaning, depending on how they are used and who is using them. But over and above a theory of semiotics is Kierkegaard's belief that authentic Christianity can only arise for the one who faces his/her desperate situation; and upon doing so, sees no other way out than total submission to "the Power that posited it."
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- A Timid Author With a Powerful Story
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The Falling Sickness: A History of Epilepsy from the Greeks to the Beginnings of Modern Neurology (Softshell Books)
Owsei Temkin
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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Seized
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Visions: Artists Living with Epilepsy
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110 Puzzling Cases of Epilepsy
ASIN: 0801848490 |
Book Description
Owsei Temkin presents the history of epilepsy in Western civilization from ancient times to the beginnings of modern neurology. First published in 1945 and thoroughly revised in 1971, this classic work by one of the history of medicine's most eminent scholars now returns to print in a new softcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
A Timid Author With a Powerful Story.......2001-11-23
From the viewpoint of the disability activist, the only major work on the history of epilepsy should be a civil rights book about the mistreatment of a minority group since ancient times. Dr Temkin will only admit that people with epilepsy have always been "objects of horror and disgust". Beyond that point his book is 2500 years of intellectual history, too much of it elaborate details of long discredited theories. Yet the author's research is so outstanding and his bibliography of 1120 books and articles so complete that anything less than a 5 star rating would be improper. Dr Temkin deserves special credit for uncovering Richard Caton's 1875 article "The Electric Discharges of the Brain". In 2001 the Medieval Madness Syndrome continues of people with epilepsy being rejected by family, friends, and employers because they have a "deliberately chosen illness". Our timid author declines to ask how this could be true 126 years after the actual cause of epilepsy was discovered. But his research demands an answer to that question.
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