Even Hannibal Lecter Wouldn't Go There OR Not This Pig!

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

Plum Island is usually described as "porkchop shaped," which is ironic, because Plum Island porkchops could be even more unhealthy than salmon from China.  Indeed, the main thing Plum Island has in common with a sanitary modern slaughterhouse is that the animals that go in don't come out alive.

Except that sometimes they do--or might--and the consequences could be bad, since, as everyone who has watched The Silence of the Lambs knows, Plum Island is home to the United States's Animal Disease Control Center.  Michael Christopher Carroll's Lab 257 tells the story of the Island, focusing on decades of inept management, which led to serious maintenance and safety problems on the island, which is just a few miles from Connecticut and Long Island.

First They Ate the Animals

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

Everything after the first chapter of The Great Starvation Experiment is anticlimactic, because it's here that Todd Tucker describes Hitler's 1941-1943 siege of Leningrad.  A million Russians may have starved during the 872 days before the Red Army broke through the blockade.  After the zoo animals, people killed their pets.  They ate wallpaper paste and shoe leather.  During the second year, they began breaking more basic taboos.

Thirty-six American conscientious objectors, chosen among other reasons for their sound mental health, volunteered for an experiment whose goal was to study starvation's physiological and psychological effects, and to discover the most effective way to conclude a period of starvation.  The Americans' goal was both humanitarian and military: the government assumed that Russians who had been weakened by famine would be physically and mentally unable to resist Stalin's armies at war's end.  

A Head Full of Ideas / That Are Driving Me Insane OR: WonderDrugs

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

I need to be vague so a Major Corporation won't slap me with a SLAPP suit, but I used to be a contractor in the library there.  The library was right across from the large auditorium, and one day I noticed everyone from the [censored] wing of the building going in, which was not unusual.  But this time, it turned out that 300 [censored] were being told they would no longer have jobs with the Corporation in [censored] months, and that a certain kind of research would no longer take place there.  

Everyone took the news pretty well except for one guy who must have found out beforehand what was going on and refused to enter the auditorium.  He sat in one of the nice chairs by the library yelling things like, "It's a lot cheaper to hire a PR person than to invent a product that will keep someone's [censored] in their [censored] for their whole life!"

That's the man I want to marry, unless he already is married. 

One of my points here is that it's a good thing the companies involved with researching sulfa drugs and the even better antibiotics didn't drop out because the research involved was expensive.

Poison Ivy OR Don't be Afraid to Shake my Hand, Tch, tch, tch

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

About 25 years ago, my mates and I were drinking 9-cents-a-bottle wine (probably now about 78-cents-a-bottle wine) in the Avignon train station, waiting for the 3 a.m. billet bige train to Italy.  A man with a bleeding hand approached us.  He spoke no French nor any other recognizable language; just "Tch, tch, tch," as he pointed first to our individual bottles of wine and  then to his dripping hand.  My classmates scattered, but I caught on and poured a few cups of the cheap wine on his hand.  He said, "Tch, tch, tch," and went to a different part of the station.

The paragraph above provides one piece of useful advice, which is that alcohol is a good thing to pour on a wound, or on a potential wound.  Rubbing alcohol is best, but you can't count on everyone you meet in a train station at 1 a.m. having rubbing alcohol.

It's hard to write a whole book about poison ivy, because there are basically just two rules about how to treat it in its initial stages, but Outwitting Poison Ivy, by Susan Carol Hauser, who also wrote Outwitting Ticks, makes the subject as lively as possible.

A Really Bad War to be Wounded in

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

My alternate title for this entry was "It's A Wonder Anyone's Alive at All."

The total casualty rate during World War I was far higher than the American Civil War's. However, huge medical advances occurred between the 1860s and 1914.  You may ask yourself which would be worse--to be wounded in the Civil War or in World War I. 

I have to say that being wounded in the Civil War in most situations, especially early on, would be much worse.  Ira M. Rutkow's Bleeding Blue and Gray: Civil War Surgery and the Evolution of American Medicine is a sobering reminder of how awful medicine was before the development of asepsis and antiseptics.  It's also the story of how personality conflicts and inter-agency political battles can get in the way of what everyone agrees is a good thing--in this case, proper care for the war's wounded soldiers.

Terrorists: the Found and the Missing

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

A friend of mine confessed--it seemed like a confession--that he was relieved when Theodore Kaczynski turned out to be the Unabomber, because a friend of his pretty much fit the profile. 

I understood perfectly, having spent some time in high school trying to track down Patricia Hearst  (really impossible from rural South Carolina before the Internet).  I just finished reading Robert Graysmith's 2003 Amerithrax: the Hunt for the Anthrax Killer, and the most interesting part isn't about anthrax at all: it's the report of an interview between Mohammad Atta and Johnelle Bryant, manager of the Homestead, Florida, office of the U.S. Departure of Agriculture.

Dr. Paul Farmer to Lecture at XU

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, the Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder tells the story of Farmer’s quest to fight infectious disease in the poorest communities of the world.  This critically acclaimed biography follows Farmer from childhood to his extraordinary career at Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Farmer visits Xavier University on April 23 for an evening lecture open to the public. 

Focal Infection--Don't Get One!

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

In the first part of the 20th century, as many as a quarter of all patients at mental institutions suffered from late-stage syphilis, which inevitably led to dementia and death.  There were no effective treatments until the Viennese psychiatrist Julius Wagner-Jauregg noticed that syphilitic patients who also suffered from malaria sometimes recovered their faculties.  Wagner-Juaregg had the idea of purposely infecting syphilitic patients with malaria.  His hope was that the high fever produced by malaria would kill the spirochetes responsible for what was then called "general paresis."

It wasn't a perfect solution, obviously, but many times--apparently somewhere in the 30 percent range--it actually worked.  Wagner-Juaregg won a Nobel Prize for his discovery in 1927.   After WWII, thank goodness, we got to have antibiotics.

Wagner-Juaregg seems to have influenced psychiatrist Dr. Henry Cotton in his quest for a cure for mental illness.  The results, of course, were horrible.

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

Elisabeth Robinson, a Hollywood producer and screenwriter whose credits include the movies Last Orders and Braveheart, published this semi-autobiographical work, her debut, in 2004.  Robinson's younger sister died from leukemia in 1998.  At the outset of The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters, her protagonist, Olivia Hunt, a struggling Hollywood producer, is contemplating suicide.  She is interrupted by a call from her parents in Ohio:  her newly married younger sister, Maddie, has been diagnosed with leukemia.

The novel is told through Olivia's letters:  to her ex-boyfriend, Michael, whom she still loves; to the doctors at the hospital where her sister is being treated; to the head honchos at the studio where her current project, a film of Don Quixote, is having a hard time getting off the ground.

Down Came the Rain

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

Not that anybody could have missed it, but TomKat got married over the weekend.  One of the guests at the wedding was Brooke Shields, with whom Tom had a very public spat last year.  Tom, as you might recall, criticized Brooke's use of antidepressants to help treat her severe postpartum depression.  Brooke responded with an op-ed piece in the New York Times that denounced Cruise's "ridiculous rant" and suggested that perhaps Mr. Cruise should keep silent on the issue, since he had "never suffered from postpartum depression."  As indicated by her presence at his wedding, the two have since made up.

Cruise and Shields's war of words began shortly after the release of Brooke's memoir Down Came the Rain:  My Journey Through Postpartum Depression.  After enduring two years of unsuccessful IVF attempts and a miscarriage, Brooke gave birth to daughter Rowan in 2003.

Dealing with Infertility

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

October 29th-November 4th is National Infertility Awareness Week.  This Saturday, the Ohio chapter of Resolve:  The National Infertility Association will hold their annual conference in Loveland.  Today's front page of the Enquirer features an article entitled "Fertility Programs Lessen Financial Risk", discussing the steps local programs (the Institute for Reproductive Health, the Center for Reproductive Health, and the Bethesda Center for Reproductive Health and Fertility) are taking to reduce the financial burden on couples seeking IVF or other high-cost fertility treatments.

The library has many books dealing with infertility.  Here are some of the more recent titles:

• The Baby Solution--Daniel Kenigsberg
• Overcoming Infertility--Tommaso Falcone
• Fertility Foods--Jeremy Groll and Lorie Groll
• How to Get Pregnant--Sherman J. Silber
• A Few Good Eggs--Julie Vargo and Maureen Regan
• The Male Biological Clock--Harry Fisch

We Just Get Keep Getting Smarter and Smarter, and Pretty Soon We're as Good as We Are Now

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

One of my high-school teachers got off topic and repeated her personal anecdotes a lot.  I've forgotten Latin, but I remember the anecdotes.  One was about a big, strong husky boy who nevertheless didn't try out for the football team because he was "yellow."  Some other boys beat him up, and the Latin teacher was glad.  Then again, she thought, he probably had dementia praecox (or else he would have been on the team), so his "yellowness" wasn't exactly his own fault. 

Dementia praecox, I knew, had not been a diagnosis since the 1950s, when we became enlightened and started using good drugs (Thorazine) instead of bad surgeries (lobotomy), and the word "schizophrenia" replaced "dementia praecox."  Then things got even better in the '90s, when atypical antipsychotic medicines with fewer side effects were created. 

According to Robert Whitaker's 2002 Mad In America, though, I've been completely wrong. 

Pandemic

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

Avian Flu or as it is commonly called, Bird Flu, is the newest terror to come to our notice in the last few years.  Along with SARS and Mad Cow Disease, the Bird Flu has us all wondering if mother nature is turning against us.  While the CDC and WHO are monitoring the situation and developing procedures to combat the spread of Avian Flu, the average person, like you and me, just want to know what is happening in our world and how we can protect ourselves and our loved ones. 

If you are interested in checking out some books on this topic try

• The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu by Mike Davis
• Bird Flu: Everything you need to know about the next Pandemic by Marc Siegel
• The Bird Flu Pandemic: Can it Happen? Will it Happen?: How to Protect Yourself and Your Family if it does by Jeffrey Greene and Karen Moline

If you want to know about the Flu Pandemic of 1918, which is considered to be the most devastating breakout in modern times, try these books

• The Great Influenza : The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry
• Flu : The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that caused it by Gina Bari Kolati
  

Neo Soul

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

 Sylvia Woods is the self-styled Queen of Soul Food.  You've seen her face on cans in the supermarket or maybe you've eaten at her restaurant in Harlem.  Her grandson Lindsey Williams grew up working in the family business and eating his grandma's fabulous cooking.  But Lindsey had a problem.  He kept getting bigger and bigger to the point his health was endangered.

Finally, Lindsey found a new way of cooking and eating and dropped over two hundred pounds.  Neo Soul: Taking Soul Food to a Whole 'Nutha Level is how he transformed his family's recipes and food traditions into a healthy, yet flavorful and appealing cuisine.

Low Carb Cookbooks

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

Diet cookbooks are perennial favorites on the cookbook aisle. Even though there are some reports that low-carb cooking is slowing down, low-carb diet books and cookbooks are still available at the Public Library.   

One of my favorite authors is George Stella from the Food Network.  George Stella’s Livin’ Low Carb: Family Recipes Stella Style and Eating Stella Style.  Low-Carb Recipes for Healthy Living have easy to follow and easy to prepare recipes.  I like Stella because he’s low-key.  His approach is geared towards fresh and natural ingredients.

There are two South Beach Diet Cookbooks, the original South Beach Diet Cookbook and the South Beach Quick & Easy Cookbook.  These are both by Arthur Agatston, author of the original South Beach Diet.   

Therapy of Last Resort

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

The Lobotomist, by journalist Jack El-Hai, is a biography of Walter Freeman, the doctor who popularized a treatment that many people find very repellent today.  The idea was that severing the nerves between the brain's frontal lobes would decrease anxiety and depression in patients with severe mental illness.  Sometimes it worked. 

Very often it didn't, of course, especially for patients with schizophrenia.  Often, although not always, lobotomy made patients more docile and quiet.  These patients were then able, if not always to live productive lives, at least to leave warehouse-like mental institutions and return home.  Too many times, though, lobotomies were given to patients simply to make them less troublesome. Fifty-thousand people received lobotomies, mostly, according to an NPR feature, between 1949 and 1952. 

For the Love of a Child

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

Today marks the beginning of the Autism Society of America's 37th annual national conference.  In the past several years there has been an explosion in books written about autism and other autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger syndrome.  Parents and other family members struggling with the many questions surrounding this often mystifying disorder may want to consult Does My Child Have Autism? by Wendy L. Stone, The Autism Book by S. Jhoanna Robledo and Dawn Ham-Kucharski, and The Oasis Guide to Asperger Syndrome by Patricia Romanowski Bashe and Barbara L. Kirby.

A Lion in the House Tonight

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

Tonight at nine p.m. the first part of the documentary film A Lion in the House will air on CET. It follows five families from cancer diagnosis though treatment, with footage covering six years.  The film was shot at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center with many local families.  This is a great project, and I am so happy that we at the library are one of CET's outreach partners in presenting this valuable and thought-provoking work to our community.

The film is part of the PBS series Independent Lens and was created by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar.  The companion book, also called A Lion in the House, includes thoughts from the parents, siblings, medical team and filmmakers in their own words.  These moving stories touch on the choices and realities of cancer in each family.  The book is also interesting for getting a perspective on how the film was made.  Filmmakers' notes on each family, and a longer section at the back of the book emphasize the struggle not to be intrusive while filming and to portray the families with honesty and sensitivity.

Feeding the Fit Kid

Categories Health & Nutrition ,

School's out, summer's starting and the kids are hungry.  What's a parent to do? With childhood obesity rates rising, we all seem to be looking for ways to get our kids healthy, fit and well-fed.  Our collection contains several good titles to help you.  Anita Bean's book,  Awesome Food for Active Kids: The ABCs of Eating for Energy and Health is a great place to start. 

If this topic interests you, try some of these titles :

• Fit Foundation: A Guide to Help Acheieve Good Health for America's Overweight Youth
• Kidshape: A Practical Prescription for Raising Healthy, Fit Children
• KidShape Cafe
• What Should I Feed My Kids?: How to Keep Your Children Healthy by Teaching Them to Eat Right

Make your kid the fit kid.