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Secrets of Women's Healthy Ageing: Living Better, Living Longer
by Cassandra SzoekeSecrets of Women's Healthy Ageing draws on the findings of a unique study that has focused on the health of more than four hundred women in their mid-to-late lives. Over the past thirty years a team of international investigators has compiled a remarkable amount of data, aiming to raise awareness of modifiable risk factors in women's health. Their findings cover brain, heart and gut health, diet, sleep, exercise, and the benefits of socialising. But importantly, they highlight how the results relate directly to women's wellbeing. In Secrets of Women's Healthy Ageing Cassandra Szoeke shares the wisdom revealed by this comprehensive study, showing how to promote overall wellness and providing the key ingredients for living a long and healthy life.
The Little Book of Reiki: A Beginner's Guide to the Art of Energy Healing
by Stephanie DraneDiscover the benefits of reiki with this beginner's guide to what it is and how you can introduce the technique into your daily routine for a healthier, happier lifeReiki is a Japanese complementary therapy with the aim of bringing balance and well-being to the body, mind and spirit. Drawing on the energy of the universe, it seeks to direct and apply this life force to restore health and harmony in the individual.Within these pages, you will find everything you need to know about this holistic healing practice, including: The history and etymology of reiki The five principles to live by What chakras are and how they are used in reiki How to set intentions and use visualization Techniques and exercises to practise self-reiki Step into the world of reiki and find out how you can tap into the energy around you and use it to nurture and nourish yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam
by ONFRAY, MICHELNot since Nietzsche has a work so groundbreaking and explosive appeared, to question the role of the world's three major monotheistic religions. If Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God, French philosopher Michel Onfray starts from the premise that not only is God still very much alive but increasingly controlled by fundamentalists who pose a danger to the human race. Documenting the ravages from religious intolerance over the centuries, Onfray makes a strong case against the three religions for their obsession with purity and their contempt for reason and intelligence, individual freedom, desire and the human body, sexuality and pleasure, and for women in general. In their place, all three demand faith and belief, obedience and submission, extol the "next life" to the detriment of the here and now. Tightly argued, this is a work that is sure to stir debate on the role of religion in Australian society-and politics.
The Sex Bible For People Over 50: The Complete Guide to Sexual Love for Mature Couples
by Laurie BetitoThis essential guide shows readers over fifty how to reconnect with their partners, experiment, handle sex & dating, and more.Sex post-fifty can be the best ever, but it requires a different skill-set—more communication, longer foreplay, different positions, sexual toys and aids—to stay hot and exciting. It also needs to accommodate the myriad of physical, emotional, and social changes that happen in late middle-age.In The Sex Bible for People Over 50, Dr. Laurie Betitoaddresses common physical and sexual issues that 50+ couples encounter, and provides tips and solutions that are fun and exciting, like modified positions or the use of sexual toys and aids. It also shows readers how to build new sexual skills by providing exercises and new ways to enjoy sexual pleasure on their own, and with their partner.
Backyard Pharmacy: Growing Medicinal Plants in Your Own Yard
by Elizabeth MillardThis guide to herbal medicines shows you how to transform common plants into healing remedies with techniques that are simple, effective, and low cost.In Backyard Pharmacy, author Elizabeth Millard shares her deep knowledge of what to add to your garden to grow your own medicinal plants to enhance your health.Plants you once believed were just seasonings for sauce in the kitchen or scents for your home are in fact medicines that can help heal and soothe, if you know what to do with them. This book shows you how easy it can be to make your own herbal remedies for life’s common ailments. Profiles of common healing plants offer advice on growing, harvesting, preparing, and using these herbs in healing tinctures, oils, and creams.You’ll find all-natural, low-cost herbal solutions for a range of common ailments, such as: Learn how to grow and craft a poultice to soothe mosquito bites.Make an herbal tincture to fix sluggish digestion. Brew up some lemon balm iced tea to ease a stressful day.Craft echinacea drops to support immune system health.Use elderberry to ease cold and flu symptoms.Blend a cayenne salve to relieve inflammation.Steep chamomile tea to aid with insomnia. From the common cold to a nasty scrape, headache, or digestive issue, simple, all-natural home-grown ingredients can make you feel healthy and happy. With guidance from this useful book, you’ll be able to match properties of each plant to your own medicinal needs.
Vaccine Court: The Law and Politics of Injury
by Anna KirklandA behind-the-scenes examination of the special court dedicated to claims that vaccines have caused harmThe so-called vaccine court is a small special court in the United States Court of Federal Claims that handles controversial claims that a vaccine has harmed someone. While vaccines in general are extremely safe and effective, some people still suffer severe vaccine reactions and bring their claims to vaccine court. In this court, lawyers, activists, judges, doctors, and scientists come together, sometimes arguing bitterly, trying to figure out whether a vaccine really caused a person’s medical problem. In Vaccine Court, Anna Kirkland draws on the trials of the vaccine court to explore how legal institutions resolve complex scientific questions. What are vaccine injuries, and how do we come to recognize them? What does it mean to transform these questions into a legal problem and funnel them through a special national vaccine court, as we do in the US? What does justice require for vaccine injury claims, and how can we deliver it? These are highly contested questions, and the terms in which they have been debated over the last forty years are highly revealing of deeper fissures in our society over motherhood, community, health, harm, and trust in authority. While many scholars argue that it’s foolish to let judges and lawyers decide medical claims about vaccines, Kirkland argues that our political and legal response to vaccine injury claims shows how well legal institutions can handle specialized scientific matters. Vaccine Court is an accessible and thorough account of what the vaccine court is, why we have it, and what it does.
One Zentangle a Day: A 6-Week Course in Creative Drawing for Relaxation, Inspiration, and Fun (One A Day Ser.)
by Beckah KrahulaTake your doodles—and your mind—to a whole new level with this bestselling and preeminent guidebook to the meditative art of the Zentangle.The Zentangle method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas as a way to practice focus and meditation through drawing by using repetitive lines, marks, circles, and shapes. Each mark is called a “tangle,” and you combine various tangles into patterns to create “tiles,” or small square drawings.Each of the six chapters explores a different aspect of Zentangle:Basics and EnhancementsTangles and Value PatternsGeometric and Organic PatternsUnderstanding and Using ColorDefining and Using StyleCreating the Rest of Your Zentangle JourneyEach exercise includes new tangles to draw in sketchbooks or on Tiepolo (an Italian-made paper), teaches daily tile design, offers tips on related art principles, and contains an inspirational “ZIA” (Zentangle Inspired Art) project on a tile that incorporates patterns, art principals, and new techniques.Drawing Zentangles is a relaxing and replenishing diversion that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and skill levels. In addition to its soothing benefits, a Zentangle practice can also help with self-image, phobias, addictions, pain management, conflict resolution, and coping with grief.Step away from the daily hustle and untangle with a Zentangle.
Gut Gastronomy: Revolutionise Your Eating to Create Great Health
by Vicki Edgson Adam Palmer“Dishes are satisfying and occasionally border on indulgent. . . . for those seeking better health, there is much here to consider and entice.” —Publishers WeeklyThis innovative book introduces a whole new way of eating with a unique plan developed specifically at Grayshott Spa, one of the world’s leading health spas.By focusing on digestive health as a route to true wellness, the Grayshott Plan helps to boost your energy and rebalance weight safely through a nutrient rich diet that will give you everything you need to face the demands of modern life.The Plan dispels the misguided notion of “detoxifying” through spartan, punitive regimes and instead focuses on regaining good health by eating the right foods to aid the body’s natural detoxification.The Plan can confidently recommend quality grass-fed red meats, fish, eggs, fermented foods, butter, avocado, and organic vegetables. This is not a plan of privation but a sensible and satisfying approach to food that brings you back to feeling great.The first section will introduce you to the Plan and provide information and meal plans for a short-term course to rest and repair your digestive tract. The Post-Plan information will show you more foods to introduce to your diet and keep your gut healthy.The recipe section contains 100 delicious meals split into breakfasts, soups, main meals, vegetable sides, salads and special occasions and includes delicious, satisfying and nourishing meals like:Baked eggs with tomatoes, peppers and chorizoPorchetta with plum and fig chutneyGrilled sole fillets marinated in ginger and tangerineCrayfish cakes with coconut and mango and many more
Best Sex Ever: The Ultimate Guide to Positions, Techniques, Toys, and Games
by Susan Crain BakosExperience incredible sex with this helpful guide to everything from playful toys to tantalizing techniques!The Best Sex Ever is your guide to amazing sex. It will intensify the sex you’re having, and open your mind to new and exciting techniques with unimaginable results. After you read this book, every stroke, flick, pinch, bite, and kiss will have a purpose, and every one of them will drive your partner wild.Give the ultimate erotic massageLearn techniques for reliable orgasms—multiple, extended, and whole-body—anytime, anywhereDrive all five senses crazy with the best toys and games for couplesUse Tantric and Taoist principles to fuel your passion for each other and change the way you look at each other, kiss, and touch during sexPraise for the author“Susan Crain Bakos is perhaps our most intrepid sex journalist.” —Publishers Weekly“[She writes with] wit and intelligence . . . entertaining.” —Kirkus Reviews
Discounted Life: The Price of Global Surrogacy in India
by Sharmila RudrappaWinner, American Sociological Association Asia and Asian America Section Best Book on Asia/Transnational AsiaFinalist, 2015 C. Wright Mills Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems India is the top provider of surrogacy services in the world, with a multi-million dollar surrogacy industry that continues to grow exponentially, as increasing numbers of couples from developed nations look for wombs in which to grow their babies. Some scholars have exulted transnational surrogacy for the possibilities it opens for infertile couples, while others have offered bioethical cautionary tales, rebuked exploitative intended parents, or lamented the exploitation of surrogate mothers—but very little is known about the experience of and transaction between surrogate mothers and intended parents outside the lens of the many agencies that control surrogacy in India. Drawing from rich interviews with surrogate mothers and egg donors in Bangalore, as well as twenty straight and gay couples in the U.S. and Australia, Discounted Life focuses on the processes of social and market exchange in transnational surrogacy. Sharmila Rudrappa interrogates the creation and maintenance of reproductive labor markets, the function of agencies and surrogacy brokers, and how women become surrogate mothers. Is surrogacy solely a labor contract for which the surrogate mother receives wages, or do its meanings and import exceed the confines of the market? Rudrappa argues that this reproductive industry is organized to control and disempower women workers and yet her interviews reveal that, by and large, the surrogate mothers in Bangalore found the experience life affirming. Rudrappa explores this tension, and the lived realities of many surrogate mothers whose deepening bodily commodification is paradoxically experienced as a revitalizing life development. A detailed and moving study, Discounted Life delineates how local labor markets intertwine with global reproduction industries, how Bangalore’s surrogate mothers make sense of their participation in reproductive assembly lines, and the remarkable ways in which they negotiate positions of power for themselves in progressively untenable socio-economic conditions.
Well & Good: Supercharge your health for fertility & wellness
by Nat KringoudisWell & Good will set you on the path of priming your body for a complete wellness overhaul, because fertility isn't just about babies or a thriving reproductive system, it's about taking control of your health on all levels.With plenty of tips and recipes, Nat Kringoudis shows step-by-step how to take charge of your health and wellbeing. Her knowledge is not only for those want to boost their fertility, but for anyone who wants to experience better daily health.If you are ready for healthy hormones, Well & Good has all the information you need:• Top-ten foods for increased fertility• Ten steps to wellness• Your Fertile Pantry handy shopping list• Special tips for boosting men's reproductive health• Tips on revving up your fertility before conception• Tips for anyone who suffers from hormone imbalances and endometriosis• More than forty delicious and simple recipes to improve fertility and hormone health• How to look after your body when your baby arrives• Debunking ovulation myths.
Menstruation Matters: Challenging the Law's Silence on Periods
by Bridget J. Crawford Emily Gold WaldmanExplores the burgeoning menstrual advocacy movement and analyzes how law should evolve to take menstruation into account.Approximately half the population menstruates for a large portion of their lives, but the law is mostly silent about the topic. Until recently, most people would have said that periods are private matters not to be discussed in public. But the last few years have seen a new willingness among advocates and allies of all ages to speak openly about periods. Slowly around the globe, people are recognizing the basic fundamental human right to address menstruation in a safe and affordable way, free of stigma, shame, or barriers to access.Menstruation Matters explores the role of law in this movement. It asks what the law currently says about menstruation (spoiler alert: not much) and provides a roadmap for legal reform that can move society closer to a world where no one is held back or disadvantaged by menstruation. Bridget J. Crawford and Emily Gold Waldman examine these issues in a wide range of contexts, from schools to workplaces to prisons to tax policies and more. Ultimately, they seek to transform both law and society so that menstruation is no longer an obstacle to full participation in all aspects of public and private life.
Good Death: An Argument For Voluntary Euthanasia
by Rodney SymeA Good Death is a candid and provocative account of the experiences of many terminally ill people Dr Rodney Syme has assisted to end their lives. Over the past thirty years Syme has challenged the law on voluntary euthanasia—at first clandestinely and now publicly—risking prosecution in doing so. He again risks prosecution for writing this book.A Good Death is a moving journey with those who came to Syme for help, and a meditation on what it means in our culture to confront death. It is also a doctor's personal story about the moral dilemmas and ethical choices he faces working within the grey areas of the law.In this important book, Rodney Syme argues for the end of the unofficial 'conspiracy' of silence within the medical profession and the decriminalisation of voluntary euthanasia in Australia. Through Syme's determination to tell the stories of those who he has assisted to die with dignity, A Good Death also draws wider lessons of value for those who find themselves in a similar situation.
Signs of Disability (Crip #4)
by Stephanie L. KerschbaumHow can we learn to notice the signs of disability?We see indications of disability everywhere: yellow diamond-shaped “deaf person in area” road signs, the telltale shapes of hearing aids, or white-tipped canes sweeping across footpaths. But even though the signs are ubiquitous, Stephanie L. Kerschbaum argues that disability may still not be perceived due to a process she terms “dis-attention.”To tell better stories of disability, this multidisciplinary work turns to rhetoric, communications, sociology, and phenomenology to understand the processes by which the material world becomes sensory input that then passes through perceptual apparatuses to materialize phenomena—including disability. By adding perception to the understanding of disability’s materialization, Kerschbaum significantly expands our understanding of disability, accounting for its fluctuations and transformations in the semiotics of everyday life.Drawing on a set of thirty-three research interviews focused on disabled faculty members’ experiences with disability disclosure, as well as written narratives by disabled people, this book argues for the materiality of narrative, suggesting narratives as a means by which people enact boundaries around phenomena and determine their properties. Signs of Disability offers strategies and practices for challenging problematic and pervasive forms of “dis-attention” and proposes a new theoretical model for understanding disability in social, rhetorical, and material settings.
Screening For Good Health: The Australian Guide To Health Screening And Immunisation
by Dr Kerry Kirke Dr Nicola Spurrier Martin BrayScreening for Good Health is a practical guide to help you make sense of the hundreds of health messages that we are bombarded with each year. Whether or not there is a family history of a particular illness, screening and immunisation are smart, simple steps anyone can take to counter preventable diseases. Prepared by experts in their field, Screening for Good Health gives an overview of the stages in life, the screening tests and immunisations that are relevant to each age bracket, and the importance of your own record-keeping. An alphabetical listing covers every illness from Alzheimer's Disease through to Osteoporosis to Tuberculosis. For each preventable illness, the entry provides up-to-date information on: - its symptoms - risk factors - disease progression - protective lifestyle choices an individual may consider - the screening tests available - the health services at your disposal, and - the treatment available. Also included is a comprehensive travel health section, with a convenient checklist covering all aspects of health protection during travel, and a first-aid guide.
Personalized Medicine: Empowered Patients in the 21st Century? (Biopolitics #7)
by Barbara PrainsackInside today's data-driven personalized medicine, and the time, effort, and information required from patients to make it a realityMedicine has been personal long before the concept of “personalized medicine” became popular. Health professionals have always taken into consideration the individual characteristics of their patients when diagnosing, and treating them. Patients have cared for themselves and for each other, contributed to medical research, and advocated for new treatments. Given this history, why has the notion of personalized medicine gained so much traction at the beginning of the new millennium? Personalized Medicine investigates the recent movement for patients’ involvement in how they are treated, diagnosed, and medicated; a movement that accompanies the increasingly popular idea that people should be proactive, well-informed participants in their own healthcare.While it is often the case that participatory practices in medicine are celebrated as instances of patient empowerment or, alternatively, are dismissed as cases of patient exploitation, Barbara Prainsack challenges these views to illustrate how personalized medicine can give rise to a technology-focused individualism, yet also present new opportunities to strengthen solidarity. Facing the future, this book reveals how medicine informed by digital, quantified, and computable information is already changing the personalization movement, providing a contemporary twist on how medical symptoms or ailments are shared and discussed in society. Bringing together empirical work and critical scholarship from medicine, public health, data governance, bioethics, and digital sociology, Personalized Medicine analyzes the challenges of personalization driven by patient work and data. This compelling volume proposes an understanding that uses novel technological practices to foreground the needs and interests of patients, instead of being ruled by them.
The Third Net: The Hidden System of Migrant Health Care (Health, Society, and Inequality #5)
by Lisa Sun-Hee Park Erin Hoekstra Anthony M. JimenezReveals the presence of an informal system of valuable support and care for marginalized migrantsThe United States’ health care system not only consists of a formal safety net, but also an informal and disjointed network of organizations that offer basic care to millions of migrants. This “Third Net” provides free or low-cost health care for the undocumented, low-income, and uninsured migrants who are excluded from the formal system. This groundbreaking study sheds light on the existence of the Third Net and its implications for the overall inequalities in the US health care system.The Third Net is made up of diverse providers with varying levels of service, organizational culture, and mission. These providers operate in unconventional settings, such as mobile clinics on wheels; pop-up clinics in repurposed spaces; and unlicensed, makeshift clinics run by health activists. Despite their unassuming appearances, these clinics are vital resources for marginalized populations that often go unnoticed by the general public, revealing the shortcomings of our formal health care system.By examining these alternative health care spaces, the authors expose the inequities entrenched in the broader health care system and urge a reevaluation of it entirely in order to address these injustices.
The Business of Birth: Malpractice and Maternity Care in the United States
by Louise Marie RothHow the fear of malpractice affects mothers and reproductive choicesGiving birth is a monumental event, not only in the personal life of the woman giving birth, but as a medical process and procedure. In The Business of Birth, Louise Marie Roth explores the process of giving birth, and the ways in which medicine and law interact to shape maternity care.Focusing on the United States, Roth explores how the law creates an environment where medical providers, malpractice attorneys, and others limit women’s rights and choices during birth. She shows how a fear of liability risk often drives the decision-making process of medical providers, who prioritize hospital efficiency over patient safety, to the detriment of mothers themselves.Ultimately, Roth advocates for an approach that protects the reproductive rights of mothers. A comprehensive overview, The Business of Birth provides valuable insight into the impact of the law on mothers, medical providers, maternity care practices, and others in the United States.
Just Health: Treating Structural Racism to Heal America
by Dayna Bowen MatthewChoice Outstanding Academic Title 2023The author of the bestselling Just Medicine reveals how racial inequality undermines public health and how we can change itWith the rise of the Movement for Black Lives and the feverish calls for Medicare for All, the public spotlight on racial inequality and access to healthcare has never been brighter. The rise of COVID-19 and its disproportionate effects on people of color has especially made clear how the color of one’s skin is directly related to the quality of care (or lack thereof) a person receives, and the disastrous health outcomes Americans suffer as a result of racism and an unjust healthcare system.Timely and accessible, Just Health examines how deep structural racism embedded in the fabric of American society leads to worse health outcomes and lower life expectancy for people of color. By presenting evidence of discrimination in housing, education, employment, and the criminal justice system, Dayna Bowen Matthew shows how racial inequality pervades American society and the multitude of ways that this undermines the health of minority populations. The author provides a clear path forward for overcoming these massive barriers to health and ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to be healthy. She encourages health providers to take a leading role in the fight to dismantle the structural inequities their patients face. A compelling and essential read, Just Health helps us to understand how racial inequality damages the health of our minority communities and explains what we can do to fight back.
Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation
by Sharon Gamson DanksCase Studies from North America, Scandinavia, Japan, and Great Britain demonstrate natural outdoor teaching environment that support hand-on learning in science, math, language, and art in ways that nurture healthy imagination and socialization Asphalt to Ecosystems is a compelling color guidebook for designing and building natural schoolyard environments that enhance childhood learning and play experiences while providing connection with the natural world. With this book, Danks broadens our notion of what a well-designed schoolyard should be, taking readers on a journey from traditional, ordinary grassy fields and asphalt, to explore the vibrant and growing movement to "green" school grounds in the United States and around the world. This book documents exciting green schoolyard examples from almost 150 schools in 11 countries, illustrating that a great many things are possible on school grounds when they are envisioned as outdoor classrooms for hands-on learning and play.The book's 500 vivid, color photographs showcase some of the world's most innovative green schoolyards including: edible gardens with fruit trees, vegetables, chickens, honey bees, and outdoor cooking facilities; wildlife habitats with prairie grasses and ponds, or forest and desert ecosystems; schoolyard watershed models, rainwater catchment systems and waste-water treatment wetlands; renewable energy systems that power landscape features, or the whole school; waste-as-a-resource projects that give new life to old materials in beautiful ways; K-12 curriculum connections for a wide range of disciplines from science and math to art and social studies; creative play opportunities that diversify school ground recreational options and encourage children to run, hop, skip, jump, balance, slide, and twirl, as well as explore the natural world first hand. The book grounds these examples in a practical framework that illustrates simple landscape design choices that all schools can use to make their schoolyards more comfortable, enjoyable and beautiful, and describes a participatory design process that schools can use to engage their school communities in transforming their own asphalt into ecosystems.
Anonymizing Health Data: Case Studies and Methods to Get You Started
by Luk Arbuckle Khaled El EmamUpdated as of August 2014, this practical book will demonstrate proven methods for anonymizing health data to help your organization share meaningful datasets, without exposing patient identity. Leading experts Khaled El Emam and Luk Arbuckle walk you through a risk-based methodology, using case studies from their efforts to de-identify hundreds of datasets.Clinical data is valuable for research and other types of analytics, but making it anonymous without compromising data quality is tricky. This book demonstrates techniques for handling different data types, based on the authors’ experiences with a maternal-child registry, inpatient discharge abstracts, health insurance claims, electronic medical record databases, and the World Trade Center disaster registry, among others.Understand different methods for working with cross-sectional and longitudinal datasetsAssess the risk of adversaries who attempt to re-identify patients in anonymized datasetsReduce the size and complexity of massive datasets without losing key information or jeopardizing privacyUse methods to anonymize unstructured free-form text dataMinimize the risks inherent in geospatial data, without omitting critical location-based health informationLook at ways to anonymize coding information in health dataLearn the challenge of anonymously linking related datasets
Make: Upgrade, Accessorize, and Customize with Electronics, Mechanics, and Metalwork
by John BaichtalWhat is a bicycle? The answer is a little trickier than you might think. More than just a form of transportation, your bike is a framework on which you can explore and display your own inventiveness.With a full history of the bicycle and information about commercial mods such as adding baby seats and fenders--as well as instruction on wheels, tires, and regular maintenance--this book gives you the tools and ideas to hack your ride your own way. You'll not only find out how to strip down your bike so that you can actually put it back together again, but you'll create a complete bike hacker's workbench, ready for any idea you might have! In Make: Bicycle Projects, you'll learn to:Add EL wire, LEDs, and NEOPixels for cool nighttime travelInstall a SpokePOV kit to see things only your bike seesAdd a DIY Smartphone Rig that keeps you connectedPaint your bike so that it stays paintedTurn your geared steed into a fixieWeld and braze your frameMake a rad chopperLet the sun power your projectsGive an audio component to your frame for alarms, horns, and just making noiseHaul cargo in a basket or mini-trailerTurn your ride into a veritable party trailer replete with color organ!
Your Body: The Missing Manual
by Matthew MacDonaldWhat, exactly, do you know about your body? Do you know how your immune system works? Or what your pancreas does? Or the myriad -- and often simple -- ways you can improve the way your body functions?This full-color, visually rich guide answers these questions and more. Matthew MacDonald, noted author of Your Brain: The Missing Manual, takes you on a fascinating tour of your body from the outside in, beginning with your skin and progressing to your vital organs. You'll look at the quirks, curiosities, and shortcomings we've all learned to live with, and pick up just enough biology to understand how your body works. You'll learn:That you shed skin more frequently than snakes doWhy the number of fat cells you have rarely changes, no matter how much you diet or exercise -- they simply get bigger or smallerHow you can measure and control fatThat your hair is made from the same stuff as horses' hoovesThat you use only a small amount of the oxygen you inhaleWhy blood pressure is a more important health measure than heart rate -- with four ways to lower dangerously high blood pressureWhy our bodies crave foods that make us fatHow to use heart rate to shape an optimal workout session -- one that's neither too easy nor too strenuousWhy a tongue with just half a dozen taste buds can identify thousands of flavorsWhy bacteria in your gut outnumbers cells in your body -- and what function they serveWhy we age, and why we can't turn back the clockWhat happens to your body in the minutes after you dieRather than dumbed-down self-help or dense medical text, Your Body: The Missing Manual is entertaining and packed with information you can use. It's a book that may well change your life.Reader comments for Your Brain: The Missing Manual, also by author Matthew MacDonald:"Popular books on the brain are often minefields of attractive but inaccurate information. This one manages to avoid most of the hype and easy faulty generalizations while providing easy to read and digest information about the brain. It has useful tricks without the breathless hype of many popular books."-- Elizabeth Zwicky, The Usenix Magazine "...a unique guide that should be sought after by any who want to maximize what they can accomplish with their mental abilities and resources."-- James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review - Wisconsin Bookwatch "If you can't figure out how to use your brain after reading this guide, you may want to return your brain for another."-- The Sacramento Book Review, Volume 1, Issue 2, Page 19 "It's rare to find a book on any technical subject that is as well written and readable as Your Brain: The Missing Manual. The book covers pretty much anything you may want to know about your brain, from what makes it up, through how it develops to how to mitigate the affects of aging. The book is easy reading, fact packed and highlighted notes and practical applications. So if you want to learn more about your brain, how it works, how to get the best out of it or just want to stave off the ravages of Alzheimers (see chapter ten for details of how learning helps maintain your brain) then I can't recommend this book highly enough."-- Neil Davis, Amazon.co.uk "MacDonald's writing style is perfect for this kind of guide. It remains educational without becoming overly technical or using unexplained jargon. And even though the book covers a broad scope of topics, MacDonald keeps it well organized and easy to follow. The book captures your attention with fun facts and interesting studies that any person could apply to their own understanding of human ability. It has great descriptions of the brain and its interconnected parts, as well as providing full color pictures and diagrams to offer a better explanation of what the author is talking about."-- Janica Unruh, Blogcritics Magazine
Transnational Reproduction: Race, Kinship, and Commercial Surrogacy in India (Anthropologies of American Medicine: Culture, Power, and Practice #1)
by Daisy DeomampoTransnational Reproduction traces the relationships among Western aspiring parents, Indian surrogates, and egg donors from around the world. In the early 2010s India was one of the top providers of surrogacy services in the world. Drawing on interviews with commissioning parents, surrogates, and egg donors as well as doctors and family members, Daisy Deomampo argues that while the surrogacy industry in India offers a clear example of “stratified reproduction”—the ways in which political, economic, and social forces structure the conditions under which women carry out physical and social reproductive labor—it also complicates that concept as the various actors in this reproductive work struggle to understand their relationships to one another. The book shows how these actors make sense of their connections, illuminating the ways in which kinship ties are challenged, transformed, or reinforced in the context of transnational gestational surrogacy. The volume revisits the concept of stratified reproduction in ways that offer a more robust and nuanced understanding of race and power as ideas about kinship intersect with structures of inequality. It demonstrates that while reproductive actors share a common quest for conception, they make sense of family in the context of globalized assisted reproductive technologies in very different ways. In doing so, Deomampo uncovers the specific racial reproductive imaginaries that underpin the unequal relations at the heart of transnational surrogacy.
Birth in Times of Despair: Reproductive Violence on the US-Mexico Border (Anthropologies of American Medicine: Culture, Power, and Practice #18)
by Carina HeckertExplores forms of maternal harm stemming from US policies on the US-Mexico borderIn El Paso, Texas, the racist undertones of anti-immigrant sentiment have contributed to various forms of violence in the region, including the 2019 mass shooting that was the deadliest attack on Latinos in US history. As the community continued to mourn this tragedy, the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed yet another set of economic, social, and public health catastrophes that were disproportionately felt within the border region.In Birth in Times of Despair, Carina Heckert traces women’s emotional experiences of pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period in the midst of a series of longstanding and ongoing crises in the US-Mexico border region. Drawing from interviews, surveys, and medical records of women who gave birth during an intense period of sociopolitical crisis, she examines how limited access to health care, inhumane immigration policies, and exposure to an array of harmful social environmental circumstances serve as sources of intense harm for pregnant and recently pregnant women. In so doing, Heckert reveals how these experiences serve as a profound critique of policies that continue to fail to protect women and their families. She concludes with suggestions for practical, humane, and urgent policy changes to alleviate the needless suffering of this vulnerable group.With its comprehensive portrait of the abysmal physical and mental health outcomes pregnant women face within the border region, Birth in Times of Despair expands our understanding of how obstetric violence is enhanced by the structural violence of the state, and unveils the urgency to ameliorate the harm caused by current immigration policies.