Health Wellness

A self-help book which advises readers not to follow too much advice is by necessity a messy enterprise. Join a group, writes Levine, or quit a group. Take risks; alternatively "dare to be conservative." Travel, don't travel. Change jobs, or not. Don't be afraid to say no. Or yes. Above all, "go for it!" All those perky activities deemed suitable for people over a certain age – tango lessons, researching a family tree, outward bound courses – are listed with what I suppose is a helpful lack of scorn, or endorse-ment; meanwhile those with more ambition might consider becoming a movie star. If  further evidence were needed of the paucity of "templates" for older women, there it is: the inevitable reference to Helen Mirren, three pages in.

Dean originally thought he would drive to each state and run 26.2 miles, but his team decided the 26.2 mile runs should be official marathons. Eight of the marathons were live marathons that are held each year, while the remaining 42 marathons were staged but were still official races. The marathon directors of each race were involved in the planning of the marathons, police escorts were obtained, official routes were followed, official clocks were used, and official ceremonies were held at the finish of the races. Runners not connected with the Endurance 50 team were able to sign up for the marathons and to run with Dean. 50 official marathons in 50 states in 50 days! I still can't believe that he did that! Dean is a Greek, and that provides a good metaphor for the book. Greek mythology is full of interactions between the gods and mortals. Dean is of the gods. We are the mortals.

Drawing on her landmark study involving more than one hundred mothers, a renowned ob-gyn shares the secrets to a good birth. Most doctors think of a “good” birth only in terms of medical success. But Dr. Anne Lyerly knows firsthand that many important elements are often overlooked. Her three-year study of a diverse group of moms explored what matters most to women during childbirth. The results, presented to the public for the first time in A Good Birth, show what really matters goes beyond the clinical outcome or even the usual questions of hospital versus birthing center, and reveal universal needs of women, like the importance of feeling connected, safe, and respected. The book’s wisdom is drawn from in-depth interviews with women with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, and whose birth stories range from quick and simple to complicated and frightening. Describing what went well, what didn’t, and what they’d do differently next time, these mothers give voice to the complete experience of childbirth, helping both women and their healthcare providers develop strategies to address the emotional needs of the mother, going beyond the standard birth plans and conversations. Transcending the “medical” versus “natural” childbirth debate, A Good Birth turns our attention to the crucial question of what makes the best birth possible.

Mark McEwen was at the top of his game and enjoying life when he suffered a stroke. After fifteen years on The Early Show, he had moved to Orlando to anchor the local news and spend more time with his family. While traveling, he experienced symptoms that led him to a hospital, where he was misdiagnosed with the flu. Two days later, on an airplane flight just hours before he finally collapsed, flight attendants and airport staff dismissed his slurred speech and heavy sweating. Misinformation not only delayed his treatment, but it also nearly cost him his life. Now, in a candid and moving memoir, America's beloved morning-show weatherman recalls his harrowing journey of rehabilitation from a massive stroke. After the Stroke traces his recovery in the aftermath of temporarily losing some of his greatest gifts- his talent as a public speaker, and his warm, witty exuberance-while his wife worked valiantly to care for their children as well as her seriously ill husband. Sharing an ultimately triumphant story, McEwen emerges as one of our most dynamic new crusaders for stroke victims and their families.

Former LiteraryMama.com columnist Gail Konop Baker blasts through illness with expectations blazing in Cancer Is a Bitch (Or, I'd Rather Be Having a Midlife Crisis). Baker is served a fat dollop of irony when - right after she finishes a novel about a woman who finds a lump in her breast and wonders if she's lived a meaningful life - she finds herself sitting in a hospital gown facing a breast cancer diagnosis. She longs to be the Audrey Hepburn of the Big C, but instead she careens through mental and emotional aftershocks that fiction couldn't predict. Gobbling organic produce, practicing yoga and weighing Hobson's choices, Baker courageously places her screwed - up childhood, imperfect marriage, motherhood and sanity under the microscope even as her "good cancer" diagnosis follows her everywhere "like an annoying sibling, mimicking my every move, mirroring the parts of me that make me feel awkward, ashamed." Her guts, and affection for the occasional joke, toke and profanity, make her a deeply consoling companion on a frightening journey.

Unlike clinical books that approach depression from a theoretical, academic viewpoint, what makes this book distinctive is the fact that the author herself has suffered from depression for many years. Atkinson does not write as an expert, or as a depression counselor, but as someone who knows the feelings from close personal experience. Climbing Out of Depression is a handbook to offer immediate help for the mind, the body, and?with the author?s gentle spiritual touch?also the soul. Topics covered in Climbing Out of Depression include the causes of depression; how to take action when life becomes too difficult; dealing with negativity; overcoming fear, worry, and panic; understanding anger; coping with loss; and much more.

All too often, problems in communication between a doctor and patient can lead to bad medical decisions. As a practicing physician and a behavioral scientist, Dr. Peter Ubel has a unique understanding of this dangerous situation—and in Critical Decisions he addresses the problem while revealing a new revolution in medical decision-making. Critical Decisions combines eye-opening medical stories with groundbreaking behavioral science research, while offering important information and common sense solutions to promote better doctor/patient relationships thereby ensuring that the right decision will be made in life-saving medical situations.

For the first 10 or 11 months of her son’s life, the 35-year-old Toronto writer was wasted — a glass of champagne to celebrate his birth the catalyst for her alcoholic relapse after three and a half years of sobriety. If she’s sorry to anyone, it’s Hugo, almost 4. Drunk Mom, her new memoir, is an apology to him, she said — a very raw and extremely public apology. “I hope…one day [he will] be able to forgive me for this transgression,” she writes in the acknowledgments.

Completely revised and updated, an authoritative guide lists over 40,000 food items accompanied by complete nutritional information for calories, fat, cholesterol, protein, carbohydrates, sodium, and fiber, as well as serving-size information that helps readers to make informed food selections. This comprehensive reference lists more than 40,000 food items, complete with nutritional content for calories, fat, cholesterol, protein, carbohydrates, sodium, and fiber. Serving-size information makes healthful food choices quick and easy.

While it is impossible to stop the passage of time, there are ways to prevent it from taking its toll on your appearance and your health—without resorting to injections and painful, expensive plastic surgery. The secret is in the foods you eat every day! The right diet can renew your energy; help you to maintain smooth, clear skin and a youthful glow; and actually add years to your life. This remarkable handbook will be your Fountain of Youth—providing meal plans, delicious recipes, and essential information that will enable you to turn back the clock and get a fresh and healthy new start on life! Your indispensable guide to looking and feeling younger

• An easy-to-use nutrition counter covering more than 3,000 foods, broken down by their anti-aging nutrients
• Mouth-watering recipes to revitalize the body and soul
• How to shop, how to eat, what to look for to achieve optimum health and maximize your quality of life in later years

And much more!

With the assistance of Fox (co-author: Sexual Fitness, 2000), California-based therapist Brokaw proposes that embracing five core values—grace, connectedness, accomplishment, adventure and spirituality—gives women the strength (the “fortytude”) they need to succeed at this stage of life. To reach this conclusion, she interviewed a wide variety of women across the United States, ranging in age from late 30s to early 50s. After an upbeat introduction in which the author urges women to think of life’s challenges not as problems but as “sparkling moments,” she explains what is meant by each of the five core values and introduces women who personify them.

Jenny McCarthy has teamed up with Dr. Jerry Kartzinel, the doctor who recovered her son, to write Healing and Preventing Autism. Their new book provides all the necessary information about biomedical treatment from diagnosis, dietary interventions and environmental changes for the home, to advanced therapies that doctors use today.

Everything changed in an instant on a sunny day in August 2008, when Stephanie and Christian were in a horrific plane crash. Christian was burned over 40 percent of his body, and Stephanie was on the brink of death, with burns over 80 percent of her body. She would remain in a coma for four months. What emerges from the wreckage of a tragic accident is a unique perspective on joy, beauty, and overcoming adversity that is as gripping as it is inspirational. Heaven Is Here is a poignant reminder of how faith and family, love and community can bolster us, sustain us, and quite literally, in some cases, save us.

Ex-model Hogan Gorman was living the typical New York working actor’s life—auditions and classes by day, waitressing and fending off handsy customers by night — when a wise (or just crazy) friend convinced her to ask the universe for a change. And she got one—coming at her at forty miles per hour. HIT BY A CAR and suffering debilitating injuries, and with NO HEALTH INSURANCE , the fashionista attempts to bounce back into her (thrift store–purchased) Jimmy Choos even as she deals with short-term memory loss, stalker ambulance drivers, trying to stay vegan on food stamps, crazy judges, hot doctors, and unsympathetic government workers. Inspired by her acclaimed one-woman show, this is a bitingly funny and keenly observed account of the cracks in our medical and social welfare system and how one woman’s resilience combined with a generous dollop of humor helped her fight her way to recovery.

Professors in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, Thomas N. Bradbury and Benjamin R. Karney are among the world’s leading scholars of social relationships, interpersonal communication, marriage, and well-being. Through in-depth interviews and detailed observations of thousands of couples, Drs. Bradbury and Karney have discovered the surprising ways in which personal histories, current life circumstances, and specific forms of interpersonal communication all combine to determine the quality and course of couples’ intimate lives. Their findings have been reported in more than 250 scientific articles and book chapters, and their 1995 review article is now the most widely-cited theoretical analysis of marriage published in the past century. On two separate occasions, the National Council on Family Relations has recognized Bradbury and Karney with the Reuben Hill Research and Theory Award for Outstanding Contributions to Family Science, and their co-authored text and accompanying video series, Intimate Relationships, has been used by thousands of undergraduates across the US and Canada. Translating and communicating research findings is central to their mission as scholars, and toward this end they founded and co-direct the Relationship Institute at UCLA, a center dedicated to engaging the general public with lectures, seminars, and workshops on new discoveries in the field of relationship science.

When Menopause: Bridging the Gap Between Natural and Conventional Medicine officially hit stores, a first printing of 5000 copies had already sold out and a second printing is going fast. Those figures are good news for the three Vermonters who collaborated on the 132-page project: Winooski resident Lorilee Schoenbeck, a naturopathic physician, Burlington OB-GYN Dr. Cheryl A. Gibson and Hinesburg psychiatrist M. Brooke Barss. They attribute their instant-bestseller status to last month’s abrupt halt of the Women’s Health Initiative, a major national study of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), after researchers detected an increased risk of breast cancer with long-term use. “The timing is unbelievable,” muses Gibson, a clinical associate professor at the University of Vermont’s College of Medicine. “What we address in the book is actually reflected in that study. So the results are a confirmation of our work, with real science behind it.”

Making the right medical decisions is harder than ever. We are overwhelmed by information from all sides—whether our doctors’ recommendations, dissenting experts, confusing statistics, or testimonials on the Internet. Now Doctors Groopman and Hartzband reveal that each of us has a “medical mind,” a highly individual approach to weighing the risks and benefits of treatments.  Are you a minimalist or a maximalist, a believer or a doubter, do you look for natural healing or the latest technology?  The authors weave vivid narratives of real patients with insights from recent research to demonstrate the power of the medical mind. After reading this groundbreaking book, you will know how to arrive at choices that serve you best.

Seeing Ezra is the soulful, beautifully written memoir of a mother’s fierce love for her autistic son, and a poignant examination of what it means to be “normal.” When Kerry Cohen’s son Ezra turns one, a babysitter suggests he may be “different,” setting her family on a path in which autism dominates their world. As he becomes a toddler and they navigate the often rigid and prescriptive world of therapy, Cohen is unsettled by the evaluations they undergo: At home, Ezra is playfully expressive, sharing profound, touching moments of connection and intimacy with his mother and other family members, but in therapy he is pathologized, prodded to behave in ways that undermine his unique expression of autism. It soon becomes clear that more is at stake than just Ezra’s well-being; Cohen and her marriage are suffering as well. Ezra’s differentness, and the strain of pursuing varied therapies, takes a toll on the family—Cohen’s husband grows depressed and she pursues an affair—all as she tries to help others recognize and embrace Ezra’s uniqueness rather than force him to behave outside his comfort level. It isn’t until they abandon the expected, prescriptive notions about love, marriage, and individuality that they are able to come back together as two parents who fiercely love their little boy. Powerful and eye-opening, Seeing Ezra is an inspirational chronicle of a mother’s struggle to protect her son from a system that seeks to compartmentalize and “fix” him, and of her journey toward accepting and valuing him for who he is—just as he is.