Tag Archive: Medicine



Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (Outlander, #9)Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just finished my third reading of this series. I can’t think of anything to add to this review. It is still my favorite, and I am still in love with the series, Diana Gabaldon, and Davina Porter. I’d like to learn to be even half the writer or narrator as these two.

***
As much as I love all the Outlanders, this may be my favorite. The sad part is that the next book isn’t ready to read. So now I am floundering with Diana Gabaldon’s novellas. And Davina Porter makes Ms. Gabaldon’s writing shine!

Don’t let it scare you; think honey, not stingers. Bees do play a part in telling this story. My takeaway is to always talk to the bees; they want to know.

As with the rest of the series, this book is educational about the American Revolution. It is inspirational as I long to read and research our history to know more than I learned in school. It proves my point that the student will feel curious if you throw in a bit of magic.

Ah, but, Diana, why did you have to leave this on a cliff? Especially knowing that it would be ages until your perfected sequel (as opposed to the Game of Thrones hurried ending by someone else.) But it wasn’t a high cliff, so I’ll tolerate it knowing our heroes will be safe somehow and once again save the day.

I love, love, love all the lessons the Frasiers and friends have to teach us and can’t wait for more.
If you get the chance, please listen to these books in audio form as Davina Porter brings the story to life.

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Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known About MenopauseDare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause by Naomi Watts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you are a female from young to old, this book will have something for you. Even though I am 75 and a few years beyond menopause, I found things that I might be able to help my physical and mental health even now.

Naomi Watts (Author, Narrator), Mary Claire Haver MD (Author), and Allyson Ryan (Narrator) helped the reader stay involved with the topic that could otherwise get heavy in medical jargon.
Naomi Watts keeps the book personal enough for the average woman to find common ground, even if they don’t follow the same path through the hormonal jungle. Having personal stories with medical backups helps the reader decide about her health.

I was fortunate to listen to the Libby audiobook. I need to get the paper version to research the lists of products or clinics. By the way, this would be a great book for family and friends to have a starting point for discussions. Take notes to share with your medical team.

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The Inherited Mind: A Story of Family, Hope, and the Genetics of Mental IllnessThe Inherited Mind: A Story of Family, Hope, and the Genetics of Mental Illness by James Longman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I rarely give autobiographies five stars. Not because I don’t like them, but because I feel weird saying that a life in writing is the best or worst. It seems like a judgment of the person and not the writing. But in this case, the science and research make this review easy to praise. James Longman’s life was tough, but this book searches for answers about his father and how that applies not only to his own life but to all of us who have had mental illness touch our lives.

Mr. Longman’s courage to attack long-held beliefs about schizophrenia, bipolar, depression and other mental illnesses and owning his own issues in the process make this a marvelous read, worth owning. I did pick up the audible version and felt the author narrated quite well. Now I am thinking about getting the paper version so I can see charts or research more easily.

I highly recommend this book.

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The End of Alzheimer's: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive DeclineThe End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline by Dale E. Bredesen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I was in my forties, both of my grandmothers died of Alzheimer’s. As you can imagine, I am working hard to avoid what has been assumed to be my fate. Genetically, I seem to favor the heavier side of the family, so when 2020 warned us to lose weight or get hospitalized with COVID, I went on a fasting diet. After losing 30 pounds, I have kind of plateaued. Even still, in my 18/6 or sometimes 20/4 fast, I am trying to eat as healthy as I can: veggies and a little fruit. I don’t like meat, but I do eat salmon in my daily salad and minimize anything processed. Lots of water or tea. One or two cups of coffee. I have increased my exercise and am trying to get cardio and weights. I’m still not optimum on any of it. I try to get better and better.

Meanwhile I have increased learning a lot of new things. I have 11 languages I’m playing with on Duolingo. There’s a lot of knitting and diamond painting. And I am bringing back my piano playing, learning new songs while awakening old ones I had forgotten. I’ve since started playing recorders, soprano, alto, and tenor. Then I took up the ukulele, and now adding violin. I feel learning new things helps my brain. I work at my sleep hygiene aiming for 7 or 8 hours.

Imagine my surprise to see that I am doing a lot that Dale E. Bredesen recommends in his book. I was able to get the Kindle version through Libby. But now I have ordered the audiobook and my own copy of the paperback. The text-to-speech helped me read the book but I felt I could use a knowledgeable voice to read the technical terminology. And there are charts of the supplements and other aids that I want to be able to follow more closely. So, even after I return the library versions, I will have my own copy to refer to regularly.

I highly recommend this book. It’s quite user-friendly, not too sciency but you can follow the science if you like (I like).

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Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure EverythingQuackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Blurb from GoodReads:

What won’t we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine—yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison—was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish, morbidly hilarious “treatments”—conceived by doctors and scientists, by spiritualists and snake oil salesmen (yes, they literally tried to sell snake oil)—that were predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight-up scams. With vintage illustrations, photographs, and advertisements throughout, Quackery seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.

***

I felt it better if you read the blurb rather than if I explained it. After reading Deborah Harkness’s book about the history of science in the time of Elizabethan England, which, though interesting was more a textbook level of nonfiction, I thought this would be fun. Same topic, the history of science, but with more of a sense of humor.

Luckily, I was able to find the Kindle version on Libby. There were pictures of some of the medical quackery. It makes one think how good it is now. Yet, many things haven’t changed and one wonders what will look like quackery to us looking back from the future.

Anyway, I think you would enjoy learning about this history with a sense of humor.

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The Woman With the CureThe Woman With the Cure by Lynn Cullen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Have you ever wondered about the vaccines for polio? I remember lining up for shots in grade school. I think those were for smallpox, where they left a big scar by poking your arm repeatedly. Then we went to another school as a district to get sugar cubes. We had already gotten shot for polio, but I guess we needed the other one, too. What do I know? I was a kid.

This book was good as it gave me more of a history of the polio vaccines. We get to know the scientists. We meet the woman who might have had the most to do with this nearly sacred health benefit of baby boomers.

Hillary Huber (Narrator) made this story come to life. She played each character with distinction.

The author wrote a good story though it was full of duplication. The most annoying for this pianist was hearing Moonlight Sonata mentioned repeatedly. I don’t mind it as a piece. I love playing it, but there had to be other pieces of music you could have thrown into the story.

Overall, it was a good story to listen to.

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Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical ExaminerWorking Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First of all, don’t read this book before going to sleep. Or you won’t, especially from the part about 9/11 on. Still, it is such an engaging read. And the narrator, Tanya Eby, made the book lively, even though much of it is about death.

If Grey’s Anatomy has taught me anything about the life of a potential surgeon, it is the lack of sleep and how dangerous that lack can be for the doctor and the patient. It is that lack of sleep and trying to be a young mother that the author, Judy Melinek, realized she needed a different path, even though this path was nearly finished for the author. But all that training did lead her to be a Medical Examiner in New York.

We Americans hide from sex and death. We can talk of taxes until the cows come home. But of the two topics, death seems the least discussed. And that is too bad. We need to know about that part of life for ourselves and our loved ones.

If you are a writer, this book can be quite the reference. I can see many ways the book can be used to write a mystery or lend credence to a fatality in the novel.

I highly recommend this book, especially in audio form. I was lucky to pick it up from the library on Libby.

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Go Tell the Bees That I Am GoneGo Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As much as I love all the Outlanders, this may be my favorite. The sad part is that the next book isn’t ready to read. So now I am floundering with Diana Gabaldon’s novellas. And Davina Porter makes Ms. Gabaldon’s writing shine!

Don’t let it scare you; think honey, not stingers. Bees do play a part in telling this story. My takeaway is to always talk to the bees; they want to know.

As with the rest of the series, this book is educational about the American Revolution. It is inspirational as I long to read and research our history to know more than I learned in school. It proves my point that the student will feel curious if you throw in a bit of magic.

Ah, but, Diana, why did you have to leave this on a cliff? Especially knowing that it would be ages until your perfected sequel (as opposed to the Game of Thrones hurried ending by someone else.) But it wasn’t a high cliff, so I’ll tolerate it knowing our heroes will be safe somehow and once again save the day.

I love, love, love all the lessons the Frasiers and friends have to teach us and can’t wait for more.
If you get the chance, please listen to these books in audio form as Davina Porter brings the story to life.

View all my reviews


Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human CadaversStiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The narrator, Shelly Frasier, made this book so exciting and fun. Well, despite this book being about cadavers and all.

The book was nonfiction, but the author’s stories keep a heavy and sad topic intriguing. Mary Roach includes a history of how humans have handled the dead. She also shows the research of what is working and what is actually causing harm to us and the planet.

I feel the blurb says it best, and with it, you may know if this is for you or not. I might have said no, but a friend told me about it, and she’s usually a bit more squeamish, but she loved it.

“A contagiously cheerful exploration of the cruel diligences executed on some of our bodies when, after death, we abandon them on the threshold of their graves, this book shows us cadavers turned into carcasses, and scientific experiments, the deceased who contribute to the progress of medicine with perforated genitals and extracted eyes, flesh flung from airplanes or shot with bullets to verify the efficiency of new weapons, and discards crucified like Jesus or devoured by maggots. Mary Roach has written a book that explores the great beyond in order to show us the more visible and deplorable side of the next life.”

Try it, you might like it, and possibly learn something. By the way, I got my audio copy from Libby. For those that don’t know it is a library lending service for Kindle or Audiobooks.

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The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes NaturallyThe Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally by Jason Fung
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually finished this one a few days ago. It was a library Kindle book. As usual, I used text-to-speech to get through it.

I read the Obesity Code first. So this is the follow-up book. The information is similar in that it is about Intermittent Fasting and how it can help both conditions, obesity, and diabetes. I found both books quite interesting and inspirational. Though this one seems to have redundancies and often repeated itself. I figure that was to keep the medical eyes reading. There were a lot of charts to help prove Doctor Jason Fung’s theory.

If you are interested in IF, please give this and his other books a look. I think I need to get the hard copy as a reference.

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