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BOOK REVIEWS

Slow Growth Spurt, Reviewed by Scott LaFee

January 13, 2008

Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

Pantheon (2008)
Neil Shubin | 240 pages  | $24.00

ISBN-10: 0375424474
ISBN-13: 978-0375424472

‘Your Inner Fish’ is a nicely done look at 3.5 billion years of evolution…

– send a copy to Mike Huckabee.

Back in 2006, University of Chicago paleontologist Neil Shubin and colleagues made international headlines when they announced their discovery of a tiktaalik, a fish-like creature that lived 375 million years ago.

What made the tiktaalik (an Inuit word for burbot, a kind of shallow-water fish) so noteworthy was that it wasn’t a fish at all. It was something more, a “fishapod,” a transitional species between fish and four-limbed, land-living tetrapods.

The media breathlessly declared tiktaalik to be “the missing link.”

That’s something of an overstatement. Tiktaalik is a link, not the link. And it’s no longer missing. Nonetheless, there’s no disputing the fact that Tiktaalik was – and is – an extraordinary discovery. It had scales and gills like a fish, but also lungs and a neck, the latter allowing it to move its head independently of its body, something no fish can do.

Moreover, Tiktaalik had arm-like skeletal structures akin to modern-day amphibians and reptiles, including a shoulder, elbow and wrist.

Tiktaalik is further proof that Darwin was right. But for those who want more, there’s Shubin’s new book, a remarkably enthusiastic and easy-to-read explanation of evolution described through the synthesis of paleontology, developmental genetics and genomics (the study of genes).

“Your Inner Fish” isn’t about Tiktaalik, but rather about how the human body is the result of 3.5 billion years of evolution. Far from being unique, humans share almost everything about our anatomy, biochemistry and behavior with other organisms, past and present.

Not just fish, but insects, worms, yeast and bacteria.

Shubin presents his arguments creatively and concisely, tackling sometimes profound questions about origins and evolution directly, even humorously. The evidence mounts, chapter after chapter.

He notes, for example, the common architecture of many animal limbs, from theropod dinosaurs to birds to whales to lizards to humans: “one bone, followed by two bones, then little blobs, then the fingers and toes.” The architectural details may be different (bone proportions vary wildly between species) but all share the same, basic plan.

It’s a theme Shubin repeats:

Teeth, feathers and breasts all develop from basic interactions between layers of skin.

Like worms, our bodies are segmented – not only obvious things like our vertebrae, but also the way nerves are organized.

Invertebrates like a worm called Amphioxus don’t have backbones, but they do possess a stiffening line of nerves down the back called a notochord. Human embryos have notochords too, but ours break up during development, ultimately becoming part of the disks that lie between our vertebrae.

To be sure, an evolved human body is not without its disadvantages, Shubin wryly observes. “Take the body plan of a fish, dress it up to be a mammal, then tweak and twist that mammal until it walks on two legs, talks, thinks, and has superfine control of its fingers – and you have a recipe for problems.”

For example, the nerve controlling the diaphragm – a sheet of muscle between the chest and abdomen – begins in the brain stem, near the neck. In fish, the same nerve is ideally situated because it controls nearby gill muscles. In humans, the nerve must stretch halfway down the body, leaving it vulnerable to all manner of trauma.

It’s one way, writes Shubin, that our past comes back to bite us.

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Scott LaFee is a science writer for the Union-Tribune.

© Copyright 2007 Union-Tribune Publishing Company.  All Rights Reserved.

BOOK REVIEWS

“Overtreated”, No. 1 Book, and It Offers Solutions

By David Leonhardt
SOURCE:  New York Times, December 19, 2007

In 1967, Jack Wennberg, a young medical researcher at Johns Hopkins, moved his family to a farmhouse in northern Vermont.  Dr. Wennberg had been chosen to run a new center based at the University of Vermont that would examine medical care in the state. With a colleague, he traveled around Vermont, visiting its 16 hospitals and collecting data on how often they did various procedures.

The results turned out to be quite odd. Vermont has one of the most homogenous populations in the country — overwhelmingly white (especially in 1967), with relatively similar levels of poverty and education statewide. Yet medical practice across the state varied enormously, for all kinds of care. In Middlebury, for instance, only 7 percent of children had their tonsils removed. In Morrisville, 70 percent did.

Dr. Wennberg and some colleagues then did a survey, interviewing 4,000 people around the state, to see whether different patterns of illness could explain the variations in medical care. They couldn’t. The children of Morrisville weren’t suffering from an epidemic of tonsillitis. Instead, they happened to live in a place where a small group of doctors — just five of them — had decided to be aggressive about removing tonsils.

But here was the stunner: Vermonters who lived in towns with more aggressive care weren’t healthier. They were just getting more health care.

Dr. Wennberg would eventually move to Dartmouth and, over the last 30 years, has done versions of his Vermont study for the entire country. Again and again, he has come up with the same broad result. And that result holds the key to health care reform — how to spend less on health care while not making the population any less healthy.

Dr. Wennberg’s story forms the backbone of “Overtreated,” by Shannon Brownlee, which is my choice for the economics book of the year. This was another very good year for economics books. Alan Greenspan wrote a best-selling memoir that was really two books, one an autobiography, the other an exposition on the virtues of the free market. Robert H. Frank and Robert Reich wrote thoughtful books about reversing the excesses of that free market. Paul Collier offered a clearheaded argument for reducing global poverty in “The Bottom Billion.”

But I’m going with Ms. Brownlee’s book because it’s the best description I have yet read of a huge economic problem that we know how to solve — but is so often misunderstood.

As you’ve doubtless heard, this country spends far more money per person on medical care than other countries and still seems to get worse results. We devote 16 percent of our gross domestic product to health care, while Canada and France, where people live longer, spend about 10 percent.

Some of this difference is unavoidable. The United States does more than its share of medical research and bears much of those costs. It also has a diverse, economically unequal population, which, in turn, leads to a diverse and complicated set of health problems.

But health care spending simply can’t continue to rise at its current pace. If it did, it would “eventually overwhelm both the federal budget and workers’ paychecks,” as Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, told me. “Slowing such growth is the single most important step we can take to assure our fiscal future and lift a growing burden on workers.”

Fortunately — if that’s the right word — there is an obvious candidate for cost-cutting: all that care that brings no health benefit. It’s not hard to find examples. Scientific studies have shown that many treatments, including spinal fusion, routine episiotomies and neonatal intensive care, are overdone. These procedures often help specific subsets of patients. But for a lot of people, and “Overtreated” is full of stories, the treatments are a modern-day version of bloodletting.

“We spend between one fifth and one third of our health care dollars,” writes Ms. Brownlee, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and former writer for U.S. News & World Report, “on care that does nothing to improve our health.”

Worst of all, overtreatment often causes harm, because even the safest procedures bring some risk. One study found that a group of Medicare patients admitted to high-spending hospitals were 2 to 6 percent more likely to die than a group admitted to more conservative hospitals.

Why is this happening, then?

Above all, it’s the natural outgrowth of our fee-for-service health care system. It turns doctors into pieceworkers, as Ms. Brownlee puts it, “paid for how much they do, not how well they care for their patients.” Doctors and hospitals typically depend on the volume of work for their income, and they are the gatekeepers who decide when work needs to be done. They also worry about being sued if they do too little. So they err on the side of overtreatment.

Patients play a role, too. We’re entranced by the wonders of modern medicine and fooled by our byzantine health insurance system into thinking that we’re not really paying for all those unnecessary spinal fusions.

The typical book about current affairs is better at describing problems than solutions. But there is a nice surprise at the end of “Overtreated.” (If you find yourself wishing the book had fewer anecdotes, I’d suggest you skip to the end rather than putting it down.) In plain English, Ms. Brownlee lays out an agenda for reform that is usually confined to academic journals.  It includes some steps that should be widely popular, like giving doctors incentives to explain the risks and benefits of procedures more clearly than they do now. Research has shown that patients frequently decide against marginal care when they know the true risks and benefits. Malpractice laws would also need to be changed so doctors were not sued by patients who later changed their minds.

Other solutions would be more difficult — because medical evidence is often murky, because hospitals and insurers would fight to keep their revenues and because most Americans think it’s the other guy who’s getting unnecessary treatment. These are the reasons that presidential candidates don’t focus on wasteful treatment.

But models for reform are out there. Hospitals that don’t use the fee-for-service model, like those run by the Veterans Health Administration, are already getting better results for less money. They closely track their performance — that is, the health of their patients — and motivate employees to improve it.

As I’ve written before, there is nothing wrong with devoting a large chunk of our economy to medical care. Since the 1950s, doctors have made incredible progress against diseases that were once inevitably fatal. That progress is probably the finest human achievement of the last half century.

If we weren’t wasting so much money on overtreatment, it would be a lot easier to repeat the achievement over the next half century.

© 2007-2008 The New York Times Company

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“Overtreated” by Shannon Brownlee:  www.overtreated.com

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About David Leonhardt

David Leonhardt’s column on economics and business, Economic Scene, appears on Wednesday in The New York Times. He is also a staff writer for The Times Magazine.

E-mail: leonhardt@nytimes.com
December 19, 2007 Economic Scene

FILM REVIEW

You Can Heal Your Life, The Movie, by Louise Hay

By Ann Bathgate

If you have heard about positive thinking but don’t understand the process, this is the film for you. If you are already a fan of Louise Hay, you are going to ADORE this film. I am so excited to see it finally released!

Louise Hay is a best selling author, known for her book, “You Can Heal Your Life”. In the book, she describes what ’cause’ is often behind our diseases and illnesses. She developed this list working with clients in her church and consciously noting how they ‘talked’ when they spoke about their cancer, carpal tunnel syndrome, migraines or whatever other ailment was bothering them. I refer to this list regularly in my Angel Readings and Reflexology sessions; clients are always shocked at how accurate Louise’s findings are.

The movie is incredibly done. Every person watching it will relate to our main character, who struggles with thinking negative thoughts.

Throughout the film, the viewer is introduced to the power of our thoughts, and the process of why what we say and think has such an effect on our daily lives. Included in the film (and especially in the extended release) are interviews of well known metaphysical speakers and authors such as Esther and Jerry Hicks, Doreen Virtue and Wayne Dyer.

Through the movie, you are taught how the process WORKS and how you can change YOUR life for the better! It isn’t just about mumbling affirmations and expecting your new car delivered to your front door by the delivery truck. This is a process, step by step, to connect you with what you truly, consciously, want to create in your life.

A wonderful addition to this movie is an option of “Affirmations”. With beautiful music and breathtaking scenes, you are able to affirm with Louise new thoughts about your health, prosperity and relationships. It’s a wonderful DVD to have on as you are milling about your day, cleaning or cookie, affirming all the way to have good enter your life.

In the extended version, there are detailed interviews with those wonderful teachers. It’s definitely a keeper and worth embracing their individual stories.  Enjoy!!! You deserve a wonderful life!

For more information:  www.youcanhealyourlifemovie.com

Visit Ann Bathgate:  www.returntoharmony.com

© 2007 Annie Bathgate.  All Rights Reserved.

COOKBOOK REVIEWS

Vegetable Harvest by Patricia Wells, Vegetables at the Center of the Plate

By Mark Isaac Thyss, Garden of Healing®

William Morrow Cookbooks-Harper Collins (2007)
352 pages | Hardcover | Color Photographs | $43.95

ISBN-10: 0060752440
ISBN-13: 9780060752446

Abandon the old boil-and-saute routine and find out what a master of vegetables can teach you in her new book, “Vegetable Harvest” by Patricia Wells.

Wells, the author of several cookbooks including “The Provence Cookbook”, puts vegetables center stage in this appetizing and innovative collection.

From arugula to zucchini, Patricia offers up a wealth of dishes that incorporate vegetables, herbs, nuts, legumes, and fruits fresh from the garden. And her recipes aren’t limited to summer’s bounty—there are plenty for fall squash and winter potatoes, too.

Patricia Wells lives in Provence and she has written a cookbook based on the produce of her garden. This book is not vegetarian, but the focus is entirely on vegetables.

Well known in food circles, Wells is the restaurant critic for the French weekly, L’Express, and is the food critic for The International Herald Tribune, a post she’s held for more than 25 years. Vegetable Harvest is her tenth book and follows her passion for French cooking. She lives in Paris and runs a cooking school from her hilltop farmhouse in Provence.

One of the many things you will love about her cookbook is that it covers more than luscious summer vegetables. She also has included many recipes for the less flashy winter vegetables such as beets, Brussels sprouts and cabbage.

Written in a straightforward manner, the recipes are without a lot of fussy preparations and using easy-to-find ingredients.  Reading through the recipes you can see that they are manageable even for the novice cook.  Wells divides Vegetable Harvest into 12 sections, covering everything from starters to desserts and the pantry.

After surveying the bounty of her backyard garden, Wells became inspired to build meals around vegetables rather than starting with meat, fish or poultry. She tripled the number she served at each meal and tried different cooking methods, looking for the best-tasting, most wholesome ways of cooking each type. She includes nutritional information and an equipment list for each recipe too.

Also included are occasional wine suggestions, menu plans, French sayings involving food, and little bits of history about vegetables.

The potager, or French vegetable garden, represents the very best of French cuisine: fresh, flavorful, and easily accessible for home cooks everywhere. In Vegetable Harvest, Patricia Wells presents this latest collection of recipes inspired by the very garden she tends.  Open to any page and find something well worth trying out.

© 2007 Mark Isaac Thyss/Garden of Healing®.  All rights reserved.

BOOKS 

The UltraMetabolism Cookbook by Dr. Mark D. Hyman

Synopsis courtesy of the Publisher:

Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group

From the Three-Time New York Times Bestselling Author of Ultraprevention, Ultrametabolism, and The Ultrasimple Diet

In UltraMetabolism, Dr. Mark Hyman brought the new science of weight loss to the general public. By learning to work with the body instead of against it, you can ignite your natural fat-burning furnace and reprogram your body to burn fat and keep it off for good.

Simply put, eat the right foods and send instructions of weight loss and health; eat the wrong foods and send messages of weight gain and disease.

The UltraMetabolism Cookbook puts Ultra-Metabolism into overdrive with 200 convenient, easy-to-prepare, and, of course, delicious recipes for the right foods that will bring on a lifetime of good health and healthy weight.

The first part of the book reacquaints the reader with the UltraMetabolism plan and then offers a wide variety of delicious, easily prepared dishes for both Phase I — the three-week detoxification of your system — and Phase II, which rebalances your metabolism in four weeks and offers the way to a healthy metabolism for life!

Look your best, feel your best, perform at your best, and eat such fantastic meals as Roasted Shrimp, Turkey and Red Bean Chili, and Ratatouille. And that’s just Phase I!

As you progress through the UltraMetabolism plan and enter Phase II, you’ll add satisfying, flavor-packed appetizers — Curried Deviled Eggs with Cashews, anyone? — as well as many more new salads, meats, fish, shellfish, soups, poultry, grains, vegetables, breakfast foods, and snacks. And there are lots of plant-based options and bean dishes forvegetarians.

In addition to the clear, cutting-edge science and great recipes in The UltraMetabolism Cookbook, you’ll find countless ideas of how to integrate the UltraMetabolism way of eating into your lifestyle, from quick weeknight suppers to entertaining and holiday meals.

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List Price:  $29.95

ISBN: 1416549595
Format: Hardcover, 304pp
Publication Date: November 2007

© 2007 Garden of Healing®.  All rights reserved.

BOOK REVIEWS

The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure, A Holistic Approach to Total Recovery

Power Press
336 pages | paperback | $15.95
ISBN: 978-0-943015-44-6

“…excellent book. I heartily recommend it to all, especially to those who have friends who have addictions.”
—William House, www.reversespins.com

The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure reveals the three-step program to total recovery that is the basis of the miraculous success of the Passages Addiction Cure Center in Malibu, California. World-renowned Passages, the most successful substance abuse center, has a cure rate of 84.4%.

The book shows how your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs are key factors in recovery and how you can stimulate your body’s self-healing potential to be forever free of dependency. The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure will show you how to end relapse, end your craving, and end your suffering.

Follow the same successful program used at Passages with the help of health professionals right where you live. Learn the three steps to permanent sobriety, the four causes of dependency, and how to create your own personalized treatment program—one that gets to the real, underlying causes of dependency.

“An excellent resource for anyone dealing with addictions or trying to understand their life. This book contains the information that can start you on the road to recovery.”
—Bernie Siegel, M.D., author of 365 Prescriptions for the Soul and 101 Exercises for the Soul

“Freedom from dependency starts with understanding that alcohol and drugs are not the problems,” says Chris Prentiss, author and co founder of Passages. “They are merely the substances you are using to help yourself cope with your real problems, anything from hypoglycemia or a sluggish thyroid to brain-wave pattern imbalances or deep emotional pain. Once your underlying problems are discovered and cured, your need for drugs and alcohol will disappear—along with your craving.”

Prentiss should know. His son Pax was addicted to heroin, cocaine, and alcohol for ten years. They sought help everywhere, but Pax relapsed again and again. In desperation, they finally created their own holistic, hand-tailored program that was a complete break from all other programs and that combined several effective therapies. It saved Pax’s life. Together, father and son founded Passages to help others find their own freedom. A visionary and an innovator, Chris Prentiss brings new hope to people everywhere who are dependent on drugs and alcohol.

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www.passagesmalibu.com

About the Author
Chris Prentiss is co founder and co director of the Passages Substance Abuse Treatment Center, located in Malibu, California. Prentiss has also led personal empowerment workshops in southern California. The successful principles that evolved from his seminars are foundational to his revolutionary Passages program.

Prentiss is also the author of a dozen books on personal growth and has written, produced, and directed a feature film.

Available at:  www.power-press.com

© 2007 Garden of Healing®. All rights reserved.