Health

A New York Times bestseller/Washington Post Notable Book of 2017/NPR Best Books of 2017/Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2017

"This book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America."--Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene

At a moment of drastic political upheaval, An American Sickness is a shocking investigation into our dysfunctional healthcare system - and offers practical solutions to its myriad problems.

In these troubled times, perhaps no institution has unraveled more quickly and more completely than American medicine. In only a few decades, the medical system has been overrun by organizations seeking to exploit for profit the trust that vulnerable and sick Americans place in their healthcare. Our politicians have proven themselves either unwilling or incapable of reining in the increasingly outrageous costs faced by patients, and market-based solutions only seem to funnel larger and larger sums of our money into the hands of corporations. Impossibly high insurance premiums and inexplicably large bills have become facts of life; fatalism has set in. Very quickly Americans have been made to accept paying more for less. How did things get so bad so fast?

Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industries--the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers--that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. How did healthcare, the caring endeavor, become healthcare, the highly profitable industry? Hospital systems, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Patients receive bills in code, from entrepreneurial doctors they never even saw.

The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.

From hunting and gathering to GMOs and ultraprocessed foods, this expansive tour of human history rewrites the story of our species--and points the way to a better future.

The history of Homo sapiens is usually told as a story of technology or economics. But there is a more fundamental driver: food. How we hunted and gathered explains our emergence as a new species and our earliest technology; our first food systems, from fire to agriculture, tell where we settled and how civilizations expanded. The quest for food for growing populations drove exploration, colonialism, slavery, even capitalism.

A century ago, food was industrialized. Since then, new styles of agriculture and food production have written a new chapter of human history, one that's driving both climate change and global health crises. Best-selling food authority Mark Bittman offers a panoramic view of the story and explains how we can rescue ourselves from the modern wrong turn.

Too busy? Too stressed? Can't focus? But would you love to discover the power of regular practice?

This book is for you. The Book of Yoga Self-Practiceis the ultimate guide for every aspiring yogi or dedicated student who wants to find the magic of an independent yoga self-practice - one that's simple, practical, captivating and attainable.

No need to travel to a class, or struggle to find the exact type of teaching you need in any given moment. No need to follow a video or come up with the pre-planned sequence. No need to keep spending money on classes or subscriptions that never quite fit the bill. This step-by-step guide will show you how to overcome the challenges of starting, continuing and progressing in a yoga self-practice. It combines heartfelt writing with beautiful, clear design to provide 20 usable and unbelievably helpful tools that you can implement in your yoga practice today. Learn to practice anywhere at anytime, not just do poses. Fast, slow, short, long - your flow starts here. Start reaping the incredible rewards for your body and mind.

After a century of misunderstanding the differences between diet, weight control, and health, The Case for Keto revolutionizes how we think about healthy eating--from the best-selling author of Why We Get Fat and The Case Against Sugar.

Based on twenty years of investigative reporting and interviews with 100 practicing physicians who embrace the keto lifestyle as the best prescription for their patients' health, Gary Taubes gives us a manifesto for the twenty-first-century fight against obesity and diabetes.

For years, health organizations have preached the same rules for losing weight: restrict your calories, eat less, exercise more. So why doesn't it work for everyone? Taubes, whose seminal book Good Calories, Bad Calories and cover stories for The New York Times Magazine changed the way we look at nutrition and health, sets the record straight.

The Case for Keto puts the ketogenic diet movement in the necessary historical and scientific perspective. It makes clear the vital misconceptions in how we've come to think about obesity and diet (no, people do not become fat simply because they eat too much; hormones play the critical role) and uses the collected clinical experience of the medical community to provide essential practical advice.

Taubes reveals why the established rules about eating healthy might be the wrong approach to weight loss for millions of people, and how low-carbohydrate, high-fat/ketogenic diets can help so many of us achieve and maintain a healthy weight for life.

As Seen on the Today Show!

The USA Today Bestseller!

The last book you'll ever need about cellulite, and the first book you need to take control and change your health forever!

Forget everything you've ever been told about cellulite--it's a myth! Ashley Black, fascia pioneer, and body guru to the stars, unveils never before known secrets to obliterating cellulite and changing your personal health paradigm. For years we've been conditioned to believe that cellulite is a fat problem, yet skinny girls have it, active girls have it, sedentary girls have it, curvy girls have it, older women have it and, guess what, so do younger women. In fact, 90% of women struggle with it . . . you are not alone!

The appearance of fat is affected by the sticky webbing of tissue it's housed in called fascia--which can be manipulated. Get ready for the most radical shift in Health and Beauty of the century! Obliterate cellulite, transform your body, and revolutionize your life!

"If your 'weighty thinking' does not change, then even if you lose weight you'll retain an overwhelming subconscious urge to gain it back. It's less important how quickly you lose weight, and more important how holistically you lose weight; you want your mind, your emotions, and your body to all 'lose weight.' Weight that disappears from your body but not from your soul is simply recycling outward for a while but is almost certain to return. It's self-defeating, therefore, to struggle to drop excess weight unless you are also willing to drop the thought-forms that initially produced it and now hold it in place."-- Marianne Williamson What is the connection between spirituality and weight loss? Best-selling author Marianne Williamson is about to answer that question for you in her groundbreaking new book, bringing you 21 spiritual lessons to help you surrender your weight forever. These lessons form a holistic paradigm for weight loss, addressing the spiritual, emotional, and psychological elements involved in what Williamson refers to as "conscious weight loss." If you are a food addict, a compulsive eater, or someone who for any reason sees food as the enemy, this book is for you.A Course in Weight Loss addresses the true causal root of your weight-loss issues: a place within you where you have forgotten your divine perfection. This forgetfulness has confused not only your mind but also your body, making you reach for that which cannot sustain you . . . and reject that which does. As your mind reclaims its spiritual intelligence, your body will reclaim its natural intelligence as well.The 21 lessons in this book will take you on a deep, sacred journey. One step at a time, you will learn to shift your relationship with yourself--and your body--from one of fear to one of love. And you will begin to integrate the various parts of yourself--mind, body, and spirit--to become, once again, and in all ways, the beautiful and peaceful person you were created to be.As Williamson writes: "When it comes to your enjoyment of eating, your best days are not behind you but ahead of you!" So get ready to begin a new relationship with food . . . and with yourself.

Enter the trenches of the bloodiest battles you've never heard of: the Vaccine Wars.

Professor Christopher A Shaw discovered, after a deep-dive literature search on aluminum impacts on humans and animals, that aluminum hydroxide, an adjuvant in the anthrax vaccine, had a significantly negative impact on motor functions and reflexes of patients in the literature. After that finding, he did what scientists are supposed to do and kept following the leads. However, organizations like WHO dismissed him immediately. Those powerful organizations either knew what he knew, that aluminum vaccine adjuvants were harmful, or they simply didn't care. In either case, two possible reasons for the lack of response became clear to Shaw and his colleagues: dogma and money. The first had served to convince most of the world's medical professionals that Shaw had to be wrong because, after all, "the science was settled." And, behind much of this was the naked fact of how much money vaccines brought in to cover the pharmaceutical industry's profit margin. The combination of those two have the finger prints of various Big Pharma companies smudged all over the question of vaccine safety, which included the demonization of both scientists and lay scholars who raised even the tamest questions about safety and the push for vaccine mandates around the world. After these events, Shaw decided to dig deeper.

Dispatches from the Vaccine Wars is a comprehensive look at the origin of vaccination and the oversight of vaccines by various regulatory bodies in the United States and in Canada. The book provides not only the official view on vaccines safety and efficacy, but also provides a critical analysis on which such views are based. Aluminum and other compounds that may contribute to autism spectrum disorder are discussed at length. Professor Shaw also analyzes the corporate influences driving vaccine uptake worldwide and provides an in depth look at the push for mandatory vaccination. Dispatches from the Vaccine Wars evaluates the extent to which vaccinology has become a cult religion driving attempts to suppress divergent scientific opinions. Finally, the book delves into the COVID-19 pandemic and what it means for the future of us all.

From one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, a powerful argument that the greatest damage from drugs flows from their being illegal, and a hopeful reckoning with the possibility of their use as part of a responsible and happy life

Dr. Carl L. Hart, Ziff Professor at Columbia University and former chair of the Department of Psychology, is one of the world's preeminent experts on the effects of so-called recreational drugs on the human mind and body. Dr. Hart is open about the fact that he uses drugs himself, in a happy balance with the rest of his full and productive life as a colleague, husband, father, and friend. In Drug Use for Grown-Ups, he draws on decades of research and his own personal experience to argue definitively that the criminalization and demonization of drug use--not drugs themselves--have been a tremendous scourge on America, not least in reinforcing this country's enduring structural racism.

Dr. Hart did not always have this view. He came of age in one of Miami's most troubled neighborhoods at a time when many ills were being laid at the door of crack cocaine. His initial work as a researcher was aimed at proving that drug use caused bad outcomes. But one problem kept cropping up: the evidence from his research did not support his hypothesis. From inside the massively well-funded research arm of the American war on drugs, he saw how the facts did not support the ideology. The truth was dismissed and distorted in order to keep fear and outrage stoked, the funds rolling in, and black and brown bodies behind bars.

Drug Use for Grown-Ups will be controversial, to be sure: the propaganda war, Dr. Hart argues, has been tremendously effective. Imagine if the only subject of any discussion about driving automobiles was fatal car crashes. Drug Use for Grown-Ups offers a radically different vision: when used responsibly, drugs can enrich and enhance our lives. We have a long way to go, but the vital conversation this book will generate is an extraordinarily important step.

Experience a radically inclusive and informative collection of stories, essays, interviews, and art about sex, relationships, and body confidence.

Have you ever had a question about sex--whether out of curiosity, desire, or the sneaking suspicion you're, somehow, different? Every Body will help you feel less alone. It's a huge collection of anonymous stories, essays, artwork, and expert tell-alls on myriad subjects, all rolled into one. Really, it's the conversations most of us are too scared to start.

Thanks to talented duo Julia Rothman and Shaina Feinberg, we don't have to. The stories, essays, and interviews they've compiled touch on a wide array of topics, including first times, open relationships, body acceptance, accidental pregnancies, sex toys, pleasure, fear and trauma, sexual discovery, and more.

Framed by dozens of artists' illustrations, deeply personal interviews, and expert essays that address stigmas and clichés, this book is an informative, welcoming, and inclusive user's guide to your body, no matter its shape, size, or preferences.

A dynamic group of voices and styles makes Every Body an essential resource and helpful companion as you explore your own body (and more!).

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

I want to be healthy and fit 52 weeks of the year, but that doesn't mean I have to be perfect every day. This philosophy is a year-round common-sense approach to health and fitness that involves doing your best most of the time--and by that I don't mean being naughty for three days and good for four. I mean doing your absolute best most of the time during every week, 52 weeks of the year.--Carrie Underwood

Carrie Underwood believes that fitness is a lifelong journey. She wasn't born with the toned arms and strong legs that fans know her for. Like all of us, she has to work hard every day to look the way that she does! In FIND YOUR PATH she shares her secrets with readers, with the ultimate goal of being the strongest version of themselves, and looking as good as they feel. Carrie's book will share secrets for fitting diet and exercise into a packed routine--she's not only a multi-Platinum singer, she's a businesswoman and busy mom with two young children. Based on her own active lifestyle, diet, and workouts, FIND YOUR PATH is packed with meal plans, recipes, weekly workout programs, and guidelines for keeping a weekly food and workout journal. It also introduces readers to Carrie's signature Fit52 workout, which involves a deck of cards and exercises that can be done at home--and it sets her fans on a path to sustainable health and fitness for life. Fit52 begins with embracing the Pleasure Principle in eating, making healthy swaps in your favorite recipes, and embracing a long view approach to health--so that a cheat a day won't derail you.

Throughout the book, Carrie shares her personal journey towards optimal health, from her passion for sports as a kid, to the pressure to look perfect and fit the mold as she launched her career after winning American Idol, to eventually discovering the importance of balance and the meaning of true health. For Carrie, being fit isn't about crash diets or a workout routine that you're going to dread. It's about healthy choices and simple meals that you can put together from the ingredients in your local grocery store, and making the time, every day, to move, to love your body, and to be the best version of yourself.

A psychiatrist and psychedelic researcher explores the science of connection--why we need it, how we've lost it, and how we might find it again.

We are suffering from an epidemic of disconnection that antidepressants and social media can't fix. This state of isolation puts us in "fight or flight mode," deranging sleep, metabolism and libido. What's worse, we're paranoid of others. This kill-or-be-killed framework is not a way to live. But, when we feel safe and loved, we can rest, digest, and repair. We can heal. And it is only in this state of belonging that we can open up to connection with others.

In this powerful book, Holland helps us to understand the science of connection as revealed in human experiences from the spiritual to the psychedelic. The key is oxytocin--a neurotransmitter and hormone produced in our bodies that allows us to trust and bond. It fosters attachment between mothers and infants, romantic partners, friends, and even with our pets. There are many ways to reach this state of mental and physical wellbeing that modern medicine has overlooked. The implications for our happiness and health are profound.

We can find oneness in meditation, in community, or in awe at the beauty around us. Another option: psychedelic medicines that can catalyze a connection with the self, with nature, or the cosmos. Good Chemistry points us on the right path to forging true and deeper attachments with our own souls, to one another, and even to our planet, helping us heal ourselves and our world.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Salt Sugar Fat comes a "gripping" (The Wall Street Journal) exposé of how the processed food industry exploits our evolutionary instincts, the emotions we associate with food, and legal loopholes in their pursuit of profit over public health.

"The processed food industry has managed to avoid being lumped in with Big Tobacco--which is why Michael Moss's new book is so important."--Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit

Everyone knows how hard it can be to maintain a healthy diet. But what if some of the decisions we make about what to eat are beyond our control? Is it possible that food is addictive, like drugs or alcohol? And to what extent does the food industry know, or care, about these vulnerabilities? In Hooked, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss sets out to answer these questions--and to find the true peril in our food.

Moss uses the latest research on addiction to uncover what the scientific and medical communities--as well as food manufacturers--already know: that food, in some cases, is even more addictive than alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. Our bodies are hardwired for sweets, so food giants have developed fifty-six types of sugar to add to their products, creating in us the expectation that everything should be cloying; we've evolved to prefer fast, convenient meals, hence our modern-day preference for ready-to-eat foods. Moss goes on to show how the processed food industry--including major companies like Nestlé, Mars, and Kellogg's--has tried not only to evade this troubling discovery about the addictiveness of food but to actually exploit it. For instance, in response to recent dieting trends, food manufacturers have simply turned junk food into junk diets, filling grocery stores with "diet" foods that are hardly distinguishable from the products that got us into trouble in the first place. As obesity rates continue to climb, manufacturers are now claiming to add ingredients that can effortlessly cure our compulsive eating habits.

A gripping account of the legal battles, insidious marketing campaigns, and cutting-edge food science that have brought us to our current public health crisis, Hooked lays out all that the food industry is doing to exploit and deepen our addictions, and shows us why what we eat has never mattered more.

From one-minute miracles to daily routines, this guide to the micro practice of yoga has you covered.

Not everyone can get to a yoga studio, so let The Little Book of Yoga Practices be your portable guide. From one-minute miracles to daily routines, this guide to the micro practice of yoga has you covered. With yoga routines for any time of day, perfecting your balance and relaxing your body has never been simpler. Flip to poses that will target key emotions, or follow the monthly guide, the choice is yours. With easy-to-follow poses just a page turn away, you'll have one less reason to skip your daily workout.