The History Book Club discussion

Hello Everyone,

This is the introductory thread for our Health - Medicine - Science discussions. Feel free to jump into any discussion or start one on any of these existing threads. Just stay on the topic of the thread and you should do fine. We would love to hear about new books which focus on any of these areas whether they be non fiction or historical fiction. Any people or events which pertain to any of these areas can be discussed and please feel free to add any non self promoting links or urls.

When adding books and authors, please be sure to follow the HBC's guidelines.

Thank you and I look forward to some great conversation.

All best,

Bentley

Here is a listing of the topics that we have added thus far and their focus:

1. Health
2. Medicine
3. Science
4. Genetics
5. Evolution
6. Space Travel
7. Plagues and Epidemics
8. Diseases
9. Best of the Best
10. Forensic Science
11. Afterlife
12. Environmental Sciences
13. Body-Snatchers and Resurrection Men
14. Mathematics
15. Philosophy (MIND/BODY/BIOLOGY/PSYCHOLOGY)
16. Artificial Intelligence
17. Ecological Psychology
18. Eastern Medicine
19. Chemistry
20. Physics
21. Surgery
22. Botany and the Botanical Sciences
23. Biology
24. Social Psychology, Behavioral Economics. Organizational Behavior
25. Psychiatry - Psychology - Counseling - Therapy
26. Midwifery
27. Medicine
28. Chat Room - Calling all Scientists
29. Chat Room for Medical and Health Professionals
30. Suggestions - Health - Medicine - Science

Two articles on the increase of numbers of people infected with the WEST NILE VIRUS:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nationa...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nationa...

André wrote: "Two articles on the increase of numbers of people infected with the WEST NILE VIRUS:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nationa......"

This is somewhat alarming. Mosquitos are ubiquitous, very disconcerting.

The FDA.

Synposis:
The first big indictment of the FDA by Ralph Nader and James Turner.

James.....good try on the citations. It takes a while to get the hang of it but it will become second nature after a few posts. The order of citation is book cover, author photo(if available) and author link. In order to add a synopsis, you can use the synopsis that is included with the book description on GR......example.

The Chemical Feast

by James S. Turner (no photo)

Synopsis:

Ralph Nader's Summer Study Groups of 1969 raided various Washington departments and agencies to expose to public view the workings--and of course, the failings--of federal bureaucracy. This particular task force, under the direction of James S. Turner, checked out the Food and Drug Administration on the issue of food standards and their enforcement and found it wanting. "Americans should ask why members of the food industry, America's largest retail industry, have been allowed to let the safety, wholesomeness, and value of their products deteriorate." The aggressive fact-finding here lays a heavy burden of guilt at the FDA's door and on the heads of the powerful food lobbyists. Together, in the words of Nader himself, they have fostered "processing and marketing practices that have transformed the defrauding of consumers into a competitive advantage--a kind of reverse competition (deceptive packaging alone costs consumers billions yearly)." The sorry record of FDA treatment of the recently-banned cyclamates is reviewed as a representative case study of how they fail to provide the kind of protection for the food supply which the American consumer expects and the Study Group demands. When the FDA does act, it shows frightening vigor in pursuing minor transgressors while failing to tackle the giant corporate frauds. The report illustrates how food standards are manipulated and subverted, and how the FDA neglects its research as well as its regulatory rote and becomes mired in bureaucratic self-defense. On the issue of food-borne diseases, the study advocates an active role for the FDA in influencing food consumption patterns to control "the nation's disgracefully high infant mortality rate, low rise in life expectancy, and seemingly insoluble problems of stroke, heart disease, and cancer." Much to worry about if you are what you eat.

Thanks Jill....

You are more than welcome. It takes a few times but it keeps the postings consistent on all the threads.

by

Synopsis:

The medical environment has become a labyrinth of interlocking corporate, hospital, and governmental boards of directors, infiltrated by the drug companies. Drug company representatives write glowing articles about pharmaceuticals, which are then signed by physicians paid handsomely for their cooperation, though they may not know the adverse side effects of the drugs they promote. The most toxic substances are often approved first, while milder and more natural alternatives are ignored for financial reasons. It's death by medicine.

by Natalie Robins

Synopsis:

Today, one out of every three Americans uses some form of alternative medicine, either along with their conventional (“standard,” “traditional”) medications or in place of them. One of the most controversial–as well as one of the most popular–alternatives is homeopathy, a wholly Western invention brought to America from Germany in 1827, nearly forty years before the discovery that germs cause disease. Homeopathy is a therapy that uses minute doses of natural substances–minerals, such as mercury or phosphorus; various plants, mushrooms, or bark; and insect, shellfish, and other animal products, such as Oscillococcinum. These remedies mimic the symptoms of the sick person and are said to bring about relief by “entering” the body’s “vital force.” Many homeopaths believe that the greater the dilution, the greater the medical benefit, even though often not a single molecule of the original substance remains in the solution.
In Copeland’s Cure, Natalie Robins tells the fascinating story of homeopathy in this country; how it came to be accepted because of the gentleness of its approach–Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were outspoken advocates, as were Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Daniel Webster. We find out about the unusual war between alternative and conventional medicine that began in 1847, after the AMA banned homeopaths from membership even though their medical training was identical to that of doctors practicing traditional medicine. We learn how homeopaths were increasingly considered not to be “real” doctors, and how “real” doctors risked expulsion from the AMA if they even consulted with a homeopath.

At the center of Copeland's Cure is Royal Samuel Copeland, the now-forgotten maverick senator from New York who served from 1923 to 1938. Copeland was a student of both conventional and homeopathic medicine, an eye surgeon who became president of the American Institute of Homeopathy, dean of the New York Homeopathic Medical College, and health commissioner of New York City from 1918 to 1923 (he instituted unique approaches to the deadly flu pandemic). We see how Copeland straddled the worlds of politics (he befriended Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, among others) and medicine (as senator, he helped get rid of medical “diploma mills”). His crowning achievement was to give homeopathy lasting legitimacy by including all its remedies in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938.

Finally, the author brings the story of clashing medical beliefs into the present, and describes the role of homeopathy today and how some of its practitioners are now adhering to the strictest standards of scientific research–controlled, randomized, double-blind clinical studies.

by Patch Adams, M.D.

Synopsis:

Dr. Patch Adams knows the inner side of healing. House Calls is a reminder that some of the most important factors in healing are not high-tech marvels but ordinary factors such as love, compassion, friendship, and hope. This book will lighten anyone's heart and assist him or her on a healing journey.

by Friedhelm Kirchfeld

Synopsis:

Nature doctors were true pioneers practicing holistic and preventive medicine long before these terms became fashionable. Their wisdom can still offer inspiration and guidance for the practice of modern medicine, naturopathic or otherwise.

by John Robbins]

Synopsis:

Fears of Frankenfood, e-coli and "mad cow" meat abound. If, indeed, we are what we eat, what in the world are we becoming? John Robbins, who revolutionized how we think about food, reveals the truth about our already deadly diet. He boldly posits that, collectively, our personal diet can save ourselves and the world. If, according to chaos theory, the beating of a butterfly's wing can cause a hurricane in another part of the world, try this out for chaotic cause and effect: monarch butterflies are dying in droves due to genetically-engineered corn growing in the Midwest. There is also a direct correlation between the Big Mac in your hand and the mile-wide river now running across the North Pole. Learn the truth about foods we are eating that are, in Robbins' words, "unsafe on any plate."

by Aaron Bobrow-Strain

Synopsis:

How did white bread, once an icon of American progress, become “white trash”? In this lively history of bakers, dietary crusaders, and social reformers, Aaron Bobrow-Strain shows us that what we think about the humble, puffy loaf says a lot about who we are and what we want our society to look like.

White Bread teaches us that when Americans debate what one should eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class, immigration, and gender. As Bobrow-Strain traces the story of bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet pain au levain, he shows how efforts to champion “good food” reflect dreams of a better society—even as they reinforce stark social hierarchies.

In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, “dirty” bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was considered the original “superfood” and even marketed as patriotic—while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of all that was wrong with America.

The history of America’s one-hundred-year-long love-hate relationship with white bread reveals a lot about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat. Today, the alternative food movement favors foods deemed ethical and environmentally correct to eat, and fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get. Still, the beliefs of early twentieth-century food experts and diet gurus, that getting people to eat a certain food could restore the nation’s decaying physical, moral, and social fabric, will sound surprisingly familiar. Given that open disdain for “unhealthy” eaters and discrimination on the basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, White Bread is a timely and important examination of what we talk about when we talk about food.

by Walter Gratzer

Synopsis:

How did white bread, once an icon of American progress, become “white trash”? In this lively history of bakers, dietary crusaders, and social reformers, Aaron Bobrow-Strain shows us that what we think about the humble, puffy loaf says a lot about who we are and what we want our society to look like.

White Bread teaches us that when Americans debate what one should eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class, immigration, and gender. As Bobrow-Strain traces the story of bread, from the first factory loaf to the latest gourmet pain au levain, he shows how efforts to champion “good food” reflect dreams of a better society—even as they reinforce stark social hierarchies.

In the early twentieth century, the factory-baked loaf heralded a bright new future, a world away from the hot, dusty, “dirty” bakeries run by immigrants. Fortified with vitamins, this bread was considered the original “superfood” and even marketed as patriotic—while food reformers painted white bread as a symbol of all that was wrong with America.

The history of America’s one-hundred-year-long love-hate relationship with white bread reveals a lot about contemporary efforts to change the way we eat. Today, the alternative food movement favors foods deemed ethical and environmentally correct to eat, and fluffy industrial loaves are about as far from slow, local, and organic as you can get. Still, the beliefs of early twentieth-century food experts and diet gurus, that getting people to eat a certain food could restore the nation’s decaying physical, moral, and social fabric, will sound surprisingly familiar. Given that open disdain for “unhealthy” eaters and discrimination on the basis of eating habits grow increasingly acceptable, White Bread is a timely and important examination of what we talk about when we talk about food.

by Jonathan W. Emord

Synopsis:

Jonathan W. Emord’s book The Rise of Tyranny is an excellent, well written critic on the struggles of reasonable citizens in opposition to the FDA and pharmaceutical collusion against freedom of speech and the Constitution. As a lawyer who has successfully argued against the FDA on six occasions, Emord brings twenty years of experience and first-hand knowledge to his subject. Reaching back to the 1930’s, Emord explains the rise of Congressional authority delegated to non-elected officials with the power to write law, police compliance and prosecute offenders using laws that go practically unsupervised by those elected through democratic process. In the final pages of the book, Emord outlines steps the U.S. needs to take to regain the freedom that the founding fathers desired for the United States.--Review by Ciara Darren

by Durk Pearson

Synopsis:

"This books was written to help reverse an FDA that is out of control. In the name of safety, the FDA has made us less safe; it is killing far more people that it is saving with its regulations. The current FDA system is rigid, authoritarian, elitist, insensitive, and even (at times) crininal." --as supplied by the Publisher.

by Scott Tips

Synopsis:

A must read if you want to have a Voice through which to make your desires for health freedom known.

The National Health Federation is the oldest health freedom organization in the World and the ONLY one who is allowed to speak, submit paperwork and correct the final entry at standard-setting Codex meetings. If you don't know what Codex is, you will hand over your right to choose what you eat, drink and who you see as a practitioner. If you want a say in your life and the life of your family and loved ones then you must take time to educate yourself and then participate.--as supplied by Kat Carroll.

James, if the book cover image is unavailable, just use the book link.

(no image) The Rise Of Tyranny by Jonathan W. Emord (no photo)
(no image) Freedom Of Informed Choice: Fda Versus Nutrient Supplements by Durk Pearson (no photo)
(no image) Codex Alimentarius Global Food Imperialism by Scott Tips (no photo)

If the author photo is available, use both the photo and the link:
by Gary Null

Thanks for the posts. And one more thing, this is the introduction thread. You might consider posting in the Health thread.

James, great posts but could you move them to this thread - I think more folks will see them there.

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...

You are doing well with citations. But remember if there is no book cover - then just add the booklink and if there is no author's photo - after the author's link just add (no photo).

All you have to do is to do an edit - then select all in your message box - do a copy and when you get to the Health thread just do a paste there. When that is done we will delete the ones here so as not to clutter up the intro thread and they will be in the Health section where these happen to belong. Check out all of the different threads in their folder - there are many and make sure that the your posts match the topic for that thread.

The Books Project

At this link, Sean Carroll, Ph.D. a senior research associate in the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology gives a list of his favorite books:

http://thebooksproject.co/sean-carroll/

Thanks for the above add and link Kathy.

Seconding. What a great list. Thanks.

Kathy wrote: "The Books Project

At this link, Sean Carroll, Ph.D. a senior research associate in the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology gives a list of his favorite books:

http://t..."

I will be interested to see what people think of the next group read. I suppose I can't be said to be participating exactly, since I finished the book a while ago but I do look forward to seeing other peoples opinions.

Deborah wrote: "I will be interested to see what people think of the next group read. I suppose I can't be said to be participating exactly, since I finished the book a while ago but I do look forward to seeing ot..."

I hope to see your comments too.

Kathy - I will certainly comment if there is a discussion :) wouldn't want to start with spoilers though.

Hello; So how are all the readers of Stiff going? Or is there another discussion thread for this book...?

Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America's Greatest Medical Discovery and The Haunted Men Who Made It

by Julie M. Fenster

Synopsis:

Ether Day is the unpredictable story of America's first major scientific discovery -- the use of anesthesia -- told in an absorbing narrative that traces the dawn of modern surgery through the lives of three extraordinary men. Ironically, the "discovery" was really no discovery at all: Ether and nitrous oxide had been known for more than forty years to cause insensitivity to pain, yet, with names like "laughing gas," they were used almost solely for entertainment. Meanwhile, patients still underwent operations during which they saw, heard, and felt every cut the surgeon made. The image of a grim and grisly operating room, like the one in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, was in fact starkly accurate in portraying the conditions of surgery before anesthesia.

With hope for relief seemingly long gone, the breakthrough finally came about by means of a combination of coincidence and character, as a cunning Boston dentist crossed paths with an inventive colleague from Hartford and a brilliant Harvard-trained physician. William Morton, Horace Wells, and Charles Jackson: a con man, a dreamer, and an intellectual. Though Wells was crushed by derision when he tried to introduce anesthetics, Morton prevailed, with help from Jackson. The result was Ether Day, October 16, 1846, celebrated around the world. By that point, though, no honor was enough. Ether Day was not only the dawn of modern surgery, but the beginning of commercialized medicine as well, as Morton patented the discovery.

What followed was a battle so bitter that it sent all three men spiraling wildly out of control, at the same time that anesthetics began saving countless lives. Meticulously researched and masterfully written, Ether Day is a riveting look at one of history's most remarkable untold stories.

An upcoming book:
Release date: September 29, 2015

The Heart Healers: The Misfits, Mavericks, and Rebels Who Created the Greatest Medical Breakthrough of Our Lives

by James Forrester

At one time, heart disease was a death sentence. In The Heart Healers, world reknowned cardiac surgeon Dr. James Forrester tells the story of the mavericks and rebels who defied the accumulated medical wisdom of the day to begin conquering heart disease. By the middle of the 20th century, heart disease was killing millions and, as with the Black Death centuries before, physicians stood helpless. Visionairies, though, had begun to make strides earlier. On Sept. 7, 1895, Ludwig Rehn successfully sutured the heart of a living man with a knife wound to the chest for the first time. Once it was deemed possible to perform surgery on the heart, others followed. In 1929, Dr. Werner Forssman inserted a cardiac catheter in his own arm and forced the x-ray technician on duty to take a photo as he successfully threaded it down the vein into his own heart...and lived. On June 6, 1944 - D-Day - another momentous event occured far from the Normandy beaches: Dr. Dwight Harken sutured the shrapnel-injured heart of a young soldier, saved his life and the term "cardiac surgeon" born.

Dr. Forrester tells the story of these rebels and the risks they took with their own lives and the lives of others to heal the most elemental of human organs - the heart. The result is a compelling chronicle of a disease and its cure, a disease that is still with us, but one that is slowly being worn away by "The Heart Healers".

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

by Elizabeth Kolbert

Synopsis:

Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

In prose that is at once frank, entertaining, and deeply informed, The New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept, Kolbert provides a moving and comprehensive account of the disappearances occurring before our very eyes. She shows that the sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy, compelling us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

Next Medicine: The Science and Civics of Health

by Walter M. Bortz II (no photo)

Synopsis:

Every year, the average American spends about $7,300 on medical expenses. The typical Canadian pays $2,700, the Briton only $2,000. And yet, according to the World Health Organization, our healthcare system, in terms of total quality, ranks thirty-eighth in the world, right between Costa Rica and Slovenia. Not only do 40 million Americans lack health insurance, but more than 200,000 die each year because of medical mistakes. Our average life expectancy is lower than Cuba's.

In Next Medicine, Walter Bortz shows how the defects of American healthcare threaten the stability of our entire nation. A physician with fifty years of experience and an expert on aging, Bortz argues that the financial interests of biotech and drug companies have eroded the values of the medical profession and placed profit before human wellbeing.

Heart disease, for example, is widely treated with drug interventions and invasive surgery--both of which are extravagantly profitable for pharmaceutical giants and hospitals. But daily exercise and a healthy diet can prevent heart disease altogether, and can be obtained by patients essentially for free. As such, the medical-industrial complex has a vested interest in keeping Americans sick, and until that changes medicine will fail to effectively address the leading cause of disability and mortality today: chronic diseases like diabetes that are largely preventable.

Dissecting these and other symptoms of our ailing healthcare system, Bortz prescribes a potent therapy: a radical new approach to medicine that emphasizes personal responsibility and provides incentives for healthy lifestyle choices, along with a new class of medical professionals trained to promote health rather than to treat disease. Nothing less than a paradigm shift, Bortz's proposal goes far beyond the administrative tinkering proposed by politicians and special interests.

Thank you Francie, Jerome and Katie

Our Unsystematic Health Care System

by Grace Budrys (no photo)

Synopsis

The aim of this book is to present the reader with a comprehensive overview of the U.S. health care delivery system. A central theme running through the book revolves around the fact that Americans have expressed a high level of dissatisfaction with the country's health care arrangements for many years, yet have been unable to come up with reforms that would address the main point of dissatisfaction: the steadily rising cost of care. One of the primary objectives of the book is to provide a clear explanation of the health insurance arrangements operating in this country; both public, such as Medicare, and private, which is generally employment-based. The workings of structures that combine payment and provision of health care services, namely HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations), are described in detail. The health care systems developed by other countries are examined to illustrate how this country's 'unsystematic system' differs from those in most other highly industrialized countries. Special attention is directed to hospital and health occupational trends.

Statistics gathered by government agencies and researchers associated with various nonprofit organizations are used to illustrate points of discussion. The final chapters of the book address attempts to control costs and changes promoted by sponsors of the most recent reform plans.

Surgery folder

10 Crucial Questions To Ask Before You Undergo Heart Surgery- That Could Save Your Life: A Top MD Shares His 30 Years of Experience - What Every Patient Needs to Ask Before Any Heart Surgery

by Dr. Paul B. Langevin (no photo)

Synopsis:

Hearing that you need a heart operation can be overwhelming for most patients as well as for their families. Even when you may suspect that you have a heart problem, finding out that you need an operation to fix it, is frequently the last thing you expect to hear. It can be terribly difficult to collect your thoughts at such times but it’s really important to do just that. What you don’t know really CAN hurt you. Hopefully this book will provide some insight that will help you evaluate and manage the situation should it ever confront you and it very likely will. Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans. Be your own advocate by being educated.

Seeing Further: Ideas, Endeavours, Discoveries and Disputes — The Story of Science Through 350 Years of the Royal Society

by Bill Bryson

Synopsis:

Edited and introduced by Bill Bryson, and with contributions from Richard Dawkins, Margaret Atwood, David Attenborough, Martin Rees and Richard Fortey amongst others, this is a remarkable volume celebrating the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society.

On a damp weeknight in November, 350 years ago, a dozen or so men gathered at Gresham College in London. A twenty-eight year old — and not widely famous — Christopher Wren was giving a lecture on astronomy. As his audience listened to him speak, they decided that it would be a good idea to create a Society to promote the accumulation of useful knowledge.

With that, the Royal Society was born. Since its birth, the Royal Society has pioneered scientific exploration and discovery. Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, John Locke, Alexander Fleming — all were fellows.

Bill Bryson’s favourite fellow was Reverend Thomas Bayes, a brilliant mathematician who devised Bayes’ theorem. Its complexity meant that it had little practical use in Bayes’ own lifetime, but today his theorem is used for weather forecasting, astrophysics and stock market analysis. A milestone in mathematical history, it only exists because the Royal Society decided to preserve it — just in case.

The Royal Society continues to do today what it set out to do all those years ago. Its members have split the atom, discovered the double helix, the electron, the computer and the World Wide Web. Truly international in its outlook, it has created modern science.

Seeing Further celebrates its momentous history and achievements, bringing together the very best of science writing. Filled with illustrations of treasures from the Society’s archives, this is a unique, ground-breaking and beautiful volume, and a suitable reflection of the immense achievements of science.

WHO warns pregnant women to avoid going to Zika-affected areas


Jannelissa Santana, who is 37 weeks pregnant, leans on a wall by a flier explaining how to prevent Zika, dengue and chikungunya viruses at a public hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. (Reuters/Alvin Baez)

The World Health Organization on Tuesday cautioned pregnant women against traveling to areas where there is ongoing transmission of Zika virus -- something the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised more than a month ago.

Director General Margaret Chan said reports and investigations from affected countries in the Americas "strongly suggest" that sexual transmission is more common than previously assumed.

During a media telebriefing, WHO officials were pressed on why the organization had not issued a travel warning earlier. In addition to the CDC's guidance, health agencies in numerous countries have urged pregnant women and their sexual partners to avoid travel to regions where the virus is spreading and to practice safe sex or abstain from sex for the duration of a pregnancy.

David Heymann, an infectious disease specialist who is heading the WHO emergency committee on Zika, pointed to the accumulating evidence linking the pathogen to birth defects and neurological disorders in adults. "We felt we needed to make this recommendation," he said, adding that it remains up to individual countries to designate regions where there are ongoing outbreaks "and where there are not."

[Zika has pregnant women in U.S. worried, and doctors have few answers]

The WHO declared Zika and its suspected fetal dangers a global public health emergency last month. Since then, Chan said, "substantial new clinical and epidemiological research has strengthened the association" between infection and microcephaly as well as other neurological disorders. Brazil has been especially hard hit by microcephaly, the rare congenital condition in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and often underdeveloped brains.

"The geographical distribution of the disease is wider. The risk group is broader. And the modes of transmission now include sexual intercourse as well as mosquito bites," Chan said.

Microcephaly also has been detected in French Polynesia, with unconfirmed reports in Colombia. Nine countries are reporting an increased incidence of the rare Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause paralysis, or laboratory confirmation of Zika infection among those cases, Chan said.

Source: Washington Post

Thanks Francie for all of the adds -

You are welcome.

This Zika virus is now apparently appearing in the US independently and not connected with individuals who have visited the tropical areas where it is prevalent . The area of concerns are those states bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Very scary.

Yes it is - especially if it is pregnant woman

Hello Everybody,

We are looking for someone who would like to become an admin in training and their focus will be on the Health-Medicine-Science threads. We ask those folks to keep these threads up to date.

If you have a science background or are a health/medical professional that would be a great asset to these threads and will be helping us. Make sure to let us know of your interest - we find it takes about 10 minutes daily or even every other day gets you there. Other folks have done it much faster but there is no rush. Let us know. And hopefully we will get multiple folks with an interest in this folder to share the task.

Regards,

Bentley
Group Founder/Leader

The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere
(TED Books #2)

by Pico Iyer

Synopsis:

A follow up to Pico Iyer’s essay “The Joy of Quiet,” The Art of Stillness considers the unexpected adventure of staying put and reveals a counterintuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the more we seem desperate to unplug.

Why might a lifelong traveler like Pico Iyer, who has journeyed from Easter Island to Ethiopia, Cuba to Kathmandu, think that sitting quietly in a room might be the ultimate adventure? Because in our madly accelerating world, our lives are crowded, chaotic and noisy. There’s never been a greater need to slow down, tune out and give ourselves permission to be still.

In The Art of Stillness—a TED Books release—Iyer investigate the lives of people who have made a life seeking stillness: from Matthieu Ricard, a Frenchman with a PhD in molecular biology who left a promising scientific career to become a Tibetan monk, to revered singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who traded the pleasures of the senses for several years of living the near-silent life of meditation as a Zen monk. Iyer also draws on his own experiences as a travel writer to explore why advances in technology are making us more likely to retreat. He reflects that this is perhaps the reason why many people—even those with no religious commitment—seem to be turning to yoga, or meditation, or seeking silent retreats. These aren't New Age fads so much as ways to rediscover the wisdom of an earlier age. Growing trends like observing an “Internet Sabbath”—turning off online connections from Friday night to Monday morning—highlight how increasingly desperate many of us are to unplug and bring stillness into our lives.

The Art of Stillness paints a picture of why so many—from Marcel Proust to Mahatma Gandhi to Emily Dickinson—have found richness in stillness. Ultimately, Iyer shows that, in this age of constant movement and connectedness, perhaps staying in one place is a more exciting prospect, and a greater necessity than ever before.

In 2013, Pico Iyer gave a blockbuster TED Talk. This lyrical and inspiring book expands on a new idea, offering a way forward for all those feeling affected by the frenetic pace of our modern world.