A useful, easy-to-read book about a difficult subject.
Wilson’s nonfiction work delves into dementia and its causes, and possible ways to attack it.
The author, a prescribing medical psychologist and board-certified neuropsychologist, tackles an important subject in his informative (and ultimately engaging) look at dementia. Wilson sets up his premise in the first couple of pages via an anecdote about a road trip he and his family took to see the ancient petroglyph panels at Legend Rock, Wyoming: “Much like we can take action to protect the ancient petroglyph panels, we can protect another, very personal form of history—our brains,” he writes. “There are certain things we can do as we age to protect our brains to allow ourselves to enjoy life to the fullest and for the longest time possible.” The text begins by defining dementia (which, the author asserts, afflicts a third of people aged 85 and older) before describing four different types of dementia: Alzheimer’s, vascular, Lewy body, and frontotemporal. He discusses each in detail, also answering the question many people have when they forget someone’s name or where their car keys are: Is forgetfulness a normal part of aging? The answer is “yes,” although Wilson goes on to explain when such forgetfulness indicates a cause for concern. The second part of the book delves into the risk factors of dementia, and the third section makes the connection between hearing loss and dementia. The fourth part details strategies to mitigate the effects of dementia, including exercise, proper nutrition, blood pressure monitoring, neuropsychological services, medication, and socializing. At 130 pages, the text is far from a daunting read, and it’s made easier by the author’s engaging (and, at times, even fun) writing style addressing this most serious of subjects. What could be dense and clinical information is presented in digestible, breezy chunks, with only the section on medications slowing things down. This is an excellent primer for those dealing with dementia or readers simply interested in one of the greatest mysteries surrounding the human brain.
A useful, easy-to-read book about a difficult subject.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-7377117-7-3
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Savory Words
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should...
Greene (The 33 Strategies of War, 2007, etc.) believes that genius can be learned if we pay attention and reject social conformity.
The author suggests that our emergence as a species with stereoscopic, frontal vision and sophisticated hand-eye coordination gave us an advantage over earlier humans and primates because it allowed us to contemplate a situation and ponder alternatives for action. This, along with the advantages conferred by mirror neurons, which allow us to intuit what others may be thinking, contributed to our ability to learn, pass on inventions to future generations and improve our problem-solving ability. Throughout most of human history, we were hunter-gatherers, and our brains are engineered accordingly. The author has a jaundiced view of our modern technological society, which, he writes, encourages quick, rash judgments. We fail to spend the time needed to develop thorough mastery of a subject. Greene writes that every human is “born unique,” with specific potential that we can develop if we listen to our inner voice. He offers many interesting but tendentious examples to illustrate his theory, including Einstein, Darwin, Mozart and Temple Grandin. In the case of Darwin, Greene ignores the formative intellectual influences that shaped his thought, including the discovery of geological evolution with which he was familiar before his famous voyage. The author uses Grandin's struggle to overcome autistic social handicaps as a model for the necessity for everyone to create a deceptive social mask.
Readers unfamiliar with the anecdotal material Greene presents may find interesting avenues to pursue, but they should beware of the author's quirky, sometimes misleading brush-stroke characterizations.Pub Date: Nov. 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-670-02496-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and...
A dense, absorbing investigation into the medical community's exploitation of a dying woman and her family's struggle to salvage truth and dignity decades later.
In a well-paced, vibrant narrative, Popular Science contributor and Culture Dish blogger Skloot (Creative Writing/Univ. of Memphis) demonstrates that for every human cell put under a microscope, a complex life story is inexorably attached, to which doctors, researchers and laboratories have often been woefully insensitive and unaccountable. In 1951, Henrietta Lacks, an African-American mother of five, was diagnosed with what proved to be a fatal form of cervical cancer. At Johns Hopkins, the doctors harvested cells from her cervix without her permission and distributed them to labs around the globe, where they were multiplied and used for a diverse array of treatments. Known as HeLa cells, they became one of the world's most ubiquitous sources for medical research of everything from hormones, steroids and vitamins to gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, even the polio vaccine—all without the knowledge, must less consent, of the Lacks family. Skloot spent a decade interviewing every relative of Lacks she could find, excavating difficult memories and long-simmering outrage that had lay dormant since their loved one's sorrowful demise. Equal parts intimate biography and brutal clinical reportage, Skloot's graceful narrative adeptly navigates the wrenching Lack family recollections and the sobering, overarching realities of poverty and pre–civil-rights racism. The author's style is matched by a methodical scientific rigor and manifest expertise in the field.
Skloot's meticulous, riveting account strikes a humanistic balance between sociological history, venerable portraiture and Petri dish politics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4000-5217-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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