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Do cell phones cause brain cancer? Does BPA threaten our health? How safe are certain dietary supplements, especially those containing exotic herbs or small amounts of toxic substances? Is the HPV vaccine safe? We depend on science and medicine as never before, yet there is widespread misinformation and confusion, amplified by the media, regarding what influences our health. In Getting Risk Right, Geoffrey C. Kabat shows how science works—and sometimes doesn't—and what separates these two very different outcomes. Kabat seeks to help us distinguish between claims that are supported by solid science and those that are the result of poorly designed or misinterpreted studies. By exploring different examples, he explains why certain risks are worth worrying about, while others are not. He emphasizes the variable quality of research in contested areas of health risks, as well as the professional, political, and methodological factors that can distort the research process. Drawing on recent systematic critiques of biomedical research and on insights from behavioral psychology, Getting Risk Right examines factors both internal and external to the science that can influence what results get attention and how questionable results can be used to support a particular narrative concerning an alleged public health threat. In this book, Kabat provides a much-needed antidote to what has been called “an epidemic of false claims.”

Personalized healthcare—or what this book calls “Me Medicine”—is radically transforming the US’s longstanding “one-size-fits-all” model. Technologies such as direct-to-consumer genetic testing, pharmacogenetically developed therapies in cancer care, private umbilical cord blood banking, and neurocognitive enhancement claim to cater to an individual’s specific biological character, and, in some cases, these technologies have shown powerful potential. Yet in others they have produced negligible or even negative results. Whatever is behind the rise of Me Medicine, it is not just science. So why is Me Medicine rapidly edging out We Medicine, and how has the commitment in the US to the collective health suffered as a result? This analysis examines the economic and political factors fueling the Me Medicine phenomenon and explores how, over time, this paradigm shift in how Americans approach health might damage our individual and collective well-being. Historically, the measures of “We Medicine,” such as vaccination and investment in public-health infrastructure, have radically extended our life spans, and Dickenson argues we have lost sight of that truth in our enthusiasm for “Me Medicine.” The book explores how personalized medicine illustrates capitalism’s protean capacity for creating new products and markets where none existed before-and how this, rather than scientific plausibility, goes a long way toward explaining private umbilical cord blood banks and retail genetics.

This book assesses the political, economic, cultural, and health factors that relate to food allergies. It surveys the history of food allergies from ancient times to the present and provides a clear appraisal of new medical findings on allergies and what they say about our environment, our immune system, and the nature of the food we consume. It shows that for most of the twentieth century, while many physicians and clinicians argued that certain foods could cause a range of chronic problems, from asthma and eczema to migraines and hyperactivity, others believed that allergies were psychosomatic or simply “junk” science. It traces the trajectory of this debate and its effect on public-health policy and the production, manufacture, and consumption of food. It answers the following key questions: Are rising allergy rates purely the result of effective lobbying and a booming industry built on self-diagnosis and expensive remedies? Or should physicians become more flexible in their approach to food allergies and more careful in their diagnoses? It explores the issue from scientific, political, economic, social, and patient-centred perspectives. It engages fully with the history of what is now a major modern affliction and illuminates society's troubled relationship with food, disease, and the creation of medical knowledge.

The past twenty-five years have witnessed a revolution in the science of addiction, yet we still rely upon sorely outdated methods of treatment. Expensive new programs for managing addiction are also flourishing, but since they are not based in science, they offer little benefit to people who cannot afford to lose money or faith in their recovery. Clarifying the cutting-edge science of addiction, this book pairs stories of real patients with explanations of key concepts relating to their illness. A police chief who disappears on the job illustrates the process through which a drug can trigger the brain circuits mediating relapse. One person's effort to find a burrito shack in a foreign city illuminates the reward prediction error signaled by the brain chemical dopamine. With these examples and more, this volume paints a vivid, relatable portrait of drug seeking, escalation, and other aspects of addiction and suggests science-based treatments that promise to improve troubling relapse rates.

This book recounts the experiences of the founding executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) as he fought the disease from its earliest manifestations to today. It shows how the AIDS pandemic was not only catastrophic to the health of millions worldwide but that it also fractured international relations and public health policies in nations across the globe. It shows that, as the author struggled to get ahead of the disease, he found that science does little good when it operates independently of politics and economics. He also found that politics is worthless if it rejects scientific evidence and respect for human rights. The book describes how the HIV/AIDs epidemic altered global attitudes toward sexuality, changed the character of the doctor-patient relationship, altered the influence of civil society in international relations and broke traditional partisan divides. It illustrates how AIDS thrust health into national and international politics. It argues that the global reaction to AIDS over the past decade is the positive result of this development, and that this shows what can be achieved when science, politics, and policy converge on the ground. Because the achievements that have been made are fragile, the book warns against complacency and the consequences of reduced investments. It refuses to accept a world in which high levels of HIV infection are the norm. Instead, it explains how to continue to reduce the incidence of the disease through both prevention and treatment, until a vaccine is discovered.

The health-care system in the United States is by far the most expensive in the world, yet its outcomes are decidedly mediocre in comparison with those of other countries. Poor communication between doctors and patients, the book argues, is at the heart of this disparity, a pervasive problem that damages the well-being of the patient and the integrity of the health-care system and society. Drawing upon research in biomedicine, sociology, and anthropology and integrating personal stories, this book shows how important good communication between physicians and patients is to high-quality—and less-expensive—care. Without it, treatment adherence and preventive services decline, and the rates of medical complications, hospital readmissions, and unnecessary testing and procedures rise. The book illustrates the consequences of these problems from both the caregiver and patient perspectives and explores the socioeconomic and cultural factors that cause important information to be literally lost in translation. It concludes with a prescriptive chapter aimed at building the cultural competencies and communication skills necessary for higher-quality, less-expensive care, making it more satisfying for all involved.

At a ceremony announcing the completion of the first draft of the human genome in 2000, President Bill Clinton declared, “I believe one of the great truths to emerge from this triumphant expedition inside the human genome is that in genetic terms, all human beings, regardless of race, are more than 99.9 percent the same.” Yet despite this declaration of unity, biomedical research has focused increasingly on mapping that 0.1 percent of difference, particularly as it relates to race. This trend is exemplified by the drug BiDil. This drug was originally touted as a groundbreaking therapy to treat heart failure in black patients and help underserved populations. However, the book reveals a far more complex story. At the most basic level, BiDil became racial through legal maneuvering and commercial pressure as much as through medical understandings of how the drug worked. The book broadly examines the legal and commercial imperatives driving the expanding role of race in biomedicine, even as scientific advances in genomics could render the issue irrelevant. It surveys the distinct politics informing the use of race in medicine and the very real health disparities caused by racism and social injustice that are now being cast as a mere function of genetic difference.

Can evidence-based medicine (EBM) and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) find common ground? This book explores the epistemological foundations of EBM and the challenges these conceptual tools present for both conventional and alternative therapies. It explores a possible reconciliation between their conflicting approaches, and maintains a healthy, scientific skepticism yet finds promise in select CAM therapies. The book elucidates recent research on the placebo effect and shows how a new engagement between EBM and CAM might lead to a more productive medical practice that includes both the objectivity of EBM and the subjective truth of the physician-patient relationship. The book covers key topics in the standoff between EBM and CAM: how and why the double-blinded, randomized clinical trial (RCT) came to be considered the gold standard in modern medicine; the challenge of postmodern medicine as it counters the positivism of EBM; and the politics of modern CAM and the rise of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. It conducts an in-depth case study of homeopathy, explaining why it has emerged as a poster-child for CAM, and assesses CAM's popularity despite its poor performance in clinical trials. It concludes with hope, showing how new experimental protocols might tease out the evidentiary basis for the placebo effect and establish a foundation for some reconciliation between EBM and CAM.

This book introduces the concepts of “cerebral plasticity” and the “regenerating brain,” describing what we know now about the processes through which the brain constantly reconstructs itself and the potential benefits this knowledge could have in addressing concerns for neurological, cognitive, and emotional health. It begins with a survey of the fundamental scientific developments that have led to our current understanding of the regenerative mind, elucidating the breakthrough neurobiological studies that paved the way for our present understanding of the brain's plasticity and regenerative capabilities. It then discusses the application of these findings to such issues as depression, dyslexia, schizophrenia, and cognitive therapy, incorporating the latest technologies in neuroimaging, optogenetics, and nanotechnology. The book shows the brain is anything but a static organ, ceasing to grow as human beings become adults. Rather, the brain is dynamic, evolving organically in relation to physical, cultural, historical, and affective stimuli, a plasticity that provides early hope to survivors of trauma and degenerative disorders.

Since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, many bizarre and dangerous hypotheses have been advanced to explain the origins of the disease. This book explores the social and political factors prolonging the erroneous belief that the American government manufactured the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to be used as a biological weapon, as well as the myth's consequences for behavior, especially within African American and black South African communities. Contemporary AIDS denialism, the belief that HIV is harmless and that antiretroviral drugs are the true cause of AIDS, is a more insidious AIDS conspiracy theory. Advocates of this position make a “conspiratorial move” against HIV science by implying its methods cannot be trusted and that untested, alternative therapies are safer than antiretrovirals. These claims are genuinely life-threatening, as tragically demonstrated in South Africa when the delay of antiretroviral treatment resulted in nearly 333,000 AIDS deaths and 180,000 HIV infections—a tragedy of stunning proportions. The book identifies four symbolically powerful figures ensuring the lifespan of AIDS denialism: the hero scientist (dissident scientists who lend credibility to the movement); the cultropreneur (alternative therapists who exploit the conspiratorial move as a marketing mechanism); the living icon (individuals who claim to be living proof of AIDS denialism's legitimacy); and the praise-singer (journalists who broadcast movement messages to the public). It also describes how pro-science activists have fought back by deploying empirical evidence and political credibility to resist AIDS conspiracy theories, which is part of the crucial project to defend evidence-based medicine.

Robert Neil Butler (1927–2010) was a scholar, psychiatrist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who revolutionized the way the world thinks about aging and the elderly. One of the first psychiatrists to engage with older men and women outside of institutional settings, Butler coined the term “ageism” to draw attention to discrimination against older adults and spent a lifetime working to improve their status, medical treatment, and care. Early in his career, Butler seized on the positive features of late-life development—aspects he documented in his research on “healthy aging” at the National Institutes of Health and in private practice. He set the nation's age-based health care agenda and research priorities as founding director of the National Institute on Aging and by creating the first interprofessional, interdisciplinary department of geriatrics at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital. In the final two decades of his career, Butler created a global alliance of scientists, educators, practitioners, politicians, journalists, and advocates through the International Longevity Center. The book follows this pioneer's significant contributions to the concept of healthy aging and the notion that aging is not synonymous with physical and mental decline. Emphasizing the progressive aspects of Butler's approach and insight, the book affirms the ongoing relevance of his work to gerontology, geriatrics, medicine, social work, and related fields.

This account of the biology, behavior, and history of parasites follows the interplay between these fascinating life forms and human society over thousands of years. The book focuses on long-term host-parasite associations, which have evolved to avoid or even subvert the human immune system. Some parasites do great damage to their hosts, while others have signed a kind of “peace treaty” in exchange for their long lives within them. Many parasites also practice clever survival strategies that medical scientists hope to mimic as they search for treatments for Crohn's disease, food allergies, type 1 diabetes, organ transplantation, and other medical challenges. The text concentrates on particularly remarkable and often highly pathogenic organisms, describing their lifecycles and the mechanisms they use to avoid elimination. It details their attack and survival plans and the nature of the illnesses they cause in general terms, enabling readers of all backgrounds to steal a glimpse into the secret work of such effective invaders. The text also points to the cultural contexts in which these parasites thrive and reviews the current treatments available to defeat them.

After more than fifty years of blockbuster drug development, skeptics are beginning to fear we are reaching the end of drug discovery to combat major diseases. This book describes this dilemma and the powerful techniques that may bring drug research into the twenty-first century. Filled with absorbing stories of breakthroughs, this book begins with the scientific achievements of the twentieth century that led to today’s drug innovations. We learn how the invention of mustard gas in World War I led to early anti-cancer agents and how the efforts to decode the human genome might lead to new approaches in drug design. The book then turns to the seemingly incurable diseases we face today, such as Alzheimer’s, many cancers, and others with no truly effective medicines, and details the cellular and molecular barriers thwarting scientists equipped with only the tools of traditional pharmaceutical research. Scientists are now developing methods to combat these complexities—technologies for constructing and testing millions of drug candidates, sophisticated computational modeling, and entirely new classes of drug molecules—all with an eye toward solving the most profound mysteries of living systems and finding cures for intractable diseases. If successful, these methods will unlock a vast terrain of untapped drug targets that could lead to a bounty of breakthrough medicines.

This book provides a portrait of pica, or non-food cravings, from earliest times to current times. It explains how humans have eaten earth, on purpose, for more than 2,300 years and that people also crave starch, ice, chalk, and other unorthodox items of food. It details how some individuals even claim they are addicted and “go crazy” without these items, and asks “why?” The book draws upon extensive historical, ethnographic, and biomedical findings and describes the substances most frequently consumed and the many methods (including the Internet) used to obtain them. It reveals how pica is remarkably prevalent (it occurs in nearly every human culture and throughout the animal kingdom); identifies its most avid partakers (pregnant women and young children); and describes the potentially healthful and harmful effects of eating it. It evaluates the many hypotheses about the causes of pica, from the fantastical to the scientific, including hunger, nutritional deficiencies, and pica's potential protective capacities. It combines history with intimate case studies to illuminate an enigmatic behaviour deeply entwined with human biology and culture.

Why has the academy struggled to link advocacy for animals to advocacy for various human groups? Within cultural studies, in which advocacy can take the form of a theoretical intervention, scholars have resisted arguments that add “species” to race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and other human-identity categories as a site for critical analysis. This book considers whether cultural studies should pay more attention to animal advocacy and whether, in turn, animal studies should pay more attention to questions raised by cultural theory. The chapters explore these issues particularly in relation to the “humane” treatment of animals and various human groups and the implications, both theoretical and practical, of blurring the distinction between “the human” and “the animal.” They address important questions raised by the history of representing humans as the only animal capable of acting humanely and provide a framework for reconsidering the nature of humane discourse, whether in theory, literary and cultural texts, or current advocacy movements outside of the academy.

This book answers questions about the science and safety of modern vaccines. In straightforward prose, it explains how vaccines work, how they are made, and how they are tested. Most important, it separates the real risks of vaccines from feared but unfounded risks. The book addresses parental fears that children may receive too many vaccines too early, that the HPV vaccine may cause chronic fatigue or other dangerous side effects, that additives and preservatives in vaccines cause autism, and that vaccines might do more harm than good. This book offers honesty—instead of hype—in the quest to protect children's health.