ER: Enter at Your Own Risk: How to Avoid Dangers Inside Emergency Rooms
By Dr. Joel Cohen
New Horizon Press, $14.95
Sure, emergency medicine doctor/author Joel Cohen’s book is full of real-life horror stories about medical emergencies that we hope we’ll never experience. But the purpose of the book is to urge consumers to do some planning, so when crushing chest pain is experienced by you or a loved one, you’ll know which nearby hospital is best equipped to handle your emergency. You do not, Cohen writes, want to make a key health-care decision in a cloud of panic during a crisis.
Besides choosing your emergency room in advance (if possible), some of the other “Commandments” of the ER offered by Cohen include:
– Never delay seeking help for unfamiliar or severe chest pain, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, limb numbness or weakness and worst-ever headaches.
– Carry a list of your medicines and dosages with you (or bring the bottles to the ER).
– Never consent to any test, treatment or procedure unless the doctor clearly explains its purpose and risks versus benefits (and ask if safer alternatives exist).
– Do not threaten the emergency staff (they tend not to react well).
– Avoid ER visits for chronic or minor problems.
Cohen describes symptoms and signs of serious illness. There also is a chapter on children that includes simple safety rules to avoid medical disasters, ways to minimize drug side affects and steps to avoid other drug/medical risks with children.
Living with Childhood Cancer: A Practical Guide to Help Families Cope
By Leigh A. Woznick and Carol D. Goodheart
American Psychological Association, $19.95
Although childhood cancer is a topic few parents want to discuss, dealing with it can’t be avoided by the families of the estimated 12,000 American children who will be diagnosed with cancer this year.
With sensitivity and clear and effective writing, authors Leigh Woznick, the parent of a cancer survivor, and her mother, Carol Goodheart, a health psychologist, offer a comprehensive guide to families navigating both the medical and emotional issues of cancer.
Among other topics, they discuss how to explain the disease to the child and his/her siblings; how to work effectively with doctors and nurses; how to handle the different emotions, from denial and fear to anger and shame, that come with the disease; how to use humor and play to aid the child’s recovery; and keeping a marriage and family strong throughout the ordeal. Medical issues include relieving pain and side effects, alleviating trauma and reducing stress, as well as grieving and how to carry on.
Sensitive without being wishy-washy and full of quotes from other parents who have gone through the experience, the book is full of ideas and practical advice as well as words of encouragement and support.
It concludes with a 45-page list of organizations, Web sites, books and videos for both parents and children.
Combat Fat! America’s Revolutionary 8-Week Fat-Loss Program
By Andrew Flach with RoseMarie Alfieri, Stew Smith, James Villepigue and M. Laurel Cutlip
Hatherleigh Press, $23.95
Each year, as December ends and January rolls around, thousands of frustrated dieters vow once again to lose weight, exercise and start eating right in the new year. And for a while, these resolutions are kept.
Health club memberships soar and regular members gripe as weight rooms and fitness classes fill up.
By mid-February, the new exercisers start disappearing. And by March, the health club exodus is nearly complete.
Never fear. If you’re one of those dieters about to fall off the wagon, you can get back on, and hordes of nutritionists, personal trainers and other diet book authors are happy to offer advice, as the cascade of related books at this time of year shows. “Combat Fat!” is one of those books, not as revolutionary as its title says, but a well-written, easy-to-digest guide to losing weight. The author’s hook is that it’s not monitoring your weight that’s so important but keeping track of your fat. And to that end, readers are offered a free skin-fold caliper to determine body-fat percentage.
With help from four contributing authors, writer Andrew Flach first explains the serious dangers of carrying too much fat-obesity and physical inactivity account for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year, he cites, a number second only to tobacco-related deaths-and asks readers to measure fat with the skin-fold caliper.
An age- and sex-based chart shows whether you are lean, ideal, average or overfat, meaning you have too much body fat.
Once that nasty chore’s out of the way, “Combat Fat” explains the basics of nutrition, provides long-range menu planning and gives simple recipes. The best parts of the book, however, are the chapters on exercise.
Strength training, flexibility (stretching) and cardiovascular work are equally emphasized, and photos showing proper technique for each stretch and strength routine are provided. Eight weeks of easy-to-follow workouts at three fitness levels also are mapped out.
The Town that Lost a Ton
By Jane Clemen, Dianna Kirkwood, Bobbi Schell with Daniel Myerson
Sourcebooks Inc., $16.95
When three colleagues at Mercy Medical Center in Dyersville, Iowa, found that more than 50 percent of local health problems were weight related, they created a 10-week weight-loss program called “Fight the Fat.” It was started as a way for people to get together with their friends or to make new friends who could help them in their struggle to lose weight, explains one of the program’s inventors.
“Fight the Fat” took off in 1998 and became a popular campaign in and around Dyersville. Even local fast-food restaurants altered their menus to accommodate the dieters. After 10 weeks, the 383 participants stepped on a truck scale and measured 3,998 pounds less than when they started.
One of the toughest issues for athletes competing at the Hawaii Ironman, a brutal one-day race including a 2.4-mile swim/112-mile bike/26.2-mile run that takes place in high winds and heat, is figuring out what will adequately fuel the body for anywhere from 8 to 17 hours.
Humans aren’t like cars, with an easy-to-fill gas tank accepting a set amount of gas that carries you a certain number of miles.
Because of that, more than a few professional triathletes have crawled across the finish line, not because they weren’t fit but because they simply had miscalculated their body’s energy demands.
But it’s not just ultra-endurance jocks who can maximize performance, recovery and training through diet. In “Diets Designed for Athletes” from respected sports publisher Human Kinetics (based in downstate Champaign) author Maryann Karinch looks at food, energy bars, vitamins, minerals, powders, shakes and other supplements, explaining how they affect your body and which are most useful for your sport.
Although there are no simple formulas for what to eat and which vitamins or energy drinks to use-it depends on your body’s particular needs and takes experimentation on the part of the athlete-this book will educate the interested, serious jock about what is available to maximize efforts.
