Health & Fitness

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."

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."

Can Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) find common ground? A distinguished historian of medicine, John S. Haller Jr., explores the epistemological foundations of EBM and the challenges these conceptual tools present for both conventional and alternative therapies. As he explores a possible reconciliation between their conflicting approaches, Haller maintains a healthy, scientific skepticism yet finds promise in select complementary and alternative (CAM) therapies. Haller 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 evidence-based medicine and the subjective truth of the physician-patient relationship.

Haller's book tours 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 evidence-based medicine; and the politics of modern CAM and the rise of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He 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. Haller 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.

First place winner, 2024 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award in Palliative Care and Hospice

Hospice and palliative care professionals are experts at caring for individuals and families experiencing serious or life-limiting illnesses. Not everyone feels safe seeking out their expertise, however: LGBTQIA+ people may be deterred from seeking support because of barriers—both overt and subtle—that hospice and palliative care programs and professionals erect through their policies and practices. This book is an accessible, expert guide to incorporating LGBTQIA-inclusive practices into end-of-life care. It equips both new and experienced hospice and palliative care professionals with the knowledge they need to ensure that all people receive high-quality care.

Kimberly D. Acquaviva surveys fundamental concepts and the latest clinical developments, integrating relatable anecdotes and poignant personal reflections. She discusses her own experience caring for her wife, Kathy, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2019. Unable to find a local hospice with an LGBTQIA-inclusive nondiscrimination statement, let alone one whose staff had been trained to provide nondiscriminatory care to LGBTQIA+ people, Kathy died at home six months later without hospice care.

Acquaviva offers clear, actionable strategies for palliative care and hospice physicians, physician associates, advanced-practice registered nurses, registered nurses, social workers, counselors, chaplains, and others. She also emphasizes how incorporating LGBTQIA-inclusive practices can transform work with every person receiving care. Anchored in the evidence and written in plain language, this book is the definitive guide for hospice and palliative care professionals seeking to deliver exceptional care to all the patients and families they serve.

First place winner, 2024 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award in Palliative Care and Hospice

Hospice and palliative care professionals are experts at caring for individuals and families experiencing serious or life-limiting illnesses. Not everyone feels safe seeking out their expertise, however: LGBTQIA+ people may be deterred from seeking support because of barriers—both overt and subtle—that hospice and palliative care programs and professionals erect through their policies and practices. This book is an accessible, expert guide to incorporating LGBTQIA-inclusive practices into end-of-life care. It equips both new and experienced hospice and palliative care professionals with the knowledge they need to ensure that all people receive high-quality care.

Kimberly D. Acquaviva surveys fundamental concepts and the latest clinical developments, integrating relatable anecdotes and poignant personal reflections. She discusses her own experience caring for her wife, Kathy, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2019. Unable to find a local hospice with an LGBTQIA-inclusive nondiscrimination statement, let alone one whose staff had been trained to provide nondiscriminatory care to LGBTQIA+ people, Kathy died at home six months later without hospice care.

Acquaviva offers clear, actionable strategies for palliative care and hospice physicians, physician associates, advanced-practice registered nurses, registered nurses, social workers, counselors, chaplains, and others. She also emphasizes how incorporating LGBTQIA-inclusive practices can transform work with every person receiving care. Anchored in the evidence and written in plain language, this book is the definitive guide for hospice and palliative care professionals seeking to deliver exceptional care to all the patients and families they serve.

In Indian languages from Sanskrit to Marathi, yoga has an enormous range of meanings, though most often it refers to philosophy or methods to control the mind and body. This book argues for a wider understanding, demonstrating that yoga has long expressed political thought and practice. The political idea of yoga names the tools of kings, poets, warriors, and revolutionaries. It encodes stratagems for going into battle and for the demands of governance. This idea suggests routes to self-rule even when faced with implacable obstacles, and it defines righteous action amid the grime and grief of politics and war.

Sunila S. Kalé and Christian Lee Novetzke chart a new genealogy of yoga, beginning with uses of the term in the Ṛg Veda, the Mahābhārata, the Bhagavad Gītā, and the Arthaśāstra. In the world of these texts, yoga names everything from war and battle strategy to good governance, espionage, taxation, and welfare. Kalé and Novetzke follow this trail into the modern period, examining the writings and speeches of thinkers such as Gandhi, Tilak, Aurobindo, and Ambedkar as well as the extraordinary story of the Princely State of Aundh, whose ruler saw the Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) as a tool for sovereignty. Offering a novel interpretation of yoga that embraces its long-standing political conceptualization, this book sheds light on South Asian political thought and history from its earliest texts to the present day.

In Indian languages from Sanskrit to Marathi, yoga has an enormous range of meanings, though most often it refers to philosophy or methods to control the mind and body. This book argues for a wider understanding, demonstrating that yoga has long expressed political thought and practice. The political idea of yoga names the tools of kings, poets, warriors, and revolutionaries. It encodes stratagems for going into battle and for the demands of governance. This idea suggests routes to self-rule even when faced with implacable obstacles, and it defines righteous action amid the grime and grief of politics and war.

Sunila S. Kalé and Christian Lee Novetzke chart a new genealogy of yoga, beginning with uses of the term in the Ṛg Veda, the Mahābhārata, the Bhagavad Gītā, and the Arthaśāstra. In the world of these texts, yoga names everything from war and battle strategy to good governance, espionage, taxation, and welfare. Kalé and Novetzke follow this trail into the modern period, examining the writings and speeches of thinkers such as Gandhi, Tilak, Aurobindo, and Ambedkar as well as the extraordinary story of the Princely State of Aundh, whose ruler saw the Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation) as a tool for sovereignty. Offering a novel interpretation of yoga that embraces its long-standing political conceptualization, this book sheds light on South Asian political thought and history from its earliest texts to the present day.