A Healthy Dose of Reading: Fitness and Medical Books from Harvard Press

Whether you're trying to maintain a fit and active lifestyle, recovering from injury, seeking help with illness, or simply looking for a guide to daily health concerns, Harvard University Press offers an array of authoritative resources on physical and mental well-being.

We invite you to browse these definitive works from leading health experts and professionals. Click on a jacket to see the Harvard Press book page, read an excerpt, see review attention, or purchase the book.

BODY & MIND

Stutter
by Marc Shell

In a book that explores the phenomenon of stuttering from its practical and physical aspects to its historical profile to its existential implications, Marc Shell plumbs the depths of this murky region between will and flesh, intention and expression, idea and word. This provocative and wide-ranging book shows that stuttering has implications for myriad types of expression and helps to define what it means to be human.

"[Shell] examines stuttering from the perspectives of history, literature, popular culture, science, and personal experience. His discussion raises fascinating questions--Why do stutterers find relief when singing? Was Hamlet a stutterer? Why is Porky Pig's stutter funny?--and he provides an engaging discussion of the historical importance of speaking 'properly.'" -- The New Yorker



Is It Me or My Meds? : Living with Antidepressants
by David A. Karp

In this book, David Karp explores the relationship between pills and personhood by listening to a group of experts who rarely get the chance to speak on the matter--those who are taking the medications. The stories are honest and vivid, from a distraught teenager who shuns antidepressants while regularly using street drugs to a woman who still yearns for a spiritual solution to depression even after telling intimates "I'm on Prozac and it's saving me." The book provides unflinching portraits of people attempting to make sense of a process far more complex and mysterious than doctors or pharmaceutical companies generally admit.




Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love and Desire
by Lisa M. Diamond

Is love "blind" when it comes to gender? For women, it just might be. This original book offers a radical new understanding of the context-dependent nature of female sexuality. Diamond argues that for some women, love and desire are not rigidly heterosexual or homosexual but fluid, changing as women move through the stages of life, various social groups, and, most important, different love relationships.

"Captivating, nuanced, and rigorous...Diamond's work is vital precisely because sexual fluidity is not a new concept--Freud called his version "polymorphous perversity"--but merely one that is typically dismissed. Nor is it news to women, particularly not to a generation for whom a nonspecific "queer" affiliation, or no affiliation at all, is increasingly common. What is so important is not that this fluidity exists, but that someone has finally paid it systematic attention and found that it is in fact not the exception, but may well be the rule."
--Hanne Blank, Ms.

Father-Daughter Incest
by Judith Lewis Herman, M.D.

Through an intensive clinical study of forty incest victims and numerous interviews with professionals in mental health, child protection, and law enforcement, Judith Herman develops a composite picture of the incestuous family. In a new afterword, Herman offers a lucid and thorough overview of the knowledge that has developed about incest and other forms of sexual abuse since this book was first published.

"Herman's rethinking of incest is profoundly, passionately feminist...Her book, the result of years of psychiatric work with incest victims, is undeniably painful, but it is also full of hope."  --Mother Jones

Why People Die By Suicide
Thomas Joiner

Drawing on extensive clinical and epidemiological evidence, as well as personal experience, Thomas Joiner provides the most coherent and persuasive explanation ever given of why and how people overcome life's strongest instinct, self-preservation. He tests his theory against diverse facts about suicide rates among men and women; white and African-American men; anorexics, athletes, prostitutes, and physicians; members of cults, sports fans, and citizens of nations in crisis.

"The change in the way I now look at my dad's death comes because of [this] compelling book."
--Steve Martin, The Times



Silencing the Self: Women and Depression
by Dana Crowley Jack

Dana Crowley Jack offers startling new insights into the roots of female depression as she illuminates why women are far more likely than men to suffer major depression in adulthood. Silencing the Self is the first sweeping overview of depression in women that draws on new understandings of the importance of relationships in women's lives. Attending closely to what depressed women have to say about their lives, Jack reframes major concepts of depression, freeing them from traditional models that have restricted our ability to listen to women's perspectives on depression.


Ambiguous Loss
Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief
by Pauline Boss

When a loved one dies we mourn our loss. We take comfort in the rituals that mark the passing, and we turn to those around us for support. But what happens when there is no closure, when a family member or a friend who may be still alive is lost to us nonetheless? How, for example, does the mother whose soldier son is missing in action, or the family of an Alzheimer's patient who is suffering from severe dementia, deal with the uncertainty surrounding this kind of loss?




Betrayal Trauma
The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse
by Jennifer J. Freyd

This book lays bare the logic of forgotten abuse. Psychologist Jennifer Freyd's breakthrough theory explaining this phenomenon shows how psychogenic amnesia not only happens but, if the abuse occurred at the hands of a parent or caregiver, is often necessary for survival. Freyd's book will give embattled professionals, beleaguered abuse survivors, and the confused public a new, clear understanding of the lifelong effects and treatment of child abuse.

 



Behind the Mask
Destruction and Creativity in Women's Aggression
by Dana Crowley Jack

Drawing from in-depth interviews with sixty women of different ages and ethnic and class backgrounds--police officers, attorneys, substance abusers, homemakers, artists--Dana Jack provides a rich account of how women explain (or explain away) their own hidden or actual acts of hurt to others. With sensitivity but without sentimentality, Jack gives readers a range of compelling stories of how women channel, either positively or destructively, their own powerful force and of how they resist and retaliate in the face of others' aggression in a society that expects women to be yielding, empathetic, and supportive.



Strangers to Ourselves
Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious
by Timothy D. Wilson

"Know thyself," a precept as old as Socrates, is still good advice. But is introspection the best path to self-knowledge? Wilson makes the case for better ways of discovering our unconscious selves. If you want to know who you are or what you feel or what you're like, Wilson advises, pay attention to what you actually do and what other people think about you. Showing us an unconscious more powerful than Freud's, and even more pervasive in our daily life, Strangers to Ourselves marks a revolution in how we know ourselves.



FITNESS & NUTRITION

How Fat Works
by Philip A. Wood

How Fat Works is a concise and up-to-date primer on the workings of fat. It is essential reading for professionals entering careers in medicine and public health administration or anyone wanting a better understanding of one of our most urgent health crises.

"Wood explores obesity and the diseases to which it predisposes; he describes the structure, function, and metabolism of fat; and he analyses some popular diets and their mode of action. Wood is an excellent communicator, his text refreshingly conversational and free of jargon without ever being simplistic or patronizing."
--Leyla Sanai, The Lancet


The 30-Minute Fitness Solution: A Four-Step Plan for Women of All Ages
by JoAnn Manson, M.D., and Patricia Amend, M.A.

Only 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise--even walking--can save your life. This is the powerful message that Dr. JoAnn Manson--one of the lead investigators of both the Women's Health Initiative and the Nurses's Health Study--and her coauthor Patricia Amend send to American women. Their book offers state-of-the-art medical research coupled with step-by-step instructions on how to maintain a physically active lifestyle in only 30 minutes a day.

"Finally, a book that not only discusses the 30-minute fitness solution, but also talks about various health issues that women face or may face in the future. JoAnn Manson and Patricia Amend are truly Champions of Women's Health."
-- Pat Schroeder



WOMEN'S HEALTH

The New Harvard Guide to Women's Health
by Karen J. Carlson, M.D., Stephanie A. Eisenstat, M.D., and Terra Ziporyn, PH.D.

This exhaustive resource offers information on everything from adolescent acne to menopause in the belief that better-informed women can have better partnerships with their physicians.

"For anyone who has a burning health query, The Harvard Guide to Women's Health is, quite simply, the book buy of the decade. It looks like a heavyweight, medical-school textbook, but it's actually an easy-to-follow, Q & A health manual that covers everything from alcohol abuse and breast care to cosmetic surgery and depression. It's the next best thing to having your own at-home GP."
-- Cosmopolitan

Every Woman's Guide to Diabetes
by Stephanie A. Eisenstat, M.D., and Ellen Barlow
David M. Nathan, Consulting Editor, M.D.

Women have long needed a book devoted to their unique issues with diabetes. This up-to-date and practical guide advocates simple lifestyle changes that can help women reduce their risk of getting diabetes or, if already diagnosed, prevent the disease's most serious complications.

"It's refreshing to see a book that focuses on motivating, educating, and helping women to take charge of their health and diabetes. The authors offer a wonderfully personal approach for any woman with diabetes, and Every Woman's Guide to Diabetes is an empowering tool to help her gain control, become diabetes-savvy, and form a plan of action." --Sandra T. Foo, M.D., St. Luke's-Roosevelt Medical Center


The Women's Concise Guide to Emotional Well-Being
by Karen J. Carlson, M.D., Stephanie A. Eisenstat, M.D., and Terra Ziporyn, PH.D.

Here, in one volume, is what the experts know about preventing, recognizing, and treating the psychological disturbances and disorders that women experience uniquely. Just as depression and anxiety are more common among women, many psychiatric disorders are exacerbated by the natural rhythms in a woman's life cycle, such as menarche, menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause. From the complexities of schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder to the delicate practicalities of sexual response, this guide offers all that a woman might want to know about protecting her psychological health.



The Women's Concise Guide to a Healthier Heart
by Karen J. Carlson, M.D., Stephanie A. Eisenstat, M.D., and Terra Ziporyn, PH.D.

Heart disease is the number one killer of women in this country. Every year half a million American women die of heart problems--and another 2.5 million are hospitalized for heart disease. This book brings the risks and realities of cardiovascular disease for women into clear focus. It considers questions of cholesterol and diabetes, stress and depression, diet and smoking, as well as diagnostic procedures and surgeries.

Helpfully illustrated and easy to use, clear and comprehensive on every heart problem and related symptom and behavior, this book is the best resource for any woman wishing to understand the health and workings of her heart.



FAMILY HEALTH GUIDES

Spinal Cord Injury and the Family
by Michelle J. Alpert, M.D., and Saul Wisnia
Foreword by Cindy and Ted Purcell

Spinal cord injury is frequently sudden and unexpected— through accident, disease, or violence, patients temporarily lose control of their bodies and, it seems, their lives. With rehabilitation, they can learn to navigate their world once more, retraining muscles and mind to compensate for paralyzed limbs and diminished strength. Combining clinical experience with patients' own stories, the authors cover the causes of and prognosis for SCI through case studies, review common courses of rehabilitation, and answer the "what now?" questions—from daily routines to larger issues concerning sex, education and employment, childbearing, and parenting with SCI.


                           
Stroke and the Family
by Joel Stein, M.D.

To the family just beginning to cope with the aftermath of a stroke, the diagnostic tests, drug regimens, rehabilitation strategies, and varied prognoses can be completely bewildering. Because stroke can affect memory, speech, and movement, the impact on everyday routines and close relationships can be especially intense. Stein has produced a book that allows general readers and nonphysicians working with stroke survivors to make sense of the confusing variety of diagnoses and treatment options, and goes on to explore challenges the recovering stroke patient and the recovering family will face during a long recuperation with an uncertain outcome.




Chronic Pain and the Family: A New Guide
by Julie K. Silver, M.D.

Silver reviews the causes and characteristics of chronic pain and explores its impact on individual family relationships and on the extended family, covering such issues as employment, parenting, childbearing and inheritance, and emotional health. Silver treats aspects of chronic pain not covered in a typical office visit: how men and women differ in their experience of chronic pain, the effect of chronic pain on a toddler's behavior or an older child's performance in school, the risks of dependence on and addiction to pain medications, and practical ways for relatives beyond the immediate family circle to offer help and support to the person in pain.




Parkinson's Disease and the Family
by Nutan Sharma, M.D., and Elaine Richman, PH.D.

Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder characterized by tremor, stiffness, and slow gait. It affects 500,000 people in the United States, with approximately 50,000 new cases diagnosed annually. But its impact is much wider. Family members with little understanding of the disease often find themselves struggling to help their loved one navigate the complexities of the health care system. Too often, with Parkinson's disease, a loved one serves as medical interpreter, patient advocate, and caregiver. Sharma and Richman draw on the latest research and clinical practice techniques to offer valuable suggestions for managing patient care and, perhaps more important, for healing the family unit.


A GOOD OLD AGE

The Denial of Aging
Perpetual Youth, Eternal Life, and Other Dangerous Fantasies
by Muriel R. Gillick, M.D.

Someday, as Muriel Gillick points out in this important yet unsettling book, you too will be old. How do you prepare? What will you need? With passion and compassion, Gillick chronicles the stories of elders who have struggled with housing options, with medical care decisions, and with finding meaning in life. Skillfully incorporating insights from medicine, health policy, and economics, she lays out action plans for individuals and for communities.

"Blame it on graying boomers, medical advances or Hollywood: Americans are spending billions a year trying to stay young. Snap out of it, urges Dr. Muriel R. Gillick, and focus on things like overhauling Medicare. Read it before scheduling that facelift." --People