Health care books as holiday gifts

The folks on your shopping list are likely an eclectic mix, but all of them probably have some interest in some aspect of health.So here's a list of health books that can be bought at bookstores or Web sites.

“The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care,” T.R. Reid, Penguin Press, $25.95.

Even if you don't keep up with the daily horse race of health care in this country, you can still grasp the basics of health care delivery beyond the U.S. political vacuum. And you'll have T.R. Reid to thank for your intelligent water-cooler conversation and, perhaps, informed opinion.

From his prologue: “Contrary to conventional American wisdom, most developed countries manage health care without resorting to `socialized medicine.' How do they do it? That's what this book is about.”

Reid, a journalist and author, traveled the globe in his dual quest to alleviate his shoulder pain and assess various types of medical systems. The resulting book explains in highly readable fashion how other countries manage to offer health are to their citizens -- and what those citizens expect for their money.

The differences are considerable even among countries that try very hard to get it right. (His recount of the Ayurvedic approach in India is especially riveting.) And, of note, “universal health care” is markedly different than a universal approach.

Whether you're primed to agree with Reid's bleak assessment of the U.S. health care system or not, his perspective -- both global and intimate -- makes for worthwhile and timely reading.

“Don't Swallow Your Gum: Myths, Half-Truths, and Outright Lies About Your Body and Health,” Dr. Aaron E. Carroll and Dr. Rachel C. Vreeman, St. Martin's Griffin,$13.95.

Double-dipping with chips really can transfer bacteria into the dip, especially if it's a runny dip, such as salsa. Mayonnaise-containing food such as potato salad is far less likely than unwashed fruits and vegetables -- or undercooked meat -- to make you sick at a summer picnic. And thirst is not a sign you're already dehydrated.

Two physicians at Indiana University School of Medicine have combed through medical research to present the evidence, not just anecdotes, behind medical notions and misconceptions.

They also weigh in on controversial health-related topics. Among them: sleeping with infants, fluoridated water and the purported link between vaccines and autism.

“Flow: The Cultural Study of Menstruation,” Elissa Stein and Susan Kim, St. Martin's Griffin, $27.99.

Give this book to close friends or (female) relatives with a good sense of humor -- or an appreciation of irony.

The authors explore what they call “the ultimate taboo subject,” highlighting the influence of language, religion's role in our attitudes, the biological transitions menstruation signifies, modern chemical changes, atypical blood flow and more.

Interspersed throughout are long-ago -- and not-so-long-ago -- advice and ads for menstruation-related pain relievers, deodorants, pads, belts and tampons galore.

Some of these snapshots will amuse, and a few will appear appalling. But together they offer a telling depiction of how our perceptions have evolved -- and how they haven't.

“The Little Book of Pandemics,” Dr. Peter Moore, Harper Paperbacks, $14.95.

Because nothing says, “Happy holidays!” like the horrific details of a pandemic that doesn't affect you, check out this little book. It predates the current swine flu pandemic, but some bookstores are now prominently offering it as great gift idea along the one-size-fits-all, stocking-stuffer line.

Divided into categories according to mode of transmission, each disease is described by origin, symptoms and effects, and treatments, with a bit of history thrown in.

Among the factual gems: Anthrax was first recorded in 1500 B.C. in Egypt and described as an outbreak of boils. Gonorrhea causes symptoms in 20 percent of women but 90 percent of men. Lassa fever is very infectious with a high likelihood of severe illness and death, but its bio-weapon potential is practically nonexistent.

“The Intellectual Devotional: Health,” David S. Kidder, Noah P. Oppenheim & Dr. Bruce K. Young, Rodale Press, $24 (hardcover).

Your husband is a health know-it-all. Your friend enjoys a daily inspirational read but isn't the religious sort. Your father-in-law is always on about his ailments and threatens to buttonhole your-friend-the-doctor for a little free advice. Your sister is a “House, M.D.” fanatic.

For these and about anyone else I can think of, “The Intellectual Devotional: Health” is a perfect gift.

Where else can you learn what Rokitansky syndrome is -- and how a woman with a vagina 2 inches deep and no uterus could even reproduce? Or, what causes a yawn and why is it contagious? Or about the English physician who, in 1628, first proposed that the heart is responsible for pumping blood through the body and how he got the opportunity to watch the beating heart of a living person more than three centuries before the first open-heart surgery?

The “Devotional” includes 365 of these health-related gems -- one for each day of a non-leap year.

Every day, your giftee can learn something to bring to her next cocktail party, or -- if you're from the kind of family that talks about medical stuff while eating -- to your own dinner table.

In the case of your father-in-law, you might wish you'd never given it to him.

“The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory,” Torkel Klingberg, Oxford University Press, $21.95.

“IBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind,” Dr. Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan, Collins Publishing, $24.95.

Why did it take me hours to get to the task of recommending these books, and once I'd gotten down to it, to type in the details of their cost and publishers -- for which I had to keep checking back to their inside sleeves? Maybe because I'm overwhelmed by the ringing, the buzzing, the beeping and the sheer volume of information that comes my way every day.

I love it. I need it. But I often feel it's taking a toll on my attention and memory.

Sound like someone on your gift list?

I like to think about how we think, and how our minds and memories work. I like to get under the hood and understand how the cylinders mesh and what happens when they get gummed up. These two books help explain -- in plain English -- how our minds andour memories work (or don't work) under the assault of modern conveniences that are supposed to make us more efficient. Small is a professor and memory expert at the University of California, Los Angeles. Klingberg is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He founded CogMed, a brain-training program that focuses on improving memory the way a Stairmaster improves your glutes and calf muscles.

In short, these guys know what they're talking about, and write pretty well about it too. They also offer some pointers. Whether your giftee is one of those “highly effective people” types or a person who likes to think about thinking, either or both of these books would be a good bet.

“Healing the Broken Mind: Transforming America's Failed Mental Health System,” Timothy A. Kelly, New York University Press (www.nyupress.org), $25.95.

In this year of debate over health care reform, a former state mental health commissioner shares his 30 years of experience to describe the failings of mental health care in the United States and to advocate a major overhaul.

Kelly is a former commissioner of Virginia's Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services. His experience in the workings of state institutions and outpatient service-providers is eye-opening and lends support to his proposals for reform.

The book includes statistics to bolster his arguments, but the most influential material comes from his descriptions of real families trying to get help for desperately ill and misunderstood loved ones. He describes the problems of over-medication, poor insurance coverage and behind-the-scenes incompetence among staff in mental health facilities. The book also focuses on the much-discussed notion of parity in mental health treatment and the loopholes in parity laws that are barriers to treatment.

Kelly, currently director of the DePree Public Policy Institute, does not suggest that more money will fix the system.

“The status quo is broken,” he writes.

What is needed is funding to create a new system of outcome-oriented, community-based services that is both innovative and accountable. It's a tall order, but Kelly makes a good case for giving it our best shot.

“Bozo Sapiens: Why to Err Is Human,” Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan, Bloomsbury Press, $26.

We're so clever, we human beings -- so why do we think and do such stupid things? Dating the boy with the motorbike. Buying lottery tickets when we know we don't have a snowball's chance of winning. Getting sucked in by ads that tell us we must have that pair of jeans, that perfume, that car.

“We easily spot and gleefully point out the fatuities of our opponents -- and wonder, in lonely midnight hours, whether we ourselves are any less absurd,” writes this mother-and-son team in the book's opening chapter.

No, we are not -- and in this book the Kaplans tell us why, drawing on a melange of evidence: brain scans, experiments on undergraduate students, real-life examples of accidents or near misses and what lay behind them.

Our brains, for all their complexity, are not logical computers, the authors explain. They are built to process information quickly, relying as much on gut as mind; to favor short-term gains over long-term ones; to divide the world into Us and Them; to savor prestige; to conform to the crowd, and attend to facts that support our underlying prejudices while giving short shrift to ones that don't.

The Kaplans write: “Error is democratic and egalitarian: go scrutinize the opinions of even the best educated, and you will find them still largely a patchwork of hearsay, authority, prejudice, and self-accommodation ... .”

I could have wished for more dissection of specific cases of human idiocy. Still, this is an entertaining and edifying read.

“The Human Body Book: An Illustrated Guide to Its Structure, Function and Disorders,” Steve Parker, Dorling Kindersley, $40.

Wonder what your innards look like? What diseases those innards could get? If someone you know is this way -- and a sucker, to boot, for gorgeous illustrations -- this book (which comes with an interactive DVD-ROM) could be the ticket.

Your loved ones may not have realized they could get interested in the process of gas exchange between blood and body tissues, or how nerve cells send signals to other ones at synapses. With more than 200 diseases and disorders to discuss, this book will give them plenty to share on the festive day.

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