Chronic Illness

Mimi Swartz tells the story of a group of cardiac surgeons all vying for the title of creator. Not with a capital C, but creator of the first functional artificial heart. And by group, I don’t mean to imply they worked together. Some did, and some didn’t. Competition...

Overview On Our Terms: Empowering the New Health Consumer is written by corporate CEO Glen Tullman. His theorizes that we are moving into an era of health consumers, rather than patients. Considering patient comes from the Latin word meaning suffering, I’m willing to...

Barbara Appelbaum has lived through, and with, some significant challenges in her life. Diagnosed with MS in her early forties, she’s taken an integrative approach to treating the disease. She also made some huge life changes in response to her diagnosis, including...

If healthcare in the United States frustrates you, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal is the book for you. It alternately made me furious, sad, and empowered me to ask a thousand more questions...

I've had The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. on my shelves (both analog and audio) for quite a few months. I suppose I put it off because trauma is such a heavy subject. However, I unexpectedly found the tone to be comfortable and almost...

I found Jerome Groopman's book How Doctors Think helpful and enlightening. So when I happened across Your Medical Mind: How to Decide What is Right for You, written by Groopman and his wife Pamela Hartzband (both are MDs) I grabbed it right up. In truth, I also chose...