Bossa Nova Baby

The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days by Sara Gottfried, M.D. (HarperOne, $27,99, 322 pages)

Dr. Gottfried is a well-qualified and well-educated physician who has developed her own methodology for achieving hormone balance for women who have had trouble in the past with shedding and keeping off excess weight.

Dr. Sara, as she is called in the glowing forward by Mark Hyman, M.D., is a Harvard-educated gynecologist. She has had her own bouts of stubborn weight gain and her body’s resistance to its loss. Dr. Sara seems like a buddy who can walk the reader through a helpful self-diagnosis. Ever the professional, she reminds her reader to check with their personal physician to assure proper oversight of the reset process.

A self-help author, who is friendly, yet not patronizing or dictatorial, is just what a woman needs when confronting unyielding pounds and inches. Dr. Sara strikes a comfortable balance between medical professional and helper. Readers are walked through each of seven phases of what she calls “hormone reset.”

Although there are ample citations for the conclusions and methodology Dr. Sara provides, at times she can be more than a bit repetitive. The result at first was confusion for this reader-reviewer. By the sixth chapter, it became obvious that a single reading would not be adequate prior to embarking on the 21-day plan.

Readers should note that while the plan is less costly than using a personalized plan developed by a diet doctor or endocrinologist, it does require expenditures of money, time and emotional commitment. This is serious business, not your usual cheerleading and gimmicks found in many self-help diet books.

Meal plans for each of the seven hormone resets and the recipes are provided at the back of the book. All in all, this appears to be a comprehensive and most likely useful approach for women who want to achieve a “normal weight” – a weight appropriate for their body size and frame; women who have not yet succeeded with meeting the goal through healthy eating and exercise.

Well recommended.

Ruta Arellano

A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book was released on March 15, 2015.

Dr. Mark Hyman is the author of The Blood Sugar Solution.

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Coming Up Next…

A review of The Hormone Reset Diet: Heal Your Metabolism to Lose Up to 15 Pounds in 21 Days by Sara Gottfriend, M.D.

Coming Up Next…

Reviews of two books: Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life: Train Your Brain to Get More Done in Less Time by Paul Hammerness, M.D. and Margaret Moore, with John Hanc; and Situations Matter: Understanding How Context Transforms Your World by Sam Sommers.

Bad to the Bone

The Complete Book of Bone Health by Diane L. Schneider, M.D. (Prometheus Books, $21.00, 491 pages)

Your skeleton is more than a bunch of bones.   Dr. Diane Schneider, a gerontologist specializing in the effects of aging on our bones, has crafted a wonderfully helpful and easy-to-use reference book – a comprehensive summary of the best research regarding osteoporosis, bone fractures and the medications that can assist in rebuilding bone mass.

All six parts can stand alone or the reader can proceed from beginning to end.   Regardless, the general layout of the narrative along with the generous use of bullet points, summary statements and anecdotal case histories makes it a go-to reference for the entire family.   There are illustrations that provide clarification of medical terms.

Dr. Schneider is able to convey critical information using a caring, but firm voice.   Her colleagues and other researchers are well-represented and acknowledged.   The many charts included in the treatment section list all the medications currently prescribed, calcium-rich foods, and study results related to bone density improvement and osteoporosis prevention.   Exercises are noted with ample warnings to avoid fractures and breaks.

Let’s hope there will be future updates to this very valuable resource.   Highly recommended.

Ruta Arellano

A review copy was provided by the publisher.   The Complete Book of Bone Health is available in hardbound and trade paperback versions, and as a Kindle Edition download.   The foreword was written by astronaut Sally Ride.

Help!

Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank by Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D. (W. W. Norton; $24.95; 302 pages)

Medical Journalist Randi Hutter Epstein presents an easy-to-understand, yet not patronizing, overview of childbirth across time.   Each of the book’s five parts features some aspect of the cold, unvarnished reality faced by pregnant women and the subsequent delivery of their babies.   The time frame discussed in the book spans the ages; however, the 19th and 20th centuries are Epstein’s primary focus.   Clearly, fads and political movements in these two centuries have had a heavy influence on how childbirth has been addressed.   The ongoing struggle between physicians and midwives for clientele became an ugly smear campaign, never mind that nearly all doctors were male and that they perpetuated ludicrous theories for hundreds of years causing massive harm to their patients.

“In the meantime, doctors were doing what they considered the best medicine.   They believed they were saving lives by luring women away from midwives and into the hospital, where doctors could control the business of babies.   Ironically, what they thought was (the) best medical care was sometimes the deadliest.”

Dr. Epstein conveys her views in a most engaging manner.   She has a very strong sense of irony and makes good use of it.   This reviewer was unaware of the sometimes-bizarre methods employed in the past during delivery, including twilight sleep that wiped out all memory of the childbirth experience.   Never mind that during labor a woman using twilight sleep had to be lashed to the delivery table in order to keep her from falling off while writhing in pain.

There is some overlap among chapters with regard to the material covered.   A reader interested in a particular section of the book will find a comprehensive write-up much like a stand-alone article.   This makes perfect sense because the author is a widely published medical journalist.

There does not seem to be an intended audience for Get Me Out.   Rather, most anyone can benefit from the book, as was the case for this reviewer whose granddaughter was born right after I finished reading it.   By the way, Dr. Epstein has four children of her own which qualifies her on yet another level.

Highly recommended.

This review was written by Ruta Arellano.   A review copy was received from the publisher.

It’s Coming Up

Coming up next, a review of Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank by Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.