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Pure, White and Deadly: How Sugar Is Killing Us and What We Can Do to Stop It
by John Yudkin Robert LustigSugar. It's killing us.Why do we eat so much of it?What are its hidden dangers?In 1972, when British scientist John Yudkin first proved that sugar was bad for our health, he was ignored by the majority of the medical profession and rubbished by the food industry.We should have heeded his warning.Today, 1 in 4 adults in the UK are overweight.There is an epidemic of obese six month olds around the globe.Sugar consumption has tripled since World War II.Using everyday language and a range of scientific evidence, Professor Yudkin explores the ins and out of sugar, from the different types - is brown sugar really better than white? - to how it is hidden inside our everyday foods, and how it is damaging our health.Brought up-to-date by childhood obesity expert Dr Robert Lustig M.D., his classic exposé on the hidden dangers of sugar is essential reading for anyone interested in their health, the health of their children and the health of modern society.'[A] valiant . . . attempt to warn us against our lust for sucrose' Geoff Watts, British Medical Journal' A medical classic' Jack Winkler, Nutrition Policy Unit, London Metropolitan University 'Arguably the leading nutritionist of his time' Guardian'Yudkin was far ahead of his time with his idea of nutrition as a subject of great breadth: not just the study of the composition of foods, but the importance of enjoying a variety of fresh foods, and the recognition of the psychological and social factors that cause us to choose certain foods and avoid others' Independent'Worldwide, around 180million tonnes of refined sugar is produced each year and the UK market alone is worth nearly £1billion. Little wonder that no one listened to eminent nutritionist Professor John Yudkin when he called sugar 'pure, white and deadly' back in 1972 and quite rightly warned of the links between excessive consumption and heart disease' Catherine Collins, Principal Dietician, St George's HospitalJohn Yudkin (8 August 1910 - 12 July 1995) was a British physiologist and nutritionist, whose books include This Slimming Business, Eat Well, Slim Well and This Nutrition Business. He became internationally famous with his book Pure, White and Deadly, first published in 1972, and was one of the first scientists to claim that sugar was a major cause of obesity and heart disease. Robert H. Lustig, M.D. has spent the past sixteen years treating childhood obesity and studying the effects of sugar on the central nervous system and metabolism. He is the Director of the UCSF Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health Program and also a member of the Obesity Task Force of the Endocrine Society. His YouTube video lecture Sugar: The Bitter Truth has received over two million hits, he recently appeared on the BBC 2 documentary The Men Who Made Us Fat and his book Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease is being published in Autumn 2012.
The Drugs Don't Work: A Global Threat (Penguin Specials)
by Professor Dame Davies Dr Jonathan Grant Professor Mike CatchpoleThe Drugs Don't Work - A Penguin Special by Professor Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer for England'If we fail to act, we are looking at an almost unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer work and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine where treatable infections and injuries will kill once again' David Cameron, Prime MinisterResistance to our current range of antibiotics is the new inconvenient truth. If we don't act now, we risk the health of our parents, our children and our grandchildren.Antibiotics add, on average, twenty years to our lives. For over seventy years, since the manufacture of penicillin in 1943, we have survived extraordinary operations and life-threatening infections. We are so familiar with these wonder drugs that we take them for granted. The truth is that we have been abusing them: as patients, as doctors, as travellers, in our food.No new class of antibacterial has been discovered for twenty six years and the bugs are fighting back. If we do not take responsibility now, in a few decades we may start dying from the most commonplace of operations and ailments that can today be treated easily.This short book, which will be enjoyed by readers of An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore and Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre, will be the subject of a TEDex talk given by Professor Dame Sally Davies at the Royal Albert Hall.Professor Dame Sally C. Davies is the Chief Medical Officer for England and the first woman to hold the post. As CMO she is the independent advisor to the Government on medical matters with particular interest in Public Health and Research. She holds a number of international advisory positions and is an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College.Dr Jonathan Grant is a Principal Research Fellow and former President at RAND Europe, a not-for-profit public policy research institute. His main research interests are on health R&D policy and the use of research and evidence in policymaking. He was formerly Head of Policy at The Wellcome Trust. He received his PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, University of London, and his B.Sc. (Econ) from the London School of Economics.Professor Mike Catchpole is an internationally recognized expert in infectious diseases and the Director of Infectious Disease Surveillance and Control at Public Health England. He has coordinated many national infectious disease outbreak investigations and is an advisor to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. He is also a visiting professor at Imperial College.
White Drug Cultures and Regulation in London, 1916–1960
by Christopher HallamThis book traces the history of the London ‘white drugs’ (opiate and cocaine) subculture from the First World War to the end of the classic ‘British System’ of drug prescribing in the 1960s. It also examines the regulatory forces that tried to suppress non-medical drug use, in both their medical and juridical forms. Drugs subcultures were previously thought to have begun as part of the post-war youth culture, but in fact they existed from at least the 1930s. In this book, two networks of drug users are explored, one emerging from the disaffected youth of the aristocracy, the other from the night-time economy of London’s West End. Their drug use was caught up in a kind of dance whose steps represented cultural conflicts over identity and the modernism and Victorianism that coexisted in interwar Britain.
White Drug Cultures and Regulation in London, 1916–1960
by Christopher HallamThis book traces the history of the London ‘white drugs’ (opiate and cocaine) subculture from the First World War to the end of the classic ‘British System’ of drug prescribing in the 1960s. It also examines the regulatory forces that tried to suppress non-medical drug use, in both their medical and juridical forms. Drugs subcultures were previously thought to have begun as part of the post-war youth culture, but in fact they existed from at least the 1930s. In this book, two networks of drug users are explored, one emerging from the disaffected youth of the aristocracy, the other from the night-time economy of London’s West End. Their drug use was caught up in a kind of dance whose steps represented cultural conflicts over identity and the modernism and Victorianism that coexisted in interwar Britain.
Anatomies: The Human Body, Its Parts and The Stories They Tell
by Hugh Aldersey-WilliamsThe Sunday Times Science Book of the Year, Anatomies by Hugh Aldersey-Williams, author of bestseller Periodic Tales, is a splendidly entertaining journey through the art, science, literature and history of the human body.'Magnificent, inspired. He writes like a latter-day Montaigne. Stimulating scientific hypotheses, bold philosophic theories, illuminating quotations and curious facts. I recommend it to all' Telegraph *****'Splendid, highly entertaining, chock-full of insights ... It inserts fascinating scientific snippets and anecdotes about our organs into the wider history of our changing understanding of our bodies' Sunday Times'A relentlessly entertaining cultural history of the human body ... brims with fascinating details, infectious enthusiasm ... the terrain he covers is so richly brought to life' Guardian'Elegant and informative ... For Aldersey-Williams, [the body] is a thing of wonder and a repository of fascinating facts' Mail on Sunday ****In Anatomies, bestselling author Hugh Aldersey-Williams investigates that marvellous, mysterious form: the human body. Providing a treasure trove of surprising facts, remarkable stories and startling information drawn from across history, science, art and literature - from finger-prints to angel physiology, from Isaac Newton's death-mask to the afterlife of Einstein's brain - he explores our relationship with our bodies and investigates our changing attitudes to the extraordinary physical shell we inhabit.'More than a science book - it's also history, biography and autobiography - Anatomies is writing at its most refined, regardless of genre' Sunday TimesPraise for Periodic Tales:'Science writing at its best ... fascinating and beautiful ... if only chemistry had been like this at school ... to meander through the periodic table with him ... is like going round a zoo with Gerald Durrell ... a rich compilation of delicious tales, but it offers greater rewards, too' Matt Ridley'Immensely engaging and continually makes one sit up in surprise' Sunday Times'Splendid ... enjoyable and polished' Observer'Full of good stories and he knows how to tell them well ... an agreeable jumble of anecdote, reflection and information' Sunday Telegraph'Great fun to read and an endless fund of unlikely and improbable anecdotes ... sharp and often witty' Financial TimesHugh Aldersey-Williams studied natural sciences at Cambridge. He is the author of several books exploring science, design and architecture and has curated exhibitions at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Wellcome Collection. His previous book Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements was a Sunday Times bestseller and has been published in many languages around the world. He lives in Norfolk with his wife and son.
Alzheimer's: An Essential Guide to the Disease and Other Forms of Dementia (Penguin Specials)
by Andrew LeesBritain like the rest of the developed world is in the grip of a silent plague. Its thousands of victims can no longer make sense of the world and are contained for their own safety in fading Victorian piles and nondescript redbrick detention centres around the country. For them the present is a foreign country and the past a lost continent.There are now more people in the UK with Alzheimer's than the population of Liverpool, and four million Americans are reported to have the disease. Longevity is a major factor in the increasing incidence of the disease, with the number of over 65s in the UK having trebled in the last 100 years, and forecast to double again in the next 25 years.With such an alarming background, the race to find the causes - and therefore potentially a cure - for Alzheimer's is urgent. In this Penguin Special, Dr Andrew Lees, a world expert on the neurodegenerative diseases, explains what we know, and don't know, about Alzheimer's and its amelioration. The drugs that are currently available do not do enough to help, and the various physical and mental exercises we are encouraged to undertake are unproven. Yet it's not entirely a black picture: scientific endeavour has greatly increased our knowledge of the disease's spread and rate of deterioration, and the composition of the starchy plaques and the mechanism of the bindweed tangles in the brain which are core to the illness are much better understood.Alzheimer's is tough even to contemplate. But it represents one of the greatest medical mysteries of our age, and Andrew Lees's book provides a fascinating account of our knowledge of this terrible disease to this point.
Friday's Child: The Heartbreaking Story of a Mother's Love and a Family's Loss
by Ben PalmerIn 2004, Jessica Palmer died suddenly of septicaemia, just six days after giving birth to her second child. Distraught, her husband Ben struggled to comprehend his loss and to care for their two young children. It later came to light that Jessica's condition can usually be easily detected and prevented but in this case nothing was done until it was too late. Ben and his family successfully sued the NHS for negligence in 2007.This is Ben's heartbreaking story of dealing with his grief while raising two small children as a single parent. As he tries to accept the idea of life without his beloved wife, he battles shock, grief, despair and guilt, before finally finding hope in the future, thanks to the love and support of his friends and family. It is a devastating story of living with a cruel and needless loss.
A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir Of My Father
by Augusten BurroughsFrom the author:'My father doesn't feature much in Running with Scissors. And one of the reasons for this is because he didn't feature much in my life. But there's another reason, too: Our relationship was so complicated, so dark, so confusing and so big, that to tell the story would require a book. So finally, upon the death of my father in 2005, I decided to tell the story I have been most afraid yet most compelled to tell.'This prequel to international hit Running With Scissors tells the story of Augusten's relationship with his tormented father: a man who sent his wife mad and saw his other son run away from home, prior to Augusten going into foster care. Harrowing, insightful and amusing by turns.
Ethnographies and Health: Reflections on Empirical and Methodological Entanglements
by Emma Garnett Joanna Reynolds Sarah MiltonThis edited collection explores the multiple ways in which ethnography and health emerge and take form through the research process. There is now a plethora of disciplinary engagements with ethnography around the topic of health, including anthropology, sociology, geography, science and technology studies, and in health care professions such as nursing and occupational therapy. This dynamic and evolving landscape means ethnography and health are entangled in new and different ways, providing a timely opportunity to explore what these entanglements do and affect in the social production of knowledge. Rather than discussing the strengths (and limitations) of ethnography for engaging with health, the book asks: what does ethnography enable, make visible and possible for knowing and doing health in contemporary research settings and beyond?
Ethnographies and Health: Reflections on Empirical and Methodological Entanglements
by Emma Garnett Joanna Reynolds Sarah MiltonThis edited collection explores the multiple ways in which ethnography and health emerge and take form through the research process. There is now a plethora of disciplinary engagements with ethnography around the topic of health, including anthropology, sociology, geography, science and technology studies, and in health care professions such as nursing and occupational therapy. This dynamic and evolving landscape means ethnography and health are entangled in new and different ways, providing a timely opportunity to explore what these entanglements do and affect in the social production of knowledge. Rather than discussing the strengths (and limitations) of ethnography for engaging with health, the book asks: what does ethnography enable, make visible and possible for knowing and doing health in contemporary research settings and beyond?
Understanding, Preventing and Overcoming Osteoporosis
by Gillian Tidey Jane Plant CbeWith the help of this book you can:* Learn how to prevent osteoporosis* Improve your chances of increasing your bone strength and health if you suffer from osteoporosis* Discover how to get the best out of othodox medicine* Educate yourself about the fundamental importance of diet and lifestyle, with seven Food Factors and eight Lifestyle Factors, aimed at improving your bone health, appearance and outlook.* Follow a new dietary regime based on delicious recipes* Above all, discover a diet and lifestyle that will empower you to prevent and combat the disease.
Call the Vet: Farmers, Dramas and Disasters – My First Year as a Country Vet
by Anna BirchWhen fresh-faced, newly qualified vet Anna arrives in the seemingly sleepy Dorset village of Ebbourne, little does she know that this tiny rural community is about to change her life … Straight in at the deep end, Anna faces two tricky calvings, an emergency call-out to a frightened mare, lots of mad cats (and mad cat women) and one enormous dog with an injured leg and a threatening bark. Spirited and determined, Anna quickly finds her feet and falls in love with rural life, including Ebbourne’s eccentric characters and their animals. Disasters, dramas, farmers and friendship – and not to mention a whirlwind romance with a local Wildlife Trust worker – this warm and witty memoir offers a window into what working with animals and country life is really all about.
A Volunteer Nurse on the Western Front: Memoirs from a WWI camp hospital
by Olive DentStarring Oona Chaplin as a V.A.D. (Voluntary Aid Detachment), and Suranne Jones and Hermione Norris as trained nurses, The Crimson Field is a gripping drama set in a tented hospital on the coast of France, where plucky real-life V.A.D. Olive Dent served two years of the Great War, and kept this extraordinarily vivid diary of day-to-day life – ever cheerful through the bitter cold, the chilblains, hunger and exhaustion. Resilient, courageous and resourceful, nurses, doctors and patients alike do their best to support each other. A Christmas fancy-dress ball, a concert performed by a stoic orchestra covered in bandages, church services held in a marquee and letters from Blighty all keep spirits up in camp, as wounded soldiers suffer terribly with quiet dignity on the makeshift wards, and nurses rush round tirelessly to make them as comfortable as possible.With original illustrations throughout by fellow V.A.D.s, Olive’s memoir is a fascinating period piece, a rare first-hand account of this little-known story, which will resonate very strongly with viewers of The Crimson Field.
Total Recovery: Solving the Mystery of Chronic Pain and Depression
by Dr Gary Kaplan Donna BeechDr. Gary Kaplan's Total Recovery is a radical rethink of how we get sick, why we stay sick and how we can recover.Millions of us suffer from chronic pain. It can return at the slightest provocation and its cause is often a mystery to doctors. In Total Recovery, Dr. Gary Kaplan argues that we've been thinking about disease all wrong.Through cutting-edge research and dramatic patient stories, the book reveals how chronic physical and emotional pain are linked. Dr. Kaplan's groundbreaking discovery that disease is an accumulation of traumas over a lifetime - every injury, infection and emotional blow - suggests that current treatments for chronic pain and depression are ineffective. By focusing on long-term causes as well as symptoms, Dr. Kaplan has found hope for those locked into a lifetime of pain and suffering. His unified theory has created a new pathway to total recovery.
Good Me Bad Me
by Ali LandFOR ANYONE WHO IS YET TO DISCOVER THE MUST-READ PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER.The SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER and the unputdownable RICHARD & JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK that will chill you to the bone . . .AWARDED HEAT'S UNMISSABLE, BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR. 'It's rare to come across a book you can't stop thinking about, talking about and pushing it into the hands of everyone you know.' HeatOne of THE TELEGRAPH'S CRIME BOOKS OF THE YEAR___________When Annie hands her mother over to the police she hopes for a new start in life - but can we ever escape our past?'NEW NAME. NEW FAMILY. SHINY. NEW. ME.'Annie's mother is a serial killer. The only way Annie can make it stop is to hand her in to the police. With a new foster family and a new name - Milly - she hopes for a fresh start. Now, surely, she can be whoever she wants to be. But as her mother's trial looms, the secrets of Milly's past won't let her sleep . . . Because Milly's mother is a serial killer. And blood is thicker than water... ___________'The new Girl on The Train, which was the new Gone Girl. You get the picture. This psycho-thriller by Ali Land is set to be massive' Cosmopolitan'Original and compelling - a sensational debut' Clare Mackintosh, bestselling author of I Let You Go'Utterly compelling, extraordinary, breath-taking' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep'An astoundingly compelling thriller. Beyond tense' Matt Haig'Could not be more unputdownable if it was slathered with superglue' Sunday Express'A strong contender for debut of the year' Irish Times
I Die, But The Memory Lives On: The World Aids Crisis And The Memory Book Project
by Henning MankellThe problem of Aids has been kept largely under control in Europe, but in the Third World it is a different story. There is a devestating lack of resources for medicine and for education. When parents die at a young age, children are left behind with no-one to teach them how to avoid the same fate, and so the cycle continues.Memory Books could prove to be the most important documents in our time in answer to this crisis. When the official reports have been filed away, these slim volumes, memories recorded by those who died too soon, will remain. Through a combination of words and drawings, they can have a legacy, a hope that future generations may not suffer the same heartbreaking fate.Henning Mankell is not a public figure in the way politicians are, but he has achieved cult success with his Kurt Wallander novels and is noted for the social and moral questions raised by his fiction. He devotes much of his time to work with Aids charities. I Die But the Memory Lives on is a fable illustrating the importance of books as a means of education, of preserving memories and of sharing life. In the midst of death and suffering, a young girl plants a tree. She nurtures it as a fragment of life that will grow and survive and, like the Memory Books, outlive this global crisis. Mankell, by highlighting and humanising this catastrophe, proposes a way to help.
My Lobotomy: A memoir
by Charles Fleming Howard DullyHoward Dully was 12 years old when he was given a lobotomy. He was 56 years old when he found out why. The four decades in between tell a story of profound love and compassion. In 1960 Howard's father and stepmother delivered him into the hands of the man who had invented the 'ice pick' lobotomy. Expelled from the mainstream medical community, his once-popular procedure now a grisly medical relic, Dr Walter Freeman was eager to turn this temperamental 12-year-old into a submissive boy - especially after hearing the terrible lies his stepmother told about him. Howard, told he was going into the hospital for tests, was instead given electro-shock treatments and a transorbital lobotomy. It took him 40 years to recover. Howard Dully's escape from that dark place is a voyage of enormous hope and universal appeal.
A Life in Pieces: The harrowing story of a woman with 17 personalities
by Richard K. BaerIn 1989 a woman named Karen showed up at author and psychiatrist Richard Baer's practice, terribly frightened and at breaking point. She explained that her husband beat her, her mother stole from her; she was in tremendous physical pain and wanted to die. Within a few sessions she also revealed that her father and grandfather had raped and tortured her repeatedly over the course of her childhood, frequently in the company of other neighbourhood men. She was now married with two children, but often could not account for stretches of minutes, hours, sometimes even days.As Karen's story unfolded over the following months, Baer realised that he was dealing with a severe case of Multiple Personality Disorder. Although it would take time and deep, hard-won trust before any of Karen's alternated personalities presented themselves in her psychiatrist's office, over the next five years Baer would encounter seventeen distinct personalities, all of whom had been living inside Karen since she was a young child, shielding her from an otherwise unbearable life.In the tradition of Oliver Saks and Irvin Yalom, Baer chronicles his nine years of work with Karen and all her distinct personalities, his often futile efforts to use the tools of his trade, and his patient's ultimate invention of her own cure. An unforgettable story of unimaginable suffering and ultimate recovery, A Life In Pieces: How One Woman's Personality was Shattered by Years of Abuse is the first account of life with Multiple Personality Disorder written by the treating psychiatrist.
The Creation Of Health: The Emotional, Psychological, And Spiritual Responses That Promote Health And Healing
by C. Norman Shealy Caroline MyssA collaboration between a traditionally trained physician and a medical intuitive, The Creation of Health illuminates the deep connection between emotional dysfunction and physical illness. It describes the role that emotional disturbances play in the most common diseases and ailments, from influenza, the common cold and arthritis to diabetes, heart disease and cancer.After providing an introduction to intuitive medicine and its history, method of diagnosis, and relationship to traditional medicine, Myss and Shealy detail the deeper emotional and physical reasons why illness develops in the body. Dr Shealy offers a traditional account of a particular disease or ailment, while Dr Myss sheds light on the deeper emotional and psychic causes through her corresponding energy analysis.Confirming the link between illness and emotion, The Creation of Health puts forth a groundbreaking vision of holistic healing.
The Hippo with Toothache: Heart-warming stories of zoo and wild animals and the vets who care for them
by Lucy H Spelman Ted Y MashimaMeet Mohan, a rhino with painfully sore feet.And Patch, a falcon with a broken wishbone.And Kachina, a bear cub with brittle bones.Not to mention Alfredito, a hippo suffering from a sever bout of toothache.All these animals owe their lives to the dedicated zoo and wild animal vets who employ boundless ingenuity and expertise to care for them and who, in this beguiling book, tell the stories of their most memorable cases. They describe not only the meticulous detective work that goes into making a diagnosis but also the pioneering techniques they have developed. And they talk freely and movingly about the bonds they form with their exotic patients.. Whether it's one doctor's determined effort to save a critically ill lemur, the neurosurgeon who was persuaded to operate on a paralysed kangaroo, or the vet who refused to give up on an orphaned baby beluga whale, these are acts of rescue, kindness and co-operation that will warm every animal lover's heart.
Jung And The Story Of Our Time
by Sir Laurens Van Der PostLaurens van der Post was a long-time friend of Jung and here presents Jung as he knew him: Jung the man, the discoverer and explorer of a new dimension in the human spirit, rather than Jung the psychologist. Calling him a 'universal personality, one of the greatest since the Renaissance', van der Post writes much more than simply a biographical study of Jung. Jung is a full-scale, unflinching attempt to convey the creative, pioneering greatness of the man and to show how his far-seeing vision has so greatly enlightened and enriched the spiritual poverty of modern man.
The Good Back Guide
by Barrie SavoryMore than 60% of the UK's population report regular back pain with the amount of working time lost, in the region of 119 million days a year. Not everyone has the time - or money - to visit chiropractors or osteopaths. Barrie Savory is one of Britain's leading osteopaths and draws on his many years of research, teaching and practise to provide an easy to follow guide to how we can all protect our backs and, if the damage has already been done, treat injuries and prevent further strain.Savory looks at the way in which we, as human beings, put our bodies through a series of potentially harmful positions as we go about our daily lives - from the way we get out of bed in the mornings, travel to work, sit at our desks, carry our shopping, watch TV - not to mention injuries through sex. Full of advice on diet, exercise, posture and relaxation, this guide is also packed with exercises that can be performed safely and easily at home to treat strains and injuries.
The Diabetes Revolution: A groundbreaking guide to reducing your insulin dependency
by Dr Charles Clark Maureen ClarkWestern society is experiencing an epidemic of type 2 diabetes, almost entirely as a direct consequence of obesity. Until quite recently, type 2 diabetes was known as 'mature-onset diabetes', but recent cases have shown that children as young as ten are now suffering from the disease. Diabetes can cause blindness, restriction of mobility, pain, kidney failure and coronary thrombosis and is a truly devastating disease. Succinct and easy-to-understand, The Diabetes Revolution:- Outlines the basis of diabetes, the medical effects of the disease and the complications that can arise- Describes the medical reasons why a person is overweight- Includes typical case studies where lifestyle changes produced dramatic results- Offers easy-to-prepare low-GI recipes that have proven success in diabetic management- Outlines specific structured dietary advice with suggested menu plansThe Diabetes Revolution is the most comprehensive, practical system yet developed for the control of diabetes and is written by a leading authority on diet and diabetes.
Sports And Remedial Massage Therapy
by Mel CashThis is the definitive reference book on massage as a remedial therapy for sports training and sports injuries. It covers all practical and theroretical aspects of the subject, ranging from the basics through to the treatment of soft tissue injuries; and it gives guidance on how to work in a support role with medical practitioners treating more serious injury. It offers innovative new ideas like working posture and the psychology of injury treatment. This book goes beyond the conventional idea that massage is just a pleasant luxury, and shows it as a vital component in an athlete's training. The therapy offers effective pain relief for muscular problems, with practical advice on how to achieve permanant solutions to improve performance in sport.
Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe
by William RosenIn the middle of the sixth century, the world's smallest organism collided with the world's mightiest empire. With the death of twenty-five million people, the Roman Empire, under her last great emperor, Justinian, was decimated. Before Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that carries bubonic plague, was finished, both the Roman and Persian empires were easy pickings for the armies of Muhammad on their conquering march out of Arabia. In its wake, the plague - history's first pandemic - marked the transition from the age of Mediterranean empires to the age of European nation-states - from antiquity to the medieval world.A narrative history that melds contemporary sources with modern disciplines, Justinian's Flea is a unique account of one of history's great turning points - the summer of 542 - revealed through the experiences of the remarkable individuals whose lives are a window onto a remarkable age: Justinian, his general Belisarius, the greatest soldier between Caesar and Saladin; his architect, Anthemius who built Constantinople's Hagia Sophia (and whose brother, Alexander, was the great physician of the plague years); Tribonian, the jurist who created the Justinianic Code; and, finally, his empress Theodora, the one-time prostitute who became co-ruler of the empire, the most politically powerful woman in European history until Elizabeth I.