The Winter Bookshelf

Recent Books by Faculty of Harvard Medical, Dental, and Public Health Schools

Paula K. Rauch and Anna C. Muriel
Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child When a Parent Is Sick
McGraw–Hill
The collaborative work of Paula Rauch, HMS assistant professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and the founder and director of the hospital’s Parenting at a Challenging Time Program (PACT), and Anna Muriel, HMS instructor in psychiatry at MGH, has yielded this informative guide for any family that is simultaneously raising children and coping with a parent’s illness. The text emphasizes the child’s experience of the situation while explaining which concepts of illness children can grasp at various ages. It also provides important information on maintaining daily routines, answering tough questions, creating child-centered family time, preparing for hospital visits, and facilitating communication.

Aggie Casey and Herbert Benson, with Brian O’Neill
The Harvard Medical School Guide to Lowering Your Blood Pressure
McGraw–Hill
Herbert Benson, the Mind/Body Medical Institute associate professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Aggie Casey, HMS associate in medicine at BID, created this manual for substantially lowering one’s blood pressure through natural techniques, rather than prescription medication. The book defines blood pressure and identifies the different types of high blood pressure and their dangers. Recommendations include a balance of relaxation, stress management, healthy diet, and exercise as part of a significant lifestyle modification program.

W. Allan Walker with Courtney Humphries
The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating During Pregnancy
McGraw–Hill
W. Allan Walker, an HMS professor of pediatrics and the director of the Division of Nutrition, developed this guide book on proper nutrition for mothers-to-be. Walker’s research indicates that a pregnant woman’s diet can strongly influence her baby’s health at birth and later in life. The book describes an appropriate diet and exercise program for expecting mothers. It also discusses different medication and supplements that are available for pregnant women, some menus and simple recipes, and advice on breast-feeding and weaning to assure the baby is properly nourished.

Elisa Ronningstam
Identifying and Understanding the Narcissistic Personality
Oxford University Press
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a complex illness: those afflicted have unreasonable expectations, a constant need for attention and acclaim, an outsized sense of entitlement and self-righteousness, and a tendency to indulge in pathological grandiose fantasies. In this book, Elisa Ronningstam, HMS associate clinical professor of psychology at McLean Hospital, provides the first integrated clinical and empirical guide for clinicians treating narcissistic patients. In it, she describes the symptoms and treatment methods for narcissists. Ronningstam also suggests lifestyle changes that have been shown to ease pathological narcissism.

Leo E. Otterbein and Brian S. Zuckerbraun, Editors
Heme Oxygenase: The Elegant Orchestration of Its Products in Medicine
Nova Biomedical Books
This text is devoted to the enzyme heme oxygenase, which cleaves heme to produce carbon monoxide, biliverdin, and free iron, all important bioactive molecules. Chapters discuss the two isozymes, heme oxygenase-1 and -2, and their roles in human disease, inflammation and immunity, transplantation, ischemia reperfusion injury, angiogenesis, iron homeostasis, and other areas of molecular biology. The preface, titled “The Cain Mutiny,” stands apart from the molecular nitty-gritty, telling the story of a dog named Cain that survived a lethal dose of carbon monoxide at a St. Louis pound. Preface author and editor Leo Otterbein, an HMS visiting assistant professor of surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, uses the anecdote to introduce the spirit of iconoclasm and discovery that the research in the book represents. Co-editor Brian Zuckerbraun is on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh.

Daniel Levy and Susan Brink
A Change of Heart: How the People of Framingham, Massachusetts, Helped Unravel the Mysteries of Cardiovascular Disease
Alfred A. Knopf
Daniel Levy, HMS associate clinical professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and director of the Framingham Heart Study, and his co-author Susan Brink, a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report, tell the story of how 5,209 citizens of Framingham helped change the understanding of what causes heart disease and how best to treat it. From its inception in 1948 to the present, the heart study has monitored the blood pressure and other cardiovascular indicators of Framingham volunteers, as well as their lifestyles and physical fitness. The collected data have shown strong correlations between heart disease and high stress levels, blood pressure, and the intake of saturated fat, cholesterol, and tobacco smoke. The results have assisted cardiologists in unraveling some of the mysteries of the disease, and will continue to do so as the study progresses.

Hari G. Garg, Robert J. Linhardt, and Charles A. Hales, Editors
Chemistry and Biology of Heparin and Heparan Sulfate
Elsevier Press
Almost 90 years after its discovery, heparin and its derivatives remain important drugs in clinical practice. Yet it was not until recently that the scientific community came to understand the macromolecule’s anticoagulant activity. In this text, Hari Garg, HMS principal associate in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital; Robert Linhardt, professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; and Charles Hales, HMS professor of medicine at MGH, explain the chemistry, biology, and clinical applications of heparin and heparan sulfate, as well as their function in various physiological and pathological conditions.

Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick (Photography and text), with Erez Lieberman and Sarah Falkner (Text)
City of Salt
Aperture
Elaborate dioramas with costumed actors appear in this collection of photographs and fables that are both vivid and surreal. Divided into five books—of sand, fur, musk, tea, and salt—and with backdrops of marshland, desert, and beach, the visual and verbal artistry of this experimental work draws the reader into dreamscapes where meaning shifts and invariably slips away. One of the writers, Erez Lieberman, is a student in the Medical Engineering and Medical Physics program within the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Mohammed S. Razzaque and Takashi Taguchi
Cellular Stress Responses in Renal Diseases
Karger
Studies on heat shock proteins and stress response following an injury have made remarkable advances in recent years, benefiting not only from scientific findings but from the greater availability of research technology. Both heat shock proteins and stress responses are involved in the pathophysiology of various renal injuries, and related investigations offer prospects for new therapeutic options. The purpose of this book is to present an overview of contemporary thinking on the clinical significance of stress responses following renal injury. The volume is a useful reference for clinicians and basic researchers in the fields of cell biology, pathology, and nephrology who are involved in treating patients with various renal diseases or in defining various stress responses during tissue injury and subsequent organ damage.

Richard S. Beaser with Amy P. Campbell
The Joslin Guide to Diabetes: A Program for Managing Your Treatment
Simon & Schuster
A diagnosis of diabetes means a life of constant self-monitoring and changed habits. Managing the illness is as much about maintaining daily routines and a healthy lifestyle as it is about medications. In this book, Richard Beaser, HMS associate clinical professor of medicine at Joslin, and Amy Campbell, the education program manager of Joslin’s Disease Management Department, provide tips on how to manage everyday life with diabetes, including meal planning charts, exercise ideas, and advice on how to adjust a treatment plan.

Harvey B. Simon
The No Sweat Exercise Plan: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, and Live Longer
McGraw–Hill
For many, exercise is a guilty afterthought, something we resolve to do and pursue for a few months before the virtuous devotion to working out is undermined by a desire to sleep late. Yet exercise does not have to entail radical changes in habit. In this book, Harvey Simon, HMS associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, explains that while exercise is essential to good health, fitness needs vary from person to person, and exercise can usually fit into an individual’s existing routines. The No Sweat Exercise Plan includes a point system to identify the health benefits of everyday actions, such as gardening, climbing stairs, and walking; self-assessment tests to help evaluate one’s level of fitness; and health care tips.

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