Health Illness

Sloths are the slowest mammals on earth. They can hardly see. They live in rainforests among jaguars, pumas, and countless other predators. Yet they survive. And they do it by being so incredibly slow, and living a life covered in algae. In this episode, we hang with a sloth in the jungle of Costa Rica as he spends a month digesting one single leaf, and we see the symbiosis and collaboration that surrounds him.

Brown bears lead deeply cyclical lives. They need to gain sometimes hundreds of pounds during the warmer months to prepare for winter hibernation, a lifestyle that brings them into frequent contact with many other species’ cycles. In this episode, we meander through the Alaska peninsula with a bear and her cubs as she teaches them to hunt salmon at the falls, dig for clams along the coastal mudflats, and use the regional rubbing tree.

Dogs are a familiar and comforting part of many of our lives. In this episode, we take a walk with a pet xoloitzcuintli, or Mexican hairless dog, as he greets his blocks by smell. Along the way, we learn the backstory of squirrels in U.S. cities and observe the very smart and clean neighborhood raccoon.

Dung beetles might sound dirty, but the ancient Egyptians believed their god took the form of a dung beetle to roll the morning sun across the sky every day. In this episode, we roll with dung beetles around the world as they push their precious dung—often in balls many times larger than they are—over Florida pastures, Armenian highlands, and the vast South African savanna.

Ewan Cameron is a Vancouver-based health researcher that has uncovered the truth about cervical cancer and how the pharmaceutical industry has kept this hidden from the public. A graduate of the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, he completed his journalism studies in the early 2000's before joining a local newspaper, where he became disillusioned by his editor's refusal to publish health-related and pollution-related news stories. The reason? They would upset their corporate clients on which the newspaper depended for advertising revenue.

Living with fatigue can feel hopeless and confusing, with traditional medical approaches focusing on managing symptoms rather than understanding and addressing underlying causes. But healing is possible when you learn to decode your fatigue and apply the right interventions, in the right sequence, at the right time.

Arthritis is the most common cause of disability in the world - greater than both back pain and heart disease. One example, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), is the most common autoimmune disease, affecting 1% of the US population, and almost 68 million people worldwide. Conventional medicine tends to treat arthritis with strong, gut-damaging, immune-suppressing pain medications, temporarily relieving the symptoms of the disease without addressing its root causes.

We know that autoimmune disease—a condition when the body’s immune system attacks its own healthy tissue and cells—affects about one in ten Americans, or 24 million people, with prevalence increasing worldwide. But as New York Times bestselling author Dr. Sara Gottfried explains in this eye-opening new book, autoimmune disease may be even more pervasive than we realize—and its root cause may surprise you.

In 2015, Barbara Lipska - a leading expert on the neuroscience of mental illness - was diagnosed with melanoma that had spread to her brain. Within months, her frontal lobe, the seat of cognition, began shutting down. She descended into madness, exhibiting dementia- and schizophrenia-like symptoms that terrified her family and coworkers. But miraculously, the immunotherapy her doctors had prescribed worked quickly. Just eight weeks after her nightmare began, Lipska returned to normal. With one difference: she remembered her brush with madness with exquisite clarity.

The Gentle Sleep Book offers gentle, no-tears sleep solutions for exhausted parents of newborns to five-year-olds. A large percentage of parents find their young children's sleep - or lack of - challenging. This new audiobook from Sarah Ockwell-Smith, founder of BabyCalm, will be an indispensable guide for parents, whatever challenges they are facing with their child's sleep - from the day they bring their newborn home until their child is settled in at school.

There is no bigger issue for healthy infants than sleeping through the night. In this simple, straightforward book, Suzy Giordano presents her amazingly effective "Limited-Crying Solution" that will get any baby to sleep for twelve hours at night-and three hours in the day-by the age of twelve weeks old. Giordano is the mother of five children and one of the most sought-after baby sleep specialists in the country. Her sleep plan has been tested - and it has never failed.

Professor of psychiatry Elyn R. Saks writes about her struggle with schizophrenia in this unflinching account of her mental illness. In The Center Cannot Hold, Saks draws readers into a nightmare world of medications, a misguided health-care system, and social stigmas. But she would not be defeated. With a strength and force of will that most can only imagine, Saks reclaimed her life and went on to achieve great success.

In Cancer and the New Biology of Water, Thomas Cowan argues that this failure was inevitable because the oncogene theory is incorrect or at least incomplete and based on a flawed concept of biology in which DNA controls our cellular function and therefore our health. Instead, Dr. Cowan tells us the somatic mutations seen in cancer cells are the result of a cellular deterioration that has little to do with oncogenes, DNA, or even the nucleus.

For more than four decades, Dr. Roy Taylor has been studying the causes of diabetes. In 2017, he had a breakthrough: He found scientific proof that type-2 diabetes is not only reversible, but that anyone following a simple regimen can prevent and cure it. Life Without Diabetes makes it easy for people to cut back on their daily calorie intake and avoid the two big problems of dieting - hunger and choice - and lose up to 35 pounds in just eight weeks.

Getting an accurate diagnosis is the first step toward reclaiming your life from bipolar disorder. But if you or someone you love is struggling with the frantic highs and crushing lows of this illness, there are still many hurdles to surmount at home, at work, and in daily life. You need current information and practical problem-solving advice you can count on. You've come to the right place.

From the moment Martha and her husband, John, conceived their second child, all hell broke loose. They were a couple obsessed with success. After years of matching IQs and test scores with less driven peers, they had two Harvard degrees apiece and were gunning for more. But the dream had begun to disintegrate. Then, when their unborn son, Adam, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, doctors, advisers, and friends in the Harvard community warned them not to keep the baby.

Discover the energizing and healing benefits of yoga nidra with this empowering beginner's guide. Yoga nidra, or yogic sleep, is a deeply restorative and nourishing practice. With no need for physical movement, it enables you to rediscover a naturally restful and meditative state that frees you from the stress of everyday life. This ancient and sacred form of yoga is accessible and adaptable.

What to Expect Before You’re Expecting has everything that eager-to-be moms and dads need to know about getting pregnant, from getting their bodies ready to make a healthy baby to getting that healthy baby on board faster. You'll find baby-friendly foods to order up (say yes to yams); fertility busters to avoid (see you later, saturated fat); how to pinpoint ovulation, time baby-making sex, keep on-demand sex sexy, and separate conception fact - it takes the average couple up to 12 months to make a baby - from myth - position matters.

Alzheimers books should help everyone involved through this incredibly difficult time. That’s why Alzheimer’s Through the Stages shows you what you can do for your loved one - and yourself - every step of the way. This book’s detailed descriptions of all seven stages of the disease are both helpful and comforting. With each section divided into three parts - what to expect, what to say, and what to do - this is one of the easiest to use Alzheimers books for caregivers.

This is not a false hope. You can turn pain into possibility with this life-changing book that can help everyone with elusive hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS)–from those newly diagnosed to those who have suffered in silence for decades. Wherever you are on your journey navigating the complexities of chronic illness, you're not alone.