Cure

There are many kinds of healing, and a garden filled with life and flowers and the wildlife it might attract can be healing in and of itself on some level. But Farmer-Knowles takes the healing process much further here, giving the reader the tools and guidelines needed to extract healing remedies from common garden plants. Artichoke teas to help with liver and gall-bladder problems, catnip to ease flu symptoms, poultices from leeks, parsley jelly for digestive problems, and nettles for anemia are all here. Scores of recipes are accompanied by lovely photographs of the plants by Deni Brown. There are cautions about how to use the book and how not to use it, clear warnings about some potentially poisonous plants, and notes on the dangers of using some of the remedies in combination with other medications, medical conditions, and pregnancy. Few readers will fail to find a good number of comforting and healing, homemade remedies from their own back yards. --Mark A. Hetts

Convinced that drug therapies based on dopamine replacement would never fully relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, Dr. Curt Freed instead cut to the core of the matter--quite literally--and explored ways to replace damaged neurological systems caused by the disease. Healing the Brain meticulously chronicles his development and testing of a controversial surgical method, in which microscopic "noodles" of fetal brain tissue were implanted in the brains of suffering patients.

Fueled by major funding from the National Institutes of Health, Freed conducted the first double-blind fetal cell transplant study--a project involving 40 patients and spanning an unexpected five years (1994-1999). He hoped to show that such transplants would help the brain heal by repairing critical pathways that appear damaged in Parkinson's patients.

To some degree, he succeeded. Throughout this vivid account, Freed and coauthor Simon LeVay carefully outline the history of Parkinson's, treatment successes and failures, and all the players (patients, politicians, and fellow researchers) in Freed's fight against this progressively degenerative disease. While most of the text reads easily, the surgical accounts will challenge queasy stomachs; every action and reaction (by patient, doctor, and equipment) is recorded here. Most compelling, however, is Freed's insight into the disease itself and his confidence that science eventually will provide a cure. --Liane Emory Thomas