Healthy salad with carrots

Daedalus Publishing: Little Library of Science

     Book review: Christophe Cassou, Weather and climate doesn’t rhyme!, Daedalus Publishing, Bari 2014, pp. 64. 

     Book review: Pierre Papon, Let’s full of energy!, Dedalus Publishing, Bari 2014, pp. 64. 

     In what we want to invest our future? The correct answer is: in children, the younger generation. How? Following the suggestion of the historian Marc Bloch, according to which we have to explain a simple concept that starts from the question of own child and at the same time it’s necessary to stimulate new curiosity in children.

     In a society dominated by the frenzy comes to our rescue the book series “Little Library of Science” designed by the Daedalus Publisher that from own works reveals altruism toward readers of all ages. The mission of the book series, which addresses to the curious from 9 to 99 years, is to take on scientific issues in a simple way. The authors are scientists and experts who answer to the childlike questions able to condense profound existential and environmental curiosity.

     Only the tenderness of a little child is able to feel the vulnerability of the planet where we live and encourage their family to take measures that can pamper the Earth. The two texts I’m going to review, “Weather and climate doesn’t rhyme!” and “Let’s full of energy!”, seem related and basically they are.

     Climate and weather are indicative of the globe health level. Current is the issue of climate change which follows the global warming alarm. To a child is like the Earth had a fever and should absolutely be healed. Climatologist Christophe Cassou stands next to his young readers and guide them in the fascinating journey of discovery of meteorological phenomena of which so much is said and little is understood. He translates the buzzwords of technical jargon and puts them at the level of nippers understanding.

     Each book is organized as an exciting story that tells the adventures of the characters which discover new phenomena and find creative gimmicks to understand them.

     Alongside of physics and chemistry industrial professor Pierre Papon, we discover the treasures of the Earth i.e. all types of energy and the different ways to produce it, store it, use it as best but never exploit it. 

     The books are close to the families in the delicate phase of the education of children and their human and cultural formation. Isn’t a coincidence that the location of the tale Let’s full of energy! is the farmland, the only place in the world where you can develop an awareness of the environment sensitivity and show gratitude for the precious elements that the planet gives us.

Many objects are in the forefront. And why not the corset?

That corset too innovative for Puglia

Scoliosis, kyphosis, lordosis: are accentuations of the physiological curves of the vertebral column. They require preventive and corrective actions, but we can’t talk about healing. Although irreversible conditions, those are not the accused words, but the medical negligence together with the innovation lack. We love fringe us with well–advanced objects, but in the orthopedics field we are resigned to vintage. The corset, or orthopedic corset, is tailored and applied to solve those problems.

 In severe cases we undergoes surgery. Corsets range is wide: there is a kind Boston, Lionese, Riviera; Lapadula; Cheneau; Spinecor, the immovable Risser plaster cast, the Milwaukee model with or without cervical ring. Versatile names that divert the attention from health problem and direct us to the fashion effect. Corsets are rigid, made of polyethylene (ie synthetic) and hardly bearable especially by child/adolescent. They are also old, be enough to think that the Lapadula dates back to the Sixties. Great for erotism and already used in that field. The treatment consists in wear them for many hours a day, but it’s almost impossible and many people renounce losing the ability to realize postural benefits. The solution lies in innovation: it was patented in the United States (homeland of scoliosis) a new generation corset which represents the new frontier of orthopedic correction. It offers a better toleration, even in summer, due to the characteristics of the production material: carbon fibers. It is breathable and antistatic due to the special conductive fibers that absorb and dissipate electrostatic charges.

However, in Puglia we are stuck with antiquated models, flag–bearer of a fossilized mentality. At this point, the conversation becomes an affluent that flows in their long–issue of health Organization gangrenous composed by doctors, often greedy for money accumulation and not knowledge, and by physiotherapy that is slow to catch on with correction techniques and equipped gyms. Remains in vogue private institutions, real cooperatives of physiatrists striving for innovation. All this forces families to become emigrants at home, making the journeys of hope in their own country in search of an updated region. The achievement of a broader visions caused an economic splurge for families already immersed in temporary work. It’s time to expand our field of action. Too long emeritus primary reached the summit of his career, placing the metaphorical ladder on weak and crooked backs. I’d like imagine the doctor as if he/she were Atlas, the Titan of Greek mythology that keeps the entire heavens on his shoulders, to lift/solace his neighbor from the pains that afflict him/her. Medicine isn’t it altruism? 

Source: “La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno”, an italian newspaper, March 12, 2013, p. 24.

Coeliac disease: play in advance. Don’t be caught unprepared

Coeliac disease or celiac disease or celiac sprue.

     Aretaeus of Cappadocia (120–200 AD.) was the first to use the term «koiliakos» with the meaning of «one who suffers in the bowel». Celiac disease, especially if they identified with the name of celiac illness, frightens us, but fears are originate from the fact that many people ignore it. In classical literature the Pillars of Hercules (current Strait of Gibraltar) indicated the extreme limit of the known world and, consequently, of knowledge. Beyond this limit were bud men fears. But then, the audacity of the explorers had crossed them. So we can do the same thing with celiac disease.

     This is a permanent intolerance to gluten, a vegetable origin protein contained in some cereals: wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelled, kamut. Its manifestation is like love, has no age. The most common symptoms (diarrhea, weight loss, anemia, vitamin deficiencies, bone loss, hair loss) resulting from lack of protein, vitamins, fats, minerals, and this deficiency is linked to the atrophy of intestinal villi, deputies to the absorption of nutrients. The incidence of this intolerance is rising more and more, but the diagnosis are less than the real number of people with celiac disease, who are forced to remove even the smallest traces of flour from their each flat. They should follow a gluten–free diet to guarantee a perfect health state that otherwise would suffer serious or irreparable damages. All this implies a strong commitment to education food, but the privations are always less: cereals such as rice, corn, millet, soybeans and other are going to replace those prohibited. In addition, food industry have set up a wide range of gluten–free foods, from flour to frozen pizzas, from stuffed biscuits to ice creams. In this way, a celiac diet is varied and balanced despite the gluten absence.

     If you have symptoms associated to those described, talk to your doctor who may, and has already happened, forget about it and hopelessly wrong diagnosis or bring you  in the operating room suspecting a tumor in the stomach or intestine. Remember that you aren’t alone and not the only one. Time ago, has arisen the AIC (Italian Celiac Association); you can also visit the websites www.aicpuglia.it and www.celiachia.it.

     Now I turn to the categories of readers: if you are a parent you can take care of your son/daughter, and if you are a teenager your only problem will be the age of transition, if you are a restaurateur you can insert into the network of facilities that prepare «gluten free» food. So you can increase your clientele and... your finances; and if you aren’t celiac, today you learned a new word.

     Source "La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno", an italian newspaper, February 20, 2013, p. 20.