The Athlete's Dilemma

May 8, 2017
Parry (Mental Disability, Violence, Future Dangerousness), a lawyer with an expertise in mental health and health law, has written an excellent volume on the “debilitating paradox” of popular spectator sports: that “the overwhelming desire to attain the heightened fitness” required of an elite athlete leads children and adults to pain, injuries, and “disability, addictions, and even premature deaths.” Part I is a solid overview of how the culture of “playing hurt” causes both athletes and the professional medical providers on sports teams to reinforce a lifestyle that leads to injury. The second part of the book is an overview of the ways professional, collegiate, and Olympic sports organizations have ignored—and in many cases encouraged—the use of performance-enhancing drugs. In the final section, Parry takes a hard look at how “bad practices and lack of candor at the professional level” regarding the consequences of sports-related impairments such as CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) have filtered down “to collegiate, scholastic, and youth sports programs in very unhealthy ways.” Parry has written a highly detailed work that should be read by athletes, managers, and sports administrators at all levels.

May 15, 2017
This can-do guide gives commonsense, doable advice on how to proactively create a path to a meaningful life. Refreshingly, Larson, a physician studying how to delay and prevent Alzheimer's and declines in memory, with health journalist DeClaire, promotes cost-free approaches rather than pushing particular medicines, supplements, or regimens. Instead, he recommends ways to build resilience by filling mental, physical, and social reserves. If you come to aging fully resourced, activated, and aware of the challenges ahead, you're going to have a much richer, more satisfying experience, Larson writes. One challenge: dementia happens to one third of people aged 85 to 90 and half of those aged 90 to 95. Larson observes that employment can be an important part of identity and self-esteem, but he advises readers to make time for exercise, hobbies, and visits with loved ones. One 73-year-old, for example, teaches yoga every day and chauffeurs her grandsons. This thoughtful, easy-to-read book can help people of any age learn how to boost the likelihood of a long, fulfilling life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)