Monday, April 29, 2013

Zoobiquity

Note from Idgie:  This is not a review of Zoobiquity, but more of a "This is a fascinating read that you might want to check out if you have an interest" type of posting.  
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ZOOBIQUITY: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health   
Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers
Vintage
(April 2013)
416 pages
ISBN: 978-0307477439

 Vintage Books’ is releasing on April 9ththe paperback of ZOOBIQUITY: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health by Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers. The hardcover and e-book editions were published by Knopf last year to great acclaim from the scientific, medical and literary communities. The book was named a Discover Magazine Best Book of 2012, an O, The Oprah Magazine “Summer Reading” Pick and a finalist for the 2013 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books.

Here’s more about ZOOBIQUITY.
In the spring of 2005, cardiologist Barbara Natterson-Horowitz was called to consult on an unusual patient: an Emperor tamarin at the Los Angeles Zoo. While examining the tiny monkey’s sick heart, she learned that wild animals can die of a form of cardiac arrest brought on by extreme emotional stress. It was a syndrome identical to a human condition but which veterinarians called by a different name—and treated in innovative ways.

Noticing this remarkable medical parallel launched Natterson-Horowitz on a journey of discovery that reshaped her entire approach to medicine. She began to search for other connections between the human and animal worlds: Do animals get breast cancer, anxiety-induced fainting spells, sexually transmitted diseases? Do they suffer from diabetes, obsessive compulsive disorder, bulimia, addiction?

The answers were astonishing. Dinosaurs suffered from brain cancer. Koalas catch Chlamydia. Reindeer seek out narcotic escape in hallucinogenic mushrooms. Stallions self-harm in ways psychiatrists call “cutting” in human patients. Gorillas experience clinical depression.

Joining forces with science journalist Kathryn Bowers, Natterson-Horowitz presents a revelatory understanding of what animals can teach us about the human body and mind. “Zoobiquity” is the term the authors have coined to refer to a new, species-spanning approach to health.

This provocative book encourages us to see our essential connection to all living beings.

What is Zoobiquity?

Zoobiquity springs from a simple but revelatory fact: Animals and humans get the same diseases, yet physicians and veterinarians rarely consult with one another. Zoobiquity explores how animal and human commonality can be used to diagnose, treat, and heal patients of all species. Drawing on the latest in medical and veterinary science—as well as evolutionary and molecular biology—Zoobiquity proposes an integrated, interdisciplinary approach to physical and behavioral health, including cardiology, gastroenterology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and many other sub-specialties.
  • Golden retrievers get breast cancer. So do jaguars, kangaroos and beluga whales.
  • Siamese cats and Dobermans get OCD. Many are on Prozac.
  • Canaries, and fish, and even Yorkie dogs faint when they’re stressed out.
  • Mares can become nymphomaniacs.
  • Dinosaurs suffered from brain cancer, gout, and arthritis.
  • Koalas catch Chlamydia. Rabbits get syphilis.
  • Reindeer seek out narcotic escape in hallucinogenic mushrooms.
  • Gorillas experience clinical depression and eating disorders.
Veterinarians see all these conditions in animals. They treat them in a vast range species—including pets like cats and dogs but also birds, fish, snakes, and wild animals too. And they have ways of addressing them that human doctors don’t know about. Zoobiquity encourages patients, doctors, dentists, and psychologists to access the vast, untapped information and experience of veterinarians and wildlife biologists…and of the animals, living, playing, mating, and healing in their natural environments.