Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer

A lot of truth in this book. We have been sold a bill of goods on many health issues to sell products!! I recommend this book to any and all that want to be more informed. None of us will live forever; and so many things are not controlled by us no matter what. Time to grow up and stop blaming and live a life worth living! FEAR of death and aging is promoted to sell so much; yet quality of life for so many has declined. I can only hope that people will wake up before they to have wasted their $$$ and lives chasing the unrealistic concept that we can buy or medicate ourselves into a better life with out always considering what the possible consequences that path can lead us down. If needed, find good Doctors who you respect, and who respect you; then make informed choices . Of course, take care of the serious things that happen as best as you can; I have had my own share of serious conditions, but I will not be chasing immortality or aging!

This book an be divided into two parts: the first concerns the amount of medical intervention we should accept in an ultimately futile attempt to stave off dying, and the second part takes a deep dive into cellular biology to argue that cells have agency and can turn against the body in a random fashion. As someone in her late 60s, I found the first part comforting because it reinforced my own judgement that annual screenings for various diseases can lead to more problems with false positives, over medication, damage caused by the testing itself than they are worth beyond a certain age. Furthermore, the book affirms that various dietary prescriptions (eat this not that) are often contradictory and have little impact on longevity. Also, as the book details, you can exercise to exhaustion every day and still die young of a heart attack or cancer. This part of the book confirms my belief that knowing my time is limited, I should enjoy what time is left and exercise and eat in a way that makes me feel good with no expectation that it will lengthen my time on earth. The dive into cellular biology will probably be a bit much for most people, and I found it overlong even though I enjoyed my biology classes in high school and college. I have given this book a fairly high rating because I respect the author's judgement and appreciate her insights on self care as we age. I still believe Ms. Ehrenreich's best work was "Nicheled and Dimed".

I have much respect for her previous books but this one expressed Barabra's determination to describe her knowledge of science. Having a science background myself, I expected a book filled with statistics proving that most of our (misguided) efforts for healthy longevity do not pan out. And the hype that goes into the various fads from the biohackers and Functional Medicine realms are not proving sound. Obsessing about step counts, how many glasses of water, a dozen supplements, or hours slept, actually works against us by adding more negative stress, and is the biggest deterrent to happy, healthy living. The discussions about the roles of macrophages started out interesting, fascinating even, but went on way too long. After that, I was lost. I couldn't regain interest or find the point she attempted to make. I had a personal reason for wanting more from this book. I'm guilty of obsessing! I have focused on one fad after another to the point where I feel fatigued by it all. My hopes of finding calm in the storm are dashed.

This is easily my favorite book by Barbara Ehrenreich, having already read 'Nickel and Dimed' and 'Bright sided'. In 'Natural Causes' this former biochemist exposes the body's own complicity in rendering the disease of cancer almost undefeatable. She reveals the body's own macrophages as the ultimate 3rd column enemy. In normal conditions they act the body's 'blue collar workers' - disposing of dead and injured cells, acting as a vanguard of defense- but they could also quickly deviate into a more sinister role. This occurs when they aid and abet any cancerous growth. In that case, "they served as cheerleaders of death accumulating at the site of cancerous tumors and encouraging their growth". And no amount of positive self-jabber, babbling happy talk or using glow globes stopped the disease and made you live longer. This was also one big reason she confessed in the book that after age 75 she'd submit to more cancer screening: no more mammograms, no more colonoscopies, nothing. She had come to the philosophical stance that 75 years was enough of this life and whatever happened, so be it. Beyond a certain age, in fact, the battle against mortality becomes essentially futile. In the case of prostate cancer it arrives with what's called "castration resistance". (As it has for me) That is, despite the fact testosterone levels have plummeted naturally - or from hormone therapy, the PSA continues to rise (Mine is now 16.1 even after high dose brachytherapy and focal cryotherapy). No further PSA testing will provide any useful info, say to save your life. (One of the reasons for this resistance is that prostate cancer cells are capable of making their own testosterone, hence driving prostate specific antigens higher. Macrophages in action!) In this respect, Ms. Ehrenreich's book has been of great value to me in seeing that chasing the next round of therapy or treatment can be self-defeating. All you are doing is exchanging quality of life for the years you may have remaining - for misery resulting from treatment side effects. To counter this, Natural Causes' beckons the cancer patient to question the “constant exhortations to be positive about the disease, to be cheerful and optimistic.” Why? When the bloody disease is eating you away from the inside out, and the medical cognoscenti push you to endure ever more outrageous treatments and therapies that'd make a Navy Seal cry? This book in my opinion may well be Ms. Ehrenreich's last, best legacy for those of us confronting cancer - or for that matter any other serious, life-threatening health issue.

I just finished reading this and closed the book with a satisfying snap. As with all really good to great books, I finished it knowing more, in the case of this book much more, than when I started. This isn't really a book for the young, although some will get good from it. It's a book for those of us who are of a certain age, or, have parents of a certain age and are wrestling with what the means to them, and to us. It is also not a book for devout theists of any flavor. Ehrenreich's atheism is in full view throughout the book. Although not what I would call a consistently uplifting read, I would say that I finished the book with a sense of calm and a far better appreciation for dealing with end of life issues and thoughts that come from the existential nihilism many of feel as we get older in general. I also found it very well written and an easy read (I finished it over a couple of days). Although I wouldn't recommend it to everyone I know (in particular the born-again Christian types, or any other particularly religiously fanatic person), I would recommend it to a majority. Buy the physical version. Read it. Share it with those you love. You won't regret it.

I found a lot of new ideas to ponder and chew on in this book and breezed through it over the course of a few days. I would recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone who is reluctantly sailing into “middle age” or “golden years,” as well as anyone who feels like their calendar contains way too many doctor appointments, lab tests, and examinations of body parts they’d prefer to leave unexamined. However, some readers may get bogged down in the level of scientific detail if that is not their background. That’s not a criticism, just fair warning. Having recently read Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, I was well prepared for Ehrenreich’s presentation of the human body as not so much one individual Self as it is an ecosystem teeming with different entities that are not always all on the same team. I think I might have preferred the topics of this book to be parsed out individually, since it’s all good stuff to think about but not necessarily all of interest to the same group of readers. The most useful Aha! for most readers will be the chapters in which Ehrenreich makes a case for why it may actually be in our best interest to decline some of the “routine” medical screenings that are foisted upon us by the modern healthcare industry. I’m recommending this one as a kindle download especially, because there may be unfamiliar scientific terms and theories (or things you haven’t thought about since high school biology some decades ago) and it’s so easy to tap those terms in kindle and instantly retrieve an explanation from the web without interrupting your reading.

I really am glad I picked up this book! Packed with tons of valuable information-information that could save your life, and more importantly give your life back to you. She makes a convincing and wryly tongue in cheek argument against the over medicated, over diagnosed and self improvement obsessed (primarily American)public. She systematically dismantled many of the pillars of modern healthcare and medicine from yearly physicals/mammograms to the morbid obsession with death and trying to prolong our short lives and makes the case that’s it’s all a dog and pony show. Eat well, exercise as much as you can and see the doctor when you fell unwell. Highly recommended.

I'm a long-time fan of Ehrenreich; but I was disappointed with this book. Unlike Nickeled and Dimed or Bright-Sided, this takes a very big subject, has a very large thesis about it--and fails to deliver. The author excels in finding and debunking frauds and social wrongs--the treatment of poor workers or people on the skids, in particular. But her effort to take on the entire medical establishment and alternative medicine, and even whole philosophical ideas about the nature of ourselves and the world is piecemeal, of course. It falls too quickly into diatribe, substitutes gibes for real reasoning, and fails to avoid logical fallacies. The thesis is a good one, a timely one--but the book does not succeed in its exposition.

An interesting read and points out many things I had not thought about. (The most worrying personally is the very slow long lingering decline if you've been fit most of your life.) The one criticism is that she does not mention the mystery of all this, the world, our existence. But maybe this is not the book to do it. Still, 5 stars yes.

Como siempre, los libros de esta autora, son una fuente de información. Como ella es bióloga y ha padecido cáncer, sabe muy bien de lo que habla

the person I got it for loved it

A terrific perspective and peaceful idea on what is self, dying and death. A family friend found beauty in everything around her, even her drinking cup, prior to her death. I now understand why.

NO