•  Women's Health

The New York Times Book of Women's Health
By Jane E. Brody and reporters of The New York Times, edited by Denise Grady
Lebhar-Friedman Books
356 pp $29.95

Jane Brody and I go way back. When I started practicing medicine in the early 1980s, I recommended Jane Brody's Nutrition Book to my patients as a source of reliable dietary information. Over the past 20 years, I have read her weekly health column in The New York Times. She shares her own experience in the context of broader research, so that her columns are both personal and authoritative. The concept of a false negative mammogram hits home when she reveals that her own breast lump looked normal on the mammogram, but proved to be cancer in the operating room.

The New York Times Book of Women's Health is a chance to revisit many of her columns, as well as those of her colleagues at the Times. But why "women's health"? After all, many of the topics covered in this book -- nutrition, exercise, stress, heart disease, alternative medicine, and even cosmetic surgery -- would be of interest to men also. The book offers a different and perhaps less compelling definition of "women's health" than the one that emerged in the 1970s and focused around issues of reproductive health. At the time, feminists formed health collectives as an alternative to the male medical establishment. Our Bodies, Ourselves, by the Boston Women's Health Collective, was the manifesto of the movement. It endures, many editions later and vastly expanded, as a reference work with a strongly feminist slant.

Compared to the work of the health collective, the columns collected in this volume offer "health care lite." In the health collective book, a young woman uncertain of her anatomy would find pictures as well as a systematic discussion of birth control methods. The Times book offers the latest spin on topics likely to be discussed in the women's locker room of an upscale gym, which is decidedly a different service. There is an emphasis on middle age, topics like heart disease, breast cancer, and menopause. There is no entry in the index under "cervical cancer," "Pap smear" or "lesbian."

Thirty-five authors (about 25 of them women, judging by names) contributed essays to this collection. Like Jane Brody, most of the writers do an excellent job of translating science-speak into lay language. They can also usually spot press release propaganda when they see it. One unfortunate exception is a column by Jane Fritsch about the National Weight Control Registry, a project that compiles data on self-reported successful dieters. So far, 2,500 people have told the registry that they have lost and kept off at least 30 pounds for at least one year. This is an interesting statistic, if impossible to verify. The problem is that the author tries to use that number alone, without a denominator, to refute data suggesting that 95 percent of dieters regain their weight. If 50,000 Americans have dieted, then the success of 2,500 is a 5 percent success rate, and both statements are true -- but chances are the number of dieters is substantially higher.

Many baby boomers, in their quest for eternal youth, have developed an obsessive interest in health. Jane Brody states in her introduction to The New York Times book, "I am struck by the fact that the concerns rarely focus on the most serious health threats or the most productive preventive steps women could take." We all know a woman who could use this book on her nightstand, to balance the health tips she receives from her hairdresser and e-mail. Just make sure your daughter has a less topical, more complete tome when she leaves home.

-- Toni Martin, M.D., is a board-certified internist and geriatrician who has practiced in Oakland, California for 19 years. She is also a member of the clinical faculty at UCSF Medical School, and has written for Hippocrates magazine, among other publications.

First published September 22, 2000
Last updated December 12, 2007
Copyright © 2000 Consumer Health Interactive

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