Controlling Cholesterol for Dummies

Controlling Cholesterol for Dummies was written by Carol Ann Rinzler and the practicing physician Martin W. Graf, MD. Carol Ann Rinzler use up-to-date health information with a twist of humor to inform her audience about cholesterol and how to control it.

The "...for Dummies" books have been designed to be informative and practical. Controlling Cholesterol for Dummies follows this practical, yet informative format. The book has been divided up into five parts and each part (or section) consists of 3-4 chapters.

Getting Up Close and Personal with Cholesterol is the title of part one. This section deals with the basics. It covers the basic biology of the heart, the good and the bad of cholesterol, and provides a quick self-rating assessment in terms of your cholesterol risk.

Eating Your Way to Lower Cholesterol is the title of part two. The three chapters in this section explains how all of America falls into one of three risk groups for heart attacks, how to build a cholesterol-lowering diet, and how the cholesterol-lowering diet has impacted brand-name diets.
Part three takes the reader through a journey of how to live a cholesterol-lowering lifestyle. These four chapters enlighten the reader a on a short but informative journey on how your cholesterol levels (mostly the bad cholesterol) has a correlation with your weight, exercise, smoking, and drinking.

Cutting Cholesterol with Nutrients and Medicine is the title of part four. The three chapters in this section deal with natural remedies (i.e. vitamins, minerals and other natural items) and prescribed cholesterol medication to reduce one's cholesterol levels. The last chapter in this section also covers the negative effects dangerous drugs can have on your body and cholesterol levels.

Lastly, part five consists of six chapters that expose the reader to important cholesterol web sites, nutritional web sites, deals with the top 10 myths about cholesterol, cholesterol landmarks throughout history, the top ten foods to AVOID, and lastly the top ten current foods to help lower one's cholesterol.

TWO CENTS WORTH:
I want to thank Brenda for being so patient with me. She spent a great deal of her precious time trying to help me understand lipoproteins, what is good cholesterol, what is bad cholesterol, how you should have a high "good" cholesterol count and a "low" bad cholesterol count. I'm sure I drove her to drink that night. Her patience and genuine concern drove me to purchase the one book I knew would explain this cholesterol stuff in a manner I could understand. Although Brenda is not the Nathaniel Bowditch of the cholesterol world, she certainly knows how to steer the boat and put wind in your sails. Without your patience, humor, and willingness to teach the common layman, I would still be adrift out in the sea of high cholesterol and those yummy McDonald's french fries.


This is an excellent book for those individuals who know little about cholesterol and what you can do about it. The book was an easy read. It is a nonfiction book that would meet the intellectual needs of the beginner as well as the "just above" novist(sp). Carol Ann Rinzler provides the readers with multiple resources to build upon the foundation she has set with her book.

How has this book influenced my everyday actions? I now know how to look at the printout the doctor gives me after my annual physical. I actually have a basic understanding of my cholesterol levels (both the good, bad, and total). Now I try to avoid eating at fast food restaurants and those six "small" donuts Saturday and Sunday morning. Also, I have become more aware of the foods I put into my mouth. The bottom line is quite simple, I want to live a long healthy life so I can experience growing old with my precious wife, enjoy my children, and some day grandchildren. On a selfish level, I am pretty confident that having a heart attack would be painful and possibly fatal.

This is a book I will keep on my book shelf and refer to for years to come.

NO AR: :(

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham was the Newbery Medal award winner in 1956. The book is a biography about the man who uncovered and made available the secrets of sea navigation to the common man. Without Mr. Bowditch's efforts and determination, the mysteries of navigation would have remained mysterious and elusive to the common man. Knowledge is power and strength. Thanks to Mr. Bowditch many sailors were given practical knowledge about navigation (and mathematics) and with that knowledge they attained power and strength to become what they dreamed....Captain's of their future.

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is a detailed biography of the life of Nathaniel Bowditch (a.k.a. Nat). The authors takes you through his childhood well into his adulthood. At an early age, Nat's family realized he would not follow the footsteps of his father and grandfather. A sailor needed to be big, strong, and healthy. Nat was none of those. He was good with numbers but his parents could not afford to have him go to school. His family was poor and struggled to put food on the table and cloth the family members. At the age of twelve, Nathaniel was indentured to two men with a shop in town. He was to be their book keeper as well as work the store for a total of nine years.

During his time as an indentured servant, Nat learned how to use his talent with numbers. His love to learn and discover was the fuel that taught him to read, learn Latin, learn French, learn astronomy, and learn everything there was to learn about ships at sea.

Soon the shop was sold and with it his indenturedship. The new owner kept him through the end of his term. When his service was served, Nat was becalmed. He didn't know what to do. As time passed, he found himself on a ship as the ship's navigator. Soon Mr. Bowditch learned to take lunar readings on the sea. As problems with taking lunar readings presented themselves, he began to resort to the logic's and consistencies math provides. He discovered a new way to take a lunar without occulting the moon. This new discovery continued to fuel the fire of learning new ways to keep sea-traveling men safe.

As Nathaniel travels on the ships, he utilizes the sextant to take readings but during the remaining hours he would study the "Moore" charts as well as teach the deck hands how to take readings. Nat was consumed with numbers and verifying that the charts were accurate. During his voyages he discovered many errors and these discovers bothered him to the core. When Nat was not studying the charts or taking a reading, he was graciously spending his time with those deckhands who "wanted" to learn how to take readings. These men took to learning as a thirsty traveler takes to water. They were thirsty for practical knowledge.

Eventually, Mr. Bowditch gained enough experience to command his own ship. He traveled to ports on the other side of the world to buy and sell cargo. His knowledge of sea routes, navigation, mathematics, French, astronomy, Latin, and deep understanding of human behavior were valuable assets in his travels.

Mr. Bowditch traveled around the Cape and into the eye of a hurricane at sea. He navigated his ship up stream with head winds. He even traveled home in fog thicker than pea soup through areas that have been littered with ships at the bottom of the sea. These feats were all done because of his extreme faith, his extreme belief in the benefit of math. He was a man who saw the power of mathematics. It is consistent, dependable, and reliable. One does not need to see if he/she knows his math. One can simply get from point A to point B if he/she simply follows the mathematical path and does not resort to his/her vision or feelings. Mathematics and the love of learning filled the sails of Nathaniel Bowditch.

TWO CENTS WORTH:

It's no secret, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This was a biography of a man who faced a wide variety of obstacles, yet he overcame them humbly and purposefully. Here was a man who could have gave up early in life and many would have justified his actions. At an early age it was already determined he would not follow in the family footsteps of becoming a sailor. His mother passed away and he was indentured at the young age of 12. Nat's talent with numbers was noticed by many influential people but he was never able to attend a prestigious school (i.e. Harvard). His first love married another man, his first wife passed away, his brother's died at sea, and many of the sailors did not like him. All of these things he overcame, he kept pushing forward.

Mr. Bowditch was a master teacher. He took difficult concepts and made them simple and easy to understand. The common sailors, whom were viewed as unable to learn, were his students. many of them learned to navigate and soon became valuable members of other ships. He was a man who knew if he could teach these sailors to understand navigation, he could teach anyone. Soon he wrote down what he taught so that anyone could navigate a ship utilizing the reliability of math. The book is still used today and can be found in many captain's personal as well as professional libraries. The American Practical Navigator or the Sailor's Bible is the name of the book Mr. Nathaniel Bowditch wrote.

This is a book that can be used in the classroom of any math teacher as well as any teacher trying to communicate to their students (especially those who are faced with multiple economic and social barriers) that with dedication, determination, tenacity, and a love of learning will have a positive impact on your personal, professional, and social life.

I highly recommend this book. It is a journey well worth the time and effort to take. May the wind always come from behind and fill your sails. However, if the wind stops and the fog sets in, the laws of mathematics may be your path to safety.

P.S. There were a ton of tier 2 and tier 3 words. As I read through this book, I kept a dictionary close to my side. The tier 2 words were easy to identify and the context in which they were embedded assisted me with their definition. However, the context that surrounded the tier 3 words did not help much. Although the dictionary was opened frequently with some of the tier 3 words, I still had to consult a few sea-worthy individuals to bring those words to life.

AR QUIZ: 100%

Bringing Words to Life

Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction by Isabell Beck, Margaret McKeown, and Linda Kucan. The seven chapters of this book provide an explicit rational for a robust vocabulary as well as practical ways to provide effective vocabulary instruction to the students under your care.

The authors spent some time reviewing current research about vocabulary and vocabulary instruction. Through their research, the authors determined that there were simply too many vocabulary words to teach children. Tier research lead them to categorize words into three tiers. Tier 1 words consist of the most basic words - lady, block, sad, run, like, etc... Tier 1 words typically do not need explicit instructional attention within the school setting. Words within the tier 2 realm are typically high frequency words. These are words one would come across in a variety of domains. Tier 2 words are not exclusive to one event, one content, or one situation. Tier two words are tier two because of the enormous role they play in the language user's repertoire. They tend to cross over easily into a wide variety of settings and/or contents. Some examples of tier 2 words are "introduce, introduction, reintroduce, and introducing. Tier 3 words are those vocabulary words that are exclusive to a particular situation and or subject. Tier 3 words are limited in their use. The remainder of the book focuses on tier 2 vocabulary words. The authors cover techniques on how to chose tier 2 words to explicitly teach and practical ways to introduce tier 2 vocabulary words in the elementary and secondary grades.

TWO CENTS WORTH:

Vocabulary usage or the development of my vocabulary has been difficult for me for as long as I can remember. When writing about a subject or writing vocabulary words sentences, I was the kid who "over-used" the following words: live, love, very, cool, and like. Bringing Words to Life was a book I didn't know I would find personally and professionally valuable and meaningful to me. In my world there were only two tiers of words: the simple word tier and the hard word tier. Occasionally a fellow student or colleague would befriend me and dare to take time to explain various tier 2 words that they used. Their patience and nonjudgement I have been grateful for. After reading this book, a whole new world has opened up to me. Utilizing some of the Thinking Maps organizers, I am more prone to take a simple tier 1 words and discover several other vocabulary words that can be used in its place. As an educator, I am grateful for the scientific research that supports the author's premise as well as a wide variety of strategies to build a robust vocabulary in the students one teaches.

For those of us who see vocabulary as a key to understanding and expanding one's knowledge in all curricular areas (i.e. writing, English language arts, science, math, social studies, physical education, etc...), this book will be a valuable resource for administrators and teachers. This would be an excellent book for staff development, staff discussions, and staff implementation. I am confident that the information in this book will have a positive impact on the way teachers see vocabulary and, most importantly, how they develop vocabulary in the students under their care.

I found this book to be empowering, encouraging, and easy to implement into my daily life as an educator. I look forward to sharing this with my staff, students, and colleagues.

NO AR QUIZ.