Gina Kolata

The Baxleys come from Hartsville, South Carolina and derive solace from their strong religious beliefs. Each child among them has a fifty percent chance of contracting GSS--Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease. The symptoms include loss of balance, tremors, forgetfulness, lack of coordination, and as the illness progresses, an inability to walk, grasp objects, eat, and speak.

Gina Kolata's "Mercies in Disguise" is both a medical mystery and an inspiring story of determination, devotion, show more and courage. The prologue, set in 1957, introduces us to "kuru," a disease prevalent among the Fore, an isolated tribe living in New Guinea. Everyone who contracted kuru was doomed to die in agony. Various scientists such as Dr. Vincent Zigas, Dr. Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, and Stanley Prusiner—the man who shed light on the role of prions, infectious proteins that replicate and play a key role in neurodegenerative disorders--studied this puzzling malady. Gajdusek was astonished that a disease could incapacitate its victims so quickly.

In accessible language, the author traces the efforts of researchers to understand GSS, which resembles the aforementioned kuru, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's, and is frequently misdiagnosed. However, what ultimately stays with us is Kolata's eloquent account of the Baxleys' arduous journey. First, they traced their ancestry to find out how many of their relatives died of GSS. In addition, the younger Baxleys had to make an agonizing decision—should they be tested to find out if they had the mutation? Knowing would either enable them to breathe a sigh of relief or, if they were to test positive, cherish whatever time they had left. The author focuses in particular on Amanda Baxley, a bright, vivacious, and altruistic young woman in her twenties who longs to have a career, marry, and have children. "Mercies in Disguise" is Gina Kolata's enlightening and poignant account of a remarkable family whose members, even in the midst of tragedy, exemplify goodness, dignity, perseverance, and hope. show less

As a formerly skinny woman who has recently put on weight and is having a hell of a time taking it off, I have reached the stage where I am turning to books to help me understand and develop a strategy. I don’t eat excessively and I exercise regularly albeit less intensely than before (used to be a 5-day-a-week gym rat for 10 years). What has happened to my willpower and positive outlook? Did more than my body suffer in my injuries of the last 4 years? Did my metabolism change? Why did I show more go from being the woman who could eat anything to the woman who wouldn’t lose a pound on a concentration camp diet? Is it my fault? Is it hormones? The moon? What?!

From the above, you can probably deduce my frustration with my body and its inability to return to its former state. Rethinking thin hasn’t given me easy answers to any of these questions, but I do have some hope. The upshot theory of this book is that each body has a predetermined weight range it can comfortably maintain. Wired similarly to height, it is unchangeable without rigorous dietary changes. A caloric intake that sustains a 200-pound body is not the caloric intake that will sustain the same body after a 50-pound weight loss. Generally the caloric intake that will sustain the new 150-pound person is drastically lower. Scientists are only beginning to understand why. The stalwart principle of eat less and exercise more doesn’t always work.

My problem with the why is that everyone seems to want a single reason. I bet it’s multiple reasons. Availability of food. Quality of food. Reduced exercise. Hormone levels. Chemicals. They want one of these to be the culprit and that just seems silly. All of these things are probably factors. In my case, I think it’s beer. I’m weaning myself off beer and I bet it will happen. I’m hoping that I’m at the top of my maintainable weight range and that if I return to the bottom part of the range I was at in my early 30s, I can stay there without starving myself. I’m not shooting for the skinny 20 year old I was, but the fit 30 year old I was, too. show less

Kolata, Gina. Mercies in Disguise: A Story of Hope, A Family's Genetic Destiny, and the Science that Rescued Them. 7 CDs. unabridged. 8.5hrs. Recorded Books. ISBN 9781501945366.

Narrative nonfiction doesn't get much better than this. Gina Kolata, a New York Times science reporter, brilliantly brings a family's harrowing medical crisis to life and tells the story of how a brave young daughter decides to reshape her future and put an end to the genetic disease that had been killing off her show more family for generations. Kolata researches the history of the mysterious disease while concurrently telling the story of a loving family in a small town that appears to be harangued by bad luck. When the patriarch of the family dies under mysterious circumstances, his sons take matters into their own hands, trying to track down the mysterious disease and piece together their family tree to see what the future may hold in store for them. Compellingly narrated by Andrea Gallo who doesn't shy away from hard medical pronunciations and foreign names. Her soft, yet endearing voice provides a wonderful reassuring and authoritative voice. A wonderful read, even for those not interested in medical or scientific nonfiction. - Erin Cataldi, Johnson Co. Public Library, Franklin, IN show less

Consider this: During the great influenza pandemic of 1918 the average life span of the U.S. population fell by twelve years. Twelve! Gina Kolata writes that “Undertakers in Philadelphia were overwhelmed and some were…hiking prices as much as 600%.”

Desperate, and with no animal model available to use in studying the disease, authorities offered pardons to convicted naval prisoners who would agree to be infected by what scientists hoped were fluids or air with the contagion. Sixty-two show more convicts agreed to be lab rats. Prison must have been an especially dire place ca. 1918.

You might think a book about such terrible epidemics, and the pursuit of defenses against them, would have no amusing moments. Not so. As an example, in 1940, Johan Hultin, while on leave from the University of Uppsala in Sweden where he studied medicine, came to the U.S. to work at the University of Iowa. First he visited New York and when a friend there showed him a sign that said ‘coin laundry,’ recalled “I never asked what it was—I knew it. Americans are so worried about germs that they have their coins cleaned.”

If only there were such places. Think of all those bright, shining pennies.

Gina Kolata has written an informative account covering disease origin, manifestation, spread, treatment, mortality, and prevention. One might expect the approaches we use to address these issues would tap primarily our rationality and intelligence. But as she relates, they are matters that have become much politicized. With what consequences remains to be seen. show less