Arousal is fundamental to all cognition. It is intuitively obvious, absolutely necessary, but what exactly is it? In Brain Arousal and Information Theory, Donald Pfaff presents a daring perspective on this long-standing puzzle. Pfaff argues that, beneath our mental functions and emotional dispositions, a primitive neuronal system governs arousal. Employing the simple but powerful framework of information theory, Pfaff revolutionizes our understanding of arousal systems in the brain.

Starting with a review of the neuroanatomical, neurophysiological, and neurochemical components of arousal, Pfaff asks us to look at the gene networks and neural pathways underlying the brain’s arousal systems much as a design engineer would contemplate information systems. This allows Pfaff to postulate that there is a bilaterally symmetric, bipolar system universal among mammals that readies the animal or the human being to respond to stimuli, initiate voluntary locomotion, and react to emotional challenges. Applying his hypothesis to heightened states of arousal—sex and fear—Pfaff shows us how his theory opens new scientific approaches to understanding the structure of brain arousal.

A major synthesis of disparate data by a preeminent neuroscientist, Brain Arousal and Information Theory challenges current thinking about cognition and behavior. Whether you subscribe to Pfaff’s theory or not, this book will stimulate debate about the nature of arousal itself.

In this primer for patients, their families, and their doctors, a leading physician and scientist explains why the standard treatment for hypothyroidism fails many—and offers an empowering call for change.
 
Hypothyroidism, also commonly referred to as Hashimoto’s disease, affects millions in the United States alone. It occurs when the thyroid—the butterfly-shaped gland that sits in your neck right above the front of your shirt collar—malfunctions or after thyroid surgery, causing thyroid hormone levels in circulation to drop below normal. Thus, treatment is aimed at bringing these hormone levels back to normal. This is done with daily tablets of thyroxine or T4. Because hypothyroidism is so common, we likely know someone who is on this type of medication. While most patients respond well to this standard treatment, about ten to twenty percent (some two to three million individuals in the United States) are far from living a typical life. They exhibit “foggy brain”—low energy, confusion, and poor memory. Many doctors have shrugged off their complaints, believing these symptoms to be unrelated to the thyroid disease. In Rethinking Hypothyroidism, Dr. Antonio C. Bianco, a physician and a scientist who has studied hypothyroidism and thyroid hormones for decades, offers an accessible overview of the disease’s treatment and the role of big pharma in shaping it, making the case that the current approach is failing many patients. But more than this, Bianco calls for alternatives to improve lives, and he equips patients and their families with the tools to advocate for other treatments.

This is an auto-narrated audiobook edition of this book.

In this primer for patients, their families, and their doctors, a leading physician and scientist explains why the standard treatment for hypothyroidism fails many—and offers an empowering call for change.
 
Hypothyroidism, also commonly referred to as Hashimoto’s disease, affects millions in the United States alone. It occurs when the thyroid—the butterfly-shaped gland that sits in your neck right above the front of your shirt collar—malfunctions or after thyroid surgery, causing thyroid hormone levels in circulation to drop below normal. Thus, treatment is aimed at bringing these hormone levels back to normal. This is done with daily tablets of thyroxine or T4. Because hypothyroidism is so common, we likely know someone who is on this type of medication. While most patients respond well to this standard treatment, about ten to twenty percent (some two to three million individuals in the United States) are far from living a typical life. They exhibit “foggy brain”—low energy, confusion, and poor memory. Many doctors have shrugged off their complaints, believing these symptoms to be unrelated to the thyroid disease. In Rethinking Hypothyroidism, Dr. Antonio C. Bianco, a physician and a scientist who has studied hypothyroidism and thyroid hormones for decades, offers an accessible overview of the disease’s treatment and the role of big pharma in shaping it, making the case that the current approach is failing many patients. But more than this, Bianco calls for alternatives to improve lives, and he equips patients and their families with the tools to advocate for other treatments.

An Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal Winner
A Progressive Book of the Year
A TechCrunch Favorite Read of the Year

“Deeply researched and thoughtful.”
—Nature

“An extended exercise in myth busting.”
—Outside

“A critique of both popular and scientific understandings of the hormone, and how they have been used to explain, or even defend, inequalities of power.”
—The Observer

Testosterone is a familiar villain, a ready culprit for everything from stock market crashes to the overrepresentation of men in prisons. But your testosterone level doesn’t actually predict your appetite for risk, sex drive, or athletic prowess. It isn’t the biological essence of manliness—in fact, it isn’t even a male sex hormone. So what is it, and how did we come to endow it with such superhuman powers?

T’s story begins when scientists first went looking for the chemical essence of masculinity. Over time, it provided a handy rationale for countless behaviors—from the boorish to the enviable. Testosterone focuses on what T does in six domains: reproduction, aggression, risk-taking, power, sports, and parenting, addressing heated debates like whether high-testosterone athletes have a natural advantage as well as disagreements over what it means to be a man or woman.

“This subtle, important book forces rethinking not just about one particular hormone but about the way the scientific process is embedded in social context.”
—Robert M. Sapolsky, author of Behave

“A beautifully written and important book. The authors present strong and persuasive arguments that demythologize and defetishize T as a molecule containing quasi-magical properties, or as exclusively related to masculinity and males.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Provides fruitful ground for understanding what it means to be human, not as isolated physical bodies but as dynamic social beings.”
—Science