Balance
In Search of the Lost Sense
-
-
4.5 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $7.99
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
Although vital to our well-being and even to our success as a species, the physical sense of balance has never attained the same recognition as sight, hearing, touch, smell, or taste. Now, with an epidemic of debilitating falls sweeping America's aging population, the time is ripe for a lively and illuminating tour of the human body's most exquisitely intricate and least understood faculty.
Balance is the first book written for a general audience that examines the mysteries of the human balance system -- the astonishingly complicated mechanisms that allow our bodies to counteract the force of gravity as we move through space. A scientific, historical, and practical exploration of how balance works, Balance also provides the keys to remaining upright for as long as humanly possible. From simple motion sickness to astronauts' "space stupids," and from fetal somersaults to the Flying Wallendas, McCredie guides readers on a delightful quest to elevate balance to its rightful place in the pantheon of the senses.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
According to Seattle Times journalist McCredie, the rise in debilitating falls among Americans is reaching epidemic proportions, the result of a population's waning sense of balance. In the first half of this analytical primer, McCredie chronicles balance's role in evolution and the unfolding discovery of its function in the body through a jumble of stories about barbarous experiments on animals (pigeons, cats, etc) and humans-specifically, mental patients and deaf mutes. It's grim stuff, hardly indicated by the cover photo (young man, fluffy white clouds). Illustrations from 1934 that, while beautiful, don't match the current description of, say, the inner ear frustrate, while McCredie's tendency to fall into archaic language when discussing the 19th century aggravates. The second half is decidedly lighter, contrasting tales of tight wire walkers and acrobats with the stories of people who, through damage to the vestibular canal, have lost their balance. Here, McCredie writes engagingly of children on unicycles, Neanderthal man's hunting techniques, John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane crash and Nike knockoffs worn in China. Useful not only for its academic approach, this book could make a difference for anyone facing the natural challenges of aging.
Customer Reviews
Balance
This is an excellent book to learn how to regain a lost sense of balance which often accompanies aging. The need to practice a set of different types of balance exercises, which are printed at the back of the book, is stressed. I strongly recommend Making these exercises part of everybody's everyday routine- it is even more important that physical exercise.