Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing (#196) first came up at my library book group as a recommended read. Later that same week, I heard Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D., the physician half of this writing team (Kathryn Bowers is her journalist co-author.) interviewed on NPR. I've included a link so you can listen to it for yourself: NPR Zoobiquity Interview .
Dr. Natterson-Horowitz is a cardiologist who began by asking a very simple question: Can animals get (Fill in the disease) ? after she was called in to consult on some primate cardiac cases at the Los Angeles Zoo. Her research led her to discover that there is incredible overlap in diseases and conditions that affect both humans and non-humans. But since until recently the gap between veterinary and human medicine has been so great that research which could potentially be beneficial to a wide range of species has not been shared. Finally, it seems that picture may be gradually changing to be replaced by a universal approach to both human and non-human health. The term coined for this is zoobiquity.
Filled with intriguing and entertaining anecdotes to illustrate her points, Dr. Natterson-Horowitz still manages to present her arguments in a way that is easy for the layman to grasp without dumbing down the contents. You'll never look at Fluffy or Fido (or yourself!) the same way again.
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