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Summary
Summary
From Dr. Jennifer Ashton--the Chief Medical Correspondent at ABC News covering breaking medical news for Good Morning America and GMA3: What You Need to Know--comes a doctor's guide to finding resilience in the time of COVID, while staying safe and sane in a rapidly changing world.
In March 2020, "normal" life changed, perhaps forever. In its place we were confronted with life and routines that were unusual and different: the new normal. As we've all learned since then, the new normal isn't just about wearing masks and standing six feet apart--it's about recognizing how to stay safe and sane in a world that is suddenly unfamiliar. And no one understands this evolving landscape better than Dr. Jennifer Ashton. As ABC's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Ashton has been reporting on the novel coronavirus daily, helping Americans comprehend the urgent medical updates that have shaped the nation's continued response to this public health crisis.
Now in The New Normal , Dr. Ashton offers the essential toolkit for life in this unfamiliar reality. Rooted in her reporting on COVID-19 and the understanding that the virus isn't going anywhere overnight, The New Normal is built on a simple foundation: thriving in this evolving world demands accepting the new normal for what it is, not what we want it to be. No longer is wellness a buzzword, but an imperative for surviving this unprecedented time. Using her trademark practical, easy-to-follow advice, Dr. Ashton gives you all the necessary information to reclaim control of your life and live safely--from exercise, to diet, to general health--showing how to prepare your body and mind for challenges such as:
- Taking proper medical precautions to protect yourself and your loved ones
- Exercising during the pandemic, even if you no longer feel safe at the gym
- Finding emotional balance through these uncertain times
- Deciphering complicated medical news to learn what to trust and what to ignore
With these straightforward and accessible strategies and many more, Dr. Ashtonhelps empower you to make the unexpectedly hard decisions about socializing, food-shopping, seeing doctors, and most of all, finding normalcy. At once reassuring and urgent, The New Normal is a holistic roadmap through the ongoing struggles of the pandemic, providing the guidance you need to navigate this unsettling time and take charge of your future wellbeing.
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
Hate that mask you have to wear to the store? Get used to it if you want to stay alive. Ashton, chief medical correspondent for ABC News, dismisses the often heard refrain that one day things will get back to normal. Covid-19, she writes, has introduced an invisible, perhaps indomitable threat into our lives, and even if a vaccine is developed, it's likely that it will have to be modified every year or two to take into account the mutations of the virus. Additionally, there are different levels of risk: If you're of retirement age, a male, and a person of color, the odds are not in your favor; neither are they if you are overweight or have diabetes, high blood pressure, or some other chronic health condition. As the author shows, it's up to each person to determine their health-risk quotient and make decisions such as whether to eat in restaurants. This quotient can be altered, of course. Making changes in diet to favor a low-sugar, low-carb regimen will help along with exercise, adequate sleep, and limiting alcohol intake. As for the rest: Flying is fairly safe, she writes, as long as you fly with an airline that blocks middle seats and "book a window seat to keep your distance from people moving up and down the aisle." But stay away from gyms, which "have always been prime places for infectious illness." Ashton sees "silver linings" in all the grim news, one of them being the dawning awareness that it's up to us to improve our health and thus our chances for survival; another is a reordered sense of priorities. For the medical profession as a whole, she urges that "we need more health research on race," and "we need to rethink the drug supply chain." A sobering, educative assessment of the changes that the pandemic has wrought on our world. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Another pandemic is a matter of when, not if, says Ashton, a physician and medical correspondent, and to increase the odds of surviving this one and the next, we must act on lessons learned from the respiratory virus COVID-19. In this strong follow-up to The Self-Care Solution (2020), Ashton gives easy-to-follow, DIY suggestions: drink water, laugh, connect with family and friends, exercise, lose weight, don't vape, and avoid "self-soothing" with too much alcohol and junk food. Humility is the spoonful of sugar that makes her medicine go down. Like so many Americans, Ashton gained weight two months into her quarantine. With this confession, she comes across as empathetic, not preachy, when she advises readers to try to lose weight and decrease their risk of dying from COVID-19. In a crisis, she says, think like a doctor, stay calm, and rely on facts. To become more resilient, think about what you've attained, not what you've lost. As her mother, a retired nurse, says, you can't control what happens, but you can control what you do with it. Useful and tested advice.