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Old 03-12-10, 09:32 AM
  #95  
alcanoe
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A comment on libraries and finding stuff on the web. Unfortunately, the good technical stuff is stashed away in digital libraries where on has to pay big $'s to get access. That's even true when the work was funded by the taxpayer it appears. You can do well in finding the free stuff using Google Scholar which attempts to filter out the popular media interpretations and the endless repetitions across multiple sites. The only way I've found to get access to the "pay for view" at a decent price is by buying textbooks from Amazon.

The advantage of the texts is that you get a compilation by experts in the field of the studies/trials and often an intelligent discussion of the contradictions in the results. However, even experts disagree and have biases, so I get multiple books on the same subjects.

You can often buy used on Amazon which is a good way to start as the real progress in the field evolves slowly. On the other hand, I've 'had to buy a later edition of the same book a year later as I was impressed with the older version. Each time so far it's been worth it.

A Google Scholar key word search will sometimes get you access into a recent physiology book scanned into the Google database. I was surprised to find free access to one book published in 2007 that I had paid $80.00 for in 2007. It was limited access, but it was complete enough to deal the the subject of the search.

There is so much conflicting information in the nutrition field, you can literally prove a food or nutrient or class of nutrient is good or bad by doing a selective search. That's what drove me to studying physiology in the first place as well as a health issue that seemed to be nutrient dependent. But that turned out to be a false alarm --- at least for now. You can never be sure.

Al
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