Being Mortal by Atul Gawande - A 20-minute Summary Inside this Instaread Summary: • Overview of the entire book• Introduction to the important people in the book• Summary and analysis of all the chapters in the book• Key Takeaways of the book• A Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Chapter 1 Gawande grew up in Ohio. His parents were immigrants from India and both were doctors. His grandparents stayed in India, and there were few older people in his neighborhood, so he had little experience with aging or death until he met his wife’s grandmother, Alice Hobson. Hobson was seventy-seven and living on her own in Virginia. She was a spirited widow who fixed her own plumbing and volunteered with Meals On Wheels. However, Hobson was losing strength and height steadily each year as her arthritis worsened.Gawande’s father enthusiastically adopted the customs of his new country, but he could not understand the way in which seniors were treated in the US. In India, the elderly were treated with great respect and lived out their lives with family.In the United States, Sitaram Gawande, Gawande’s grandfather, likely would have been sent to a nursing home like most of the elderly who cannot handle the basics of daily living by themselves. However, in India, Sitaram Gawande was able to live in his own home and manage his own affairs, with family constantly around him. He died at the age of one hundred and ten when he fell off a bus during a business trip.Until recently, most elderly people stayed with their families. Even as the nuclear family unit became predominant, replacing the multi-generational family unit, people cared for their elderly relatives. Families were large and one child, usually a daughter, would not marry in order to take care of the parents.This has changed in much of the world, where elderly people end up struggling to live alone, like Hobson, rather than living with dignity amid family, like Sitaram Gawande.One cause of this change can be found in the nature of knowledge. When few people lived to be very old, elders were honored. Their store of knowledge was greatly useful. People often portrayed themselves as older to command respect. Modern society’s emphasis on youth is a complete reversal of this attitude. Technological advances are perceived as the territory of the young, and everyone wants to be younger. High-tech job opportunities are all over the world, and young people do not hesitate to leave their parents behind to pursue them.In developed countries, parents embrace the concept of a retirement filled with leisure activities. Parents are happy to begin living for themselves once children are grown. However, this system only works for young, healthy retirees, but not for those who cannot continue to be independent. Hobson, for example, was falling frequently and suffering memory lapses. Her doctor did tests and wrote prescriptions, but did not know what to do about her deteriorating condition. Neither did her family… About the Author With Instaread Summaries, you can get the summary of a book in 30 minutes or less. We read every chapter, summarize and analyze it for your convenience.

    In Papua New Guinea, a primitive tribe is nearly obliterated by a sickness whose chief symptom is uncontrollable laughter. Across Europe, millions of sheep rub their fleeces raw before collapsing. In England, cows attack their owners in the milking parlors, while in the American West, thousands of deer starve to death in fields full of grass.What these strange conditions–including fatal familial insomnia, kuru, scrapie, and mad cow disease–share is their cause: prions. Prions are ordinary proteins that sometimes go wrong, resulting in neurological illnesses that are always fatal. Even more mysterious and frightening, prions are almost impossible to destroy because they are not alive and have no DNA–and the diseases they bring are now spreading around the world.In The Family That Couldn’t Sleep, essayist and journalist D. T. Max tells the spellbinding story of the prion’s hidden past and deadly future

    We ignore this reality most of the time, but when a new threat (Ebola, SARS, Zika) seems imminent, we send our best and bravest doctors to contain it--people like Dr. Ali S. Khan.In his long career as a public health first responder—protected by a thin mask from infected patients, napping under nets to keep out scorpions, making life-and-death decisions on limited, suspect information—Khan has found that rogue microbes will always be a problem, but outbreaks are often caused by people. We make mistakes, politicize emergencies, and, too often, fail to imagine the consequences of our actions.The Next Pandemic is a firsthand account of disasters like anthrax, bird flu, and others and how we could do more to prevent their return. It's both a gripping story of our brushes with fate and an urgent lesson on how we can keep ourselves safe from the inevitable next pandemic.

    This third edition, entitled Medical Parasitology in the Philippines, contains an updated version of the global, regional, and national status of parasitic diseases, with particular focus on the Philippines, as well as Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific Regions. In this latest edition, the life cycles developed by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are utilized, and as in the other earlier editions, Bench Aids developed by the World Health Organization are included for reference purposes. For the first time, relevant policies and guidelines from the Department of Health are listed for further guidance of the readers. This edition also includes new sections that address recent developments in the field and nationally relevant global interests such as neglected tropical diseases, preventive chemotherapy, emporiatrics, and laboratory biosafety.

    Murderous Contagion tells the compelling and at times unbearably moving story of the devastating impact of diseases on humankind - from the Black Death of the 14th century to the Spanish flu of 1918-19 and the AIDS epidemic of the modern era. In this book Mary Dobson also relates the endeavours of physicians and scientists to understand and identify the causes of diseases and find ways of preventing them. This is a timely and revelatory work of popular history by a writer whose knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, her subject shines through her every word.

    But Maurice Hilleman came close. Maurice Hilleman is the father of modern vaccines. Chief among his accomplishments are nine vaccines that practically every child gets, rendering formerly deadly diseases — including mumps, rubella, and measles — nearly forgotten. Author Paul A. Offit's rich and lively narrative details Hilleman's research and experiences as the basis for a larger exploration of the development of vaccines, covering two hundred years of medical history and traveling across the globe in the process. The history of vaccines necessarily brings with it a cautionary message, as they have come under assault from those insisting they do more harm than good. Paul Offit clearly and compellingly rebuts these arguments, and, by demonstrating how much the work of Hilleman and others has gained for humanity, shows us how much we have to lose.

    The author of The Lives of a Cell and The Medusa and the Snail now raises challenging questions about some of the major issues of our time—AIDS, drug abuse, and aging.With extraordinary perception, author Lewis Thomas discusses topics such as evolutionary biology, the development of language, the therapeutic aspects of medicine, and his love for his profession.

    The Other Brain is the story of glia, which make up approximately 85 percent of the cells in the brain. Long neglected as little more than cerebral packing material ("glia" means glue), glia are sparking a revolution in brain science.Glia are completely different from neurons, the brain cells that we are familiar with. Scientists are discovering that glia have their own communication network, which operates in parallel to the more familiar communication among neurons. Glia provide the insulation for the neurons, and glia even regulate the flow of information between neurons.But it is the potential breakthroughs for medical science that are the most exciting frontier in glia research today. Diseases such as brain cancer and multiple sclerosis are caused by diseased glia. Glia are now believed to play an important role in such psychiatric illnesses as schizophrenia and depression, and in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. They are linked to infectious diseases such as HIV and prion disease (mad cow disease, for example) and to chronic pain. Scientists have discovered that glia repair the brain and spinal cord after injury and stroke. The more we learn about these cells that make up the "other" brain, the more important they seem to be.Written by a neuroscientist who is a leader in the research to reveal the secrets of these brain cells, The Other Brain offers a firsthand account of science in action. It takes us into the laboratories where important discoveries are being made, and it explains how scientists are learning that glial cells come in different types, with different capabilities. It tells the story of glia research from its origins to the most recent discoveries and gives readers a much more complete understanding of how the brain works and where the next breakthroughs in brain science and medicine are likely to come.

       Monthly giveaways in the form of PHYSICAL PRODUCTS and GIFT CARDS only for our newsletter subscribers!  "This was a gift for my partner (we're EMTS) she loved it, she said it was super easy to understand and great to use.”  - Amazon Customer, starred review " This is incredible! Easy to read, break down is awesome than any other format I seen. As a nursing student I recommend it.” - Christina Harris, starred review  This new edition has been revised and updated so that YOU can learn the medical terminology in the fastest and easiest way possible! It is now more than DOUBLE its previous size.  What did the doctor say? What did the patient say? What did the professor say? What’s going on?These are only few of the questions that people ask when faced with jargon-filled medical conversations in hospitals, schools, clinics, homes, and even at work.  Our book Medical Terminology contains proven steps and breaks down the best strategies when trying to understand, pronounce, and memorize medical terms. We’ve also included tips and strategies that can help you apply these methods effortlessly in everyday life.  Here is what you will learn: You will understand medical terminology and learn its suffixes, prefixes and root words    You will be able to pronounce medical terms thanks to our simple rules   By completing our built-in exercises, which appear at the end of each chapter, you will learn the different terms even faster.  How to effortlessly use medical terms in everyday life     Not convinced yet? Let us eliminate the risk and the uncertainty by offering you a no questions asked, 30 day money back guarantee!  Take the first step towards mastering medical terminology by purchasing this book today!

    Contrary to what the glossy magazines would have us believe, we do not enjoy potato chips because they crunch just like the insects our forebears snacked on. As Zuk argues, such beliefs incorrectly assume that we’re stuck—finished evolving—and have been for tens of thousands of years. She draws on fascinating evidence that examines everything from adults’ ability to drink milk to the texture of our ear wax to show that we’ve actually never stopped evolving. Our nostalgic visions of an ideal evolutionary past in which we ate, lived, and reproduced as we were “meant to” fail to recognize that we were never perfectly suited to our environment. Evolution is about change, and every organism is full of trade-offs.From debunking the caveman diet to unraveling gender stereotypes, Zuk gives an analysis of widespread paleofantasies and the scientific evidence that undermines them, all the while broadening our understanding of our origins and what they can really tell us about our present and our future.

    It covers treatment of common diseases as well as other medical, therapeutic and patient related issues. Written by both pharmacists and clinicians to reflect a team approach, it offers an in-depth analysis of drug therapy in the treatment of disease, relying on input from the pharmacist as a member of the team in hospital and community settings. Information is easy to locate in a logical format organized primarily by systems and disorders.A logical organization and format for each chapter provides consistent features including key points, epidemiology, aetiology, disease, clinical manifestations, investigations and treatment, drugs used in treatment.Convenient tables and boxes highlight supplementary information in the text such as risk factors and dietary guidelines.All chapters close with an evidence-based practice box and case studies that solidify applications of chapter content.More up-to-date information is provided on: rational antibiotic prescribing and the institution of policies; advances in therapy for chronic renal failure and transplants; changes in asthma treatment; and new drugs for epilepsy and Parkinson's.The neurology section has been expanded to include a new chapter on multiple sclerosis, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, and treatment.More information has been added related to infertility treatment and menopause.New two-color illustrations make the text more readable and accessible.A greater emphasis on treatment of the patient rather than the diagnosis reflects a shift in focus toward patient-centered care.

    In Missing Microbes, Dr. Martin Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human microbiome where for hundreds of thousands of years bacterial and human cells have existed in a peaceful symbiosis that is responsible for the health and equilibrium of our body. Now, this invisible eden is being irrevocably damaged by some of our most revered medical advances—antibiotics—threatening the extinction of our irreplaceable microbes with terrible health consequences. Taking us into both the lab and deep into the fields where these troubling effects can be witnessed firsthand, Blaser not only provides cutting edge evidence for the adverse effects of antibiotics, he tells us what we can do to avoid even more catastrophic health problems in the future. http://us.macmillan.com/missingmicrob...

    Author Lauralee Sherwood has streamlined physiological study without dumbing it down by organizing the material around one central human process: homeostasis. In addition to the easy-to-understand text, Sherwood ties physiological study to real world scenarios in fields like pathophysiology and clinical physiology. Plus, it includes PhysioEdge, the most powerful CD-ROM you can get. PhysioEdge2 is packed with tutorials and fast access to answers. And Personal Tutor with SMARTHINKING (access to a live online human physiology tutor) and InfoTrac (an online university library that will save you a trek across campus), HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY: FROM CELLS TO SYSTEMS is the text you need to succeed in physiology class and get ready for health-related careers.

    Real colour plates/diagrams have been given at appropriate places. Chapters on 'CultuMethods', 'Processing of Specimens' and 'Hospital Waste Management' have been included for practical understanding. Key Points have been provided for easy and quick recapitulation

    Drawing on his own experiences in trauma surgery as an anaesthetist and intensive care expert, 'Extremes' is Kevin Fong's account of the way cutting-edge medicine is pushing the envelope of human survival.