Book picks similar to
How the Immune System Works (How It Works) by Lauren M. Sompayrac
science
medicine
non-fiction
biology
What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine
Danielle Ofri - 2013
But doctors’ emotional responses to the life-and-death dramas of everyday practice have a profound impact on medical care. And while much has been written about the minds and methods of the medical professionals who save our lives, precious little has been said about their emotions. In What Doctors Feel, Dr. Danielle Ofri has taken on the task of dissecting the hidden emotional responses of doctors, and how these directly influence patients.How do the stresses of medical life—from paperwork to grueling hours to lawsuits to facing death—affect the medical care that doctors can offer their patients? Digging deep into the lives of doctors, Ofri examines the daunting range of emotions—shame, anger, empathy, frustration, hope, pride, occasionally despair, and sometimes even love—that permeate the contemporary doctor-patient connection. Drawing on scientific studies, including some surprising research, Dr. Danielle Ofri offers up an unflinching look at the impact of emotions on health care.With her renowned eye for dramatic detail, Dr. Ofri takes us into the swirling heart of patient care, telling stories of caregivers caught up and occasionally torn down by the whirlwind life of doctoring. She admits to the humiliation of an error that nearly killed one of her patients and her forever fear of making another. She mourns when a beloved patient is denied a heart transplant. She tells the riveting stories of an intern traumatized when she is forced to let a newborn die in her arms, and of a doctor whose daily glass of wine to handle the frustrations of the ER escalates into a destructive addiction. But doctors don’t only feel fear, grief, and frustration. Ofri also reveals that doctors tell bad jokes about “toxic sock syndrome,” cope through gallows humor, find hope in impossible situations, and surrender to ecstatic happiness when they triumph over illness. The stories here reveal the undeniable truth that emotions have a distinct effect on how doctors care for their patients. For both clinicians and patients, understanding what doctors feel can make all the difference in giving and getting the best medical care.
The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep
Guy Leschziner - 2019
Guy Leschziner's patients, there is no rest for the weary in mind and body. Insomnia, narcolepsy, night terrors, sleep apnea, and sleepwalking are just a sampling of conditions afflicting sufferers who cannot sleep--and their experiences in trying are the stuff of nightmares. Demoniac hallucinations frighten people into paralysis. Restless legs rock both the sleepless and their sleeping partners with unpredictable and uncontrollable kicking. Out-of-sync circadian rhythms confuse the natural body clock's days and nights.Then there are the extreme cases. A woman in a state of deep sleep who gets dressed, unlocks her car, and drives for several miles before returning to bed. The man who has spent decades cleaning out kitchens while "sleep-eating." The teenager prone to the serious, yet unfortunately nicknamed "Sleeping Beauty Syndrome" stuck in a cycle of excessive unconsciousness, binge eating, and uncharacteristic displays of aggression and hyper-sexuality while awake.With compassionate stories of his patients and their conditions, Dr. Leschziner illustrates the neuroscience behind our sleeping minds, revealing the many biological and psychological factors necessary in getting the rest that will not only maintain our physical and mental health, but improve our cognitive abilities and overall happiness.
An Introduction to Language
Victoria A. Fromkin - 1974
All chapters in this best-seller have been substantially revised to reflect recent discoveries and new understanding of linguistics and languages.
Letter to a Young Female Physician: Notes from a Medical Life
Suzanne Koven - 2021
Suzanne Koven published an essay describing the challenges faced by female physicians, including her own personal struggle with "imposter syndrome"—a long-held secret belief that she was not smart enough or good enough to be a “real” doctor. Accessed by thousands of readers around the world, Koven’s “Letter to a Young Female Physician” has evolved into a deeply felt reflection on her career in medicine.Koven tells candid and illuminating stories about her pregnancy during a grueling residency in the AIDS era; the illnesses of her child and aging parents during which her roles as a doctor, mother, and daughter converged, and sometimes collided; the sexism, pay inequity, and harassment that women in medicine encounter; and the twilight of her career during the COVID-19 pandemic. As she traces the arc of her life, Koven finds inspiration in literature and faces the near-universal challenges of burnout, body image, and balancing work with marriage and parenthood.Shining with warmth, clarity, and wisdom, Letter to a Young Female Physician reveals a woman forging her authentic identity in a modern landscape that is as overwhelming and confusing as it is exhilarating in its possibilities. Koven offers an indelible account, by turns humorous and profound, from a doctor, mother, wife, daughter, teacher, and writer who sheds light on our desire to find meaning, and on a way to be our own imperfect selves in the world.
Do You Believe in Magic?: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine
Paul A. Offit - 2013
Offit, M.D., a scathing exposé of the alternative medicine industry, revealing how even though some popular therapies are remarkably helpful due to the placebo response, many of them are ineffective, expensive, and even deadlyIn Do You Believe in Magic?, Paul Offit, M.D., reveals how alternative medicine—an unregulated industry under no legal obligation to prove its claims or admit its risks—can actually be harmful to our health.Using dramatic real-life stories, Offit separates the sense from the nonsense, showing why any therapy—alternative or traditional—should be scrutinized. He also shows how some nontraditional methods can do a great deal of good, in some cases exceeding therapies offered by conventional practitioners.An outspoken advocate for science-based health advocacy who is not afraid to take on media celebrities who promote alternative practices, Dr. Offit advises, “There’s no such thing as alternative medicine. There’s only medicine that works and medicine that doesn’t.”
Why Do Men Have Nipples?: Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini
Mark Leyner - 1995
You’ve had a martini or three, and you mingle through the crowd, wondering how long you need to stay before going out for pizza. Suddenly you’re introduced to someone new, Dr. Nice Tomeetya. You forget the pizza. Now is the perfect time to bring up all those strange questions you’d like to ask during an office visit with your own doctor but haven’t had the guts (or more likely the time) to do so. You’re filled with liquid courage . . . now is your chance! If you’ve ever wanted to ask a doctor . . .•How do people in wheelchairs have sex?•Why do I get a killer headache when I suck down my milkshake too fast?•Can I lose my contact lens inside my head forever?•Why does asparagus make my pee smell?•Why do old people grow hair on their ears?•Is the old adage “beer before liquor, never sicker, liquor before beer . . .” really true? . . . then Why Do Men Have Nipples? is the book for you.Compiled by Billy Goldberg, an emergency medicine physician, and Mark Leyner, bestselling author and well-known satirist, Why Do Men Have Nipples? offers real factual and really funny answers to some of the big questions about the oddities of our bodies.
Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation
Andreas Moritz - 2005
In this new edition of his best-selling book The Key to Health and Rejuvenation, Andreas Moritz reveals the most common but rarely recognized reasons responsible for illness and aging and how to achieve continuous vibrant health. Andreas puts the responsibility of basic health care back into the hands of the individual. He states, "Healing occurs effortlessly and naturally once the conditions that are required for the body to return to its most natural state - balance and efficiency - have been met." The basic theme is the relative ease involved in creating good health. While physicians attempt to combat or subdue illness, they "know very little about employing the mind and body to actually heal a person." The book includes a complete self-help program, part of which is derived from the ancient medical system of Ayurveda. In addition, this book is packed with useful information on all major health issues and effective methods of cleansing the blood, liver and gallbladder, intestines, kidneys, blood vessels, lymphatic system and body tissues. The nearly 500 pages, divided into 15 chapters, explain everything about the mystery of mind and body, the laws of health and illness, the risk factors of common diseases, the diagnostic parameters, the most common causes of disease and how to remove them, the basic misconceptions people and doctors have about health and wellness, and the journey to lifelong health and spiritual happiness. Neither conventional nor alternative forms of medicine provide the population with the basic, practical steps to remove the root causes of illness and use practical measures of health promotion as aprimary approach of treatment. Timeless Secrets of Health and Rejuvenation fills this gap by showing you how to employ your body's own healing powers to bring balance and harmony into all aspects of your life. Overall, this book is the bible of good health, happiness and rejuvenation for those who long for a balanced lifestyle.
Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine [with Student Consult Online Access]
Nicholas A. Boon - 1968
The award citation described the book as "Beautifully constructed with superb clarity of style - Davidson's continues to provide for students, doctors and other health professionals a sound basis for the practice of medicine."This internationally famous and best-selling textbook of general (or internal) medicine is renowned for providing a rational and easily understood basis for the practice of clinical medicine. Since it was first published this comprehensive text has met the requirements of several generations of medical students preparing for their examinations, while serving as a valuable reference for doctors in training. Rather than page after page of dense text, this reference makes finding information a snap by featuring lavish, colorful visual information. Extensive tables, crib boxes, MRI images, and x-ray films accompany each chapter's succinct discussions. The book's clear organization and color-coded chapters make it simple to find just the information you need, when you need it.
Review of Medical Physiology
William Francis Ganong - 1974
This book integrates clinical examples throughout each chapter and covers important physiologic concepts. It includes 630 multiple choice questions. It covers topics such as: Regulation of food intake; Mitochondria and molecular motors; Renal function; and, Estrogen receptors.
Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
Neil Shubin - 2008
By examining fossils and DNA, Shubin shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our head is organized like that of a long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genome look and function like those of worms and bacteria.Shubin makes us see ourselves and our world in a completely new light. Your Inner Fish is science writing at its finest-enlightening, accessible, and told with irresistible enthusiasm.
The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today
Rob Dunn - 2011
Dunn illuminates the nuanced, often imperceptible relationships that exist between homo sapiens and other species, relationships that underpin humanity’s ability to thrive and prosper in every circumstance.
Human Physiology: An Integrated Approach [with IP-10]
Dee Unglaub Silverthorn - 1997
The newly revised Fifth Edition has been significantly updated throughout and features substantially revised art and Running Problems in the book and on the reader Companion Website. Recognized as an extraordinary educator and active learning enthusiast, Dr. Silverthorn incorporates time-tested classroom techniques throughout the book and presents thorough, up-to-date coverage of new scientific discoveries, biotechnology techniques, and treatments of disorders. Dr. Silverthorn also co-authored the accompanying Student Workbook and Instructor Manual, ensuring that these ancillaries reinforce the pedagogical approach of the book.The Fifth Edition includes access to Interactive Physiology(R) 10-System Suite (IP-10), PhysioEx(TM) 8.0, A&P Flix animations in 3D, and The Physiology Place Companion Website. Key Topics: Introduction to Physiology, Molecular Interactions, Compartmentation: Cells and Tissues, Energy and Cellular Metabolism, Membrane Dynamics, Communication, Integration, Homeostasis, Introduction to the Endocrine System, Neurons: Cellular and Network Properties, The Central Nervous System, Sensory Physiology, Efferent Division: Autonomic and Somatic Motor Control, Muscles, Integrative Physiology I: Control of Body Movement, Cardiovascular Physiology, Blood Flow and the Control of Blood Pressure, Blood, Mechanics of Breathing, Gas Exchange and Transport, The Kidneys, Integrative Physiology II: Fluid and Electrolyte Balance, Digestion, Energy Balance and Metabolism, Endocrine Control of Growth and Metabolism, The Immune System, Integrative Physiology III: Exercise, Reproduction and DevelopmentMarket: Intended for those interested in learning the basics of human physiology
Janeway's Immunobiology
Kenneth M. Murphy - 2007
The Eighth Edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and is available in both print and e-book formats.Janeway s Immunobiology continues to set the standard for currency and authority with its clear writing style and organization, uniform art program, and scientific accuracy. It presents a consistent point of view throughout that of the host s interaction with an environment containing many species of potentially harmful microorganisms. The full-color art program is conceptually coherent and illustrates the processes and mechanisms underlying the concepts in the text. The 16 chapters in this readable, accessible textbook are organized and presented in such a way as to help deliver a complete one-semester immunology course, beginning with innate immunity, then moving to adaptive immunity, and ending with applied clinical immunology.Discussion questions are provided at the end of Chapters 2 to 16. These questions can be used for review, or as the basis for discussion in class or in informal study groups. Summaries conclude each section and each chapter. As in previous editions, a caduceus icon in the margins indicates topics which are correlated to Case Studies in Immunology, Sixth Edition by Geha and Notarangelo.New in the Eighth EditionInnate immunity has been updated and expanded and is now presented in two separate chapters (Chapters 2 and 3), as well as being further emphasized in the rest of the textbook. Chapter 2 covers antimicrobial peptides and the complement system, and Chapter 3 deals with cellular innate receptors and cell-mediated innate immunity (e.g. TLRs, phagocytosis, NK cells, interferon production, innate-like lymphocytes). The section on complement has been reworked and reconceived explaining the lectin pathway first making it easier to teach by placing it into the context of innate recognition. Evolution is now incorporated throughout the text, helping students see similar strategies used by different organisms. The text and figures of Chapter 7 Signaling Through Immune System Receptors have been revised to present a cohesive synthesis of signaling for immunology, focusing on improved illustration of antigen recognition signaling and lymphocyte activation. Signaling through other receptors is dealt with wherever appropriate throughout the book. Updated chapter on B-cell immune responses (Chapter 10), especially on trafficking of B cells in peripheral lymphoid organs (e.g. lymph nodes) and the locations at which they encounter antigen. Coverage of mucosal immunity (Chapter 12) has been brought up to date, including responses to the commensal microbiota and the role of specialized dendritic cells and the regulatory T cells in maintaining tolerance to food antigens and commensal bacteria. Chapter 13, Failures of Host Defense Mechanisms, has been reorganized and revised to structure an understanding of primary immunodeficiencies in the context of developmental pathways. Chapter 16, Manipulation of the Immune Response, has been heavily revised to include a greater emphasis on clinical issues and a complete update of immunotherapeutics and vaccines. Many new and revised figures illustrate the processes and mechanisms underlying the concepts presented in the text. The icons used have been updated and expanded to incorporate a new emphasis on signaling pathways. New references have been added throughout the text.
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
Steven Johnson - 2006
John Snow. It's the summer of 1854, and London is just emerging as one of the first modern cities in the world. But lacking the infrastructure—garbage removal, clean water, sewers—necessary to support its rapidly expanding population, the city has become the perfect breeding ground for a terrifying disease no one knows how to cure. As the cholera outbreak takes hold, a physician and a local curate are spurred to action—and ultimately solve the most pressing medical riddle of their time. In a triumph of multidisciplinary thinking, Johnson illuminates the intertwined histories and inter-connectedness of the spread of disease, contagion theory, the rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry, offering both a riveting history and a powerful explanation of how it has shaped the world we live in.
A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain
John J. Ratey - 2001
Ratey provides insight into the basic structure and chemistry of the brain, and demonstrates how its systems shape our perceptions, emotions, and behavior. By giving us a greater understanding of how the brain responds to the guidance of its user, he provides us with knowledge that can enable us to improve our lives.In A User’s Guide to the Brain, Ratey clearly and succinctly surveys what scientists now know about the brain and how we use it. He looks at the brain as a malleable organ capable of improvement and change, like any muscle, and examines the way specific motor functions might be applied to overcome neural disorders ranging from everyday shyness to autism. Drawing on examples from his practice and from everyday life, Ratey illustrates that the most important lesson we can learn about our brains is how to use them to their maximum potential.