History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction
Jacalyn Duffin - 1999
Organized conceptually around the major fields of medical endeavour - anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, surgery, obstetrics, psychiatry, pediatrics, and family medicine - this book is an accessible overview of medical history as a vibrant component of social, intellectual, and cultural history, and as a research discipline in its own right.Each chapter begins in antiquity and ends in the twentieth century. Throughout, Duffin shows that alternative interpretations can be found for most elements of our past and that topics of interest can go well beyond 'great men' and 'great discoveries' to include ideas, diseases, patients, institutions, and great mistakes. This approach does not mean that the 'great men' (and women) are neglected; rather they appear in context. Medical disasters such as chloramphenicol and thalidomide, are covered along with the triumphs, and examples from Canada's past, largely ignored in other medical histories, are included. A chapter on methodology, suggestions for further reading with special attention to Canadian sources, and a careful index make it possible to research a specific event or historical debate, or to satisfy a more general curiosity.By presenting the material in a structure that resonates with the broad outlines of medical training, and by focusing on the questions asked most often, this text is a relevant guide for students to the history of the profession they are about to embrace, and for those who would teach them, be they physicians or historians. Duffin's clear and entertaining prose and the many illustrations will help to demystify medicine for general readers and for students in other domains, such as history, philosophy, and sociology.
The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
Thomas Morris - 2018
This fascinating collection of historical curiosities explores some of the strangest cases that have perplexed doctors across the world.From seventeenth-century Holland to Tsarist Russia, from rural Canada to a whaler in the Pacific, many are monuments to human stupidity – such as the sailor who swallowed dozens of penknives to amuse his shipmates, or the chemistry student who in 1850 arrived at a hospital in New York with his penis trapped inside a bottle, having unwisely decided to relieve himself into a vessel containing highly reactive potassium. Others demonstrate exceptional surgical ingenuity long before the advent of anaesthesia – such as a daring nineteenth-century operation to remove a metal fragment from beneath a conscious patient’s heart. We also hear of the weird, often hilarious remedies employed by physicians of yore – from crow’s vomit to port-wine enemas – the hazards of such everyday objects as cucumbers and false teeth, and miraculous recovery from apparently terminal injuries.
Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 1: Introduction and Death Counts and Estimates
Alex Berenson - 2020
The Complete Human Body: The Definitive Visual Guide
Alice Roberts - 2010
Some parts of it are still mysteries to science and much is a mystery to the average person on the street. But we've come a long way from the sketches and diagrams drawn by the first anatomists in Ancient Greece. New medical procedures and imaging techniques have allowed "access all areas", revealing incredible detail and providing a much deeper understanding of how our bodies work. Making full use of all the latest knowledge,
The Complete Human Body
is the definitive guide to the development, form, function, and disorders of the human body, illustrated withunprecedented clarity by new computer-generated artworks and the latest medical and microscopic imaging.The Complete Human Body consists of five chapters. The first provides an overview of the human as an organism, covering human evolution, genetics, and the composition of the body. The second chapter explores human anatomy, looking at the body region by region (head and neck; thorax; abdomen and pelvis; upper arm; forearm and hand; hip and thigh; lower leg). The third chapter explores and explains how the body works, from individual organs to whole systems. Chapters four and five trace the human life cycle from zygote to old age, and profile the major diseases and disorders that can affect us.ContentsPRELIMS (5pp)1. INTEGRATED BODY (20pp)Human evolution - from our primate ancestors to modern humans.The human genome - our unique genetic makeup.Body composition - what the body is made up of.The complete human - how body systems work together to maintain health and equilibrium.2. ANATOMY (240pp)Body Systems - an overview of the anatomy of the body systems:Skin, hair, and nailsSkeletal systemMuscular systemNervous systemCardiovascular systemLymphatic systemEndocrine systemRespiratory systemDigestive systemUrinary systemReproductive systemAnatomy atlas - a detailed look at the anatomy of the human body, organized by body regions:Head and neckTorso (divided into thorax and abdomen)Shoulder and arm (divided into upper and lower)Hip and leg (divided into upper and lower)3. HOW THE BODY WORKS (120pp)Skin, hair, and nails: includes skin functions,skin renewal, skin healing, hair growth.Skeletal system: includes bone functions, bone growth, making blood vessels, different types of joint, cartilages and ligaments, functions of the skull, functions of the spine, ribs, sternum, and pelvis.Muscular system: includes muscle functions, different types of muscle, how muscles work.Nervous system: includes nerve impulses, nerve regeneration, central nervous system, brain functions, the limbic system, the hypothalamus, peripheral nervous system, autonomic nervous system, voluntary and involuntary responses, reflexes, the senses.Cardiovascular system: includes blood functions, blood formation, how the heart works, circulation, arteries and veins.Endocrine system: includes gland functions, hormone secretion, how hormones work, triggers,controls, feedback.Lymphatic and immune system: includes body defenses, non-specific and specific responses, types and functions of white cells, fighting infections, spleen functions.Respiratory system: includes breathing, how the lungs work, gas exchange, vocalization, sneezing and coughing.Digestive system: includes teeth and chewing, production and function of saliva, swallowing, how the stomach works, function of the intestines, how the liver works, processing nutrients.Urinary system: includes blood filtration, blood volume and pressure regulation, producing urine, urine removal.Reproductive system: includes production of sperm and seminal fluid, female reproductive system, sexual intercourse, milk production.4. LIFE CYCLE (46pp) - covers our development from conception to old age.Includes life cycle overview, inheritance and genes, conception and embryo development,fetal development, changes in the mother during pregnancy, labor and birth, newborn babies, childhood, puberty and adolescence, the aging process and death.5. DISEASES AND DISORDERS (60pp) - profiles the major diseases and disorders; organized by system.INDEX (12pp)GLOSSARY (7pp)ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (2pp)
Pox: An American History
Michael Willrich - 2011
The age-old disease spread swiftly through an increasingly interconnected American landscape: from southern tobacco plantations to the dense immigrant neighborhoods of northern cities to far-flung villages on the edges of the nascent American empire. In Pox, award-winning historian Michael Willrich offers a gripping chronicle of how the nation's continentwide fight against smallpox launched one of the most important civil liberties struggles of the twentieth century.At the dawn of the activist Progressive era and during a moment of great optimism about modern medicine, the government responded to the deadly epidemic by calling for universal compulsory vaccination. To enforce the law, public health authorities relied on quarantines, pesthouses, and "virus squads"-corps of doctors and club-wielding police. Though these measures eventually contained the disease, they also sparked a wave of popular resistance among Americans who perceived them as a threat to their health and to their rights.At the time, anti-vaccinationists were often dismissed as misguided cranks, but Willrich argues that they belonged to a wider legacy of American dissent that attended the rise of an increasingly powerful government. While a well-organized anti-vaccination movement sprang up during these years, many Americans resisted in subtler ways-by concealing sick family members or forging immunization certificates. Pox introduces us to memorable characters on both sides of the debate, from Henning Jacobson, a Swedish Lutheran minister whose battle against vaccination went all the way to the Supreme Court, to C. P. Wertenbaker, a federal surgeon who saw himself as a medical missionary combating a deadly-and preventable-disease.As Willrich suggests, many of the questions first raised by the Progressive-era antivaccination movement are still with us: How far should the government go to protect us from peril? What happens when the interests of public health collide with religious beliefs and personal conscience? In Pox, Willrich delivers a riveting tale about the clash of modern medicine, civil liberties, and government power at the turn of the last century that resonates powerfully today.
Becoming a Doctor: From Student to Specialist, Doctor-Writers Share Their Experiences
Lee Gutkind - 2010
Featuring a wide array of distinguished voices, including Peter Kramer, Kay Redfield Jamison, Robert Coles, Lauren Slater, Sandeep Jauhar, and Perri Klass, these original stories create a vivid mural of the medical world and provide invaluable insight for both doctors in training and longtime physicians. Becoming a Doctor portrays the broad arc of a doctor’s life, from a medical student’s uneasy first encounter with a cadaver and her realization that the experience’s redemption will lie ahead in the lives saved, to a resident’s reliance on dance during her grueling year in an inner-city hospital, and a veteran doctor’s profound ruminations on what it means to really listen to a patient’s story.
Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery
Henry Marsh - 2014
Operations on the brain carry grave risks. Every day, leading neurosurgeon Henry Marsh must make agonizing decisions, often in the face of great urgency and uncertainty.If you believe that brain surgery is a precise and exquisite craft, practiced by calm and detached doctors, this gripping, brutally honest account will make you think again. With astonishing compassion and candor, Marsh reveals the fierce joy of operating, the profoundly moving triumphs, the harrowing disasters, the haunting regrets, and the moments of black humor that characterize a brain surgeon's life.Do No Harm provides unforgettable insight into the countless human dramas that take place in a busy modern hospital. Above all, it is a lesson in the need for hope when faced with life's most difficult decisions.
The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Astonishing Dialogue Taking Place in Our Bodies Impacts Health, Weight, and Mood
Emeran Mayer - 2015
While the dialogue between the gut and the brain has been recognized by ancient healing traditions, including Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, Western medicine has failed to appreciate the complexity of how the brain, gut, and more recently, the microbiome—the microorganisms that live inside us—communicate with one another. In The Mind-Gut Connection, Dr. Emeran Mayer, executive director of the UCLA Center for Neurobiology of Stress, offers a revolutionary look at this developing science, teaching us how to harness the power of the mind-gut connection to take charge of our health.The Mind-Gut Connection shows how to keep the brain-gut communication clear and balanced to:• heal the gut by focusing on a plant-based diet• balance the microbiome by consuming fermented foods and probiotics, fasting, and cutting out sugar and processed foods• promote weight loss by detoxifying and creating healthy digestion and maximum nutrient absorption• boost immunity and prevent the onset of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s andAlzheimer’s• generate a happier mindset and reduce fatigue, moodiness, anxiety, and depression• prevent and heal GI disorders such as leaky gut syndrome, food sensitivities and allergies, and IBS, as well as digestive discomfort such as heartburn and bloating• and much more.
Tripping Over the Truth: The Metabolic Theory of Cancer
Travis Christofferson - 2014
Tripping over the Truth follows the story of cancers proposed metabolic origin from the vaunted halls of the German scientific golden age, to modern laboratories around the world. The reader is taken on a journey through time and science that results in an unlikely connecting of the dots with profound therapeutic implications.Transporting us on a rich narrative of humanities struggle to understand the cellular events that conspire to form malignancy, it reads like a detective novel, full of twists and cover-ups, blind-alleys and striking moments of discovery by men and women with uncommon vision, grit and fortitude. Ultimately we arrive at a conclusion that challenges everything we thought we knew about the disease, suggesting the reason for the failed war against cancer stems from a flawed paradigm that categorizes cancer as an exclusively genetic disease. For anyone affected by this terrifying disease, and the physicians who struggle to treat it, Tripping Over the Truth provides a fresh and hopeful perspective. It explores the new and exciting non-toxic therapies born from the emerging metabolic theory of cancer. Therapies that may one day prove to be a turning point in the struggle against our ancient enemy. We are shown how the metabolic theory redraws the battle-map, directing researchers to approach cancer treatment from a different angle, framing it more like a gentle rehabilitation rather than all-out combat. In a sharp departure from the current "targeted" revolution occurring in cancer pharmaceuticals, the metabolic therapies highlighted have one striking feature that sets them apart -the potential to treat all types of cancer because they exploit the one weakness that is common to every cancer cell: dysfunctional metabolism.
The Problem of Alzheimer's: How Science, Culture, and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It
Jason Karlawish - 2021
While it is an account of decades of missed opportunities and our health care systems’ failures to take action, it tells the story of the biomedical breakthroughs that may allow Alzheimer’s to finally be prevented and treated by medicine and also presents an argument for how we can live with dementia: the ways patients can reclaim their autonomy and redefine their sense of self, how families can support their loved ones, and the innovative reforms we can make as a society that would give caregivers and patients better quality of life.The Problem of Alzheimer's takes us inside laboratories, patients' homes, caregivers’ support groups, progressive care communities, and Jason Karlawish's own practice at the Penn Memory Center.
The Black Death
Philip Ziegler - 1969
When first published in 1969, this study was described by the Guardian as …as exciting and readable an account as you could wish." This new edition of the major study on the subject is illustrated by over seventy contemporary black and white illustrations and eight pages of color.A series of natural disasters in the furthest reaches of the Orient during the third of the fourteenth century heralded what was, for the population of Europe, the most devastating period of death and destruction in its history. By the autumn of 1347 the Black Death had reached the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, and the years that followed were to witness a horrifying and apparently relentless epidemic.One third of England's population died between the years 1347 and 1350, and over one thousand villages were deserted, never to be repopulated. In towns and cities the cemeteries were unable to provide space for all the dead, and violence and crime spiraled. Travel became dangerous and interruption of food and other supplies across the country added hunger and deprivation to the problems of people already overwhelmed by the threat of the vilest of deaths. In the countryside the population was halved in places, and as land became plentiful, landowners' profits fell and the government tried in vain to fix labourers' wages and prices, peasant unrest accelerated and the manorial system disintegrated, culminating eventually in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Throughout Europe whole societies were disrupted; racial tensions built as a direct result of the plague, and persecution of Jews began in earnest throughout the continent. The social and economic consequences of the period were to reach far into the following century.
Top Knife: The Art and Craft of Trauma Surgery
Asher Hirshberg - 2004
Full of advice on how surgeons should use their heads as well as their hands - how to think, plan, and improvise - when, for example, operating on a massively bleeding trauma patient. Starts with general principles, continues with specific injuries to abdomen, chest, neck, and peripheral vessels. Generously illustrated throughout, with drawings produced specifically for this book. For residents, general surgeons with an interest in trauma, and for surgeons operating on badly wounded patients in isolated military, rural, or humanitarian settings. Asher Hirshberg and Kenneth L Mattox are trauma surgeons at the Ben Taub General Hospital, Houston, and professors at the Michael E DeBakey Department of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA. Kenneth L Maddox is famous as the lead editor of McGraw Hill's classic text, Trauma, now in its fifth edition. This is going to be a GREAT book!
Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver
Arthur Allen - 2007
Arthur Allen reveals a history of vaccination that is both illuminated with hope and shrouded by controversy - covering Jenner's discovery to Pasteur's vaccines for rabies and cholera, to those that safeguarded the children of the 20th century.
Falling Into the Fire: A Psychiatrist's Encounters with the Mind in Crisis
Christine Montross - 2013
A new mother is admitted with incessant visions of harming her child. A recent graduate, dressed in a tunic and declaring that love emanates from everything around him, is brought to A&E by his alarmed girlfriend. These are among the patients new physician Christine Montross meets during rounds at her hospital’s locked inpatient ward – and who we meet as she struggles to understand the mysteries of the mind, most especially when the tools of modern medicine are failing us. Beautifully written and deeply felt, Falling into the Fire is an intimate portrait of psychiatry and a moving reminder, in the words of the New York Times, of 'our fragile, shared humanity'
Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82
Elizabeth A. Fenn - 2001
Elizabeth A. Fenn is the first historian to reveal how deeply variola affected the outcome of the war in every colony and the lives of everyone in North America.By 1776, when military action and political ferment increased the movement of people and microbes, the epidemic worsened. Fenn's remarkable research shows us how smallpox devastated the American troops at Québec and kept them at bay during the British occupation of Boston. Soon the disease affected the war in Virginia, where it ravaged slaves who had escaped to join the British forces. During the terrible winter at Valley Forge, General Washington had to decide if and when to attempt the risky inoculation of his troops. In 1779, while Creeks and Cherokees were dying in Georgia, smallpox broke out in Mexico City, whence it followed travelers going north, striking Santa Fe and outlying pueblos in January 1781. Simultaneously it moved up the Pacific coast and east across the plains as far as Hudson's Bay.The destructive, desolating power of smallpox made for a cascade of public-health crises and heartbreaking human drama. Fenn's innovative work shows how this mega-tragedy was met and what its consequences were for America.