Medicine

Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, by Fereydoon Batamanghelidj, ISBN 0-9629942-3-5 is the result of the author’s research of water and the human body’s needs for it. The main idea of the book is that thirst is just one of many of the body’s ways of indicating that it needs water; he attributes a wide range of diseases as alternate symptoms of dehydration, including asthma, angina, dyspepsia, obesity, and numerous others. The cure to dehydration is simple: drink more water.

Dr. Batmanghelidj’s most well-researched claim appears to be his study of dyspeptic pain, of which he conducted while in the unusual position of serving as a prison doctor in Iran. The author also included a section in his book on an alternate theory of AIDS, which is considered controversial.

The doctor’s prescription is not for a special brand of bottled water, wonder drug, or endorsement of any workout program, simply that if people drank more water they would be a lot healthier. Critics argue that some of his conclusions are ludicrous and consider following his advice, at worst, a harmless waste of time; some people may be unaware that too much water can cause death through water intoxication.

With Women: Midwives experiences: from shift work to continuity of care is the fourth book from Australian writer David Vernon.

The book is an edited anthology of midwives’ experiences of moving from providing care in a shift work environment to providing care in a continuity-of-care model. The experiences described are diverse, ranging from descriptions of workplace bullying and abuse to autonomous practice within a team environment working with obstetricians.

The book has a preface written by Sheila Kitzinger, a foreword by Dr Sally Tracy, and conclusions written by Justine Caines and Dr Jenny Gamble.

The book was released on 31 May 2007.

Unstrange Minds (ISBN 0-465-02763-6) is a nonfiction book by anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker about the rise in autism diagnoses throughout the world over the last twenty years. It provides a cultural history of autism and describes the experiences of parents of children with autism in the United States, South Korea, India, and South Africa. Along with this, Grinker includes his own personal experiences with his autistic daughter, Isabel. Grinker argues that there is no autism epidemic but that the higher prevalence rates are a sign of progress in treating and educating children with developmental disorders and disabilities.
“The newer, higher, more accurate statistics on autism are a sign that we are finally seeing and appreciating a kind of human difference that we once turned away from and that many other cultures still hide away in homes or institutions or denigrate as bizarre” (p.5).

The title comes from an untitled poem by E.E. Cummings in which he criticized his society’s need for conformity.

To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System is a report issued in November 1999 by the U.S. Institute of Medicine that may have resulted in increased awareness of U.S. medical errors. The push for patient safety that followed its release continues. The report was based upon analysis of multiple studies by a variety of organizations and concluded that between 44,000 to 98,000 people die each year as a result of preventable medical errors. For comparison, fewer than 50,000 people died of Alzheimer’s disease and 17,000 died of illicit drug use in the same year.[1]

The report called for a comprehensive effort by health care providers, government, consumers, and others. Claiming knowledge of how to prevent these errors already existed, it set a minimum goal of 50 percent reduction in errors over the next five years. Though not currently quantified, as of 2007 this ambitious goal has yet to be met.

The report was followed in 2001 by another widely cited Institute of Medicine report, “Crossing the Quality Chasm,” which furthers many points from the original study. Both are widely referenced. “To Err is Human” was the inspiration for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 100,000 Lives Campaign, which in 2006 claimed to have prevented an estimated 124,000 deaths in a period of 18 months through patient-safety initiatives in over 3,000 hospitals.

Sugar Blues is a book by William Dufty that was released in 1975 to somewhat surprising commercial success. In the book, Dufty argues that sugar is an addictive drug, that it is extremely harmful to the human body, and that the sugar industry conspires to keep Americans addicted to sugar.

Sugar Blues is probably the first popular culture book that gives insight into the often overlooked link between diet and depression, and how a small dietary change, eliminating refined sugar, can make a huge difference in how good one is able to feel physically and mentally. Dufty even goes so far as to suggest that eliminating refined sugar from the diet of those institutionalized for mental illness could be an effective treatment for some.

The book Skin Cancer: Recognition and Management by Robert A. Schwartz MD is a definitive clinical reference covering a wide variety of skin and accessibly mucosal disorders premalignant and malignant cutaneous disorders, including melanoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma and other sarcomas, cutaneous lymphoma, cutaneous metastatic disease and cutaneous markers of internal malignancy. It emphasizes skin cancer prevention, as well as recent advances in diagnosis and management. It also have a chapter exploring dermoscopic evaluation of skin cancer and a special one on oral cancer.

Rapid Interpretation of EKG’s is a best-selling textbook for over 30 years[1] that teaches the basics of interpreting electrocardiograms. It adopts a simplistic fill-in-the-blank style[2] and is suited for medical students and junior residents.[1] The book was written by Dale Dubin, M.D., a plastic surgeon who nevertheless has written several books on cardiology including Ion Adventure in the Heartland: Exploring the Heart’s Ionic-Molecular Microcosm[3] and Understanding Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation.[4]

The large yellow book was originally published in 1972; the sixth and most recent edition was published in 2000. In the fiftieth printing, the author hid within the copyright notice an offer to give his prized 1965 Ford Thunderbird (which was featured in several photographs in the book) to anyone who actually read the message and responded. Out of 60,000 copies in that printing, only 5 readers noticed and responded, and Dubin’s own daughter delivered the car to the winner, a Yale medical student, as selected by a random drawing.[5][6]

Raja Yoga is a book by Swami Vivekananda about the path of Raja Yoga. It is one of the most well-known books by Vivekananda, who also wrote books on Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga.

According to him, the goal of Raja Yoga is how to concentrate the mind, how to discover the innermost recesses of our own mind and how to generalise their contents and form our own conclusions from them. In order to obtain the goal, practice is absolutely necessary.

The appendix contains the translation of the Patanjali Yoga Aphorisms.

Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork subtitled “A 12-Stop Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle” is a book by former Arkansas governor and 2008 U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. It is based on his health experience of being overweight and diabetic.

The Principles and Practice of Medicine: Designed for the Use of Practitioners and Students of Medicine is a medical textbook by Sir William Osler. It was first published in 1892 while Osler was Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, establishing Osler as the world’s leading authority in the teaching of modern medicine. In its time, the textbook was translated into French, German, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese. It became the most significant medical textbook of the next 40 years.[1]