LONGLISTED FOR THE THE BMA MEDICAL BOOK AWARDSAccording to a wry saying among radiologists, finding a tumour in a mammogram is like finding a snowball in a blizzard. Up to thirty percent of breast-cancer diagnoses are given to those who have no cancer at all. Medicine is subject to far more uncertainty than we commonly acknowledge. While it is portrayed a science, it can sometimes be scarily close to educated guesswork.Covering everything from the efficacy ...

"Hatch packs a wealth of knowledge into the book...poignant." - Associated PressDr. Steven Hatch, an infectious disease specialist, first came to Liberia in November 2013 to work at a hospital in Monrovia. Six months later, several of the physicians he had served with were dead or unable to work, and Ebola had become a world health emergency. Inferno is his account of the epidemic that nearly consumed a nation, as well as its deeper origins....

For many complaints and conditions, the benefits from surgery are lower, and the risks higher, than you or your surgeon think. In this book you will see how commonly performed operations can be found to be useless or even harmful when properly evaluated. That these claims come from an experienced, practising orthopaedic surgeon who performs many of these operations himself, makes the unsettling argument particularly compelling.Of course no surgeon is recommending invasive surgery i...

Beautifully written, with many pertinent case histories, Healing Without Freud or Prozac will be a revelation to those who dismiss alternative medicine and a godsend to those who are looking for help without taking drugs and without talk therapy.Stress, anxiety and depression are among the most common reasons for people to see the doctor. The drugs targeting these conditions are pharmaceutical bestsellers. Yet a majority of patients would like to be able t...

I want to provide the best care possible. The suffering has gone on for a long time, and I want to be sure the end stage is as comfortable as possible. This common sentiment is expressed by both health care professionals responsible for caring for frail elders experiencing the later stages of dementia and family members trying to ensure the most compassionate care for their loved ones. Health care providers and family members often struggle with painful decisions when confronting the inevi...

For those fortunate enough to reside in the developed world, death before reaching a ripe old age is a tragedy, not a fact of life. Although aging and dying are not diseases, older Americans are subject to the most egregious marketing in the name of “successful aging” and “long life,” as if both are commodities. In Rethinking Aging, Nortin M. Hadler examines health-care choices offered to aging Americans and argues that too often the choices serve to profit the provider rather tha...

Why medicine adopts ineffective or harmful medical practices only to abandon them—sometimes too late.Medications such as Vioxx and procedures such as vertebroplasty for back pain are among the medical "advances" that turned out to be dangerous or useless. What Dr. Vinayak K. Prasad and Dr. Adam S. Cifu call medical reversal happens when doctors start using a medication, procedure, or diagnostic tool without a robust evidence base—and then stop using it when it is f...

If someone close to you, or even you have brain cancer, I'm sorry to know that. It must be tough on you right now. Therefore, I sincerely hope this ebook can help you pass through these hard days. This ebook contains tons of tips from cancer survivors who share their cancer experiences. If you need some comfort, or tips on countering your cancer, get this ebook today!

Nortin Hadler’s clearly reasoned argument surmounts the cacophony of the health care debate. Hadler urges everyone to ask health care providers how likely it is that proposed treatments will afford meaningful benefits and he teaches how to actively listen to the answer. Each chapter of Worried Sick is an object lesson on the uses and abuses of common offerings, from screening tests to medical and surgical interventions. By learning to distinguish good medical advice from persuasiv...

Pain is one of medicine's greatest mysteries. When farmer John Mitson caught his hand in a baler, he cut off his trapped hand and carried it to a neighbor. "Sheer survival and logic" was how he described it. "And strangely, I didn't feel any pain." How can this be? We're taught that pain is a warning message to be heeded at all costs, yet it can switch off in the most agonizing circumstances or switch on for no apparent reason. Many scientists, philosophers, and laypeople imagine pain to o...

Providing readily accessible information and real-world encouragement to people living with primary and metastatic brain tumors, this book discusses the basics of brain tumors, types of tumors, management of different tumors, related symptoms, treatments and side effects, the role of medical team members, and coping strategies from initial diagnosis throughout the course of the illness. At the same time, it also offers practical suggestions on symptom management and lifestyle modification,...

For patients with chronic pain, a guide to understanding their condition, the medical system's traditional treatments, and what other choices they have.Are you suffering from chronic pain? Do you feel that everyone, including your physician, thinks you are crazy? Are your loved ones and friends tired of hearing you complain? Are you becoming more depressed and anxious because of your pain? Do you find that you are isolating yourself from others? Are you sick of taki...