Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide (Harvard Medical School)

If you have one medical reference in your home, the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide is the one to have. For years I used the highly technical Merck Manual, along with the AMA Home Medical Encyclopedia. Excuse the Goldilocks allusion but one was "too hard" and the other "too soft." The Harvard guide is "just right." The organization of the book allows for easy navigation. The symptom charts are very helpful and lead you to appropriate sections on diseases and disorders. You learn enough about your health issues and possible treatments to visit your doctor as an informed patient with the right questions. Excellent illustrations and photographs enhance the text. Kudos to the writers and editors for giving us a truly useful guide. Marianne G. Chicago, IL

This is a comprehensive guide on the latest protocols in medicine for a plethora of illnesses. Each section describes the applicable body system, diseases of the system, treatment options and alternative medicinal approaches to the conventional treatment options. This volume is perfect if you have an undiagnosed condition to research or you've been advised of a difficult illness to treat/manage. Extensive flowcharts depict symptoms, required action and research options for getting more information on the subject. Breathing systems and hormonal mechanisms are charted in full color. The digestive system is set forth in step-by-step detail- also in full color. For a life-long condition like ankylosing spondylitis, the authors describe treatment with methotrexate or joint surgery and rehabilitation. Infectious arthritis has a classical bacterial component and inflammations of body systems. Rehabilitation may focus on fixed joints, cartilaginous joints or the synovial joints. Urinary tract infections may be treated medicinally or with cranberries in the case of cystitis. This volume is a goldmine difficult to replicate. For this reason, the purchase is a worthy one for your personal library.

This is an incredible anthology of illnesses. When my mom was diagnosed with leukemia, I read the entire section on the subject. It helped me to understand the type of leukemia she had, what other forms were, what questions to ask her doctor, and what her likely prognosis would be. I discovered she had a 1:5 chance of survival, and I used that information to make my last days with her really count. I also appreciate the guide to diagnosising your own illnesses. It helps to understand what different symptoms MIGHT mean, and what to ask your doctor. I can't emphasize enough the value this volume has. Understanding illnesses your loved ones may be experiencing is invaluable.

A visit to the doctor always makes us very conscious of how much time is wasted. The time you take off from work, the time you spend in the waiting room the time you spend waiting for the doctor to come and actually talk to you for a few minutes. Then we find ourselves sudden incapable of describing accurately our aches and pains. This all happens after we finally decide to go see a doctor because we are not sure if we know enough to deal with the problem on our own. Calling your mother to find out what to do is not always an option. The "Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide" is a great help for dealing with health concerns in this Era of Managed Care. The volume deals with information about diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease in all stages of life. The information is presented in a very user-friendly manner, with over 900 illustrations, covering: (1) questions to discuss with your doctor; (2) first-aid and emergency advice; (3) symptom charts to determine if and when to call the doctor; (4) home remedies and alternative medicine; and (5) drug-interaction charts to prevent dangerous drug-drug, drug-food, and drug-herb interactions. I have used this book to save myself from a trip to the doctor, to identify a rash on one of my children, and to better understand my father's hearing problems. This "Family Health Guide" has proven itself both useful and easy to use, and I am someone who never took even biology in school and who therefore finds medicine to be as mysterious as any other science. Every household should have this book, or something very much like it. One final advantage of this particular volume is that this "book" never goes out of date because you can get page and index searched for updated information on every entry from a website.

This guide is the only general medical guide you will need for your family. It has great symptom charts, pictures, explanations, information, & instructions for thousands of situations. It is an emergency medical guide, a compilation of articles by medical experts, & an all-round great source of medical information. I love this book! We're buying more for presents.