General Books

The Miracle Ball Method: Relieve Your Pain, Reshape Your Body, Reduce Your Stress [2 Miracle Balls Included]

Elaine Petrone

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Disorders & Diseases -> Backache
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Disorders & Diseases -> Pain Management
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> Injuries & Rehabilitation

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 144 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Take two-they're small. And they perform miracles. Suffering a career-ending, potentially crippling injury to her back and right leg, a young dancer named Elaine Petrone tried everyone from orthopedists to yogis to turn her pain and prognosis around. Nothing worked-until she healed herself through a unique program of therapy and exercise based around the use of two small, squishy balls. From there she turned her passion into a mission that is helping the thousands of people who visit her classes conquer pain, stress, and injury.

Now, for relief for sufferers everywhere, comes The Miracle Ball Method, a healing kit containing two miracle balls and a fully illustrated book, all packaged together in an attention-getting clear plastic cylinder. The work itself is simple. Take a sore back: By resting your aching back on the grapefruit-sized balls and letting your body sink into them, you're unworking the muscles that hurt. Pain and tension drain out of the body. Petrone shows how proper breathing (which she demonstrates) works in conjunction with a range of unexercises that call for placing the balls under the back, head, knees, hip, elbow-wherever there's pain-and then resting, rolling, or rotating on them. She points out that relief can come in surprising ways: Lower back pain may be helped by placing the ball under your neck, or a bad knee might be helped by hip work. It's arevolutionary program of relief, from head to toe.

Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection

John E. Sarno

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Disorders & Diseases -> Backache
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Disorders & Diseases -> Pain Management

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 360 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Healing Back Pain promises permanent elimination of back pain without drugs, surgery, or exercise. It should have been titled Understanding TMS Pain, because it discusses one particular cause of back pain--Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS)--and isn't really a program for self-treatment, with only five pages of action plan (and many more pages telling why conventional methods don't work). According to John E. Sarno, M.D., TMS is the major cause of pain in the back, neck, shoulders, buttocks, and limbs--and it is caused not by structural abnormalities but by the mind's effort to repress emotions. He's not saying that your pain is all in your head; rather, he's saying that the battle going on in your mind results in a real physical disorder that may affect muscles, nerves, tendons, or ligaments. An injury may have triggered the disorder, but is not the cause of the amount or intensity of the resulting pain. According to Sarno, the mind tricks you into not facing repressed emotion by making you focus on pain in the body. When this realization sinks in ("and it must sink in, for mere intellectual appreciation of the process is not enough"), the trick doesn't work any more, and there's no need for the pain. (Healing Back Pain should not be used for self-diagnosis. Always consult a physician for chronic or acute back pain.) --Joan Price

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Atul Gawande

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Personal Health -> General AAS
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 156 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great book on surgery 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Atul Gawande gratefully takes the reader to the back of the OR, a place open for a few, yet intriguing for many. Dr. Gawande is extremely frank and poignant, as he describes actual cases from his own surgical practice. He admits that cutting someone open for the first time is hell, praises surgery which gives chance to obese people, wonders about doctor's intuition, and remains human in every case.

As always, Atul Gawande is not just writing about medicine; this book reaches far beyond the realm of the operating room. He touches on the most complicated ethical questions of medicine and society as a whole. Gawande speaks of mistakes and our imperfect judgment; tackling the questions of good doctors gone bad along with malpractice claims and punishments. He makes the case for autopsy as a means of learning. He admits that medical students must practice on cadavers or animals in order to cut people open; all ethical questions are answered by means of vivid examples.

For instance, in the 1980s the death rate from a particular surgery would be about 10%. When the new surgical treatment of heart pathology arose, surgeons started trying the novice. At that training period, the rate of children death from this particular intervention increased to 25% of cases. Sounds horrible? Yes, but after surgeons learned, the rate fell down to just a couple percent. Was it worth it? Sure, granted the number of lives saved in the long run. Never, granted now many kids died just due to surgeons' learning. Would any doctor let anyone practice on his own kid? Never. At the same time, learning is a necessary part of medical progress.

Those questions dominate the book; Gawande ponders at the patient's right to choose, reminds us that doctors are human and prone to mistakes, reveals mysteries of complications, which are usually open only during the M&M - Mortality and Morbidity Conference behind the closed door. Gawande is not afraid to open the doors. Moreover, he is confident that openness is the only way to reduce the complications.

I almost wanted to say the book is too idealistic, except it's written by a person whose profession is to think realistically. Great book!

Editorial Review:

Gently dismantling the myth of medical infallibility, Dr. Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is essential reading for anyone involved in medicine--on either end of the stethoscope. Medical professionals make mistakes, learn on the job, and improvise much of their technique and self-confidence. Gawande's tales are humane and passionate reminders that doctors are people, too. His prose is thoughtful and deeply engaging, shifting from sometimes painful stories of suffering patients (including his own child) to intriguing suggestions for improving medicine with the same care he expresses in the surgical theater. Some of his ideas will make health care providers nervous or even angry, but his disarming style, confessional tone, and thoughtful arguments should win over most readers. Complications is a book with heart and an excellent bedside manner, celebrating rather than berating doctors for being merely human. --Rob Lightner

War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq: A Series of Cases, 2003-2007 (Textbooks of Military Medicine)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq, with a foreword by Bob Woodruff, describes the management of nearly 100 cases of acute comat trauma, conducted in the forward austere operative environment of war in the 21st century. Presented with vivid surgical photos, the cases encompass the spectrum of trauma that characterizes war today, as well as the medical interventions constantly evolving to treat these wounds.

With the most recent cases report from cobat hospitals within months of publication, this book presents emerging medical-surgical practice in real time. The authors discuss in detail an array of topics including:
* Damage control surgery
* Aggressive management of compartment syndrome
* New directions in the management of head injuries
* Use of tourniquets,
* Decision analysis in the approach to vascular repairs and
* Soft-tissue coverage of wounds.

War Surgery in Afghanistan and Iraq provides all medical professionals with insight into the extraordinary technical, clinical, and ethical challenges of their deployed colleagues.

Surgical Recall (Recall Series)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Surgery Clerkship Bible 5 out of 5 stars.
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This book is great! You can carry it around with you to quickly review before cases, or even in the clinic. Almost every pimp question I have gotten was in this book!!

Excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Great for surgery because it goes over anatomy (perfect for OR days) and different diseases/pathophysiology (great for rounding). Must-have for surgery clerkship.

Excellent quick review 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is in short, Q&A style, and is excellent for quick review, especially when you have 10 minutes before a case starts. During surgeries, I got asked a lot of questions straight out of the book. A more thorough book is needed for in-depth info, but this book is great to carry around with you and read in those rare spare minutes.

Editorial Review:

Thoroughly updated for its Fifth Edition, this reference for third and fourth year medical students on surgical clerkships enables quick study in a rapid-fire Q&A format. A perfect fit for a lab coat pocket, this book is commonly used as a quick review prior to surgical rounds as well as for board review. Purchasers of this edition will get both the print book and access to MP3 audio files of the entire text. All Q&A material will also be posted online in the form of electronic flashcards for self-quizzing.

Back Care Basics: A Doctor's Gentle Yoga Program for Back and Neck Pain Relief

Mary Pullig Schatz

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Rodmell Press Amazon Marketplace: 83 new & used starting at $7.88

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Resource for Teachers and Students Alike 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I notice that a few reviewers have mentioned they found exercises in the book too easy and it's true that the book is geared toward those who may be recovering from injury and/or are new to yoga. That said, as a yoga instructor and long-time practitioner I've found this book to be a wonderful resource. In fact, some of the poses in the book have become staples in my lesson plans (and in my own practice) because they serve - for beginners and advanced students alike - as excellent warm-up poses to begin opening the body or cool-down poses to release the lower back. In addition, some of the poses shown using a chair or wall as a prop are useful both for beginners unable to do the full pose and (of equal importance!)for intermediate students who have experience with the full pose, but have never learned, or are still working on mastering correct points of alignment, which are integral to gaining the full benefits of the pose. Finally, I've found one set of exercises - aimed at identifying and correcting pelvic torsion (a slight - and common - misalignment in which the left hip point is drawn a bit too forward while the right is pulled back (or vice versa) - that I've found nowhere else and which has elicited a lot of positive feedback from student in classes where I've used it.

A few words to intermediate students: (1) If you're suffering back pain, it's quite likely that the Iyengar-based exercises in this book, rather than other, more "advanced" or novel asanas (poses) will prove to be better tools for dealing with it. (2) If you have a regular, committed yoga practice and it either is not mitigating or is making your back-associate pain worse you may need to take a closer look at your alignment in the poses, particularly if you began doing yoga in a vinyasa, or flow style and have never received, or have only minimal instruction on how to align yourself in different poses.(It may also be a good idea to seek the advice of a doctor.)

Although yoga studios tend to frown on mirrors in classes (for good reason), occasionally practicing in front of a mirror(s) at home - particularly with a book like this one that includes "simple" poses and poses performed seated in a chair, which can be done safely while watching yourself - can be quite helpful in identifying habitual patterns of movement of which you're unaware - many of which stem from a belief that we can go deeper into a pose than our current range of motion and/or strength allows, causing us to sacrifice key points of alignment - ultimately reinforcing the very patterns of movement that are sources of pain and discomfort. You may be (unpleasantly) surprised to find that the pictures of some of these very basic poses - ones you "already know" and have "moved beyond" - look nothing like the reflection in the mirror when you actually see yourself in the poses.

Three other superior yoga books that I suggest (and I own upwards of 30) are (1) for beginners and people with limited range of motion [i.e., lacking flexibility], "The Runner's Yoga Book" by Jean Couch (2) for intermediate students "30 Essential Yoga Poses" by Judith Lasater and (3) for advanced students, teachers and anyone who wants a thorough physiological and anatomical understanding of the mechanics of yoga, "Anatomy of Hatha Yoga", by H. David Coulter.

Editorial Review:

Back Care Basics offers the low-cost solution for back care in the new millenium: therapeutic yoga. Dr. Schatz's approach to back rehabilitation is gentle, effective, and without drugs or surgery. Her program encourages both positive health practices and a positive outlook; the important tools needed for prevention and healing. Dr. Schatz has designed this program to help those with pain from chronic musculoskeletal back and neck strain, spinal arthritis, osteoporosis, premenstrual syndrome, pregnancy, and scoliosis. Simple and practical ways to heal the back, restructure the body, and cope with stress are taught so that one becomes more sensitive to early warning signs of an impending "back attack" and what to do to ward it off.

The ABSITE Review

Steven M Fiser

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Subjects -> Medicine -> Specialties -> Surgery -> General
Subjects -> Medicine -> Specialties -> Surgery -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Very good, if used correctly 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I'm a surgical intern about to take the ABSITE for the first time in a few short weeks. I have been carrying the 2nd edition of Fiser with me everywhere I go for the last 2 months or so. It is great for those 5 minute downtimes while waiting for room turnover or while the MVC is in the scanner. The new edition is easier on the eyes with the color images (yay pictures!). While there may still be small errors, for the most part this book gives you great, concise, important information on the major areas of Gen. Surgery. One good strategy is to read a chapter in your main text, then read the corresponding chapter in Fiser during downtime the next day or two, then do questions on the subject.

Editorial Review:

Now in its Second Edition, The ABSITE Review is one of the most popular study guides for the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE), which residents in general surgery must take each year and residents going into surgical subspecialties must take during the year of their general surgery training. This easy-to-use book presents concise, digestible chunks of information in lists and outlines that facilitate quick memorization. Every component of the exam is covered--basic science and clinical knowledge in all areas tested. This edition incorporates common decision-making algorithms and covers the material that has appeared in the most recent exams.

Case Files: Surgery, Second Edition (LANGE Case Files)

Eugene Toy, Terrence Liu, Andre Campbell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Good, but not up to par with the rest of the series. 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Though this book remains one of the best surgery shelf prep books out there, it does not include as much of the shelf content as I had hoped. Be sure to supplement with another book as using this as your primary source will leave you scratching your head at many shelf questions.

Good for learning, not for Shelf 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I agree with one of the other reviewers that this book contained a lot of interesting cases, but it was not particularly helpful for the shelf. I had 3 questions that were straight out of this book, but the vast majority of the questions can't be answered using this as a resource. I had a lot of heme/lab values on my test and 4-5 ethical questions where i felt at least three answers seemed quite reasonable. I don't really know how to study for those- they were situations that I never encountered on the wards or in lectures. I think a medicine review book probably would have been more helpful for most of the surgery shelf.

One more thing, for that guy who posted about "70% of questions" from the shelf being in this book, he also had that same quote about the OB/GYN case files. I think he's wrong on both counts.

Editorial Review:

Sixty Surgery cases with complete discussions offer the most outstanding clerkship and USMLE Step 2 review possible.

. Case Files: Surgery, 2e presents sixty clinical cases illustrating key points. Each case includes an extended discussion, definition of terms, clinical pearls, and USMLE format review questions. This interactive learning system helps you understand essential concepts instead of memorizing facts..

Physical Examination of the Spine and Extremities

Stanley Hoppenfeld

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

can do self diagnosis 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you are a medical layperson, you can use this book in a "self-diagnosis" mode, with very little risk. Several of the tests can be done by yourself. You have to understand enough of the medical jargon, which is mostly about anatomy. Straightforward. Keep in mind the title, "physical examination". The tests are all meant to be done by a doctor or nurse with mostly manual steps. No medical instruments.

Some tests really do involve 2 people. You and the examiner. In this case, you can recruit a non-medical friend.

By and large, all this should be safe. There's no surgery involved. Just remember that you should not perform some steps beyond or even close to a pain limit. If you are doing tests, it may be because you have some physical problem. Watch that pain threshold.

Amazing book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is so helpful. It turned my practical test scores around 100%. It is great for the visual learner!

Best Price 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The best prices are on Amazon- and I always get what I'm expecting, usually the quailty of the books exceeds my expectations!

Med-surg Success: A Course Review Applying Critical Thinking to Test Taking

Kathryn Cadenhead Colgrove, Judy Callicoatt

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Subjects -> Medicine -> Nursing -> Medical & Surgical
Subjects -> Medicine -> Nursing -> Test Preparation & Review

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Clearly separating the overwhelming array of medical-surgical nursing content into manageable sections as they are taught and tested, "Med-Surg Success" provides core medical-surgical concepts with related NCLEX-style questions. Like the NCLEX itself, the questions are presented at the application and analysis level, and address the nursing process, management, prioritizing, and medications: critical thinking and how it relates to test taking is emphasized throughout. Organized by body system and specific diseases, "Med-Surg Success" builds on the successful skills and strategies that have already helped thousands of students in Fundamentals Success and Test Success. The disorders chapters provide practice questions focused on the disease process and a comprehensive exam that includes the processes covered in the practice questions along with other topics involving the system addressed. Other chapters similarly cover emergency, perioperative, and cultural nursing; alternative health care and end-of-life issues; and the last chapter before the comprehensive final exam includes questions and test-taking hints specific to pharmacology and the administration of medications.