Too Many Pills
- 320 pages
- 12 hours of reading
An eye-opening account of the over-medicalisation of our lives, by a leading medical practitioner and popular Telegraph health expert.
James Le Fanu Book order (chronological)
James Le Fanu is a medical doctor and writer whose work bridges the fields of medicine and the humanities. He critically examines current controversies, contributing original insights into debates surrounding human embryo experiments, environmentalism, dietary causes of disease, and the misdiagnosis of non-accidental injury in children. Le Fanu offers a sharp perspective on the intersection of science, ethics, and societal health concerns. His writing compels readers to consider complex issues with a thoughtful and analytical approach.
Why Us?
How Science Rediscovered the Mystery of Ourselves
The imperative to `know thyself' is both fundamental and profoundly elusive - for how can we ever truly comprehend the drama and complexity of the human experience?
Vzestup a pád moderní medicíny
- 310 pages
- 11 hours of reading
Rozvoj medicíny od konce druhé světové války do let devadesátých bychom mohli považovat za zázrak. Sulfonamidy, pak antibiotika, očkování proti obrně, operace srdce, přenos srdce, dialýza ledvin, přenos ledvin, pilulky proti početí. Autor, známý žurnalista, který se medicíně věnuje podstatnou část svého života, vytyčil takových mezníků dvanáct a každému z nich věnuje kapitolu. Jsou to napínavé příběhy šťastných objevů. O klinické vědě a medicíně se dozvíte všechno podstatné. Ale pak se autor ptá: Proč lidé utíkají k alternativní medicíně a o své zdraví se bojí víc než v dobách infekcí, kdy se při artróze kyčelních kloubů zchromlo a při zápalu plic se umíralo?
The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine
- 512 pages
- 18 hours of reading
In the years following World War II, medicine won major battles against smallpox, diphtheria, and polio. In the same period it also produced treatments to control the progress of Parkinson's, rheumatoid arthritis, and schizophrenia. It made realities of open-heart surgery, organ transplants, test-tube babies. Unquestionably, the medical accomplishments of the postwar years stand at the forefront of human endeavor, yet progress in recent decades has slowed nearly to a halt.In this judicious examination of medicine in our times, medical doctor and columnist James Le Fanu both surveys the glories of medicine in the postwar years and analyzes the factors that for the past twenty-five years have increasingly widened the gulf between achievement and advancement: the social theories of medicine, ethical issues, and political debates over health care that have hobbled the development of vaccines and discovery of new "miracle" cures. While fully demonstrating the extraordinary progress effected by medical research in the latter half of the twentieth century, Le Fanu also identifies the perils that confront medicine in the twenty-first.