Customer Reviews

Medical Biochemistry

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Like other people have said, this book is not worth the money. This book puts far too much emphasis on some topics, ignores others and simply does a terrible job explaining biochemical concepts that are important in medicine. If you would like a simplified biochemistry text, choose Lippencott's or Lange's texts. This is book is too simple and frustrating. I have spoken with many students in my medical school class that agree with my assessment and do no even bother reading the chapters because they leave them confused and frustrated. Save your money!!! I wish I could give it a negative star or no stars at all!

This book was the required book for my Medical Biochemistry class. Which was quite strange because none of the professors lectured from it, choosing instead Lehninger or Harper's. This book was so lacking in actual biochemistry that it was essentially useless for adequately covering the course material. I will admit that it does a pretty good job of covering clinical correlations, it has a lot of pretty charts, tables, figures, and pictures in multiple colors but it does not cover the material adequately. Do yourself a big favor and go with Lehninger or Harper's instead.

I needed a biochemistry book that was written in plain English, and this was it. Plenty of clinical applications are also presented. I'm a graduate student, taking a Biochemistry course with a major medical school. Stryer is the recommended book, and I do read my assigned chapters. But THIS is the book I go to to flesh out the confusing bits and pieces.. And it does so without the requirement of a previous degree in chemistry.

This is not a very good book. Although this is a medical biochemistry book, this is inadequate for medical school. Many topics are covered in great detail when they don't need to be, while others are neglected when they should be emphasized. In short, it does not teach to the NBME biochemistry shelf exam or USMLE Step 1. Although it is the second edition, it is riddled with errors, unclear grammar, and inaccurate figures. There are also some topics where this book is just plain wrong. Who thought it would be a good idea to have a bunch of biochemists write a medical text? Get something else; anything else.

This text was compulsory for our college. As a new student to biochemistry I really struggled with this book. It made easy concepts complicated. If you're planning to do a couple of years of biochem then this is the book for you. If you're after some intro stuff, invest your money into something else.

I did my B.S. in Biochemistry and bought this book to improve my medical biochem knowledge. On the plus side this text provides an overview (shows you the forest so to speak) of many major biochemical pathways in a cartoon-like diagrammatic format. However, I agree with the previous reviewers that it's emphasis isn't quite right for medical students. I've found some errors (e.g., fig 11.13 and 25.6 have arrows that are flipped the wrong way & some of the reference ranges in Appendix I have incorrect units) so be careful. My favorite med biochem text is Principles of Medical Biochemistry by Meisenberg/Simmons (ISBN: 0323029426) and the runner-up is Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry (ISBN: 0781769604).