Customer Reviews

Textbook of Medical Physiology, 10e (Guyton Physiology)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I agree with the previous review that this book is quite long and is not at all concise. Concepts repeat themselves everywhere. However, not all students are so bright that they can remember everything in just one go. I am a medical student myself, and I find it frustrating to not being able to understand some important concepts in the later part of a course just because no one reminded me of one or two simple things taught before that I have forgotten. Te secret of the Guyton lies here. Information is repeated continuously, so giving the book consistency throughout the text, as it travels through different areas of physiology. The secret of its lucid explanations lies here too: Guyton likes to hear himself talk. Remember, THIS BOOK IS RECITED. Guyton couldn't write! That's why his text is so similar to a teacher with a voice. You are reading his lecture scripts.
Anyway, I love the book for its explanations where every concept is explained from the very first principles, even though they were taught before in just the page before.
Yes, it is quite a physiology for dummies, but there isn't a lot of students who are not dummies. Being a "dummy" does not mean you are stupid, a "dummy" is just a person who can't memorise and digest everything in one go and needs some reminders here and there to facilitate learning. If you've got a camera memory, don't get this book, or you will feel bored.
However, it's really a long text, so I read it as if it's a leisure book and memorize as much as I can. Don't push yourself!

You can't really go too wrong with this text, especially as a reference.

My main problem with Guyton is that the writing style is often soporific, tedious, and rambling. Parts of the section on heart action almost sounded like a parody of a really awful college lecture.

For anyone planning to study physiology systematically, I would strongly recommend Berne and Levy's *Physiology* over Guyton. The Berne book is equally comprehensive but has much better layout and genuinely good writing.

Guyton remains one of the best physiology books for the medical student with its clear elucidation of fundamental physiological concepts and its pathophysiological correlations.

I want to address some of the criticisms of this book. One reviewer claims that it is missing trivia that professors love like the so called ENaC channels. Well, it does mention these channels on pg 304 as the special channels through which sodium diffuses into P-cells. Any medical student who has studied pharmacology or medicine knows that these are the channels that are inhibited by potassium sparing diuretics (amiloride and triamterine). Till recently they were called amiloride inhibitible sodium channels. Since they are found on other epithelial cells, they are now called ENaCs (epithelial sodium channels). There may be many more such trivial points you may find missing in Guyton, but if it is physiology you want to learn (rather than get into trivial pursuit) this is the book for you. No book is perfect and no book can contain EVERY single detail. Even Ganong, while being a very good book is lacking in the explanation of many fundamental concepts which it states but does not explain, for example it just tells you that high protein diets raise the GFR, but only Guyton tells you why. The chapters on cells and immunity etc could use updating, but these are topics covered in great detail in other courses--cell bio, molecular bio, biochem, immunology.

Another criticism is about lack of diagrams. I found that the diagrams in the book were of a functional nature--good enough to explain the concepts being discussed. If it is comic books you are looking for, buy an atlas.

Thirdly, the so called verbiosity. Yes, the explanations are detailed, but many first time readers would find that a positive point. It is hardly physiology for dummies.

In conclusion, although all the above criticisms are justified to an extent, if you want to learn the hows and whys of physiology, Guyton still remains a good book that covers pretty much everything a med student needs to know for physiology for courses and the usmle.

I advise every medical student to read from this great book. It might be time-consuming, but believe me once you read the beginning of any chapter, you still want to read it till you finish it! What makes reading even more interesting is the clinical relevance presented at the end of each chapter, which makes you understand the mechanism of a disease. Its biggest drawback is its lack of enough diagrams and illustrations, which if present are still poor, compared to other illustrated physiology books.

Guyton and Hall is like a big story about physiology. It is interesting, but the reader has a lot of trouble finding any relevant facts.They're all there, but very hard to find. (Plus, the book is really heavy.) Ganong is more concise and relevant. As a medical student,I found the graphs and diagrams given in the book very useful.The explanations are also great, in case one has time to read them. But if you are studying for an exam, you'd do well not to overcrowd your mind with Guyton. It makes you feel like there's SO much left to cover, when half the stuff they've printed and reprinted and repeated never gets asked. Its a good buy if you have a lot of time, and its great for reference once you start studying Medicine.

This a good traditional physiology book, but needs to have more up-date concepts about the molecular basis of physiology. The book is very extense,. but handle very old concepts. Now the molecular biology have and important impact in all areas of medicine, and I believe this book not include importat molecular concepts. The book was good before the molecular biology and gene revolution. I believe that the book handle past histoy.

I bought this book because of the excellent reviews. But I have only used it once, and did not get much from it. The charts/tables are useless. The book rambles on making the studying process longer than it should be. As medical students in our first year, we have so much to memorize in such a short amount of time, most of which we have never even heard of before. This book is for people who have a strong background in physiology and want to go very in depth.

I would recommend physiology by Costanzo along with the BRS. Those give you all the information you need and spare you the boring pages of detailed physiology.

I do have to add that students in my class that like the book are the ones that study everything front to back and spare nothing. If you are one of the smartest, overachieving students, then this book may benefit you.

The whole book itself is way too long-winded. Simple concepts which could be explained in one or two sentences are instead used to fill up pages of text; not only that, but the same concepts are repeated over and over again throughout different sections of the book. I guess the authors like to hear themselves talk. And then there's the annoying sections like the one where they go on and on about something elaborately called "Einthoven's Law" which is nothing more than simple KVL from basic circuit theory. Stuff like that is just plain annoying, because it feels like you're wasting your time reading a long-winded, substance-wanting text. They should consider renaming the book from "textbook of medical physiology" to "physiology for dummies." Here's an excerpt from the book:

"If the net potential of lead I is positive, it is plotted in a positive direction along the lead I axis. Conversely, if this potential is negative, it is plotted in the negative direction."

Numerous passages like the one above make you feel frustrated and annoyed. Time is a valuable thing to waste; I would suggest getting a more condensed and better organized book on physiology.

It is very nice book. Everything is explained in details, up to date (of course if you get the latest edition). Chapters are arranged according to systems. Requires certain background in Cell Biology, Biochemistry and Human Anatomy. Fundamental concepts are not repeated here for memory refreshment. There are some but not many clinical applications which I wish there was more.Some applications of drug therapy again very minimal. A book that you will refer time and time and once you grasp this book in it's all dimensions you can start to link etiologies to each other and everything makes sense.

This is still the best textbook in physiology beyond a doubt. I just wish they hadn't stopped printing the lower level verison because there's a lot of poor physiology textbooks out there.
What's good about it?
1. It's accurate - something that's been greatly de-emphasized recently.
2. It's comprehensive and fairly well balanced - You have pretty good balance because the individual faculty members have responsibilities for selected chapters (I know this because I worked in Arthur Guyton's department).
3. It's relevant - The very best clinical correlation and, most importantly, is designed to support rational diagnosis. Most physiology textbooks are actually designed to facilitate memorization (using memorization instead of understanding is why many physicans can't make a correct diagnosis when the case is not clear cut).
If you're a medical students, don't waste your time on any other text book. You owe it to yourself and your future patients to learn it right!