47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Textbook of Medical Physiology, April 21, 2006
This review is from: Textbook of Medical Physiology: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access, 11e (Guyton Physiology) (Hardcover)
I agree with the reviewer from Israel, this book is exceptional at explaining physiology. During my first year in medical school I used Berne and Levy as the text for medical physiology and I found it to be a very good text. But reviewing physiology during my second year I used the text by Guyton and I couldn't believe how well written and clear it was. Both texts are excellent and I give both 5 stars, but I would definately recommend Guyton for a first read, and then Berne and Levy.
However, not all sections in this book, like not all sections in Berne and Levy are excellent. I recommend supplementing reading in Respiratory physiology by West or weinburg, Renal Physiology by rose or vander, and GI with Johnson. Cardio use B/L-it's the best. Endocrine, Guyton is good. Nerve and Muscle physiology use Berne and Levy; and Neurophysiology I highly recommend reading Neuroscience by Purves and Essentials of Neuroanatomy, Neurophysiology by Gilman.
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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Guyton and Hall's "Textbook of Medical Physiology", January 20, 2007
This review is from: Textbook of Medical Physiology: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access, 11e (Guyton Physiology) (Hardcover)
"When the length of the spindle receptor increases suddenly, the primary ending (but not the secondary ending) is stimulated especially powerfully, much more powerfully than the stimulus caused by the static response. This excess stimulus of the primary ending is called the dynamic response, which means that the primary ending responds extremely actively to a rapid rate of change in spindle length. Even when the length of a spindle receptor increases only a fraction of a micrometer, if this increase occurs in a fraction of a second, the primary receptor transmits tremendous numbers of excess impulses in the Ia fiber--but only while the length is actually increasing."
I have quoted at some length from an almost randomly selected passage on muscle sensory receptors to give you a chance to see for yourself what Guyton and Hall do. If this sort of thing sounds like gobbledygook to you, then avoid this book. If it sounds obvious and trite, you too should not bother with this book. (You may be one of the two types of readers I discuss below.) But if, like me, you knew about muscle spindles but didn't know the actual mechanisms and, like me, find the clarity, completeness, and detail of this description extraordinarily exciting, then Guyton and Hall may be just what you're looking for.
I can imagine two types of readers for whom Guyton and Hall will not work, both represented fairly well among the other reviewers here. One is, so to speak, below the book, the other above it. The book will suit neither those coming to anatomy and physiology for the first time (unless they are extremely intelligent and motivated) nor those whose grasp of the English language is slight (either because English is their second language or because they read and write rarely). For beginning students, Marieb's book is probably better. I'm not sure what to recommend to those who find Guyton and Hall verbose instead of astonishingly precise, other than more experience reading English sentences with more than two clauses. As for those who are above the book, who find it repetitive or expansive rather than concise and abbreviated, it may be that in fact you are looking for something other than what this book offers.
My experience as a student and teacher for many years has shown me that some people seek a kind of instant knowledge, like a microwaved meal, so that they can pass a test above all quickly. Indeed, there may be more and more of these people as time goes on. For these, a briefer review text, as Ganong is said to be, will always be preferable. But if you seek in-depth and permanent understanding that comes from prolonged thinking about connections and patterns in detail, then I can hardly imagine a better text than Guyton and Hall. It has electrified me with insight on virtually every page.
The one criticism that I might agree with concerns the illustrations, charts, and diagrams: they are all in black/gray and red only. But I love even these, because their Spartan quality emphasizes that it is your own imagination that must properly depict the subject. And for aiding that the illustrations are excellent--utterly clear, precise, and purposive, just like the book as a whole.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding !, March 24, 2006
This review is from: Textbook of Medical Physiology: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access, 11e (Guyton Physiology) (Hardcover)
For the medical student this one is the best explained and most detailed book there is! The main quality of this title is in the fact that C.Guyton is a great teacher. The clear figures and the down to earth language makes this book the best for the student. It slowly shifts from the simple to the hard stuff and does it withough any unnecessary complexity. Everything you will ever need to know about physiology is here. While reading this I couldn't believe how such a tough subject can be made so easy. It is really a masterpiece.
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