Customer Reviews

Textbook of Medical Physiology: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access, 11e (Guyton Physiology)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

"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.

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.

OK, so this may not be a textbook that I've been required to buy in any of my undergrad classes, but it was one of those books that we were recommended to have by the time I took my bioengineering fundamentals class. Reasons?

Simple. It does an awesome job of explaining everything. Long story short. There may not be as much images as you'd find in, say, Fox's Human Physiology (check out my review there), but for one thing, this is the comprehensive tome of knowledge if you want to know even the details, nuts, and bolts behind physiology.

And even if you aren't really trying to teach yourself physiology or do this for fun, it always makes a great addition to the bookshelf of any physician or bioengineer. The fact that I'm an undergrad and we use this book by the time we hit sophomore year goes out to show how well it is written.

Grade: A++++++......(infinity)

It's amazing when a person understands their material with such a firm grasp and can then further back it with the organizational skills and creativity necessary to produce a book. This literally borders on art. It is smooth, has a natural progression and the writing is perfectly concise and illuminating.
Wow.

I bought both this book and Costanzo for my first year physio class and loved the Guyton book. He explains everything very well so that you understand why systems work the way they do. Costanzo, while easy to read, tends to dumb the information down, and as a result, you end up memorizing facts instead of understanding concepts. At my medical school, we take the shelf as the final, and after reading Guyton I felt really prepared, whereas most of my classmates who read Costanzo felt dazed.

In my opinion this is the best physiology book out there. If you are just starting physiology this is the book to get. It is very good at explaining things and the fact that it never assumes you know something in any chapter makes it repeat many of the basic stuff - it just enters your head.

This is the best to learn as you go, to update your knowledge and to learn if you have time. However, the throughout descriptions and repetitions that make it so good, make it a bad book if you only have a few days to learn this. In that case I would recommend Ganong's.

This is probably the most venerated and widely used physiology textbook ever. I used an earlier edition of this book 30 years ago as a young neurobiology student, and I found it very readable despite the quite respectable level of technical difficulty. Guyton, unlike a lot of science and textbook writers, just knows how to write, and I say that as a former science writer and editor myself who edited 50 books in various fields. Medical students have used it to pass their boards, and doctoral students in physiology have used it for a comprehensive review, and I used it in my own graduate studies. My field being neurobiology, I was most interested in the chapter on that, but I also enjoyed the chapters on heart physiology and renal physiology, and immunology also. There are other books you an also read that are strong on various areas, such as Vander on nephrology, which I read also, but this one is still my hands down favorites. By the way, Darrel's great review has good suggestions on the other books to supplement your reading with.

Great text. Normally the instructor makes the interpretation easier but not in this case. Chapters are concise and key points are repeated throughout. May be redundant in some cases but helps illustrate the interconnected nature of physiological processes.

with the large variety of professors that come in the classroom, this book is great at laying out the topics and explaining them in a detailed manner without being too wordy. there's lots of good pictures to help explain ideas. the review book that comes along with it is really nice to have too to solidify your understanding.

the international version is just the same as the regular, just paperback instead of hardcover. it's in english with corresponding page numbers to the hardcover. it's just usually cheaper.