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Breakthrough!: How the 10 Greatest Discoveries in Medicine Saved Millions and Changed Our View of the World 1st Edition
| Jon Queijo (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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$27.99 Read with Our Free App - Hardcover
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- ISBN-100137137486
- ISBN-13978-0137137480
- Edition1st
- PublisherFT Press
- Publication dateMarch 7, 2010
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
- Print length287 pages
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- Publisher : FT Press; 1st edition (March 7, 2010)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 287 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0137137486
- ISBN-13 : 978-0137137480
- Item Weight : 1.19 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,887,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #196 in Histology (Books)
- #284 in Genetics (Books)
- #430 in History of Medicine (Books)
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The first 9 chapters are excellent. The author has a talent for recounting the historical figures and the circumstances they worked within in order to achieve their breakthroughs. These chapters were peppered with interesting individuals, stories, and facts.
However, I must take issue with his final chapter and I will begin with an excerpt from the introduction:
"Along the same lines, others may argue against some of the breakthroughs included here, such as the rediscovery of alternative medicine. I'm thinking of one former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine who declined to review this book in part because "There is no such thing as 'alternative medicine' - only medical methods that work and those that don't" I understand the point but respectfully disagree"
Against the backdrop of such a wonderfully logical and factual book, this 'statement of purpose' so to speak is perplexing. The entire book I read, waiting for his rationalization of alternative medicine. It never came. The 10th chapter is completely devoid of factual support. It is simply an account of where alternative medicine originated. He doesn't appear to even make an effort to show that alternative medicine works. This contrasts so strongly with the rest of the book, it becomes a glaring shortcoming. The first 9 chapters recount discovers that saved millions, perhaps billions, of lives. After reading about the final breakthrough, it isn't clear that alternative medicine has saved a single life.
To me, this is the lynchpin of his argument. Breakthroughs save, or at least improve, lives. However, he doesn't offer a shred of evidence that alternative medicine has saved or improved lives. It may have become clear that I'm skeptical of alternative medicine's claims at this point in my review. In my mind, medicine either produces results or it does not. After reading about his first 9 discoveries, of whose benefits were so easy to appreciate, I was waiting, expecting to have my views of alternative medicine revised. It never happened. His justification of alternative medicine falls utterly flat, and this was very disappointing.
Despite the last chapter, I can still recommend this book. The author does have an incredible job of explaining the what and why of medical advancements and how they improved our lives. And in a way, the extreme contrast between the first 9 breakthroughs, and the 10th (unjustified) breakthrough becomes an unwitting but brutally effective argument against unsupported, mystical alternative medicine treatments.
I think that critics of the 10th chapter about the success of the alternative medicine have missed the point. Nowhere the author claims that homeopathy or other types of quackery are working. In fact, he clearly says that they don't but that there is a reason for their popularity, namely, that the medicine of the western world is forgetting that its primary focus is on the patient, not disease. We have become enamored by technological advances that they are no use if the mental state of a patient is aimed towards destruction. It is time to consider wider perspective and holistic systems is a good source for new ideas.
Otherwise it is hard to explain why the United States with the most advanced medical technology and spending more money per patient than any other country is lagging behind in actual medical care. Countries with national health care like Canada or UK are actually doing better with less money. Withing this wider understanding a nationalized health care could save many lives and improve general well-being and be actually cheaper.
There are also an interesting controversy about obesity which has become endemic in certain parts of the world. Gaury Taubs argues that the regular recommendations of eating less and exercising more do not seem to work because doctors are missing greater perspective of what really drives people to eat certain amount of calories. Most doctors do not even care because it is so easy to say that it is a patient's fault for not following the regiment. However, this could be compared to AIDS/HIV epidemic in Africa where many authorities try to deal with the problem by recommending abstaining from sex, instead of providing condoms. It is necessary to invent a "condom" against obesity because abstinence (from sex or food) may work in some individual cases but not in general. This is another case when greater focus on a patient and not only on a disease would be very beneficial.
As I read about the ten breakthroughs, I writhed in pain when thinking of the millions of women who have given birth without help of anesthesia of any sort and of those who had died of childbirth fever because no one knew of the importance of hand washing. I was fascinated with the chapters on X-rays and vaccines. As a child, I swallowed a sugar cube at our local elementary school and hence became invulnerable to polio. From reading Queijo's book, I learned more about Hippocrates and his advice to look at the person, not just the disease. I also learned more about cholera and the role of sanitation in preventing it. As a person living in the first years of the 21st century, it seems hard to believe that at one time, no one understood the importance of clean water.
My absolute favorite chapters, however, were the ones on genetics and the treatment of mental disorders. As a psychology instructor, I already knew most of this information, but the manner in which it was treated is accurate, refreshing, and informative. The author's style is easy to read and understand (without being pedantic), and anyone who reads these chapters will come away wiser.
I've already recommended the book to several of my teaching chums, and I'm recommending it to you too!

