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Nurse On Call: The True Story of a 1950s District Nurse
by Edith Cotterill'Never had I seen so many fleas! Startled by the daylight, they leapt in all directions, particularly mine. Quickly I peeled off her stockings and threw them on the fire, but by now the fleas had invaded her combinations. As for the fur coat, I shuddered to think ...'Training in a hospital in the 1930s, Edith Cotterill's long hours on the wards included encouraging leeches to attach to patients (a task much harder than you might think) and the disposal in the furnace of amputated limbs. Although hospital life did have its compensations - it was there during World War 2 an injured sailor who became her husband.After the birth of their two daughters, Edith returned to work in the 1950s as a district nurse. Whether she was ridding ageing spinsters of fleas or dishing out penicillin and enemas, Edith approached even the most wayward of patients with humour, compassion and warmth.
Bloom: Using flower essences for personal development and spiritual growth
by Stefan BallInsightful and engaging, Bloom explains how to use the Bach Flower Remedies for personal and spiritual growth. Written by a key team member at the Dr Edward Bach Centre, Bloom reveals how the Bach flower essences offer a complete system that can help us to change our lives for the better. Chapters 1-7 explore the ways in which the remedies relate to different life experiences, as well as intriguing schools of religious and philosophical belief. Interspersed with chapters 1-7, chapters i-vii look closely at the individual remedies in the system, explaining when to take each one and what they will do for you. Containing a wealth of personal stories, individual testimonies and fascinating anecdotes, Bloom has something to offer to anyone interested in the Bach Flower Remedies or drawn to personal development in general. Discover how to use the remedies to improve your own life and to grow into your full potential.
Yes Sister, No Sister: My Life as a Trainee Nurse in 1950s Yorkshire
by Jennifer Craig'What is your name?' she asks, staring at me.'Jennifer Ross.''Jennifer Ross, Sister. Well, Nurse Ross, you are dressed in the uniform of a nurse from the Leeds General Infirmary. Such a uniform is not worn with a cardigan. Take it off at once.''Yes Sister.' I can feel my face turn red.A trainee nurse in the 1950s had a lot to bear. In Jennifer Craig's enchanting memoir, we meet these warm-hearted yet naïve young girls as they get to grips with strict discipline, long hours and bodily fluids. But we also see the camaraderie that develops in evening study sessions, sneaked trips to the cinema and mischievous escapades with the young trainee doctors. The harsh conditions prove too much for some girls, but the opportunity to help her patients in their time of need is too much of a pull for Jenny. As she commits to her vocation and knuckles down to her exams, she is determined that when she reaches the heights of Ward Sister herself she will not become the frightening matron that struck fear into her student heart ...Rich in period detail, and told with a good dose of Yorkshire humour, Yes Sister, No Sister is a life-affirming true story of a life long past.
Before I Forget: A Daughter's Story
by Fiona PhillipsFiona Phillips is one of our best-loved television presenters. Well-known for being warm, chatty and down to earth, she attended her local comprehensive in Southampton before studying English in Birmingham. For over twelve years she presented GMTV, during which time she interviewed some of the most famous and influential people on the planet, from film stars to royalty, politicians to local heroes. But in August 2008 Fiona announced that she was to quit the job she loved, revealing that her father, Phil, had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's just a year after her mother had died of the same disease and that she had decided to devote more time to him and to her family. Before I Forget is a wonderfully honest account of growing up in the 1960s and 70s within a complex family. During her childhood her father could sometimes be distant and demanding which both saddened her and drove her to succeed, her mother always the devoted wife and the steady heart of the family. When Fiona lands the job at GMTV she revels in how proud they are of her achievement. When her mother and then her father succumb to Alzheimer's we share in Fiona's sadness as she movingly describes watching them fade away, one moment interviewing George Clooney the next taking a call from Pembrokeshire Social Services to say that her mother had wandered away from her care home.Before I Forget is an extraordinary book which will resonate with Fiona's millions of fans and the millions of people who day-by-day are going through, or have gone through, the same experiences.
Vaccines, Autoimmunity, and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness
by Dr Thomas Cowan Sally Fallon MorellOne Doctor’s Surprising Answer to the Epidemic of Autoimmunity and Chronic Disease Over the past fifty years, rates of autoimmunity and chronic disease have exploded: currently 1 in 2.5 American children has an allergy, 1 in 11 has asthma, 1 in 13 has severe food allergies, and 1 in 36 has autism. While some attribute this rise to increased awareness and diagnosis, Thomas Cowan, MD, argues for a direct causal relationship to a corresponding increase in the number of vaccines American children typically receive—approximately 70 vaccine doses by age eighteen. The goal of these vaccines is precisely what we’re now seeing in such abundance among our chronically ill children: the provocation of immune response. Dr. Cowan looks at emerging evidence that certain childhood illnesses are actually protective of disease later in life; examines the role of fever, the gut, and cellular fluid in immune health; argues that vaccination is an ineffective (and harmful) attempt to shortcut a complex immune response; and asserts that the medical establishment has engaged in an authoritarian argument that robs parents of informed consent. His ultimate question, from the point of view of a doctor who has decades of experience treating countless children is: What are we really doing to children when we vaccinate them?
Global Psychologies: Mental Health and the Global South
by Suman Fernando Roy MoodleyThis book critiques our reliance on Eurocentric knowledge in the education and training of psychology and psychiatry. Chapters explore the diversity of ‘constructions of the self’ in non-Western cultures, examining traditional psychologies from Africa, Asia, Australasia, and Pre-Columbian America. The authors discuss liberation psychologies and contemporary movements in healing and psychological therapy that draw on both Western and non-Western sources of knowledge. A central theme confronted is the importance, in a rapidly shrinking world, for knowledge systems derived from diverse cultures to be explored and disseminated equally. The authors contend that for this to happen, academia as a whole must lead in promoting cross-national and cross-cultural understanding that is free of colonial misconceptions and prejudices. This unique collection will be of value to all levels of study and practice across psychology and psychiatry and to anyone interested in looking beyond Western definitions and understandings.
Global Psychologies: Mental Health and the Global South
by Suman Fernando Roy MoodleyThis book critiques our reliance on Eurocentric knowledge in the education and training of psychology and psychiatry. Chapters explore the diversity of ‘constructions of the self’ in non-Western cultures, examining traditional psychologies from Africa, Asia, Australasia, and Pre-Columbian America. The authors discuss liberation psychologies and contemporary movements in healing and psychological therapy that draw on both Western and non-Western sources of knowledge. A central theme confronted is the importance, in a rapidly shrinking world, for knowledge systems derived from diverse cultures to be explored and disseminated equally. The authors contend that for this to happen, academia as a whole must lead in promoting cross-national and cross-cultural understanding that is free of colonial misconceptions and prejudices. This unique collection will be of value to all levels of study and practice across psychology and psychiatry and to anyone interested in looking beyond Western definitions and understandings.
Bach Flower Remedies For Animals: The Definitive Guide To Treating Animals With The Bach Remedies
by Judy Howard Stefan BallBach Flower Remedies for Animals is a complete and authoritative guide to using the Bach Flower Remedies as an alternative treatment for pets and other animals. Written by experts, it includes the history behind Dr Bach's internationally acclaimed remedies and explains how the remedies are suitable for animals. According to an animal's temperament, a particular remedy or combination of remedies will prove the most beneficial for it. There is guidance on using the remedies and on reading animal behaviour, drawing on insights from professional animal behaviourists. There is also detailed information on treating animals in the home, horses, and animals on the farm or in the wild. Packed full of helpful advice, there are intriguing case studies throughout.
Essentials of Nursing Practice
by Catherine Delves-YatesDrawing together the best of text, video and interactive material for the complete introduction to modern nursing. This ground-breaking textbook has been brought together by 8 editors, 37 contributors, 18 patients, 13 practitioners and 15 student nurses providing a comprehensive overview of holistic, person-centred nursing practice. Key features: A wealth of activities including critical thinking, reflection and ‘what’s the evidence boxes’. Real-life ‘voices’ from patients, students and practitioners are integrated throughout the text A clear and effective learning design aimed to help students understand the core theory, skills and knowledge, apply it effectively to practice, build their academic skills and succeed in assignments. Addresses the transition to the new NMC Standards of Proficiency with a new tool developed for educators mapping the content of the book to both the existing and new standards. The book uniquely blends online resources with traditional print-based learning which are brought seamlessly together through free access to an interactive eBook version of the text. Dedicated online resources for both students and lecturers take the book even further providing the definitive package for nurse education.
Let Your Life Flow: The Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Benefits of the Alexander Technique
by Alex MaunderA basic definition of the Alexander Technique would be how to perform every activity or maintain every posture with the minimum amount of energy. The Alexander Technique teaches us how to release unnecessary muscular tension and realign the posture as we perform our everyday activities.Over 100 years ago E.M. Alexander pioneered his concept of Body/Mind unity. This is the first book to explain the Alexander Technique in terms of energy flow and how we can direct energy with our thoughts. It is also the first book to look at the psychological and spiritual implications of the Alexander Technique and how we can work with our innate Body Wisdom for inner guidance.
My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, And The Search For Peace Of Mind
by Scott StosselTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and SHORTLISTED FOR THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE 2015 As recently as thirty-five years ago, anxiety did not exist as a diagnostic category. Today, it is the most common form of officially classified mental illness. Scott Stossel gracefully guides us across the terrain of an affliction that is pervasive yet too often misunderstood.Drawing on his own long-standing battle with anxiety, Stossel presents an astonishing history, at once intimate and authoritative, of the efforts to understand the condition from medical, cultural, philosophical and experiential perspectives. He ranges from the earliest medical reports of Galen and Hippocrates, through later observations by Robert Burton and Søren Kierkegaard, to the investigations by great nineteenth-century scientists, such as Charles Darwin, William James and Sigmund Freud, as they began to explore its sources and causes, to the latest research by neuroscientists and geneticists. Stossel reports on famous individuals who struggled with anxiety, as well as the afflicted generations of his own family. His portrait of anxiety reveals not only the emotion’s myriad manifestations and the anguish it produces, but also the countless psychotherapies, medications and other (often outlandish) treatments that have been developed to counteract it. Stossel vividly depicts anxiety’s human toll – its crippling impact, its devastating power to paralyse – while at the same time exploring how those who suffer from it find ways to manage and control it.My Age of Anxiety is learned and empathetic, humorous and inspirational, offering the reader great insight into the biological, cultural and environmental factors that contribute to the affliction.
Grave Secrets: (Temperance Brennan 5) (Temperance Brennan #5)
by Kathy ReichsThe gripping Temperance Brennan novel from world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, the international no. 1 bestselling crime thriller writer and the inspiration behind the hit TV series Bones.In the searing heat of Guatemala, Dr Temperance Brennan must harden herself against the horrors she excavates.And then four young girls go missing from Guatemala City.When a skeleton is found at the back of a rundown hotel, only someone with Tempe's expertise can deduce the identity and cause of death. But as she searches for answers, her path is blocked at every turn. It is clear that some people will stop at nothing to keep Guatemala's secrets buried.
Snake Oil And Other Preoccupations
by John DiamondAt the time of his death from cancer on 1 March 2001, journalist and broadcaster John Diamond had completed six chapters of what was to be "an uncomplimentary look at the world of complementary medicine". These chapters, based on his own experience and on researched fact, which were emailed each week to his editors at Random House, are both personal and poignant, hard hitting and controversial, tackling the issues raised by alternative medicine with total candour and his usual wit. The second half of this book features some of the best of Diamond's writing, including a selection of emails to colleagues and friends, articles from "The Times" and the "Jewish Chronicle" and other publications, together with excerpts from his final notebook. For seven years he wrote an immensely popular weekly column in "The Times" which, following his diagnosis with cancer, was given over to following the progress of the disease. As well as gaining him a Columnist of the Year award, it resulted in an avalanche of mail from thousands of his readers.
Grumpy Old Women: (but Still Feeling Eighteen Inside)
by Judith HolderWe all know what it means these days to be a grumpy old man, because part of that role is to be outspoken. Well, we've heard just about enough out of the men, thank you very much! Grumpy Old Women gives us the other perspective: the female take on the million irritations of today's world. So whats the difference? Surely what is irritating to the mature members of one sex is equally annoying to the other? Not necessarily, and this is precisely what Grumpy Old Women seeks to address. Body image, visitors, children, animals, shopping, careers, parties, holidays and, yes, grumpy old men themselves all are very much on the list of what today's mature woman finds a source of concern. From the series producer and stand-up comic Judith Holder, the book incorporates material from the television series Grumpy Old Women, which features a diverse, colourful and very grumpy group of celebrities, including Janet Street Porter, Jenny Eclair, Ann Widdecombe, Germaine Greer, Kathryn Flett and Jilly Cooper. Written with wit, style and sympathy, the book is a source of both amusement and comfort to women everywhere - grumpy, old or otherwise.
The Palgrave Handbook of Ageing and Physical Activity Promotion
by Christina R. Victor Charles Musselwhite Samuel R. Nyman Anna Barker Terry Haines Khim Horton Geeske Peeters Julia Katharina WolffThe ageing of our population is a key societal issue across the globe. Although people are living longer, they need to be living longer in good health to continue to enjoy quality of life and independence and to prevent rises in health and social care costs. This timely and ground-breaking volume will provide an up-to-date overview of the factors that promote physical activity in later life. Despite advances in the fields of gerontology and geriatrics, sports and exercise science, sociology, health psychology, and public health, knowledge is largely contained within disciplines as reflected in the current provision of academic texts on this subject. To truly address the present and substantial societal challenges of population ageing, a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach is required. This handbook will inform researchers, students, and practitioners on the current evidence base for what physical activities need to be promoted among older people and how they can be implemented to maximise engagement. This handbook will be an invaluable resource for researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and students across the social sciences.
What's Up Doc?
by Dr Hilary JonesFor Dr Hilary Jones, the question 'What's up doc?' has been asked of him ever since he qualified as a doctor at the Royal Free hospital in London over thirty years ago.As a junior medic patients used to ask him 'What's up?' when he prodded their bellies for signs of appendicitis. On the GMTV sofa presenters ask him 'What's up?' with the latest actress who has developed the typical tell-tale signs of anorexia nervosa. In the tabloid newspapers he's asked to comment on what's up with the premier league footballer who purports to suffer from sex addiction.On the radio he's asked 'What's up?' with the health of society in general, suffering as it does from epidemics of obesity and binge drinking. On a more everyday basis, in the GP surgery people ask him about unexplained lumps in their neck, or whether a pigmented mole is suspicious. Colleagues at work stop him in the corridor and say 'Can I just ask you about my child's leukaemia' or 'My mum's dementia?' At dinner parties people ask him about their haemorrhoids, or in pubs on the various merits of vasectomy. He's even been approached by complete strangers in dimly lit streets eager to hear his take on methadone and whether or not the NHS should freely supply it. And they ask him what Lorraine Kelly is really like, of course...
Fat Chemistry (PDF): The Science Behind Obesity
by Claire S. AllardyceCurrently, the health of over half the adult population in the UK suffers because of fat. The UK is not alone: obesity is a global problem, but the populations of some countries are heavier than others. This book probes the chemistry of fat in our bodies, providing a unique insight into understanding obesity, and how this material becomes accumulated to cause obesity with particular emphasis on the contribution of nutrition beyond calories. It visits the current hot topic of the genetic origins of obesity and progresses through to the relatively under publicised field of epigenetics, emphasising its importance to understanding the current epidemic. Coming in the wake of the establishment of international collaborations, the book aims to quantify the extent of the contribution of nutritional deficiencies to body weight gain. Yet even before these studies begin some important links have been identified and the molecular mechanisms by which they induce obesity have been mapped. This information reveals a serious problem for the next generation, but it is expected to provide the necessary information to tackle the obesity epidemic. Based on an extensive review of scientific literature, this topical book is written in a way that is accessible to the non-specialist. Suitable for the general public, the principal focus of the book is to advance the public understanding and awareness of science through the high interest subject of obesity. However, many universities recommend public understanding of science texts to students as a means of broadening general knowledge and as a means to emphasise to students the importance of communicating their research to the public. This book will be instrumental in developing this knowledge.
Scientific Characters: Rhetoric, Politics, and trust in Breast Cancer Research (PDF)
by Lisa KeränenAddresses what happens when scientists, patients, and advocates are called to defend themselves in public concerning complex technical matters with direct implications for human life. Sheds light on the challenges faced by scientists and citizens as science becomes more bureaucratized, dispersed, and accountable to varied publics.
Grumpy Old Men: The Secret Diary
by Stuart PrebbleTo everything there is a season. A time to be born, a time to die ... and a time to have a bloody good moan. Following the huge success of Grumpy Old Men, Stuart Prebble, writer of the highly acclaimed TV series, gives us a more in-depth look at what it's really like to be a pissed-off man of a certain age. In painstaking detail, he takes us through a year in the constantly irritated life of a Grumpy Old Man, recounting the manifold vexations and absurdities he has to put up with in the perpetual torment that we call modern living. Drinks parties, holidays, hospital visits, his children's misdemeanours, buying presents for the wife, watching television, attempts to visit the gym, trips to the shops, the trials and tribulations of everyday life - each event has something to tip him over the edge. Stuart's diary proves that grumpiness is not just an occasional mood or a temporary feeling, but a way of looking at the world, and will strike a chord with all those who are proud to call themselves Grumpy Old Men.
Direct Red: A Surgeon's Story
by Gabriel WestonHow does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands? What is it like to cut into someone else's body? What is it like to stand by, powerless, while someone dies because of the incompetence of your seniors? How do you tell a beautiful young man who seems perfectly fit that he has only a few days left to live? Gabriel Weston worked as a surgeon in the big-city hospitals of the twenty-first century; a woman in a world dominated by Alpha males. Her world was one of disease, suffering and extraordinary pressure where a certain moral ambiguity and clinical detachment were necessary tools for survival. Startling and honest, her account combines a fierce sense of human dignity with compassion and insight, illuminating scenes of life and death the rest of us rarely glimpse.Direct Red won the 2010 PEN/ Ackerley Prize and was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2009.
Aids Sutra: Untold Stories from India
by Negar AkhaviIndia is home to almost three million HIV cases. But AIDS is still a disease stigmatized and shrouded in denial. It is stigma that prevents people from openly discussing the facts around HIV, and keeps them from getting treatment. Stigma leads to discrimination against HIV positive people in hospitals, schools and even among families. In this ground-breaking anthology, sixteen of India's well-known writers go on the road to tell the human story behind the epidemic. William Dalrymple meets the devadasis ('temple women'), many of whom have become victims of HIV; Kiran Desai travels to the coast of Andhra where the sex workers are considered the most desirable and Salman Rushdie spends a day with Mumbai's transgenders. These writers travel the country to talk to housewives, vigilantes, homosexuals, police and sex-workers and together they create a complex and gripping picture of AIDS in India: who it is affecting, how and why.Eye-opening, hard-hitting and moving, AIDS Sutra will show you a side to India rarely seen before.This anthology was produced in collaboration with Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Proceeds will be used to support programs for children affected by HIV in India.
Free Money: The Gambler's Quest
by Declan LynchTravel a road rich in possibilities and fraught with danger ...Journalist Declan Lynch's journey begins with a deposit of €100 in an online betting account, kicking off an honest attempt to explore the mysterious allure of gambling. Braving Paddy Power, the Premiership and Belgian women's tennis tournaments on Eurosport, Lynch's darkly humorous diary entries reveal the strange logic behind the punt - and of course there's always the chance of winning a little free money along the way.Drawing on the wise words of sages from Dostoevsky to Corleone to explain, justify and occasionally even excuse his predilection for a punt, Lynch offers a rare glimpse inside the mind of that ever-sanguine individual - the gambler.
The Emperor's New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth
by Irving KirschEveryone knows that antidepressant drugs are miracles of modern medicine. Professor Irving Kirsch knew this as well as anyone. But, as he discovered during his research, there is a problem with what everyone knows about antidepressant drugs. It isn't true.How did antidepressant drugs gain their reputation as a magic bullet for depression? And why has it taken so long for the story to become public? Answering these questions takes us to the point where the lines between clinical research and marketing disappear altogether.Using the Freedom of Information Act, Kirsch accessed clinical trials that were withheld, by drug companies, from the public and from the doctors who prescribe antidepressants. What he found, and what he documents here, promises to bring revolutionary change to the way our society perceives, and consumes, antidepressants.The Emperor's New Drugs exposes what we have failed to see before: depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain; antidepressants are significantly more dangerous than other forms of treatment and are only marginally more effective than placebos; and, there are other ways to combat depression, treatments that don't only include the empty promise of the antidepressant prescription.This is not a book about alternative medicine and its outlandish claims. This is a book about fantasy and wishful thinking in the heart of clinical medicine, about the seductions of myth, and the final stubbornness of facts.
Digging Up the Dead: Uncovering the Life and Times of an Extraordinary Surgeon
by Druin BurchA tearaway young man from Norfolk, Astley Cooper (1768-1841) became the world's richest and most famous surgeon. Admired from afar by the Brontës and up close by his student Keats, his success was born of an appetite for bloody revolutions. He set up an international network of bodysnatchers, won the Royal Society's highest prize and boasted to Parliament that there was no one whose body he could not steal. Experimenting on his neighbours' corpses and the living bodies of their stolen pets, his discoveries were as great as his infamy. Caught up in the French Revolution, and in attempts to bring radical democracy to Britain, Cooper nevertheless rose to become surgeon to royals from the Prince Regent to Queen Victoria. Setting the past against his own reactions to autopsies and operations, hospitals and poetry, Burch's Digging Up the Dead is a riveting account of a world of gothic horror as well as fertile idealism.
Max Perutz And The Secret Of Life
by Georgina FerryFew scientists have thought more deeply about their calling and its impact on humanity than Max Perutz (1914-2002). Born in Vienna, Jewish by descent, lapsed Catholic by religion, Max came to Cambridge in 1936, to join the lab of the legendary Communist thinker J.D. Bernal. In 1940 he was interned and deported to Canada as an enemy alien, only to be brought back and set to work on a bizarre top secret war project. Seven years later he founded the small research group in which Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of DNA. Max Perutz himself explored the protein haemoglobin and his work, which won him a shared Nobel Prize in 1962, launched a new era of medicine, heralding today's astonishing advances in the genetic basis of disease.Max Perutz's story, wonderfully told by Georgina Ferry, brims with life; it has the zest of an adventure novel and is full of extraordinary characters. Max was demanding, passionate and driven but also humorous, compassionate and loving. Georgina Ferry's absorbing biography is a marvellous tribute to a great scientist.