American Medical Association Family Medical Guide, 4th Edition

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 1136 pages
• Published by: Wiley
• Edition: 4th Edition August 25, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0471269115
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0471269113
• Book Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.6 x 2.9 inches
• Weighs: 4.4 pounds

From Publishers Weekly
Medical "bibles" go out of date quickly. Diseases don't change, but our understanding of them does. So a new volume of a standard guide for the nonphysician is certainly welcome. What's perhaps most gratifying about this updated reference is that, based on new understanding of how much regular people can do to keep body and mind whole, it advises readers to take an active approach. For those already suffering a particular medical condition—and the book covers a great deal of territory, from blood to heart to brain diseases—this volume will serve as a source of real understanding. Armed with the basics, patients may be less embarrassed to ask more of their physicians or surgeons. The authors acknowledge the benefits of yoga and meditation (which they call the relaxation response) and offer a rundown of homeopathic medicine. Other new additions include expanded coverage of genetic testing, learning disabilities, ADD and stem cell transplants. The authors discuss sexually transmitted diseases, sexual orientation, contraception and abortion with forthrightness. Self-help charts that will supposedly lead readers from symptom to diagnosis are a kind of maze game and will keep hypochondriacs busy for hours. This is a well-organized volume, considering the amount of information it covers. By educating patients, the book may be as much a help to physicians as it is to their charges. Photos, illus.
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Product Review
"a very nice update". (Library Journal, October 1, 2004)

Diet, exercise, heart disease, cancer, stress reduction—these are among the key health issues facing contemporary American families. These issues and more are the centerpiece of the first revision in a decade of the American Medical Association (AMA) FAMILY MEDICAL GUIDE (Wiley; September 10, 2004; Cloth/45.00). Selling more than 2 million copies since it was first published twenty years ago, the American Medical Association (AMA) FAMILY MEDICAL GUIDE has established itself as the gold standard of family health references. With more than 90ew material, 50% more pages, thousands of illustrations, and 64 pages of full color, the new 4th Edition reflects the enormous advances in medical care over the past decade.
“Everyday, Americans hear news of the latest medical study or another medical breakthrough,” writes Michael D. Maves, MD, MBA and Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Medical Association (AMA) in the Foreword to this new edition. “These scientific advances, along with the latest techniques for diagnosing and treating diseases, are helping us live longer and in better health than ever before. With this all-new, completely revised fourth edition of our best-selling American Medical Association (AMA) FAMILY MEDICAL GUIDE, you have the tools you need to make sense of this abundance of information, enabling you to take charge of your health and health-care requirements and make informed medical decisions.”
Organized into six major categories, the American Medical Association (AMA) FAMILY MEDICAL GUIDE puts a wealth of information on health and disease directly into your home, including:
Part One: What You Should Know: Information to Keep You Healthy: This all-new, full-color section highlights current key health issues such as preventive data on nutrition, exercise, weight, and stress reduction, as well as cutting-edge information about cancer treatments and genetics. You’ll find a body mass index (BMI) chart, vitamin-mineral charts, and screening tests with recommendations for different sexes and ages.
Part Two: Your Healthy Body: Provides up-to-the-minute specifics on preventive medicine. Why eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight, reducing stress, and getting sufficient sleep have a profound effect on your health. This section concludes with a 32-page full-color section containing an Atlas of the Body (a handy reference for locating bones, muscles and other parts of the body), Visual Aids to Diagnosis (photos of sores, rashes and other recognizable signs and symptoms, with brief descriptions of conditions to which they might be linked), and Diagnostic Imaging Techniques (the different types of procedures your doctor might recommend, such as ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, how each test is done, and which disorders the test might help diagnose).
Part Three: First Aid and Home Caregiving: Gives you step-by-step advice on how to handle injuries and emergencies including choking, bleeding, burns and heatstroke. This section includes advice on how to care for a human being who is ill or disabled and modifying your home to make it easier to care for an older family member who has a disabling chronic disease such as Alzheimer’s.
Part Four: What Are Your Symptoms? Organized like flow charts, the symptoms in this completely revised and updated section direct you through a series of questions with yes or no answers relating to specific symptoms to reach a possible diagnosis or recommendation. The charts help to know when it’s important to call your doctor, when to go to a hospital emergency department, or when you can take care of the problem yourself at home.
Part Five: Health Issues Throughout Life: This all-new section presents comprehensive chapters on children’s health, adolescent health, sexuality, infertility, pregnancy and childbirth, and dying and death.
Part Six: Diseases, Disorders, and Other Problems: In this revision of the most popular part of the book, hundreds of diseases and disorders are arranged by body system and organized by headings: Symptoms (the most common symptoms and signs of the disorder), Diagnosis (how the disorder is diagnosed), Treatment (which explores treatment options) and Prevention (when prevention is possible).
For more than 150 years, the American Medical Association (AMA) has been the leading group of medical experts in the United States and one of the most respected health-related organizations in the world. The American Medical Association continues to work to advance the art and science of medicine and to be an advocate for patients and the voice of physicians. Reviewed by nearly 50 practicing physicians from a cross section of medical specialties, the American Medical Association (AMA) FAMILY MEDICAL GUIDE 4th edition provides authoritative guidance on hundreds of diseases and disorders and all the latest tests, treatments, procedures, and drugs—from SARS and portable defibrillators to LASIK and morning-after pills—and provides new or greatly expanded coverage of genetic testing, sexual orientation, learning disabilities, ADD and ADHD, pregnancy, stem cell transplants, flu shots, and drug abuse.
More and more Americans are taking greater charge of their health issues than ever before. Here is the ultimate medical resource any family member can turn to whether in an emergency situation or in order to gain insight and a better understanding of medical terms and treatment solutions. (www.HealthNewsDigest.com, September 13, 2004)

Reader Reviews
It is no surprise that the latest edition of this excellent consumer reference is better than ever. For those who are newcomers to the power of this authoritative tome, its centerpiece is a series of symptom charts enabling users to conduct the equivalent of a differential self-diagnosis. Charts are available for the most common symptomologies--e.g. coughing, chest pain, abdominal pain, back pain. Through an interrogatory consisting of sequential questions which might be asked by a health professional presented with the symptoms in question, the charts guide the reader to action steps--ranging from reassurance and self-help options to advise to seek medical attention (urgently or in due course as the case may be). By saving unnecessary visits to the doctor's office or emergency room (thus helping to control medical costs) or spurring the overly complacent to imperative action, the AMA does a great service to the public and the profession by publishing this reference at an extremely affordable price. The bulk of the book consists of articles regarding various diseases and conditions encompassing symptomology, description diagnostic techniques (tests and such) likely to be employed, treatment options, and the range of expected prognoses--in a nutshell, what do I have, how will they find out, what will they do to treat me, and what's the outlook in terms of cure and survival. A wealth of reliable, understandable information is readily accessible to the lay person and accompanied by helpful illustrations. I have relied on this book for years to help me deal intelligently with health matters involving my friends, my family, and myself. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking to empower themselves to be a prudent steward of health and well being. The update is most welcome, as the dynamic pace of medicine has yielded therapeutic innovations (in particular new pharmaceuticals) that provide much happier endings to many of the disease entries.