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In the 1930s, the Ovitz family - seven of whom were dwarfs - enjoyed massive success as the Lilliput Troupe of singers and actors. But as the Nazi regime tightened its grip, they were plunged into the horrors of Auschwitz. Based on interviews with Perla Ovitz, the last living member of the troupe, and many other concentration camp survivors, this powerful book tells the inspirational story of this remarkable family and their indomitable will to survive.

In 1817 James Parkinson defined the disease that bears his name so precisely that it is still diagnosed today by recognizing the symptoms he identified. In this study, the story of Parkinson’s significant contributions to the Age of Enlightenment is told through his three passions – medicine, radical politics and fossils. The book restores a neglected pioneer to his rightful place in history and creates a vivid portrait of life as an ‘apothecary surgeon’ in Georgian London.

Recently refreshed for a new generation of budding medics and biologists, this visual guide maps every muscle, bone and organ in the human body, organized by sections that deal with regions such as the head and neck and the upper torso. Detailed anatomical drawings and images from high-resolution scans are annotated with accessible scientific text to show how each body part works and interacts with those around it. Age 9+

Recent research demonstrates that a diet low in carbohydrates and high in good fats is highly effective for weight loss. Explaining how to make the best use of both food groups, – and how to switch between them for optimum results, the health journalist Jerome Burne and nutrition expert Patrick Holford present an easy-to-follow eating plan based on the latest science.

Double Olympic gold gymnast Max Whitlock details his health and fitness regime, including illustrated step-by-step exercise instructions. The workouts are aimed at all levels, from simple stretches on the sofa and 15-minute routines through to more advanced moves, all focused on maintaining core strength. He also includes nutritional advice and recipes demonstrating practical, easy ways to eat well at home.

Aiming to support the reader in overcoming nicotine addiction for good, this week-long course explains how to identify and beat smoking triggers and offers advice on weight management, stress reduction and avoiding future relapses.

The clinical psychologist Sue Morris empathetically guides the bereaved through the grieving process, addressing both the emotional and practical challenges and suggesting ways of mapping out a new path following a loved one’s death.

Based on cognitive behavioural therapy and written by a clinical psychologist, this self-help guide explains techniques that can be used to overcome the patterns of negative thinking that exacerbate anorexia. It offers methods to improve body image and suggests coping strategies to aid long-term recovery, through practical exercises and clinically proven tools.

This exploration of the human body explains how layer upon layer of adaptation has resulted in a host of oddities, redundancies and shortcomings that illuminate our evolutionary history. Examples include our backwards retinas (photoreceptors face away from the light) and the fact that we must find nutrients and vitamins in our diets that other animals make for themselves.

An expert guide for anyone who suffers from diabetes, type 1 or 2, this manual uses case studies and the latest research to analyse the condition and advise on how to manage its impact on your health, lifestyle and mood.

Prompted by the rapid rise in diabetes, TV nutritionist and Sunday Times bestselling author Dale Pinnock explains in simple terms the link between diet and health, and specifically insulin production. He outlines the nutritional content of common foods and their impact on the body, before presenting 50 recipes using everyday ingredients that can reduce symptoms and alleviate the risk of developing Type-2 diabetes.

In this exploration of the nature of schizophrenia, best-selling novelist and former mental health nurse Nathan Filer tells the stories of patients and family members living with the condition and interviews mental health professionals and experts.

A bestseller when it was originally published in 1985, this collection of patients’ case histories by physician Oliver Sacks (1933–2015) explores their neurological disorders and the strategies they adopted to cope with them. The 24 cases include a man with a special form of visual agnosia, patients with Tourette’s syndrome, and the 'lost mariner' – a former sailor with no recent memory, isolated in a single moment of being. Slightly off-mint.

Biomechanist Katy Bowman proposes that a movement-filled life is the best way to achieve optimum mental and physical health. She explores the mechanics of inactivity, inviting the reader to consider how technology encourages a sedentary lifestyle and impacts our wellbeing and the natural world.

Can the power of thought outwit ageing? What’s it like to be struck by lightning? Could 3D printers make body parts? These are among the intriguing questions discussed in stories that explore the stranger aspects of the human body. These 17 articles were originally published on mosaicscience.com, an online magazine created by Wellcome.

Opened in 2019, the Wellcome Galleries at the Science Museum, London, bring together the personal collection of Henry Wellcome and the Museum’s own medical holdings to provide the world’s most extensive display of the history of medicine. Arranged in ten chapters that reflect the interests of the curators, the book covers topics including protheses, military medicine, iron lungs and psychiatry, and illustrates artefacts as diverse as moles’ feet amulets (to ward off cramp) and a 21st century athlete’s running blade.

The renowned gerontologist Daniela Mari draws on her extensive experience of elderly care to reveal the art and science behind a healthy, happy old age, explains the concept of 'active ageing', and looks at how our sleeping habits and diet contribute to longevity.

Why doesn’t the immune system fight cancer the way it does other diseases? Told through the experiences of patients, doctors and immunotherapy researchers, this is the story of the game-changing scientific discoveries that unleash our natural ability to recognize and defeat cancer.

Chemist and surgeon at Guy’s Hospital in the mid 19th century, Alfred Swaine Taylor wrote a number of influential books that helped establish the science of forensic medicine. This biography explores his life and wide interests, his research into methods of tracing poisons, analysing fibres and identifying blood on clothing and weapons, and his work as a medical investigator and expert witness in criminal cases.

Between the 12th and 15th centuries, leprosy and its sufferers had a distinctive impact on the society and religious culture of Rouen, at that time the leading city of Normandy. This detailed study of Rouen’s medieval leper houses sheds light on many aspects of economic, political and devotional life as well as issues such as charity and responses to disease and need.

This volume from the Medicine in the Medieval Mediterranean series comprises eleven essays ranging across time from pharmacology and toxicology at the court of Cleopatra VII to the possible use of ancient therapeutic information as a source for new pharmacological studies.

Slightly off-mint.

Slightly off-mint.

These 175 recipes all use nutritious ingredients that can help slow memory loss and overcome brain fog. The book explains how our diet affects our brain function, and includes a series of puzzles designed to stimulate cognitive function.

Aimed at the layman, this is a detailed pictorial guide to the body, with 1,400 colour drawings of the major systems (circulatory, digestive, endocrine, lymphatic, muscular, nervous, reproductive, respiratory, skeletal, and urinary) from the cellular level upwards, and sections covering first aid, common symptoms and both medical and alternative therapies. An extensive alphabetical guide allows for cross-referencing, while specific concerns from psychological disorders and diagnostic techniques to infection control are given more detailed coverage. Off-mint.

First published in 1967, this book follows the GP John Sassall as he goes about his rounds in rural Gloucestershire. What emerges, in the words of John Berger and the photographs of Jean Mohr, is a portrait of a community, and of a remarkable man who combined breadth of vision with a deep appreciation of the minutiae of everyday life.

Based on knowledge accumulated over almost two decades as a sleep researcher, Professor Alice Gregory offers evidence-based insights into how our sleep patterns change as we age and shares expert tips on achieving a rejuvenating night's rest.

The latest techniques for imaging the brain have enabled scientists to see some of the biological mechanisms that create our thoughts, memories, feelings and perceptions. This book describes these first insights into the secrets of the brain, with illustrations based on scans which have helped to explain a range of phenomena, from dyslexia and obsessive behaviour to schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, and reveal how our culture has been shaped by the ebb and flow of our neurotransmitters.

In this study, Medhurst approaches the Russian revolutionary period, 1903 to 1921, from the perspective of modern, non-Marxist, participatory socialism. He seeks to explain why the Bolshevik Revolution degenerated so quickly into Stalinism, and re-examines the roles of both the Bolshevik leaders and the Russian non-Leninist socialists. Slightly off-mint.

Described by a contemporary as ‘a truly enlightened physician, dedicated to and worthy of the lofty mission which he pursues in the world’, Achille-Cleophas Flaubert (1784–1846) survived Robespierre and the Terror and thrived under Napoleon. Writing the biography of the man, Geoffrey Wall also tells the story of a generation who had ‘grown up as the citizens of a republic that mutated into an empire’.

Mariano Sigman’s bestselling examination of human thought begins by asking how babies communicate, and goes on to explore how we relate to our unconscious mind, what happens when we dream and why the brain is constantly changing. This concise, approachable guide to neuroscience questions how we perceive, reason, feel and communicate, with the aim of better comprehending the inner workings of the human brain and understanding ourselves and others more deeply. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on upper trimmed edge.

When Alison Murdoch’s husband caught viral encephalitis and fell into a coma, life as she knew it stopped. Her darkly comic memoir describes the experience of watching a loved one fight to survive and offers astute insights into how to cope with despair, heartache and the unknown.

A neurologist at Harvard’s Brigham Hospital, Dr Ropper describes the neurologist’s response to cases – such as transient global amnesia or motor neuron disease – in which lives and minds hang in the balance.

The acclaimed puzzle and brain training expert, author of The Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book and the BrainedUp.com website, Dr Gareth Moore has devised activities and puzzles to help ageing brains stay sharp and reduce the memory-related effects of getting older. After a simple introduction to how the brain works and how it changes, there are chapters on keeping your brain fit, and advice and exercises for memory, learning, staying positive and concentration.

Without an immune system, we could not survive the battle between our microscopic enemies and ourselves. Drawing on sources from ancient Egyptian medical texts to cutting-edge medical science, the academic Catherine Carver explores the many facets of our natural defence system – including how it knows what to attack and what to defend, how diseases try to evade it, and how researchers are designing new drugs to harness its power.

One in eight women is likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. The American surgeon Dr Kristi Funk provides information on diagnosis and treatment for those living with and surviving the disease; the latest research on lifestyle choices including food, supplements, hormones and exercise; and a long-term risk reduction plan that can be tailored to the individual.

Selling the ‘cure-alls’ he made by bottling leftover cooking grease in the kitchen of his parents' Cornish pub set Thomas Holloway on the road to becoming one of the richest self-made men in Victorian England. Here the author (a distant cousin) explores the rise and fall of his patent medicine empire and reveals how he used his millions to build the enormous Gothic college that still bears his name.

The actor Stephen McGann tells the story of his family over five generations through the diseases that afflicted them. They range from the famine and smallpox that claimed the lives of infant relatives in the 19th century to the necrosis that almost killed his wife, Heidi Thomas, inspiring her to write the BBC adaptation of Call the Midwife. Combining genealogy and social history, this volume explores the effects of illness on society through the generations.

Daniel Tammet, author of the bestselling memoir Born on a Blue Day, here draws on his own experiences as an autistic person and a polyglot to explore what the intricacies and oddities of human language can teach us about ourselves. His 15 essays cover such topics as the art of translation, sign languages, the music and patterns of words, the grammar of telephone conversations and the rules that prescribe acceptable Icelandic names. Slightly off-mint.

Lauren Slater approaches this investigation into the discovery and development of mind-altering drugs and treatments from the perspectives of both a psychology PhD and her own experience as a patient ‘sustained on a serotonin booster for decades’. The book examines the scientists, the theory and the impact of drugs from chlorpromazine, which revolutionized the treatment of schizophrenia, through Prozac and MDMA (Ecstasy) to deep brain stimulation.

William Buchan’s Domestic Medicine was an 18th-century bestseller, a self-help manual intended for those who could not afford professional medical assistance. It covered everything from hiccups to consumption but, as Robert Winston writes in his foreword, ‘most remedies in Buchan’s time remained distinctly dodgy’. Melanie King introduces a selection from his A–Z of often hair-raising advice.

By the late 1940s, lung cancer had reached an unprecedented level in Britain; in 1950, the number of deaths (13,000) exceeded those from tuberculosis. That same year, a research paper by Richard Doll (1912–2005) concluded that smoking cigarettes was ‘a cause and an important cause’ of lung cancer. This biography describes Doll’s life and politics, his work in wartime, his immense contribution to epidemiology, and his long crusade against premature death and the tobacco industry.

With its profusion of Latin and Greek words, anatomical terminology can be daunting. The authors of this primer therefore take a novel approach, arranging 125 terms under headings – such as ‘architecture’, ‘landscape’ and ‘fabrics’ – to show connections between an organ or structure and the object from which it takes its name. Each term is also illustrated with a pair of drawings highlighting the visual resemblance. Foreword by Prof. Alice Roberts.

Why does growing old lead to so many forms of illness? Recent advances in the study of human cells have revealed that the key to answering this question lies in the telomeres – the tips of chromosomes – which shorten every time a cell reproduces. As he explains these insights, Fossel highlights the ability of the enzyme telomerase to re-lengthen the telomeres and discusses its potential as a means of treating age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

The Sobotta Atlas covers human anatomy in detail with almost 2,000 figures, including X-ray, MRI and CT images, endoscopic images, and colour photographs. Designed specifically for medical school courses, the Atlas is organized by body regions in colour-coded chapters with introductory overviews, and it includes a quick reference booklet with tables of muscles, joints and nerves. Each book includes a PIN number that gives access to Sobotta online.

‘In the brain’s microscopically small circuitry is etched the history and future of our species.’ The neuroscientist David Eagleman looks deeply into what the latest brain science findings mean for our lives. Without presupposing any specialized knowledge, the book challenges readers’ assumptions as it tackles questions such as how we decide, how we perceive reality, who we are, who’s in control and where we are heading as a species.

Little was known about morphine and its addictive qualities when Louis Lewin published his first study of the drug in 1874, and his continued work in pharmacology and toxicology contributed greatly to the field, culminating in this classic manual, published in 1924. The book sets out detailed information on the properties and effects of all major drugs known at the time, including opium, cannabis, peyote, cocaine, coffee, cocoa and alcohol.

An account of allergy as a ‘modern malady’, from its barely recognized status in the early 20th century to its explosion in the 1990s into a set of diseases of great of health care in the modern world.

At the beginning of the Second World War experts feared that rationing, a shortage of medical resources, the spread of disease via evacuation and air-raid shelters, and the psychological impact of bombardment would wreck the nation's health. This account tells how, through a combination of planning and improvization, medical staff, scientists, Boy Scouts and tea ladies ensured that Britain ended the war in better health than ever before, and paved the way for the NHS and the welfare state.

Tom Quinn documents the social, historical and medical reactions to this deadly illness, from the first recorded mentions of a flu-like virus in ancient writings to present fears of virus mutation and the ongoing search for a cure.

An overview of the use of opioids – an effective but controversial form of analgesic – in contemporary therapy for many painful conditions, exploring the provision of safe and responsible prescribing practices, and measures to control the risk of abuse.

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