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Written by a qualified nutritionist, this self-help guide aids the reader in locating the cause of IBS and implementing a five-point plan to eliminate problem substances, and suggests replacement foods that encourage good digestion.

Until very recently, sugar was widely seen as a harmless pleasure that made life a little sweeter. This revelatory history tells how a brutal slave trade enabled the product to be grown in bulk in the Americas, making what was once an expensive luxury into a cheap drug to boost the energy levels of underpaid workers in Europe. James Walvin reveals the environmental and human costs of a dangerous addiction that has created a global health crisis.

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.

The many different manifestations of mental illness are the subject of this panoramic work of social history. Its eminent author provocatively argues that we remain far from understanding the roots of madness and that modern psychiatry has much to learn from the responses of past societies. Scull explains how madness has been understood, through the lenses of medicine, pharmacology, religion and psychology, as a frightening challenge to the social fabric, and as a profound influence on the arts.

While the First World War raged in Europe, the devastating ‘Spanish flu’ suddenly overwhelmed the world; in three successive waves it would kill around 100 million people. This history of the pandemic traces its origins and progress, using information from official documents and the personal accounts of those, such as David Lloyd George and Vera Brittain, who lived through it. The book also follows today’s scientists as they investigate the virus and draw lessons for our response to future pandemics.

Despite the inevitability of death, people in Western society often have difficulty discussing and confronting the subject. Having worked with terminally ill patients throughout her career, Kathryn Mannix presents her experiences through more than 30 touching and humorous stories that demonstrate how varied the end can be. She aims to encourage readers to approach death with openness and understanding, and to make the most of their own lives while they can.

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.

Dr James Barry was, among other things, Inspector of General Hospitals, an army surgeon, and the first British Empire doctor to successfully perform a caesarean. Only at the end of his colourful life, in 1865, was the truth revealed: Dr Barry was in fact a woman – the UK’s first female doctor. Following ten years of detailed research, the authors have produced a fascinating biography – incorporating colour portraits – that dispels some of the myths surrounding this mysterious individual.

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.

The latest thinking on the operation of muscles is that they are part of a complex interplay of ligament, connective tissue and bone. This book uses hundreds of illustrations to explain the musculature, with an emphasis on the most important for sport, dance and bodywork therapy. Colour diagrams show how muscles relate to the skeleton and describe their range of movement and directional strength. There are also tips on stretching and strengthening specific muscle groups.

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.

Snoring occurs when structures in the throat – the soft palate, the uvula and the epiglottis – start to flap, trapping air and momentarily creating a high-pressure build-up that produces the sound. This book explains the causes of snoring and the health risks associated with it, and sets out a series of simple daily exercises that may help to restore muscle tone in the throat and eliminate the problem.

Over the centuries, disease has claimed more lives than natural disasters and warfare combined. Largely a social history, this book starts in prehistoric times, and moves from the Black Death of the 14th century to more modern conditions such as Ebola and MRSA. Incorporating individual case studies, the text also explores the human struggle to drive all disease to extinction.

Based on the author’s experience of caring for her mother, this guide emphasises the importance of nutrition, physical activity, a positive attitude and encouraging independence for as long as possible.

‘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.

Working as a doctor in London's East End and then on a hospital train and at the Front during the First World War formed Ronald White-Cooper's training for his medical career, which was then spent as a local GP in the South Devon town of Dartmouth. This memoir provides a host of stories and medical anecdotes from the pre-penicillin and pre-NHS world of the first half of the 20th century.

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.

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.

Early experimentation with LSD in the 1950s and its widespread recreational use in the 1960s resulted in its outlawing and attracted all the negative associations of an illegal drug subculture. Using a series of case studies of the medical application of LSD and MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy), this exploration of the history of these psychedelic drugs presents a compelling case for their use in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illness.

Cases of shell shock peaked between July and November 1916, with huge numbers of British soldiers exhibiting mysterious symptoms such as temporary blindness, paralysis, shaking and stuttering. This study explores the phenomenon by following units of the Pals battalions from their recruitment up to the traumatic horrors of the Somme, which left thousands unable to fight. Offering a stark reassessment of official statistics, it highlights the army’s brutal response to the epidemic – which was considered a form of contagious hysteria.

Given the date of authorship (1860), Mordecai Cooke's examination of drug use and abuse is notable for its open-mindedness and even-handedness when discussing the addictions of world cultures beyond the tobacco habit of Victorian England. Exploring the science and social history of narcotic plants and the attempts to curb their use, the seven substances discussed are opium, cannabis, betel nut, coca, tobacco, the datura plant and the fly agaric mushroom.

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.

Based on an electronic corpus of some two million medical texts from c.1500-1700, this volume of twelve essays provides a new perspective on the evolution of the special language of medicine. From the Studies in English Language series.

John J Ross MD approaches the topic of writers and disease from a medical perspective, 'diagnosing the medical groans and last gasps of ten great writers': Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, the Brontës, Hawthorne, Melville, Yeats, Jack London, James Joyce and Orwell.

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 eye-opening account tells how, through a combination of planning and improvisation, doctors, nurses, social workers, scientists, nutritionists, 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.

Brian Clegg uses the workings of the human body as a tool to explore the science of the universe, starting with the simple experiment of looking at your reflection in a mirror. He goes on to discuss the structure of hair and skin, the functions of blood, vision, the 'inner chemistry' of the digestive system, the senses, sexual attraction, and the workings of the brain.

Morrice McCrae presents a detailed portrait of John Pringle (1707–1782), the Physician General to the British Army in the 1740s who was responsible for enormous improvements in hospital management, discipline and standards of care.