An inquisitive, expansive and fascinating exploration of humans as creatures of our own makingOther species adapt to their environments; we alone create ours. Over generations, we have remade the world to suit ourselves - using improved knowledge and technology to confront the traditional scourges - and for the most part we enjoy prosperity beyond the dreams of our ancestors. What's more, in changing our world, we have also reshaped the hum...

Life in the Age of Insulin offers a straightforward and jargon-free narrative account of how insulin was discovered, what it does, why people still struggle to obtain it, and what the future might hold. It tells of the creative power that emerges when many people work towards a common goal, and of collective strength founded upon the limitations of individuals.It envisages a future of competitive insulin pricing and revolutionary therapies, kindling hope for health equity....

Welcome to the world of alternative medicine.Prince Charles is a staunch defender and millions of people swear by it; most UK doctors consider it to be little more than superstition and a waste of money. But how do youknow which treatments really heal and which are potentially harmful?Now at last you can find out, thanks to the formidable partnership of Professor Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh. Edzard Ernst is the world's first professor of complemen...

The surprising, behind-the-scenes story of how our medicines are discovered, told by a veteran drug hunter.The search to find medicines is as old as disease, which is to say as old as the human race. Through serendipity- by chewing, brewing, and snorting-some Neolithic souls discovered opium, alcohol, snakeroot, juniper, frankincense, and other helpful substances. Ötzi the Iceman, the five-thousand-year-old hunter frozen in the Italian Alps, was found to have whipw...

'Alternative' medicine is now used by one in three of us. In the UK we spend an estimated £4.5 billion a year on it and its practitioners are now insinuating themselves into the mainstream. There are methods based on ancient or far-eastern medicine, as well as ones invented in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Many are promoted as natural treatments. What they have in common is that there is no hard evidence that any of them work.Treatments like homeopathy, acupuncture and ch...

Doctors and patients alike trust the medical profession and its therapeutic powers; yet this trust has often been misplaced. Whether prescribing opium or thalidomide, aspirin or antidepressants, doctors have persistently failed to test their favourite ideas - often with catastrophic results. From revolutionary America to Nazi Germany and modern big-pharmaceuticals, this is the unexpected story of just how bad medicine has been, and of its remarkably recent effort to improve.It is t...

Statins are widely prescribed to lower blood cholesterol levels and claim to offer unparalleled protection against heart disease. Believed to be completely safe and capable of preventing a whole series of other conditions, they are the most profitable drug in the history of medicine. In this groundbreaking book, GP Malcolm Kendrick exposes the truth behind the hype. He will change the way we think about cholesterol forever. Rubbishing the diet-heart hypothesis, in which clinical trials 'pr...

If exercise is healthy (so good for you!), why do many people dislike or avoid it? These engaging stories and explanations will revolutionize the way you think about exercising—not to mention sitting, sleeping, sprinting, weight lifting, playing, fighting, walking, jogging, and even dancing.“Strikes a perfect balance of scholarship, wit, and enthusiasm.” —Bill Bryson, New York Times best-selling author of The Body• If we a...

Cancer touches more lives than you may think. According to the World Health Organization, one out of three women alive today, and one out of two men, will face a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.To Ty Bollinger, this isn’t just a statistic. It’s personal. After losing seven members of his family to cancer over the course of a decade, Ty set out on a global quest to learn as much as he possibly could about cancer treatments and the medical industry that surrounds t...

Discover the latest research on the benefits of vitamin C, a proven antibiotic, nontoxic anticancer agent, and treatment for heart disease.

‘Will change your life’ Chris Evans‘Completely fascinating’ Heston Blumenthal‘Important and devastating’ The TimesFrom a world-leading microbiome scientist and surgeon comes Dark Matter, a pioneering guide to hacking your microbiome for a healthier life.Our microbiome – the complex ecosystem of bacteria, viruses and other microbes inside us – is vital for our health and wellb...

"Ridley leaps from chromosome to chromosome in a handy summation of our ever increasing understanding of the roles that genes play in disease, behavior, sexual differences, and even intelligence. . . . . He addresses not only the ethical quandaries faced by contemporary scientists but the reductionist danger in equating inheritability with inevitability." — The New YorkerThe genome's been mapped. But what does it mean? Matt Ridley’...