A History of the Medicines We Take

A History of the Medicines We Take

Author: Anthony C Cartwright

Publisher: Pen and Sword History

Published: 2020-04-30

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 1526724065

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A History of the Medicines We Take gives a lively account of the development of medicines from traces of herbs found with the remains of Neanderthal man, to prescriptions written on clay tablets from Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC, to pure drugs extracted from plants in the nineteenth century to the latest biotechnology antibody products. The first ten chapters of the book in PART ONE give an account of the development of the active drugs from herbs used in early medicine, many of which are still in use, to the synthetic chemical drugs and modern biotechnology products. The remaining eight chapters in PART TWO tell the story of the developments in the preparations that patients take and their inventors, such as Christopher Wren, who gave the first intravenous injection in 1656, and William Brockedon who invented the tablet in 1843. The book traces the changes in patterns of prescribing from simple dosage forms, such as liquid mixtures, pills, ointments, lotions, poultices, powders for treating wounds, inhalations, eye drops, enemas, pessaries and suppositories mentioned in the Egyptian Ebers papyrus of 1550 BCE to the complex tablets, injections and inhalers in current use. Today nearly three-quarters of medicines dispensed to patients are tablets and capsules. A typical pharmacy now dispenses about as many prescriptions in a working day as a mid-nineteenth- century chemist did in a whole year.


Taking the Medicine

Taking the Medicine

Author: Druin Burch

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2009-01-15

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1407021222

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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 the history of well-meaning doctors misled by intuition, of the startling human cost of their mistakes and of the exceptional individuals who have helped make things better. Alarming and optimistic, Taking the Medicine is essential reading for anyone interested in how and why to trust the pills they swallow.


A Brief History of Pharmacy

A Brief History of Pharmacy

Author: Bob Zebroski

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-08-20

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1317413318

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Pharmacy has become an integral part of our lives. Nearly half of all 300 million Americans take at least one prescription drug daily, accounting for $250 billion per year in sales in the US alone. And this number doesn't even include the over-the-counter medications or health aids that are taken. How did this practice become such an essential part of our lives and our health? A Brief History of Pharmacy: Humanity's Search for Wellness aims to answer that question. As this short overview of the practice shows, the search for well-being through the ingestion or application of natural products and artificially derived compounds is as old as humanity itself. From the Mesopotamians to the corner drug store, Bob Zebroski describes how treatments were sought, highlights some of the main victories of each time period, and shows how we came to be people who rely on drugs to feel better, to live longer, and look younger. This accessible survey of pharmaceutical history is essential reading for all students of pharmacy.


Making Medicines

Making Medicines

Author: Stuart Anderson

Publisher: Pharmaceutical Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 9780853695974

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Making Medicines is a concise, chronological discussion of the history of therapeutics and pharmacy from the Egyptians through to the present day. It focuses on the discovery and uses of medicines to treat illness through the ages, and the evolving role of the pharmacist. Each chapter is contributed by an expert in the period or field, and illustrates how wider social, political and economic developments have influenced drug development and shaped pharmacy practice.The book has two colour-plate sections illustrating how pharmacy has developed over the centuries. Numerous photographs are also included in the text.Written by an expert in the field, this book will appeal to pharmacists and pharmacy students, as well as to other healthcare practitioners and medical historians.


Ten Drugs

Ten Drugs

Author: Thomas Hager

Publisher: Abrams

Published: 2019-03-05

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 1683355318

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“The stories are skillfully told and entirely entertaining . . . An expert, mostly feel-good book about modern medicine” from the award-winning author (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Behind every landmark drug is a story. It could be an oddball researcher’s genius insight, a catalyzing moment in geopolitical history, a new breakthrough technology, or an unexpected but welcome side effect discovered during clinical trials. Piece together these stories, as Thomas Hager does in this remarkable, century-spanning history, and you can trace the evolution of our culture and the practice of medicine. Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book. “[An] absorbing new book.” —The New York Times Book Review “[A] well-written and engaging chronicle.” —The Wall Street Journal “Lucidly informative and compulsively readable.” —Publishers Weekly “Entertaining [and] insightful.” —Booklist “Well-written, well-researched and fascinating to read Ten Drugs provides an insightful look at how drugs have shaped modern medical practices. Towards the end of the book Hager writes that he ‘came away surprised by some of the things he had learned.’ I had the very same reaction.” —Penny Le Couteur, coauthor of Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History


Medicines That Kill

Medicines That Kill

Author: James L. Marcum

Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Published: 2013-01-17

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1414382804

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The recent deaths of celebrities like Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, Heath Ledger, and Whitney Houston have shown a spotlight on the overuse and abuse of prescription drugs. Most people believe that prescription drugs are safer than illegal substances. But, when combined with other over-the-counter sedatives, prescription drugs can be every bit as powerful, addictive, and dangerous. In 2006, overdoses on a class of prescription pain relievers called opioid analgesics killed more people than those killed by overdoses on cocaine and heroin combined. Right now, among 35 to 54 year olds, poisoning by prescription drugs is the most common cause of accidental death—even more so than auto-related deaths. In Medicines That Kill, Dr. Marcum shines a light on the addictive power of prescription medication and how you can protect yourself and your family by practicing healthy habits.


Herbal Medicine

Herbal Medicine

Author: Iris F. F. Benzie

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2011-03-28

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 1439807167

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The global popularity of herbal supplements and the promise they hold in treating various disease states has caused an unprecedented interest in understanding the molecular basis of the biological activity of traditional remedies. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects focuses on presenting current scientific evidence of biomolecular ef


Narrative Medicine

Narrative Medicine

Author: Lewis Mehl-Madrona

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2007-06-11

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1591439507

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Seeks to restore the pivotal role of the patient’s own story in the healing process • Shows how conventional medicine tends to ignore the account of the patient • Presents case histories where disease is addressed and healed through the narrative process • Proposes a reinvention of medicine to include the indigenous healing methods that for thousands of years have drawn their effectiveness from telling and listening Modern medicine, with its high-tech and managed-care approach, has eliminated much of what constitutes the art of healing: those elements of doctoring that go beyond the medications prescribed. The typically brief office visit leaves little time for doctors to listen to their patients, though it is in these narratives that disease is both revealed and perpetuated--and can be released and treated. Lewis Mehl-Madrona’s Narrative Medicine examines the foundations of the indigenous use of story as a healing modality. Citing numerous case histories that demonstrate the profound power of narrative in healing, the author shows how when we learn to dialogue with disease, we come to understand the power of the “story” we tell about our illness and our possibilities for better health. He shows how this approach also includes examining our relationships to our extended community to find any underlying disharmony that may need healing. Mehl-Madrona points the way to a new model of medicine--a health care system that draws its effectiveness from listening to the healing wisdom of the past and also to the present-day voices of its patients.


Owning the Sun

Owning the Sun

Author: Alexander Zaitchik

Publisher: Catapult

Published: 2023-03-28

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 164009590X

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For readers of Bad Blood and Empire of Pain, an authoritative look at monopoly medicine from the dawn of patents through the race for COVID-19 vaccines and how the privatization of public science has prioritized profits over people Owning the Sun tells the story of one of the most contentious fights in human history: the legal right to produce lifesaving medicines. Medical science began as a discipline geared toward the betterment of all human life, but the merging of research with intellectual property and the rise of the pharmaceutical industry warped and eventually undermined its ethical foundations. Since World War II, federally funded research has facilitated most major medical breakthroughs, yet these drugs are often wholly controlled by price-gouging corporations with growing international ambitions. Why does the U.S. government fund the development of medical science in the name of the public only to relinquish exclusive rights to drug companies, and how does such a system impoverish us, weaken our responses to crises, and, as in the cases of AIDS and COVID-19, put the world at risk? Outlining how generations of public health and science advocates have attempted to hold the line against Big Pharma and their allies in government, Alexander Zaitchik’s first-of-its-kind history documents the rise of privatized medicine in the United States and its subsequent globalization. From the controversial arrival of patent-wielding German drug firms in the late nineteenth century to present-day coordination between industry and philanthropic organizations—including the influential Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—that stymie international efforts to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, Owning the Sun tells one of the most important and least understood histories of our time.


The History of Medicine: A Very Short Introduction

The History of Medicine: A Very Short Introduction

Author: William F. Bynum

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2008-07-31

Total Pages: 185

ISBN-13: 019921543X

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Against the backdrop of unprecedented concern for the future of health care, this i Very Short Introduction/i surveys the history of medicine from classical times to the present. Focussing on the key turning points in the history of Western medicine - such as the advent of hospitals and the rise of experimental medicine - but also offering reflections on alternative traditions such as Chinese medicine, Bill Bynum offers insights into medicine's past, while at the same time engaging with contemporary issues, discoveries, and controversies.