Surviving American Medicine

We live in a time when the business of health care has superseded the care of health. Health-care reform isn’t just political rhetoric: it’s a reality. It’s happening every day—and for you it means new ways of getting your care. Virtually every American understands we are experiencing dramatic changes in the delivery of health care and the insurance programs that pay for it. In Surviving American Medicine, Dr. Cary Presant lays the foundation to help you take control of these issues and help you become your own advocate. Surviving American Medicine shows you how to make the best decisions by providing inside tips about getting the best doctors, good insurance, safe hospitals, and affordable medicines—from an author and physician who is a national expert on health care. With insights from his medical experience and reliable internet resources, Presant gives you the information to survive, reduce the risk of illness, and cure or control diseases. Relying on his forty years of experience as a physician, professor, administrator, and researcher, Presant empowers you to work with your team of doctors, nurses, hospitals, and even insurance companies to maintain your health and prolong your life. He helps you learn to make choices about your health are so you feel confident you’re getting the best treatment possible.

"Are you prepared to deal with medical issues in a disaster or epidemic if the ambulance is heading in the OTHER direction? What if YOU were the end of the line when it came to your family's health and well-being"--Page 4 of cover.

Did you know... Medical interventions have become the third leading cause of death in America. An estimated 10 percent of Americans are implanted with medical devices -- like pacemakers, artificial hips, cardiac stents, etc. The overwhelming majority of high-risk implanted devices have never undergone a single clinical trial. In The Danger Within Us, award-winning journalist Jeanne Lenzer brings these horrifying statistics to life through the story of one working class man who, after his "cure" nearly kills him, ends up in a battle for justice against the medical establishment. His crusade leads Lenzer on a journey through the dark underbelly of the medical device industry, a fascinating and disturbing world that hasn't been written about before. What Lenzer exposes will shock readers: rampant corruption, elaborate cover-ups, shameless profiteering, and astonishing lack of oversight, all of which leads to dangerous devices (from artificial hips to pacemakers) going to market and into our bodies. In the vein of America's Bitter Pill and A Civil Action, The Danger Within Us is a stirring call for reform and a must-read for anyone who cares about the future of American healthcare. "Before you get anything implanted in your body, read this book."-Shannon Brownlee, author of Overtreated

In Native cultures, health is often expressed as a balance between body, mind, and spirit or soul. At a philosophical level, physical wellness is related to cultural, political, and economic well-being. This is a philosophy that is frequently ignored, however, in theoretical perspectives and applied programs that attempt to address Native American health problems. This collection of essays examines the ways people from many indigenous communities think about and practice health care within historical and sociocultural contexts. Chapters explore solutions to the prevalence of medically identified diseases, such as cancer and diabetes, as well as Native-identified problems, such as forced evacuation, assimilation, and poverty. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

No one knows what the next disaster will be: earthquake, Coronavirus, flu epidemic, flood, terrorist attack. But everyone should know how to survive a medical emergency if a medical professional isn’t available. From Dr. Joe Alton and Amy Alton ARNP comes an updated edition of their bestseller The Survival Medicine Handbook. This unique medical book is meant to enable the average person to handle injuries and illness in situations in which modern medical facilities and professionals aren’t available due to a disaster. This book is written by America’s top medical preparedness experts: Joe Alton, MD, and Amy Alton, ARNP. Their mission: to put a medically prepared person in every family for when medical help is not on the way. Using decades of medical experience, they address, in plain language, dozens of medical issues associated with surviving disasters and epidemics. The Altons also discuss the medical supplies needed to become a medical asset to your family and community as well as alternative and natural strategies for when pharmaceuticals aren’t available. Topics include: Appendicitis and Conditions that Mimic It Urinary Tract Infections Mosquito-Borne Illnesses Allergic Reactions and Anaphylaxis Head Injuries Animal Bites Snake Bites Head injuries Kidney Stones Dislocations and Fractures Nosebleeds Pain Medications Natural Pain Relief And much much more! Most medical books will send you to the doctor or hospital when an emergency happens. The Altons assume that the worst might actually happen—that the average person could be left without medical help in a disaster. With their book, you can keep your family healthy in times of trouble.

"Butler questions the value of long life for its own sake; modern medicine, he says, has ironically created 'a huge group of people for whom survival is possible but satisfaction in living elusive.' He proposes sweeping policy reforms to redefine and restructure the institutions responsible for what he calls 'the tragedy of old age in America.'" -New York Times Book Review "Crammed with facts that explode old myths." -Boston Globe "Heavily documented, highly readable . . . jammed with recommendations for constructive change in every area." -Science "I commend it for clarity and lucidity, unpretentiousness and comprehensiveness . . . I think it is a classic." -Karl Menninger M.D.

Millions of low-income African Americans in the United States lack access to health care. How do they treat their health care problems? In Health Care Off the Books, Danielle T. Raudenbush provides an answer that challenges public perceptions and prior scholarly work. Informed by three and a half years of fieldwork in a public housing development, Raudenbush shows how residents who face obstacles to health care gain access to pharmaceutical drugs, medical equipment, physician reference manuals, and insurance cards by mobilizing social networks that include not only their neighbors but also local physicians. However, membership in these social networks is not universal, and some residents are forced to turn to a robust street market to obtain medicine. For others, health problems simply go untreated. Raudenbush reconceptualizes U.S. health care as a formal-informal hybrid system and explains why many residents who do have access to health services also turn to informal strategies to treat their health problems. While the practices described in the book may at times be beneficial to people’s health, they also have the potential to do serious harm. By understanding this hybrid system, we can evaluate its effects and gain new insight into the sources of social and racial disparities in health outcomes.

Our health care is staggeringly expensive, yet one in six Americans has no health insurance. We have some of the most skilled physicians in the world, yet one hundred thousand patients die each year from medical errors. In this gripping, eye-opening book, award-winning journalist Shannon Brownlee takes readers inside the hospital to dismantle some of our most venerated myths about American medicine. Brownlee dissects what she calls "the medical-industrial complex" and lays bare the backward economic incentives embedded in our system, revealing a stunning portrait of the care we now receive. Nevertheless, Overtreated ultimately conveys a message of hope by reframing the debate over health care reform. It offers a way to control costs and cover the uninsured, while simultaneously improving the quality of American medicine. Shannon Brownlee's humane, intelligent, and penetrating analysis empowers readers to avoid the perils of overtreatment, as well as pointing the way to better health care for everyone.