Time To Save Medicine

"A doctor should be a clown at heart, a scientist at brain and a mother at conscience." Abhijit Naskar - this is not just a name - it's an idea - an idea of self-realization - an idea of a healthy humanity - an idea of one humanity. And that idea rises through this book once again to extend the flow of practical philosophy of life to all practitioners of medicine. This is a humanitarian guidebook of the true philosophy, ethics and purpose of medical practice for all doctors and would-be doctors to understand themselves and their patients better. Naskar, the humanitarian neuroscientist lends a hand to the bold and life-saving individuals known as doctors in their practice of medicine, so that they could, in the truest sense of the term "save lives" and not just treat sick bodies.

For more than 50 years, low-cost antimalarial drugs silently saved millions of lives and cured billions of debilitating infections. Today, however, these drugs no longer work against the deadliest form of malaria that exists throughout the world. Malaria deaths in sub-Saharan Africaâ€"currently just over one million per yearâ€"are rising because of increased resistance to the old, inexpensive drugs. Although effective new drugs called "artemisinins" are available, they are unaffordable for the majority of the affected population, even at a cost of one dollar per course. Saving Lives, Buying Time: Economics of Malaria Drugs in an Age of Resistance examines the history of malaria treatments, provides an overview of the current drug crisis, and offers recommendations on maximizing access to and effectiveness of antimalarial drugs. The book finds that most people in endemic countries will not have access to currently effective combination treatments, which should include an artemisinin, without financing from the global community. Without funding for effective treatment, malaria mortality could double over the next 10 to 20 years and transmission will intensify.

HONEST MEDICINE introduces four lifesaving treatments that have been effectively treating--and in some cases curing--people for 25-90 years. However, for reasons of profitability (or lack thereof), these treatments have not been universally accepted. The treatments are: Low Dose Naltrexone for autoimmune diseases (e.g., multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, etc.)

What we call modern physics says something entirely new about the world and how it behaves. For many years, these theories have been accepted as the most accurate descriptions we have ever had about our world. Nevertheless, medicine has been reluctant to incorporate these ideas into itself, continuing to view the body as a clockwork mechanism, in which illness is caused by a breakdown of "parts." Drawing on his long experience in the practice of internal medicine and his knowledge of modern science, Dr. Dossey shows how medicine can and must be updated. Discussing the new theories of Bell, Godel, and others, he opens up startling questions for medicine: Could the brain be a hologram, in which every part contains the whole? Why have ordinary people been able to raise and lower blood pressure at will, control heart rate, body temperature, even one minute blood vessel, in a way no one can explain? What is the role of consciousness in health and illness? Perhaps the most startling of Dr. Dossey's discussions concerns nonlinear time. There is evidence that our obsession with time and our belief that time "flows" (a belief refuted by the new physics) may profoundly affect our health. "Time sickness" is becoming an accepted medical concept, a possible cause of the greatest killer of all—heart disease. Dr. Dossey presents remarkable clinical data showing that by changing their view of time, people have been able to positively affect the course of disease. Just as the clockwork picture of the universe was abandoned in the onslaught of new data, our mechanistic view of health and illness will give way to new models which, too, will be more consistent with the true face of the universe.

The moving memoir of one of the most senior-ranking combat physicians to have served on the battlefields of the second Iraq war.

"Wonderful... Physicans would do well to learn this most important lesson about caring for patients." —The New York Times Book Review Over the years that Victoria Sweet has been a physician, “healthcare” has replaced medicine, “providers” look at their laptops more than at their patients, and costs keep soaring, all in the ruthless pursuit of efficiency. Yet the remedy that economists and policy makers continue to miss is also miraculously simple. Good medicine takes more than amazing technology; it takes time—time to respond to bodies as well as data, time to arrive at the right diagnosis and the right treatment. Sweet knows this because she has learned and lived it over the course of her remarkable career. Here she relates unforgettable stories of the teachers, doctors, nurses, and patients through whom she discovered the practice of Slow Medicine, in which she has been both pioneer and inspiration. Medicine, she helps us to see, is a craft and an art as well as a science. It is relational, personal, even spiritual. To do it well requires a hard-won wisdom that no algorithm can replace—that brings together “fast” and “slow” in a truly effective, efficient, sustainable, and humane way of healing.