An edition of The limits of medicine (1994)

The limits of medicine

how science shapes our hope for the cure

University of Chicago Press ed.
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Last edited by MARC Bot
November 23, 2020 | History
An edition of The limits of medicine (1994)

The limits of medicine

how science shapes our hope for the cure

University of Chicago Press ed.
  • 2 Want to read

From the time of the ancients until almost the start of this century, physicians saw disease as an imbalance of the body's "humors." For two thousand years, bloodletting, sweating, herbs, and a warm bedside manner were therefore the only sensible treatments they had to offer to restore that balance. All that changed 150 years ago when science came to medicine.

It took the likes of Pasteur and others to realize that infectious diseases - diphtheria, TB, smallpox - were caused not by some vague humors, but by specific organisms. The real miracle in medicine, the author argues, was not the discovery of wonder drugs such as penicillin and insulin, but the revolution in the way we conceived of disease, which enabled researchers to look for specific cures.

At the beginning of this century, the average life expectancy was thirty years. Most people were swept away by infectious diseases before they reached old age. Today we can expect to live almost eighty years. Our chief scourges are the chronic diseases of an aging population: cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's. Unlike infectious illness, however, these diseases don't have single, identifiable causes.

But, The Limits of Medicine argues, we are approaching them with the same mind-set and expectations we have for infectious diseases.

Dr. Golub, a distinguished researcher and former professor of immunology and microbiology, argues provocatively that we cannot cure today's health threats with the prevailing medical mentality. We need instead another scientific revolution in how we conceive of disease. Our new goal of medicine must be to extend health, not life span. High-tech solutions - whether for AIDS, cancer, or whatever the next horrifying scourge will be - are not inevitable.

The Limits of Medicine is an historical tour of how science revolutionized medicine. It shows the human side of science and its practitioners - the eccentrics and geniuses whose spectacular successes, humiliating failures, and necessary dead ends advanced the art of medicine. It demonstrates that the limits of medicine are conceptual, not technical.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
258

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Limits of Medicine
Limits of Medicine
April 7, 1998, Random House Value Publishing
Hardcover in English
Cover of: The limits of medicine
The limits of medicine: how science shapes our hope for the cure
1997, University of Chicago Press
in English - University of Chicago Press ed.
Cover of: The limits of medicine
The limits of medicine: how science shapes our hope for the cure
1994, Times Books
in English - 1st ed.

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-244) and index.
Originally published: Time Books, 1994.

Published in
Chicago

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
610
Library of Congress
R133 .G656 1997, R133.G656 1997

The Physical Object

Pagination
xiv, 258 p. :
Number of pages
258

ID Numbers

Open Library
OL1005867M
Internet Archive
limitsofmedicine00golu_0
ISBN 10
0226302075
LCCN
96045668
Library Thing
237508
Goodreads
246292

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November 23, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
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June 24, 2017 Edited by ImportBot import new book
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