![]() ![]() Those who dared to question the working of the heart risked their reputations and even their lives for disrespecting or challenging its sanctity. Jauhar also charts medics' understanding of the heart as a pump, noting that, historically, cultural fallacies limited progress. These provide a helpful refresher on the heart’s anatomy and physiology. ![]() His chapters (named to describe the heart’s function in lay terms, including 'dynamo', 'pipes' and 'wires') cleverly dissect the organ into its basic parts. ![]() Jauhar gives the backstory to eponyms (like Osler and Billroth), and shares his own clinical experiences to complement the theory. Heart will inevitably trigger memories of years spent in medical school laboratories and lecture theatres, as well as the patients you have met over the years. And Jauhar considers the two against a backdrop of personal stories 'of the heart'. Understandably, therefore, the book is a mix of science (including fascinating facts - heparin was discovered in the brains of salamanders, and "from birth until death, beats nearly three billion times") and philosophy ("if the heart bestows life and death, it also instigates metaphor"). The cardiologist chronicles medicine’s quest to understand how the heart works (and how to fix it when it is 'broken'), while considering how we "can most wisely live with - as well as by – our hearts". HEART is the story of what Sandeep Jauhar describes as the engine of life. ![]() Review by Dr Greg Dollman, medical adviser, MDDUS Oneworld Publications, paperback, £9.99, 2019 ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |