Essential Medical Physiology

by Leonard R. Johnson

Book Overview

This textbook is designed to equip students with the background in physiology required for medical practice or for further study in the biomedical sciences. It provides treatments of the fundamental principles of general and organ system-specific physiology and the complexities of integrative physiology.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0397584016
• ISBN13: 9780397584017
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
• Length: 858 Pages

Customer Reviews

Fast and in good condition

the book was sent quickly and has no marks or bad pages in it. i would recommend this company.

The best one out there

As a first year medical student, I found this book in my school library and gradually started using it more until I bought it. It's true that as the semester progresses, you can start to feel very lost, and you need the support of a good reference book which will slowly walk you through the material. In my opinion, this book is the best one out there for that purpose. The main other book in this category is Berne and Levy, but I found that Johnson is much more readable and clear. I would say it's especially good in the cardiovascular section, and maybe not so good in the pulmonary section. Its greatest strength is the text. It's true that the pictures are a bit roughly put-together. However, responding to one of the other reviewers, it is obviously not a reasonable criticism to say that this book has "only blue and black figures". Berne and Levy has only green and black figures, and anyway, most of the figures are graphs so what do you need full color for? Furthermore, many educators say that adding too much color makes a textbook distracting and harder to study from. If a student is not ready for the level of difficulty in Johnson, they should turn to the "Netter Atlas of Human Physiology" and to "Clinical Physiology Made Ridiculously Simple", and then return to Johnson for the rigorous version. I often did this myself and I found that the pictures in the Netter atlas, combined with the text in Johnson, made a very good study guide.

Clear and Concise

Most students will find that learning physiology from a textbook can be quite a chore. Pure physiology books are usually so packed full of tiny text and incomprehensible diagrams that most people will be either beside themselves with panic or comatose after just a few pages. The authors of Essential Medical Physiology seem to have realised these facts and have produced a book which differs significantly from others in the field. The text is marginally larger than in comparable books and the chapters are thoroughly indexed and summarised. In short, the authors seem to be refreshingly in tune with the medical student's needs. Explanations are written in an almost informal manner and reach the level of complexity exactly appropriate for a medical degree. Processes students traditionally struggle with (such as the countercurrent exchange system in the nephron) are presented clearly and lucidly with extremely accessible accompanying diagrams that take you through the arguments step-by-step. Essential Medical Physiology also tackles any feelings of apathy towards the preclinical teaching by continually supplying the reader with `Clinical Notes' which flag-up the importance of understanding the physiological mechanisms to the practise of clinical medicine. The figures are extremely clear and lucid throughout, despite being presenting in a two-tone blue and black format. Diagrams of this quality, however, require a large amount of space and areas slightly off the beaten track of core medical physiology have been cut to a minimum. The reader will find explanations of intracellular processes, such as protein synthesis, extremely brief - but it is not a medical physiology book that one would immediately turn to for this information. In summary, when lost in the jungle that is preclinical physiology, it is depressingly often that the book you turn to for guidance is not only ignorant of the direction you should take but doesn't even seem to speak your language. Essential Medical Physiology will not only point you in the right direction, it will draw you a map and advise you on the best guest houses for when you get out. It is a refreshingly clear book in both text and diagrams.

A medium-high level textbook of physiology for medicine

I teach renal physiology for different courses, so I will focus my opinion mostly in this area. In general this is a very good book, especially in renal,digestive and endocrine physiology.It covers from system to cell physiology whenever is possible.Althogh the section on muscle physiology needs to be improved with more information in excitation contraction coupling and smooth muscle. Clearly written and provided with good illustrations. Clinical notes provide a good nexus between normal function and pathology.Renal physiology is particulary clear in concepts and facts.However, it uses names of the nephron nomenclature, especially fron micropuncture, which are not defined in the corresponding section. Also it seems to me that the chapter of acid and base physiology needs a more detailed discussion concerning the handling of NH4+.Renal physiology is hard to learn and the section in this book is a very good help.