Diseases have a history, and understanding that history helps us understand how best to treat and control disease today. Today's students are confronted with a panoply of often-frightening illnesses and afflictions - the Biographies of Disease series provides students with the information that they need to understand the origin of various maladies, how they impact contemporary society, and how doctors and researchers from around the world are fighting to devise treatments to alleviate or cure these diseases. This volume, "Stroke," covers a common affliction that comes in many different...

Diseases have a history, and understanding that history helps us understand how best to treat and control disease today. Today's students are confronted with a panoply of often-frightening illnesses and afflictions - the Biographies of Disease series provides students with the information that they need to understand the origin of various maladies, how they impact contemporary society, and how doctors and researchers from around the world are fighting to devise treatments to alleviate or cure these diseases. This volume, "Diabetes," covers a disease that has been a common affliction from...

This volume covers a common infectious disease that afflicts millions every year--the flu--but one that has the potential of being at the center of a new pandemic, similar to the one that killed millions during 1918.

"Influenza" examines all aspects of this disease, including:

The influenza virus and how it leads to infection in humans.

The definition of epidemics and pandemics, and a description of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918.

The clinical signs and symptoms of influenza, and how it impacts special populations, such as the elderly and HIV-infected patients

The...

Few issues cause as much strife in contemporary society as does the cause and treatment of autism. Stories about the autism epidemic abound on talk shows and make headlines in newspapers and magazines. Celebrities and politicians express their personal opinions on the cause (or causes) of the increase in autism spectrum disorders (or ASDs), opinions often not shared by the conventional scientific community. Parents, family members, schools and government-funded agencies struggle to do the right thing for individuals with ASDs, This volume in the "Biographies of Disease" series provides an...

Diseases have a history, and understanding that history helps us understand how best to treat and control disease today. Today's students are confronted with a panoply of often-frightening illnesses and afflictions - the Biography of Diseases series provides students with the information that they need to understand the origin of various maladies, how they impact contemporary society, and how doctors and researchers from around the world are fighting to devise treatments to alleviate or cure these diseases. This volume, "Depression," addresses a disease that confronts millions of young...

Diseases have a history, and understanding that history helps us understand how best to treat and control disease today. Today's students are confronted with a panoply of often-frightening illnesses and afflictions--the Biography of Diseases series provides students with the information that they need to understand the origin of various maladies, how they impact contemporary society, and how doctors and diseases researchers from around the world are fighting to devise treatments to alleviate or cure these. This volume, "Rabies," examines that disease that caused fear and panic for...

Most people take eating for granted - but for some, eating can be downright dangerous. Thirty thousand Americans are hospitalized each year due to an allergic food reaction and peanut allergies in American children doubled from 1997 to 2002. Between two and ten percent of children are affected by food allergies worldwide and adverse food reactions increased hospital admissions by five hundred percent in the United Kingdom during the past two decades. Asthma cases, a reliable indicator of food allergy susceptibility, increased one hundred percent during the last thirty years. While most...

What makes obesity a disease instead of just a matter of overeating? What are the genetic and environmental factors behind it? What new breakthroughs are being developing to combat it? This concise, information-rich volume looks at these and other important questions, clearing away misconceptions about this devastating condition.

"Obesity" explains what scientists now know about the causes and consequences of being overweight, including the latest on the links between obesity and heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, asthma, and sleep difficulties. The book pays specific attention to...

As described in this timely volume, three decades of objective scientific evidence has finally transitioned a suspicious set of symptoms into a real diagnosis for and potential treatments of fibromyalgia. It is a revelatory work, focusing on important research discoveries, the struggles of patients, and hopes for a future cure.

Each chapter of Fibromyalgia covers different aspects of the disease and its treatment, including global, economic, and risk statistics; a timeline of key events in the study of fibromyalgia; common symptoms and diagnostic indicators;...

Once a certain death sentence and often a cause for shame, cancer is now a treatable disease. Cancer provides a broad introduction to this complex family of diseases, tracing the fascinating history of scientific discoveries that led to today's sophisticated treatments.

This extraordinary new volume, coauthored by three leaders in cancer research and surgery at Harvard Medical School, uses scientifically accurate yet accessible language to give readers a firm grounding in such essential concepts as angiogenesis and the genetics of cancer. In addition to information...