Treating the Brain: What the Best Doctors Know

by Walter G. Bradley

Even in this information age, it is a daunting task to find clear, concise, and credible sources for essential medical facts. And for those dealing with the symptoms of often serious neurological disorders, finding trustworthy and straightforward information is gravely important. Treating the Brain is precisely what has been missing for non-specialists. Focusing on the most common neurological conditions, it provides accurate, reliable information to patients, caregivers, and health practitioners from the neurologist whose professional text informs neurologists worldwide.. Walter G. Bradley, one of the nation’s foremost neurologists and the editor of the leading neurology textbook Neurology in Clinical Practice , navigates the complexities of the brain in highly accessible language. Treating the Brain is the definitive resource for patients, offering a coherent and up-to-date understanding of what physicians know about the brain. In the United States alone, one-quarter of all new consultations between patients and their family physician is a result of a neurological problem. Using case histories as examples, Treating the Brain explains the neurological examinations and tests and clinical features, causes, and treatments available for Alzheimer’s disease, migraines, stroke, epilepsy, Parkinson’s and other frequently diagnosed neurological disorders. For anyone who has ever had a neurological symptom, from a headache to tingling hands, and for anyone with a personal interest in how the brain works in health and disease, Treating the Brain will prove to be a valuable, easy-to-read source of a wide-range of information.

347 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Sarah Milne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 My interests run more toward cognitive neuroscience rather than medical neuroscience, but it's hard not to be fascinated by what is going on with common neurological disorders. Bradley breaks the book down into chapters based on many common medical conditions, including stroke, epilepsy, cancer, Parkinson's Disease, MS, ALS, and so on. A valuable work to anyone seeking to gain a better understanding these all-too common afflictions.

[Allyson Dyar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Treating the Brain: What the Best Doctors Know by Dr. Walter G. Bradley was a totally delightful book to read as I made my way on the bus from work to home.

I initially purchased this book as a hard cover from the Science Fiction Book Club then purchased the Kindle edition so I could both listen to music and read on Trinity, my iPhone 4.

First, let me talk about the book itself, then reluctantly discuss the Kindle edition.

This is a fantastic book. Dr. Bradley skillfully takes complex neurological subjects and distills them for both the knowledgeable and novice audience. He starts the book with basic brain anatomy and then segues into chapters on various neurological subjects such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Strokes and Migraines.

As a dedicated reader of medical history and narratives, I really enjoyed the case studies and Dr. Bradley’s personal insight into whatever disease he was discussing.

As with any book aimed at a more general public, the medical professional is not likely to gain much insight in the subject except when Dr. Bradley takes a more personal touch with the narrative. For me, this was a great mixture of the simple to complex and made neurology a very approachable subject.

This is a book that belongs on the shelf next to your collection of books authored by neurologists Dr. Oliver Saks and Dr. Harold Klawans.

Highly Recommended!

Now on to a subject which I find entirely distasteful and unfortunately, greatly diminished my enjoyment of this book: the Kindle formatting.

Whomever formatting the book for the Kindle should be shot stone cold dead.

There aren’t enough adjectives to describe how totally and utterly upset and disgusted I am with the publishers and the Kindle edition.

This book reminds me of the early days of desk top publishing wherein hardcopy publications were scanned by an OCR into a Word for Windows Document then converted to a pdf without any editing what so ever.

Too many times, Kindle edition would have run on words which boarded on the insane especially when dealing with technical terms forcing me to stop and decipher what was being conveyed.

Never mind the lack of a table of contents!

Dana Press (www.dana.org) published the hard cover and I have no idea who massacred the Kindle edition, but honestly Dana Press, please respect your author and redo the Kindle edition. Treating the Brain: What the Best Doctors Know is such a fantastic book that it deserves better than the shoddy treatment you gave the Kindle edition.

My score: 5 stars for the hardcover; 1 for the Kindle edition – but it’s such a great read, that even the slapdash Kindle edition won’t deter me from reading it again.

My next book (no hardcover just a Kindle edition) is The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee.

[Erik Dryden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I checked this out from the library because it was the only book I could find there with information about peripheral neuropathy, a disease from which my dad suffers. I didn't have particularly high expectations, but it ended up being a surprisingly well-written and informative read. After an introductory chapter laying out the basic form and function of the nervous system, Bradley, a neurologist by trade, dedicates each subsequent chapter to a specific disease affecting the nervous system (Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, MS, Stroke, etc.). The writing is simple enough for the layman to understand while holding one's attention by actually providing meaningful information. Unlike so many writers of medical books aimed at the general public, Bradley doesn't assume that his reader is an idiot. Not that there's anything wrong with being an idiot. Many people have led quite productive lives while being idiots. Boise State fans, for example.

[Megan M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book that helps beginners like me understand the structure and function of the brain. I have members of my family that suffer from some brain diseases, such as Parkinson's, stroke, and essential tremors, and it was interesting reading about their causes, symptoms, and possible treatments. I recommend this book to anyone curious about how the brain functions or to anyone who is concerned about a particular loss of function in the brain.