Health Books - Family Doctor

Varicose veins are very common. They are the lumpy, raised, blue veins that we see on people’s legs. Varicose veins often cause no trouble at all. The most usual problem is concern about their appearance. For some people, their appearance may be so unacceptable that they want to be rid of their veins for cosmetic reasons alone. In general, discomfort, or a combination of discomfort and cosmetic embarrassment, is the most common reasons for people requesting treatment. Smaller varicose veins can de dealt with by injections (sclerotherapy). Larger ones usually need an operation to remove them for a good long term result. This book explains how varicose veins can cause trouble, and describes the pros and cons of the different kinds of treatment.

Urinary incontinence is defined as the involuntary loss of urine causing a social or hygienic problem and it is estimated to affect 2.5–3.0 million women in Britain. It is a condition that is embarrassing and distressing and may severely affect quality of life for the sufferer.

Urinary incontinence may be quite mild or it can be severe, leading to people having to wear pads to stay dry. The causes of urinary incontinence are varied; some are easily corrected, others may require surgery or medication. This book is written to help you learn about urinary incontinence and how it may be treated as there is a great deal of help available.

People take more than 30 million holiday and business trips abroad each year from the UK, and it’s inevitable that some travelers will become ill or have accidents while they’re away. Most of the illness and accidents which affect travelers are preventable, at least to some extent. The aim of this book is to explain the potential hazards and offer you some practical advice on how you can keep these risks to a minimum, and make the difference between a successful trip and a medical nightmare.

One person in twenty will experience a thyroid problem at some stage. For the sufferer the result can be a bewildering variety of physical and psychological symptoms, from breathlessness to flaky skin, and from weariness to irritability. Fortunately, once thyroid disease has been diagnosed, the chances of successful treatment are high.

Modern approaches to management, involving drugs or occasionally surgery, allow most people with thyroid problems to overcome them completely. In clear non-technical language, Dr Toft explains the working of the thyroid, what can go wrong, and how the problems are treated.

Women’s genital symptoms are often dismissed as having two possible causes: thrush or cystitis. Although these problems are common, they are by no means the only ones to affect this region, and misunderstanding or incorrect treatment can lead to prolonged misery. Even when the diagnosis is correct and the proper treatment is given, it may not be the end of the problem; your symptoms may recur and it is often these recurrences that cause the most trouble. This book is intended to help you if you have genital or urinary tract problems so that you can better understand what is wrong and the best ways to deal with it.

The mouth is one of the most sensitive areas of the body and can give us a great deal of pleasure, but it can also be the source of much discomfort when things go wrong. Eating can be one of our greatest enjoyments. The mouth also has an important social function and a clean bright smile is a great asset.

To avoid teeth and mouth problems, it is helpful to understand the structure and function of the mouth and know how to keep it healthy. This book aims to give all the information you need to achieve this. It also explains what can go wrong and explains the treatments you may need to solve specific problems.

A stroke occurs when part of the brain is damaged as a result of a lack of blood supply or the rupture of a blood vessel. In the United Kingdom, over 110,000 people have a stroke for the first time each year. The risk of a stroke increases with age and is higher in men than in women.

Doctors now recognise that much can be done to prevent strokes, treat the stroke itself and improve the outcome through an organised rehabilitation programme. Many people confuse a stroke with a heart attack. There are similarities, in that heart attacks are caused by blood vessels becoming blocked in the heart and strokes result from blood supply problems in the brain.

A certain amount of stress is necessary to keep us motivated. However, too much stress can have an adverse effect on our health and well-being, affecting our everyday performance and personal relationships. Repeated, continuing, severe stress has a weakening and demoralising effect which may make it more difficult to tackle the underlying problems that are causing the stress.

Professor Wilkinson’s invaluable book explains exactly what stress is and the problems it creates, as well as giving advice on self-help measures and where to go for help.

Although the proliferation of magazines, newspaper articles and TV programmes devoted to fitness might suggest that more and more people are taking up exercise, the reality is very different.

Many people get hardly any exercise at all. Health experts are constantly urging all of us to take more exercise but is there really good evidence that doing so will benefit our health? The answer is a very definite yes. A mass of research studies has shown that men and women whose lives include some regular physical exertion feel better and are less prone to a develop a whole range of conditions. Everyone should take regular exercise.

Warnings by doctors that sunlight and sunbathing can be dangerous are comparatively new. A suntan used to be seen by many people as a sign of good health. The truth is that too much exposure to the sun is not good for our skins. In fact a suntan is actually visible evidence of permanent damage which may ultimately lead to the development of skin ageing and cancer.

The aim of this book is to explain how the action of sunlight on your skin leads to these changes and to give practical advice on prevention. Following this advice doesn’t mean denying yourself the delights of sunlight, but rather will help you to enjoy it more safely.

Sex may be deeply fulfilling and widely uplifting but it also has the power to wreak great psychological, emotional and physical damage. The drive to seek sexual fulfillment is as natural as our hunger for food, but sex is often burdened with guilt, anxiety and ignorance.

This book provides a background to help understand the physical and emotional experiences that sex invokes and gives an insight into why sex problems commonly occur.

Psoriasis is surprisingly common, particularly in Europe and the USA. Psoriasis affects men and women equally and it can start at any age. Psoriasis causes pink or red raised patches of skin, which are called ‘plaques’ by doctors. Plaques have a scaly surface and may range in size from tiny to very large. You cannot catch psoriasis from other people, or infect anyone else if you have the condition yourself.

There is no cure for psoriasis, although it does occasionally disappear for good. However, the treatments have greatly improved and, although coping with psoriasis is still a great challenge for many people, the help available is better now than it has ever been.

The prostate gland lies just beneath the bladder. Many men, as they get older, experience prostate symptoms such as a poor urine stream or having to urinate frequently. This book explains diseases of the prostate, how they cause problems and what can be done about them.

Medical understanding of prostate disorders has advanced enormously, and the options for treatment – from surgery to drugs – have improved dramatically, greatly improving the quality of life of sufferers.

Having a baby is probably the most important thing that you will ever do, so it’s worth planning ahead to get you and your baby off to the best possible start. Dr Smith explains the considerations and factors that you should be aware of in the progression of a pregnancy, from planning to becoming pregnant right through to the first days that you spend with your newborn baby. This is a comprehensive and understandable book that should be useful to those planning a pregnancy, and to expectant mothers and their partners.

If you, or a close relative or friend, suffer from Parkinson’s disease, this book is written for you. It is aimed to help you understand the symptoms and disabilities caused by the disease and to suggest what you can do for yourself, as well as how doctors can treat the condition.

Great progress has been made in our understanding of this disorder, bringing new hope to sufferers. Medical science has developed a range of treatments which can control the symptoms and allow as normal a life as possible.

Osteoporosis means porosity or thinning of the bones. Frailty, fractures, curved back and loss of height are often regarded as a normal part of ageing. In fact these are symptoms of a disease, osteoporosis, which can be prevented if steps are taken earlier in life.

If allowed to progress without treatment, osteoporosis is one of the leading causes of suffering, disability and death in elderly people. Fortunately, there is an increasing awareness of osteoporosis and important breakthroughs have been made in its diagnosis and treatment.

Headaches are very common. However, most headaches only last a short time and often have a known cause. These types of headache are not usually of great concern to the sufferer as the underlying cause is apparent.

Sometimes headaches do not have such an obvious origin, which can lead to a great deal of concern and anxiety. Fortunately, in most cases, the headaches are not the result of anything sinister. This book should help you to understand the cause of your headache and assist you in controlling your

symptoms.

An invaluable guide for every woman seeking to take charge of her own body at a time of critical change. Many women approaching the ‘change of life’ fear the upsets and disturbances. Others look forward to new-found freedoms. Most women adjust to the menopause easily, but still need to know what is happening and how to cope. For many women hormone replacement therapy is the answer; for others it is not. Dr Anne MacGregor explains the hormonal changes which cause the menopause and clearly sets out the pros and cons of HRT.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders, but it is puzzling for those who have it and for the doctors who treat it. The term ‘irritable’ is used to describe the reaction of the muscles in the intestine, which respond to stress by abnormal contractions which may result in various combinations of the three main symptoms of IBS: pain, diarrhoea and constipation. There is no test that can show whether or not you have IBS. Nor is there any clear-cut cure for the disorder. However treatment can relieve the symptoms and, with support from your doctor, you can learn to live with it.

About a quarter of all couples will experience an unexpected delay in achieving the size of family they want, and most of these will consult their GP. This delay can also lead to intense emotional and psychological distress which can disrupt a couple’s relationship with each other and with friends, family and work colleagues.

The aim of this book is to help you to understand more about getting pregnant, why you may not have been successful so far, the investigations and tests that may be needed to establish the cause and the infertility treatments available to you.

Virtually everyone has had indigestion at some time, and for most people it’s simply a minor nuisance. More often than not, it happens when you’ve overindulged or eaten something that doesn’t agree with you and it only lasts for a short time. For some people the symptoms can be persistent and so severe that they interfere with everyday life.

The symptoms may be caused by some undiagnosed problem within the digestive system, which needs to be properly identified and treated by a doctor. This book will help you distinguish between minor symptoms, which you can safely treat yourself, and those that need further investigation.

Hysterectomy, which means the surgical removal of the uterus, is one of the most common operations performed in Western countries: by the age of 55, around one woman in five in Britain may expect to have lost her uterus.

Hysterectomy is different from other major operations because it often involves the removal of healthy organs. In general, hysterectomy is a very effective form of treatment and most women who have the operation are satisfied with the results. Problems and regrets are most likely to arise if the

operation has been done for the wrong reason or if the woman has uncertainties about it beforehand.

Over 50 per cent of the population have arthritis in one or more of their joints. By the time you are 75 years old, there is an 85 per cent chance that you will have developed arthritis somewhere, particularly in the larger joints such as the hip or knee. Treatment of arthritis can be either medical, with the provision of drugs and other non-invasive therapies, or surgical. The purpose of this book is to look at the various surgical solutions.

Despite the frequency of surgery, there are few places a patient may go to learn about the relative merits and disadvantages of surgery; we hope this book will help fill that gap.

Over 30,000 heart operations are performed every year in the UK. Heart surgery has only been around for just over 40 years and there has been enormous progress, resulting in a safer procedure and better outcome for the patient. You would be

surprised at the number of well-known people who have had a heart operation, as recovery is so complete.

There is an enormous amount of fear and mystery surrounding heart surgery. This book aims to dispel some or all of that fear and to explain every aspect of what is involved, from how the heart works and is affected by disease, through the operation itself, to what to expect afterwards.

Heart failure sounds frightening, but doctors actually use the term to describe all the situations where the heart cannot keep up with the demands made on it by the body. Heart failure is uncommon in people under the age of 50.

The principal cause of heart failure in the over-50s is a heart attack, which weakens the heart and impairs its pumping ability. If the heart fails to pump enough blood, this can cause, among other symptoms, breathlessness, swollen ankles and tiredness. Heart failure is treatable and with medical help the heart can generally manage well enough.

Most people get a bit more forgetful as they grow older. Although this can be embarrassing, it is usually nothing to worry about. Often some simple tips are all that’s needed to cope. But, occasionally, memory loss is a symptom of something more serious, such as Alzheimer’s disease or blood vessel disease, requiring expert help.

This book tells you how to get help and support, with detailed practical guidance for carers, relatives and friends.

The food you eat has a strong influence on your health and on your chances of developing heart disease and some types of cancer. This book is aimed at people who are basically healthy, to help them understand nutrition and choose a diet that will keep them in good health.

The book provides an overview of nutrition, explaining the process of digestion and your need for energy, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. These sections include the science of nutrition, good food sources and links with illnesses. The book will help you make informed choices about your diet, and explain how to make sense of the nutritional labelling on food packets.

As you get older, it’s natural for your eyesight to deteriorate slightly and for you to need reading spectacles or a stronger sight prescription. However, there are also some specific eye conditions that can affect older people. Cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration are the most common causes of poor vision in the United Kingdom. Each predominantly affects people of middle age and beyond. Many people with visual difficulties in later life are unnecessarily frightened that they are going to undergo progressive visual loss that will curtail their lifestyle or threaten their independence. This book is written to help you understand the causes, symptoms and treatments of these common eye conditions.

To most of us epilepsy means dramatic and uncontrolled convulsions. The reality is more complex and less alarming. To dispel the mystery and to provide real help, two leading epilepsy specialists have written this succinct guide.

Explaining that epilepsy is a symptom not a disease, they take you through the types and causes of epileptic seizure, giving special emphasis to the options for treatment and discussing the latest advances in drug therapy. Their conclusion is that epilepsy may be common, but usually gets better and there are excellent ways of controlling it.

‘Understanding Eczema’ is intended for people who want to know more about eczema, either because they have it themselves or because it affects a relative or friend. There are several different types of eczema. The most common of these is atopic eczema – the kind suffered mainly by babies and children. This book therefore covers atopic eczema in childhood in greater detail than other forms of eczema. Other types of eczema trouble us at different times of life for a number of reasons. The objective of the book is to help you understand some of the basic rules in eczema, how it arises, the principles of treatment and what kind of professional help is available.

What do you do if you suspect that someone close to you might have an eating disorder? How can you help them? Are you overly concerned with your weight and preoccupied with food? With more young women seeking help with an eating disorder the chances are that you will know someone who is afflicted.

In this sympathetic account, a doctor with a long experience of dealing with eating disorders discusses their causes and effects and describes the range of treatments offered – from self-help to specialist hospital care.

Diabetes affects over one in fifty of the population. Most people who have the condition lead an active and normal life. Advances in our understanding of the disease and improvements in treatment mean that the prospects are better than ever.

In this practical guide, a recognised expert explains step by step how people with diabetes can take more responsibility for their own well-being. With plenty of advice on diet, self-monitoring, treatment and maintaining sensible routines, it contains all the information they need to take full control of their diabetes.

We all have low moods from time to time. Usually the mood passes and we get back to our normal way of living. Low moods like these are not what doctors call depression. Instead they use the term to describe a more severe illness. No one symptom indicates whether you have just a low mood or what can be termed 'clinical depression'.

Many of the symptoms are similar; however, when you are depressed they are usually more intense and go on for longer. Depression is an illness that can be treated and you will feel better in time.

Becoming deaf can be a miserable experience, however severe the hearing loss. Unlike many other conditions, deafness is not immediately obvious to other people, and being unable to hear normally can cause many problems. Tinnitus (hearing sounds or noises when those sounds or noises are not present in the environment) is very common and often occurs in association with deafness. This book first takes you through the structure of the ear and how it works, and then describes the different sorts of hearing loss that can occur and how best they can be managed. The second part of the book explains what tinnitus is and suggests some ways to manage it.

Coronary heart disease can cause angina and heart attacks and is one of the commonest causes of death and disability in the world. The word ‘coronary’ refers to the coronary arteries, which supply the heart muscle with vital oxygen and nutrients; when they become narrowed with fat and cholesterol, a clot can form and block one of the arteries causing a heart attack.

This book is all about coronary heart disease and what we can do to prevent and treat it, with details of the drugs, bypass surgery and angioplasty in current use.

Complementary medicine is a term that covers many unrelated therapies. The purpose of this book is to provide a brief impartial overview of each of the more frequently used therapies that are included within the broad term ‘complementary medicine’. The reader can then decide whether and how best to investigate a treatment. Complementary treatments used to be called ‘alternative’, because they were thought to represent an alternative to conventional medicine. The term has changed to ‘complementary’ as doctors and complementary therapists began working together, using treatments that they both recognised to be of value.

Cholesterol is important as high levels in your blood can lead to narrowing and blockage of arteries and this increases your risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD) – one of the most common causes of death and disability in Europe, North America and Australia. CHD usually results from abnormalities that narrow the arteries supplying blood to your heart – the coronary arteries, hence the name ‘coronary heart disease’. Narrowing of these arteries may restrict or completely block the supply of blood to your heart muscle. This process can also occur in other parts of your circulation.

By understanding why children behave in a particular way we are in a better position to help them. Is your child’s behaviour ‘normal’? How can you deal with ‘bad’ behaviour? What is ADHD? This book aims to answer these questions, from infancy to pre-teenager. If a child is difficult to manage, if parenting doesn’t come easily or if you want to improve your relationship with a child as a parent, teacher or carer, this book offers some strategies that you can try. It will also help you decide whether you need expert help and, if so, where to find it.

There are an estimated six million carers in Britain – people who are looking after a sick or disabled relative or friend. Becoming a carer is usually something that starts as a result of circumstances. It might be that a relative has an accident and you are suddenly a carer, or you may take on the role gradually because the person has a progressive illness.

Whatever your circumstances, this book contains plenty of useful advice on the practical day-to-day business of looking after someone, as well as the support available to you as a carer – and details of organisations that can help you.

Although cancer became increasingly common during the twentieth century, at the same time the chances of a cure have steadily improved. Even those people whose cancer can’t yet be cured are living longer and have a better quality of life.

This book does not discuss particular cancers in detail, but aims to give a brief introduction to what is known about the nature of cancer, what can now be done for cancer patients, and what is likely to happen during treatment and care. Understanding Cancer has been written for anyone who has cancer, and their families and friends, in the hope that they will find it informative and helpful.

Any breast problem is likely to affect a woman psychologically and emotionally as well as physically. Many women are concerned about the shape and size of their breasts and breasts are also an important part of a woman’s sexuality.

From a woman’s perspective, anything being wrong with her breasts may have a damaging effect on her self-image, taking on an importance way beyond its significance in pure health terms. No two people will react in the same way to a breast problem, but knowing that these worries and anxieties are normal may help keep them in proportion.

Our knowledge of the bowels has increased enormously over recent years and doctors can now diagnose and cure or relieve nearly all disorders of the bowel. Disorders of the bowel are extremely common. At any given time one in five people is experiencing discomfort from their bowels, which can largely be prevented by eating more suitable food.

The food we eat and the way we live our lives have enormous effects on our bowels. This book tries to explain these matters, helping you to keep the workings of your bowel comfortable and advising what to do if things go wrong.

If you are over the age of 30 and can’t remember when you last had your blood pressure checked, you could be one of the 7 to 10 million people in this country who has high blood pressure. Doctors usually use the term ‘hypertension’ to describe this condition which may cause no symptoms at all for many years, but could eventually lead to serious complications, including heart disease and strokes.

The most important message on hypertension is that, unless you have your blood pressure checked, you may not know that you have hypertension until it has done you harm.

For the sufferer, asthma means acute and distressing attacks of breathlessness, and occasionally even life-threatening ones. It is a major and increasing health problem of the Western World, yet it is still sometimes misunderstood and badly treated.

This succinct guide should help. Written by Professor Jon Ayres, well known as an authority and broadcaster on the subject, it covers the causes, diagnosis and treatment of asthma in a way that sufferers and their families should find both reassuring and easy to follow.

Sooner or later almost everyone suffers an episode of back pain. Usually it is an unpleasant, awkward but not desperately serious problem. Occasionally there may be a more serious underlying cause. Back pain is a major and increasing health problem and is now the principal cause of absence from work. This booklet aims to show you how the back works, what goes wrong, why back problems arise, how they are treated and to give some indication of when further investigations and specialised help are necessary.

In the UK 36 million people in the UK are regular drinkers, 2 million are heavy drinkers and 1 million men and women in Britain have, or have had, a serious drinking problem.

This book explains how alcohol can have a variety of harmful as well as pleasant effects. It gives guidance on how to change a drinking pattern and succeed – whether by cutting down or abstaining from alcohol completely. Understanding the effects and the pitfalls of dependence will give you a better relationship with alcohol.

This book describes the four most common developmental disorders of childhood. The basic features of each disorder — diagnosis, incidence and treatment strategies — are covered separately. However, during the last decade evidence has been accumulating which indicates that these particular disorders often occur in combination. Some child development specialists now believe that having two or more of these disorders together may be more common than just having a pure form of one of them. Given that it is likely that they commonly occur together, all four disorders are covered in this single text. If you believe that a child known to you may show signs of one of these disorders, it may be helpful to read about all of them.

"Allergy is becoming more common. The number of people affected in the United Kingdom has risen dramatically since the early 1970s and it continues to increase. As many as one in three people in the UK now suffer from a medical problem caused by or associated with allergy. This increase has occurred because many of the factors thought to be responsible for causing allergies are related to the Western lifestyle, many of which seem to be especially potent in small children. This book explains what happens in the body when an allergy occurs. It also describes the different ways of diagnosing allergy and discusses the different treatments available

The bones, joints and muscles of the body make up the locomotor system, which enables us to move around. All sorts of problems may develop in this system, particularly as we get older. 'Arthritis' refers to problems with the joints. There are many forms of arthritis, although not all forms are serious nor do they get progressively worse. 'Rheumatism' is a vaguer term referring generally to aches and pains and problems with the soft tissues, such as muscles and tendons. The aim of this book is to help you understand how your locomotor system works, what can go wrong and what help is available. There is a lot you can do to help yourself

For the sufferer, asthma means acute and distressing attacks of breathlessness, that can occasionally be life-threatening. Asthma is a major and increasing health problem of the Western World, yet it is still sometimes misunderstood and badly treated. This succinct guide should help. Written by Professor Jon Ayres, well known as an authority and broadcaster on the subject, it covers the causes, diagnosis and treatment of asthma in a way that sufferers and their families should find both reassuring and easy to follow