Textbook of Medical Physiology
Of all the textbooks that accompanied my undergraduate studies, I have to say that Guyton’s ‘Textbook of Medical Physiology’ was my favourite. I suppose that having a favourite textbook might be a rather bold admission to make, but I guess it isn’t that much of a surprising one considering the nature of this website. I’m afraid I do have rather fond memories of the young student evenings spent discovering the fascinating physiological mechanisms that hold our bodies together. I hope this is more of a reflection of this fantastic book and it’s incredibly approachable set up than of my personality, but I shall let you read a bit more before you make a judgement.
I suppose that Guyton’s is initially an intimidating sight for a new medical student; a weighty red tome with a table of contents that is itself 23 pages long. I’ll admit that it is certainly not an ‘at a glance’ guide to physiology, but I still found it a very easy introduction to the subject once the initial daunting construct of the book becomes more familiar. Each topic area and chapter is written in a logical, flowing and beautifully ordered structure, with language that is well pitched to avoid excessive simplicity or complexity. As a book it is not one that you will be likely to read from front to back, and you will more likely find yourself heading to the topic area of interest. Whilst the order of the chapters in the book do play some role in augmenting knowledge later on in the book (a discussion of cell structure and function in the first chapters for instance), each topic area remains relatively independent, allowing you to keep up with specific systems without jumping back and forth to look up concepts you don’t understand yet.
As with the structure and language, the descriptions are on the whole very good, explaining concepts in a structured and easy way. There are some occasions when it can become a little too wordy though, with the use of some of the physiology experiment examples not really helping to improve understanding as would seem to be their purpose. The same can’t be said of the plentiful and well thought out diagrams that are found throughout the book. These consist of drawings, graphs, tables and flow charts which are almost universally fantastic for clarifying your understanding of the key idea, which the text is able to then expand on further.
With all this accessibility there have to be a few drawbacks. The only slight problem with Guyton’s is that it’s easy to follow structure and simple explanations mean that it sometimes avoids delving too deep into some physiology concepts. This is not just a practical restriction (I daren’t imagine how thick a truly detailed physiology textbook would be) but I also think a deliberate decision to keep it accessible to most clinicians and students. If anything it has provided me with more information than I have needed to pass through medical school, and it is only with my increased interest in physiology that I have wished to look elsewhere for slightly more details.
Overall then this is one of the must have books for any medical student or clinician. There are books out there that may be better for revision purposes or detailed projects on specific physiology systems, but I feel that this provides a perfect balance of approachability and depth to allow you to apply physiology to daily clinical practice.
Overall 9/10
Content 9/10
Explanations 8/10
Diagrams 10/10
Ease of use 9/10
Summary: An approachable yet detailed review of human physiology. A must have for students and clinicians everywhere.
By Tom Heaton
Check out the twelfth edition of Guyton's on Amazon here
I suppose that Guyton’s is initially an intimidating sight for a new medical student; a weighty red tome with a table of contents that is itself 23 pages long. I’ll admit that it is certainly not an ‘at a glance’ guide to physiology, but I still found it a very easy introduction to the subject once the initial daunting construct of the book becomes more familiar. Each topic area and chapter is written in a logical, flowing and beautifully ordered structure, with language that is well pitched to avoid excessive simplicity or complexity. As a book it is not one that you will be likely to read from front to back, and you will more likely find yourself heading to the topic area of interest. Whilst the order of the chapters in the book do play some role in augmenting knowledge later on in the book (a discussion of cell structure and function in the first chapters for instance), each topic area remains relatively independent, allowing you to keep up with specific systems without jumping back and forth to look up concepts you don’t understand yet.
As with the structure and language, the descriptions are on the whole very good, explaining concepts in a structured and easy way. There are some occasions when it can become a little too wordy though, with the use of some of the physiology experiment examples not really helping to improve understanding as would seem to be their purpose. The same can’t be said of the plentiful and well thought out diagrams that are found throughout the book. These consist of drawings, graphs, tables and flow charts which are almost universally fantastic for clarifying your understanding of the key idea, which the text is able to then expand on further.
With all this accessibility there have to be a few drawbacks. The only slight problem with Guyton’s is that it’s easy to follow structure and simple explanations mean that it sometimes avoids delving too deep into some physiology concepts. This is not just a practical restriction (I daren’t imagine how thick a truly detailed physiology textbook would be) but I also think a deliberate decision to keep it accessible to most clinicians and students. If anything it has provided me with more information than I have needed to pass through medical school, and it is only with my increased interest in physiology that I have wished to look elsewhere for slightly more details.
Overall then this is one of the must have books for any medical student or clinician. There are books out there that may be better for revision purposes or detailed projects on specific physiology systems, but I feel that this provides a perfect balance of approachability and depth to allow you to apply physiology to daily clinical practice.
Overall 9/10
Content 9/10
Explanations 8/10
Diagrams 10/10
Ease of use 9/10
Summary: An approachable yet detailed review of human physiology. A must have for students and clinicians everywhere.
By Tom Heaton
Check out the twelfth edition of Guyton's on Amazon here