Adventures in Human Being

"We assume we know our bodies intimately, but for many of us they remain uncharted territory. How many of us understand the way seizures affect the brain, how the heart is connected to wellbeing, or the why the foot carries the key to our humanity? In Adventures in Human Being, award-winning author Gavin Francis leads readers on a journey into the hidden pathways of the human body, offering a guide to its inner workings and a celebration of its marvels. Drawing on his experiences as a surgeon, ER specialist, and family physician, Francis blends stories from the clinic with episodes from medical history, philosophy, and literature to describe the body in sickness and in health, in living and in dying. At its heart, Adventures in Human Being is a meditation on what it means to be human. Poetic, eloquent, and profoundly perceptive, this book will transform the way you view your body."--

"We all have plenty of long-held ideas about our bodies, but for many of us our bodies remain uncharted territory. In Adventures in Human Being, physician and award-winning author Gavin Francis leads readers on a journey into the hidden pathways of the human body, from the brain's pea-sized pineal gland--the so-called "seat of the soul"--to the delicate machinery of the hand, and from the cranium to the calcaneum, the largest bone in the foot. Drawing on his work as a General Practitioner in Scotland, as well as his experiences traveling and practicing medicine in Africa, Asia, Antarctica, and the Arctic, Francis blends case studies, first-hand accounts, and episodes from medical history, philosophy, and literature to reveal not only what can go wrong with our bodies, but also how our ideas about our anatomy have evolved. Mirroring the structure of classic anatomy books, Adventures in Human Being proceeds from the brain down to the feet, stopping along the way to reflect on how seizures occur, what vertigo really means, and why kidney transplants work. At its heart, Adventures in Human Being is a reflection on what it means to be human: for behind each disease, degeneration, or miraculous recovery lies a story of suffering and survival, lucky and unlucky, fragile and resilient. Poetic, eloquent and profoundly perceptive, Adventures in Human Being will transform the way you view your body"--