Sherwin B. Nuland

"An anatomy of human life, vividly illustrated. . . . Awe-inspiring [and] sublimely uplifting." --Time Having won the National Book Award for "How We Die, his best-selling inquiry into the causes and modes of death, Sherwin Nuland now turns his attention to the miraculous resiliency of human life. For this lucid, wonderful, and wonder-filled new book explores the body''s mysterious capacity to marshal disparate organs and processes in the interests of survival. Like its predecessor, "How We Live is filled with gripping medical case histories: a woman is pulled back from the brink of death from inexplicable internal bleeding; another patient triumphs over breast cancer; the "routine" removal of a polyp triggers a nearly lethal medical crisis. For Nuland, each of these cases serves to illustrate the extraordinary responsiveness and adaptability of the human organism. We learn how the aorta''s baroreceptors monitor blood pressure and respond to its minutest fluctuations. We follow the intricate chain of electrochemical command that makes us leap out of the path of a speeding car. We discover why the stomach--which is capable of breaking down everything from porridge to pizza--refrains from digesting itself. Informed by sympathy for human suffering and an erudition that includes poetry and the Talmud as well as the medical canon, "How We Live is science writing of the rarest kind--lucid, poetic, and genuinely uplifting. Originally published under the title "The Wisdom of the Body "

Sherwin B. Nuland, profesor y médico cirujano en los Estados Unidos, sorprendió al mundo hace unos años con un libro fascinante que enseguida se convirtió en un best-seller: Cómo morimos (Alianza Editorial, 1995). Era una documentada reflexion sobre la muerte: el ser humano enfrentado al ultimo capitulo de la vida. Uno de los grandes tabues de la sociedad contemporanea, ante el que no siempre sabemos situarnos, aparecia por primera vez desmenuzado y tratado en todos sus detalles y desde muy diversas perspectivas por un autor que, a sus conocimientos cientificos, une sobre todo un profundo compromiso con la condicion humana. Este nuevo libro de Nuland nace en cierto modo como consecuencia del anterior. En Como morimos el autor nos situaba en la antesala de la muerte. Se trataba, en definitiva, de aprender a morir. De lo que se trata ahora es precisamente de lo contrario, de enfrentarse a la vida, al secreto de esa maquina prodigiosa, compleja, deslumbrante y unica que es el ser humano: su espiritu y su naturaleza fisica. La sabiduria del cuerpo es un viaje por nosotros mismos. ¿Como funciona este mecanismo maravilloso en el que habitamos? ¿Cual es su equilibrio, su asombrosa armonia interior? ¿Como mantenerla, estimularla, vivirla adecuadamente? Nuestros cuerpos tienen la sencilla y al mismo tiempo milagrosa funcion de mantener la vida. El desorden de la quimica, el aparente caos de los tejidos, la fragil estabilidad de las celulas son capitulos o porciones de un universo grandioso que nos sostiene y se sostiene a si mismo. El verdadero secreto de la supervivencia de nuestra especie consiste precisamente en haber trascendido la mera supervivencia, en haber hecho uso de la biologia para andar el largo camino del mono al ser humano. Ese viaje es la historia central de La sabiduria del cuerpo.

El autor desmitifica el proceso de morir a través de una descripción, sin concesionis ni sensiblerías, de la realidad clínica, biológica y psicológica de la muerte. Conocer la verdad, familiarizarnos con los jinetes de la muerte -cancer, SIDA, enfermedades cardiacas, accidentes cerebro-vasculares, Alzheimer, vejez, agresiones violentas- nos ayudara a liberarnos del miedo a esa terra incognita que solo lleva al autoengaño y a la decepcion.

El comienzo de la vejez puede ser tan gradual que suele sorprendernos descubrir que hemos entrado en esa etapa. Los cambios en los sentidos, el aspecto, los reflejos, la fortaleza física y el apetito sexual son innegables- y, por lo general, mal recibidos-. Sin embargo, Sherwin B. Nuland demuestra que envejecer tambien tiene sorprendentes aspectos positivos. La edad concentra la mente y la energia del cuerpo, lo que conduce a muchos a nuevas fuentes de creatividad, percepcion e intensidad espiritual. Envejecer no es una enfermedad, sino un arte; y para aquellos que lo practiquen bien, puede proporcionar extraordinarias recompensas."He emprendido el viaje mientras lo describo", afirma Nuland, que ya ha superado los 70 años y cuenta con casi cuatro decadas en el ejercicio de la medicina. Partiendo de su porpia experiencia vital y laboral, asi como de las de sus amigos, Nuland retrata la asombrosa diversidad de formas de vivir la vejez. La fuerza interior, la profundidad de las relaciones eprsonales, la constatacion de que la carrera profesional no define la identidad, la aceptacion de que algunos deseos quedaran incumplidos...

The life and work of the great Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci (14521519) have proved endlessly fascinating for generations. In Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland completes his twenty-year quest to understand an unlettered man who was a painter, architect, engineer, philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. What was it that propelled Leonardos insatiable curiosity? Nuland finds clues in his subjects art, relationships, and scientific studiesas well as in a vast quantity of notes that became widely known in the twentieth century. Scholarly and passionate, Nulands Leonardo da Vinci takes us deep into the first truly modern, empirical mind, one that was centuries ahead of its time.

A surgeon guides readers on an unconventional tour of the human body, examining the intersection of folklore and scientific interpretation throughout the history of Western medicine. Balancing playful anecdotes with detailed anatomical clarifications, this book probes both the mythology and science of specific internal organs and examines the need for debunking such myths while understanding their origins. A New York Times Notable Book for 2000.

Tema tan rehuido como atrayente, la muerte es una experiencia compartida por todos los hombres. Cirujano y profesor en la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Yale, Sherwin B. Nuland desmitifica en Como morimos el proceso de morir a traves de una descripcion sin concesiones ni sensiblerias de la realidad clinica, biologica y psicologica de la muerte. Y es que solo conocer la verdad, familiarizarnos con los actuales "jinetes de la muerte" -cancer, SIDA, enfermedades cardiacas, accidentes cerebro-vasculares, Alzheimer, vejez y agresiones violentas- puede ayudar a liberarnos del miedo a ese ambito desconocido que lleva en ultimo termino al autoengaño y a la decepcion.

Life is short, and the Art so long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious; and judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and the externals, cooperate.attributed to Hippocrates, c. 400 B.C.E.The award-winning author of How We Die and The Art of Aging, venerated physician Sherwin B. Nuland has now written his most thoughtful and engaging book. The Uncertain Art is a superb collection of essays about the vital mix of expertise, intuition, sound judgment, and pure chance that plays a part in a doctors practice and life.Drawing from history, the recent past, and his own life, Nuland weaves a tapestry of compelling stories in which doctors have had to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. Topics include the primitive (and sometimes illegal) procedures doctors once practiced with good intentions, such as grave robbing and prescribing cocaine as an anesthetic (which resulted in a physician becoming Americas first cocaine addict); the curious cures for irregularity touted by people from the ancient Egyptians to the cereal titan John Harvey Kellogg and bodybuilder Charles Atlas; and healers grappling with todays complex moral and ethical quandaries, from cloning to gene therapy to the adoption of Eastern practices like acupuncture.Nuland also recounts his most dramatic experiences in a forty-year medical career: the time he was called out of the audience of a Broadway play to help a man having a heart attack (when no other doctor there would respond), and how he formed a profound friendship with an unforgettableand doomedheart patient. Behind these inspiring accounts always lie the mysteries of the human body and human nature, the manner in which the ill can will themselves back to health and the odd and essential interactions between a bodys own healing mechanisms and a doctors prescriptions.Riveting and wise, amusing and heartrending, The Uncertain Art is Sherwin Nulands best work, gems from a man who has spent his professional life acting in the face of ambiguity and sharing what he has learned.

Part of the Jewish Encounter seriesMoses Maimonides was a Renaissance man before there was a Renaissance: a great physician who served a sultan, a dazzling Torah scholar, a community leader, a daring philosopher whose greatest workThe Guide for the Perplexedattempted to reconcile scientific knowledge with faith in God. He was a Jew living in a Muslim world, a rationalist living in a time of superstition. Eight hundred years after his death, his notions about God, faith, the afterlife, and the Messiah still stir debate; his life as a physician still inspires; and the enigmas of his character still fascinate.Sherwin B. Nulandbest-selling author of How We Diefocuses his surgeons eye and writers pen on this greatest of rabbis, most intriguing of Jewish philosophers, and most honored of Jewish doctors. He gives us a portrait of Maimonides that makes his life, his times, and his thought accessible to the general reader as they have never been before.

The life and work of the great Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci (14521519) have proved endlessly fascinating for generations. In Leonardo da Vinci, Sherwin Nuland completes his twenty-year quest to understand an unlettered man who was a painter, architect, engineer, philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. What was it that propelled Leonardos insatiable curiosity? Nuland finds clues in his subjects art, relationships, and scientific studiesas well as in a vast quantity of notes that became widely known in the twentieth century. Scholarly and passionate, Nulands Leonardo da Vinci takes us deep into the first truly modern, empirical mind, one that was centuries ahead of its time.

From the author of How We Die, the extraordinary story of the development of modern medicine, told through the lives of the physician-scientists who paved the way.How does medical science advance? Popular historians would have us believe that a few heroic individuals, possessing superhuman talents, lead an unselfish quest to better the human condition. But as renowned Yale surgeon and medical historian Sherwin B. Nuland shows in this brilliant collection of linked life portraits, the theory bears little resemblance to the truth. Through the centuries, the men and women who have shaped the world of medicine have been not only very human, but also very much the products of their own times and places. Presenting compelling studies of great medical innovators and pioneers, Doctors gives us a fascinating history of modern medicine. Ranging from the legendary Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, to Andreas Vesalius, whose Renaissance masterwork on anatomy offered invaluable new insight into the human body, to Helen Taussig, founder of pediatric cardiology and co-inventor of the original "blue baby" operation, here is a volume filled with the spirit of ideas and the thrill of discovery.

A writer renowned for his insight into the mysteries of the body now gives us a lambent and profoundly moving book about the mysteries of family. At its center lies Sherwin Nulands Rembrandtesque portrait of his father, Meyer Nudelman, a Jewish garment worker who came to America in the early years of the last century but remained an eternal outsider. Awkward in speech and movement, broken by the premature deaths of a wife and child, Meyer ruled his youngest son with a regime of rage, dependency, and helpless love that outlasted his death. In evoking their relationship, Nuland also summons up the warmth and claustrophobia of a vanished immigrant New York, a world that impelled its children toward success yet made them feel like traitors for leaving it behind. Full of feeling and unwavering observation, Lost in America deserves a place alongside such classics as Patrimony and Call It Sleep.

In his landmark book How We Die, Sherwin B. Nuland profoundly altered our perception of the end of life. Now in The Art of Aging, Dr. Nuland steps back to explore the impact of aging on our minds and bodies, strivings and relationships. Melding a scientists passion for truth with a humanists understanding of the heart and soul, Nuland has created a wise, frank, and inspiring book about the ultimate stage of lifes journey.The onset of aging can be so gradual that we are often surprised to find that one day it is fully upon us. The changes to the senses, appearance, reflexes, physical endurance, and sexual appetites are undeniableand rarely welcomeand yet, as Nuland shows, getting older has its surprising blessings. Age concentrates not only the mind, but the bodys energies, leading many to new sources of creativity, perception, and spiritual intensity. Growing old, Nuland teaches us, is not a disease but an artand for those who practice it well, it can bring extraordinary rewards.Im taking the journey even while I describe it, writes Nuland, now in his mid-seventies and a veteran of nearly four decades of medical practice. Drawing on his own life and work, as well as the lives of friends both famous and not, Nuland portrays the astonishing variability of the aging experience. Faith and inner strength, the deepening of personal relationships, the realization that career does not define identity, the acceptance that some goals will remain unaccomplishedthese are among the secrets of those who age well.Will scientists one day fulfill the dream of eternal youth? Nuland examines the latest research into extending life and the scientists who are pursuing it. But ultimately, what compels him most is what happens to the mind and spirit as life reaches its culminating decades. Reflecting the wisdom of a long lifetime, The Art of Aging is a work of luminous insight, unflinching candor, and profound compassion.

What happens to us as we die? Discover the answers in this exclusive 25th anniversary edition of Sherwin B Nulands seminal book With a foreword by Paul Kalanithi, bestselling author of When Breath Becomes Air.There are many books intended to help people deal with the trauma of bereavement, but few which explore the reality of death itself. Sherwin B. Nuland - with over thirty years experience as a surgeon - explains in detail the processes which take place in the body and strips away many illusions about death. The result is a unique and compelling book, addressing the one final fact that all of us must confront.I dont know of any writer or scientist who has shown us the face of death as clearly, honestly and compassionately as Sherwin Nuland does here James Gleick, author of Chaos

Cirujano, erudito y autor de libros de éxito, Sherwin B. Nuland es uno de nuestros mejores cronistas de la historia de la medicina. Obsesionado durante veinticinco años con la enigmática historia de Ignac Semmelweis, Nuland nos la cuenta con el rigor que le proporcionan sus propios estudios y su experiencia clinica.Ignac Semmelweis es recordado por la idea, ahora asumida, de que los medicos han de lavarse las manos antes de examinar a sus pacientes. Sin embargo, en la Viena de mediados del siglo XIX, esta era una idea subversiva. Enfrentado a una explosion de muertes provocadas por la fiebre puerperal, Semmelweis descubrio que los propios medicos eran los responsables de la transmision de la enfermedad. Mientras que sus sencillas reformas obtuvieron resultados inmediatos, tambien supusieron una amenaza para el establishment medico. Su caracter apasionado pero autodestructivo le impidio vencer las resistencias encontradas, quedando para los grandes investigadores que le siguieron Pasteur, Lister y Koch la consagracion final de la teoria de los germenes como causa de la enfermedad.El enigma del doctor Ignac Semmelweis es una narracion fascinante y reveladora de uno de los momentos clave de la historia de la medicina.Traduccion de Mar Vidal.