Author: Thomas Hager
Sandeep Jauhar is another famous Doctor-Author of mine. I first read his book on the sorry plight of doctors in the US and was shocked to learn the details of how much money the US was spending on terminal care. This book is a history on arguably most important organ in the human body, our heart.
There is a healthy mix of history and interesting information about the heart, some of which I made a note of
- The heart naturally beats on its own and can continue to beat for weeks after an animal is dead
- The French Nobel laureate Alexis Carrel demonstrated that a properly nourished chick heart tissue cultured in a medium of blood plasma and water will pulsate for months and can remain alive for more than 20 years
- Strong emotions can have a lasting impact on the health of our heart. There’s apparently a technical term for this “takotsubo cardiomyopathy” or broken-heart syndrome. Severe emotional trauma or stress can cause the heart to balloon up and in extreme cases stop beating altogether resulting in cardiac arrest.
- Cardiac tamponade is when fluid fills in the pericardium (sac around the heart) and puts pressure on the heart preventing it from filling up. The solution is to pierce a needle into the pericardial sac and suck out the fluid. Reminded me of the scene in pulp fiction where John Travolta jabs a syringe into Uma Thurman’s chest, which unusurprisingly has no medical basis!
In summary, this book is well written and very informative.
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