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Breakthrough!: How the 10 Greatest Discoveries in Medicine Saved Millions and Changed Our View of the World, Portable Documents
Why are you alive right now? Chances are, you owe your life to one of the remarkable medical discoveries in this book. Maybe it was vaccines. Or antibiotics. Or X-rays. Revolutionary medical breakthroughs like these haven't just changed the way we treat disease, they've transformed how we understand ourselves and the world we live in. In Breakthrough! How the 10 Greatest Discoveries in Medicine Saved Millions and Changed Our View of the World, Jon Queijo tells the hidden stories behind history's most amazing medical discoveries. This isn't dry These are life-and-death mysteries uncovered, tales of passionate, often-mocked individuals who stood their ground and were proven right. From germs to genetics, the ancient Hippocrates to the cutting edge, these are stories that have changed the world-and, quite likely, saved your life.
282 pages, ebook
First published February 8, 2010
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935 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
August 23, 2010
First 9 chapters? Absolutely fascinating. Last chapter? Skip it. :)
April 15, 2020
I'll review this book in two sections:
Chapter 1-9: 5 Stars.
A fascinating review of 9 major accomplishments in "evidence-based" medicine that have each measurably saved millions of lives. Most major breakthroughs were achieved and discovered through the craziest of coincidences, making them great for story-telling. This section of the book is well-written and easy to read.
Chapter 10: 0 Stars. Has no place in a scientific book. This chapter is a review of "alternative" medicine, most of which is by definition NOT evidence-based. The examples cited, with few exceptions, are just a bunch of anecdotes relayed by quack-doctors that have contributed to the destruction of countless ignorant people distrusting so called "Western" medicine.
Additionally, each example cited in the first 9 chapters has had a massive and directly measurable effect on medicine and quality of life. Millions died from smallpox before vaccines. Millions died from bacterial infections before antibiotics. The final chapter is vague and cites nothing but minor and questionable examples of the effectiveness of so called "alternative therapies", with the exception of Chiropractic practice.
But yes, by all means, if your inner chi is properly balanced then you certainly have no need for chemotherapy. Your cancer will disappear all on its own. Also, I hear essential oils work really well for treating heart attacks.
Chapter 1-9: 5 Stars.
A fascinating review of 9 major accomplishments in "evidence-based" medicine that have each measurably saved millions of lives. Most major breakthroughs were achieved and discovered through the craziest of coincidences, making them great for story-telling. This section of the book is well-written and easy to read.
Chapter 10: 0 Stars. Has no place in a scientific book. This chapter is a review of "alternative" medicine, most of which is by definition NOT evidence-based. The examples cited, with few exceptions, are just a bunch of anecdotes relayed by quack-doctors that have contributed to the destruction of countless ignorant people distrusting so called "Western" medicine.
Additionally, each example cited in the first 9 chapters has had a massive and directly measurable effect on medicine and quality of life. Millions died from smallpox before vaccines. Millions died from bacterial infections before antibiotics. The final chapter is vague and cites nothing but minor and questionable examples of the effectiveness of so called "alternative therapies", with the exception of Chiropractic practice.
But yes, by all means, if your inner chi is properly balanced then you certainly have no need for chemotherapy. Your cancer will disappear all on its own. Also, I hear essential oils work really well for treating heart attacks.
January 30, 2025
Though ignorance in the pursuit of truth is forgivable, it's harder to sympathize with those throughout history who ridiculed a discovery because fear and rigid thinking prevented them from letting go of outdated beliefs and tradition.
Queijo has put together an amazing history of medicine in the form of a "top 10" list of the major breakthroughs. The 10 major breakthroughs are things like sanitation, discovery of germs, anesthesia, imaging, mental drugs, antibiotics, vaccines, and a few others. Then each one of those is a story that is broken down into the major milestones along the road to the maturation of the idea. It is incredibly well told and contains a lot of information and key players that I previously did not know about.
The last chapter has a strange and out of place focus on "alternative medicine". Queijo tries to build the case that the dismissal of traditional medicine by modern medicine is akin to the dismissal of previous discoveries, like sanitation, and should be taken more seriously. The reason that we've made so much progress in medicine is because we've dismissed and replaced so many of these quack cures that didn't work. But that doesn't seem to ring any bells with Queijo. By all means, go meditate and grind up some rhino horn (no, don't do that), and if that doesn't work, you fortunately can turn to some modern cures that actually work.
Queijo has put together an amazing history of medicine in the form of a "top 10" list of the major breakthroughs. The 10 major breakthroughs are things like sanitation, discovery of germs, anesthesia, imaging, mental drugs, antibiotics, vaccines, and a few others. Then each one of those is a story that is broken down into the major milestones along the road to the maturation of the idea. It is incredibly well told and contains a lot of information and key players that I previously did not know about.
The last chapter has a strange and out of place focus on "alternative medicine". Queijo tries to build the case that the dismissal of traditional medicine by modern medicine is akin to the dismissal of previous discoveries, like sanitation, and should be taken more seriously. The reason that we've made so much progress in medicine is because we've dismissed and replaced so many of these quack cures that didn't work. But that doesn't seem to ring any bells with Queijo. By all means, go meditate and grind up some rhino horn (no, don't do that), and if that doesn't work, you fortunately can turn to some modern cures that actually work.
September 23, 2019
Информация из множества источников, сжатая в легкочитаемую форму, не требующую особых познаний в медицине, биологии или химии. Лишний раз убедилась в том, как хорошо, что мы живем сейчас, а не тогда)) Для меня были особенно интересны части по микробиологии и вакцинации. Часть прр альтернативную медицину только подтвердила мои убеждения на этот счет. В целом для укрепления мировозрения, вполне подходящая книга.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2011
I have read a lot of these types of books and maybe that was why I wasn't very impressed with this one. I didn't learn much of anything new aside from a few tidbits of trivia, but that's not really the author's fault.
What really bothered me about this book was his writing style. Especially in the first few chapters, the writing was very repetitive. He had epigraphs that were then repeated in the text a page later, and the chapters ended with summaries stating the same things. He also didn't consistently have epigraphs--they were at the beginnings of some chapters and some sections but later in the book hardly at all. The epilogue had absolutely nothing new to say, just restated brief parts from the chapters, except for an odd, rather pointless aside about the H1N1 outbreak a few years ago.
Thanks to the search function in the Kindle I can say with confidence that he overused the word "nevertheless". It was used 33 times in the book. It started to affect me like the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.
I think instead of opening himself up to the inevitable challenging of his choice of the "The 10 Greatest" list, it would have been just as effective to title it "How 10 of the Greatest...". I think it's a good list except for the last chapter. While the use of alternative medicine is expanding and is starting to be studied more systematically, I can't agree with calling it a breakthrough in medicine--by his own definition of "breakthrough", it misses the mark.
It was an easy read and for someone unfamiliar with the subject I can see that it could be a good introduction to some fascinating stories. It is the first Kindle book I have seen with an interactive index and that is a very welcome sight.
What really bothered me about this book was his writing style. Especially in the first few chapters, the writing was very repetitive. He had epigraphs that were then repeated in the text a page later, and the chapters ended with summaries stating the same things. He also didn't consistently have epigraphs--they were at the beginnings of some chapters and some sections but later in the book hardly at all. The epilogue had absolutely nothing new to say, just restated brief parts from the chapters, except for an odd, rather pointless aside about the H1N1 outbreak a few years ago.
Thanks to the search function in the Kindle I can say with confidence that he overused the word "nevertheless". It was used 33 times in the book. It started to affect me like the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.
I think instead of opening himself up to the inevitable challenging of his choice of the "The 10 Greatest" list, it would have been just as effective to title it "How 10 of the Greatest...". I think it's a good list except for the last chapter. While the use of alternative medicine is expanding and is starting to be studied more systematically, I can't agree with calling it a breakthrough in medicine--by his own definition of "breakthrough", it misses the mark.
It was an easy read and for someone unfamiliar with the subject I can see that it could be a good introduction to some fascinating stories. It is the first Kindle book I have seen with an interactive index and that is a very welcome sight.
May 3, 2011
This is a book that was both fascinating and boring. The subject matter alone was fascinating - The 10 Greatest Discoveries in Medicine . Some of them, such as the discovery of X-Rays, the discovery of vaccines, and the discovery of drugs for madness, Sadness, and Fear were particularly fascinating. But the boring part was in the manner in which the author chose to cover the topics. He began most chapters with a brief summary of the discovery and then proceeded to use almost the exact words and phrases when elaborating the topic in the chapter itself. And then to make matters worse, at the end of the book he sums everything up by once again using almost the exact same words and phrases. What's the matter Queijo, do you think we the reader are not intelligent to grasp your points? Is that why you kept repeating them over and over again ?
December 4, 2025
Büyük Buluşlar, Jon Quenjio tarafından 2009 yılında çıkarılmış bir bilim, tıp kitabıdır. Kısaca tıp dünyasının en önemli 10 buluşundan bahsediyor diye özetleyebiliriz. Ama uzatırsak içinden çok değerli hikayeler çıktığını söyleyebilirim. Öncelikle kitapta bahsedilen 10 buluşu yazmak istiyorum.
1) Tıbbın keşfi
2) Koleranın tedavisi
3) Mikropların keşfi
4) Anestezinin keşfi
5) X ışınlarının keşfi
6) Aşıların keşfi
7) Antibiyotiklerin keşfi
8) DNA'nın keşfi
9) Zihinsel hastalıkların ve tedavilerinin keşfi
10) Alternatif tıbbın keşfi
İlk bölümle beraber tıbba giriş yapıyoruz ve Hipokrat'la tanışıyoruz. Hipokrat'ın tıbbın babası olarak tanındığını biliyoruz ama onun en değerli yanının tedavilerinden çok tıbbı keşfetmiş olması diyebiliriz. Onun ardından kolera salgını geliyor ve dikkatli bir kişi tarafından salgın önlendiğinde bu dikkatin bizi üçüncü bölümde yer alan mikropların keşfine götürdüğünü görüyoruz. Ardından tesadüfen anestezi keşfediliyor ve öncesinde insanların ameliyatlarının onlar uyanıkken ve acı çekerken yapıldığını okuyoruz. Elbette anestezinin keşfi büyük bir olay ama yanlış yapıldığında da tek bir şikayetle ameliyat masasına yatan birinin anestezi yüzünden hayatını kaybettiğini görüyoruz. Ve beşinci bölüm... Kendi mesleğimin babası olan x ışınlarının keşfi... Bir fizikçi olan Wilhelm Röntgen'in tesadüfen x ışınlarının dokuyu delerek geçtiğini ve karşıya dokudaki yoğunluk farkı sebebiyle bir görüntü aktardığını keşfediyor. Tıbbın gözü olan x ışınlarının da böyle keşfedildiğini okuyoruz ve bu keşfin de diğerleri gibi yanlış anlaşıldığını, insanların kafasını karıştırdığını görüyoruz. Olay bir fizikçiye "bana bir miktar x ışını gönderebilir misiniz, parası neyse vereceğim" denmesine kadar gidebiliyor. Önüne gelenin röntgen istemesi sonucunda buna da bir denge getiriliyor ardından Marie Curie sayesinde bu cihazın taşınabiliri yapılıyor böylece x ışınlarının savaşlarda da büyük bir yardımı dokunuyor. Sonrasında çiçek hastalığının salgına dönüştüğü bir dönemde ineklerden bulaşan ve böylece bağışıklık kazanan insanların bu hastalığa yakalanmadığı görüldüğünde hemen harekete geçiliyor ve ilk aşılar yapılıyor. Böylece her ne kadar çok fazla kayıp yaşansa da bir zaman sonra bunun önüne geçilmiş oluyor. Diğer kısım antibiyotiklerin keşfi. Ve onu da DNA'nın keşfi izliyor. Sonrasında her hastalığın fiziksel olmadığı zihinsel hastalıkların da olabileceği keşfediliyor ve tıp en sonunda başladığı noktaya dönüyor: alternatif tıp. Bütün bu bölümlerde tıp dünyasının dönem dönem nasıl değişikliklere uğradığını okuyoruz. Şimdi hayatımızın bir parçası olan şeylerin o dönemlerde nasıl bir ihtiyaç olduğunu ve keşfinde de nasıl farklı tepkilere maruz kaldığını okuyoruz. Ben bir sağlıkçı olarak bunu okumaktan çok keyif aldım. Ki herkesin de alacağını düşünüyorum. Nöbetimde başladığım kitap nöbet sonuna bitmişti ve günümün çok keyifli geçmesini sağlamıştı. Bu yüzden herkese tavsiye ediyorum. Bence bu güzel ve uzun yolculuğu okumayı seveceksiniz.
Sevgiler.
1) Tıbbın keşfi
2) Koleranın tedavisi
3) Mikropların keşfi
4) Anestezinin keşfi
5) X ışınlarının keşfi
6) Aşıların keşfi
7) Antibiyotiklerin keşfi
8) DNA'nın keşfi
9) Zihinsel hastalıkların ve tedavilerinin keşfi
10) Alternatif tıbbın keşfi
İlk bölümle beraber tıbba giriş yapıyoruz ve Hipokrat'la tanışıyoruz. Hipokrat'ın tıbbın babası olarak tanındığını biliyoruz ama onun en değerli yanının tedavilerinden çok tıbbı keşfetmiş olması diyebiliriz. Onun ardından kolera salgını geliyor ve dikkatli bir kişi tarafından salgın önlendiğinde bu dikkatin bizi üçüncü bölümde yer alan mikropların keşfine götürdüğünü görüyoruz. Ardından tesadüfen anestezi keşfediliyor ve öncesinde insanların ameliyatlarının onlar uyanıkken ve acı çekerken yapıldığını okuyoruz. Elbette anestezinin keşfi büyük bir olay ama yanlış yapıldığında da tek bir şikayetle ameliyat masasına yatan birinin anestezi yüzünden hayatını kaybettiğini görüyoruz. Ve beşinci bölüm... Kendi mesleğimin babası olan x ışınlarının keşfi... Bir fizikçi olan Wilhelm Röntgen'in tesadüfen x ışınlarının dokuyu delerek geçtiğini ve karşıya dokudaki yoğunluk farkı sebebiyle bir görüntü aktardığını keşfediyor. Tıbbın gözü olan x ışınlarının da böyle keşfedildiğini okuyoruz ve bu keşfin de diğerleri gibi yanlış anlaşıldığını, insanların kafasını karıştırdığını görüyoruz. Olay bir fizikçiye "bana bir miktar x ışını gönderebilir misiniz, parası neyse vereceğim" denmesine kadar gidebiliyor. Önüne gelenin röntgen istemesi sonucunda buna da bir denge getiriliyor ardından Marie Curie sayesinde bu cihazın taşınabiliri yapılıyor böylece x ışınlarının savaşlarda da büyük bir yardımı dokunuyor. Sonrasında çiçek hastalığının salgına dönüştüğü bir dönemde ineklerden bulaşan ve böylece bağışıklık kazanan insanların bu hastalığa yakalanmadığı görüldüğünde hemen harekete geçiliyor ve ilk aşılar yapılıyor. Böylece her ne kadar çok fazla kayıp yaşansa da bir zaman sonra bunun önüne geçilmiş oluyor. Diğer kısım antibiyotiklerin keşfi. Ve onu da DNA'nın keşfi izliyor. Sonrasında her hastalığın fiziksel olmadığı zihinsel hastalıkların da olabileceği keşfediliyor ve tıp en sonunda başladığı noktaya dönüyor: alternatif tıp. Bütün bu bölümlerde tıp dünyasının dönem dönem nasıl değişikliklere uğradığını okuyoruz. Şimdi hayatımızın bir parçası olan şeylerin o dönemlerde nasıl bir ihtiyaç olduğunu ve keşfinde de nasıl farklı tepkilere maruz kaldığını okuyoruz. Ben bir sağlıkçı olarak bunu okumaktan çok keyif aldım. Ki herkesin de alacağını düşünüyorum. Nöbetimde başladığım kitap nöbet sonuna bitmişti ve günümün çok keyifli geçmesini sağlamıştı. Bu yüzden herkese tavsiye ediyorum. Bence bu güzel ve uzun yolculuğu okumayı seveceksiniz.
Sevgiler.
November 20, 2011
I didn't expect to take this long to read the book; It's barely 300 pages, broken up into ten sections, and includes a lengthly appendix. This should have been a breeze!
I didn't count on the author's voice dampening my enthusiasm for the thrilling tales of discovery.
The first warning was in the introduction, where he laid out his case for calling "The Rise of Alternative Medicine" one of the ten greatest discoveries. For the first part, it's not a discovery, it's a challenge to allopathic treatment. Which is objectively fine, but I'm not sure it's "saved millions of lives," akin to, say, sanitation. Though his defense in naming this is gutsy, I have to admit that it colored how I read this book. How objective is this book, and how often will the author inject his sensibilities into the subject matter?
It wasn't long before I was disappointed to read the following passage, in the conclusion of Chapter One (Hippocrates and the Discovery of Medicine):
"To prevent the industrialization of medicine and its conversion into pure business, many now believe we need to look to the ancient past, to the healing tradition that arose long ago on a small island in the Aegean Sea. We might do well to revisit and reconsider the words and writings of a man whose practice of medicine was truly holistic, encompassing not only rationality and clinical observation, but ethics, compassion, and even belief in a higher force."
I'm not sure what the author is suggesting (aside from hiding behind the weasel words "many now believe" and "We might do well to..."), but it sounds more like he's looking at history through rose-colored glasses. The "industrialization" of medicine allowed people from all walks of life to be treated by a growing supply of doctors, technicians, surgeons, and practitioners, all of whom treat their patients based on hundreds of years of objective studies, case histories, demographic data, and cited research. If the author is upset on how patients are treated today (and it's certainly a valid complaint), I'm not sure if referencing an age when patients were treated with poultices, bloodletting, prayer and humorism is the best way to make the point.
Additionally, ethics and compassion don't play a part in treatment? Bioethics is one of the most exciting and forward-thinking fields in medicine today, dealing with the impossible questions that will be dominating our lives in the next twenty to fifty years. Every hospital's ethics board works to recommend action (or inaction) on major decisions that they know will affect the lives of patients for perhaps years to come. And if he's so torn up about lack of compassion, why didn't he mention Florence Nightingale (and nursing) even once in the book?*
The tales of discovery, missed chances, and medical miracles are densely packed: How Mendel's study into the hereditary characteristics of peas were ignored for 34 years; how the use of anesthetics was delayed for years because of a rushed, failed demonstration (and when it finally became used, how it was applied with whatever was handy in the room at the time, such as a sock); the absurdly unlikely series of events that resulted in the discovery and development of penicillin (and how a random rotten cantaloupe helped treat injured soldiers during WWII). For these anecdotes, told with a deft (but dry) hand, I commend the author.
But I can't help but feel that it's the stories themselves that are thrilling, not the way they are told. The development of anesthesia, for instance, is one I've heard before, and much better (The story of Morton and the mad dash for credit, as told in the lecture series "Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed Through Biography" from The Great Courses company, is engrossing enough to be a major motion picture). These are some of the most inspiring and incredible tales of how the human mind uplifted the human condition! The victory of a single mind over the prevailing knowledge of the time! Great advances in civilization in a single generation! And we're presented with lists, gloss over events (claiming that Watson and Crick "discovered the secret to life," while practically ignoring Rosalind Franklin and Maurice WIlkins' seminal contribution [and successive denial of credit]), and we close with the singularly off-putting "The Rise of Alternative Medicine" — a chance for the author to truly let his subjective opinions and complaints roam free.
I won't go into much detail as to why I think this chapter pretty much single-handedly demolishes the author's credibility to determine medical breakthroughs at all (several reviewers have already done so). But I would like to point out several major issues I had with this chapter.
Firstly, using Dr. Andrew Weil's "integrated medicine" (a field of study that just happens to recommend products and treatments that Dr. Weil just happens to market and supply through his website) as a positive example in a chapter already saddled by quackery is not a good place to start.
Secondly, he claims that in 2007, "half of all Americans — 38% of adults and 12% of children" — used some form of [Complementary and Alternative Medicine]." Ignoring the statistical misery of combining two sets into one number, he further explains that CAM (aside from the standard homeopathy and chiropractic) includes massage, relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and meditation, movement-based therapies such as Pilates, naturopathic treatments (such as nutrition/lifestyle/exercise treatment regimens), and diet-based therapies such as Atkins, vegetarianism, and the South Beach Diet.
With a field as wide as that, it seems that I would be included in this group because I don't eat red meat and take deep breaths when I'm stressed.
Thirdly, he points out how often patients seek out alternative therapies for chronic diseases such as arthritis, back pain, and neck pain, and how traditional medicine typically isn't able to treat these conditions very well. I would be inclined to agree with him; the typical treatment for back pain can often be "take some NSAIDs or opioids for twenty years." But when the last nine chapters dealt with saving literally millions of lives from terrible, messy ends such as cholera, polio, and smallpox, forgive me if I'm not as impressed by a chiropractor's claim to be able to fix a crick.
In the end, it feels like this book was written as a mental exercise for the author, a Time Magazine article writ large. The tales and victories are worth the read, but the author's treatment of the material left me aggravated and disappointed.
*A scan through the book shows that he actually did bring up nursing, once, in the introduction. He referenced the British Medical Journal 2006 poll, that asked readers to name the top 15 medical breakthroughs since 1840 (the year BMJ started publishing). Nursing did not make this list, though the author called the profession a "sincere" entry.
I didn't count on the author's voice dampening my enthusiasm for the thrilling tales of discovery.
The first warning was in the introduction, where he laid out his case for calling "The Rise of Alternative Medicine" one of the ten greatest discoveries. For the first part, it's not a discovery, it's a challenge to allopathic treatment. Which is objectively fine, but I'm not sure it's "saved millions of lives," akin to, say, sanitation. Though his defense in naming this is gutsy, I have to admit that it colored how I read this book. How objective is this book, and how often will the author inject his sensibilities into the subject matter?
It wasn't long before I was disappointed to read the following passage, in the conclusion of Chapter One (Hippocrates and the Discovery of Medicine):
"To prevent the industrialization of medicine and its conversion into pure business, many now believe we need to look to the ancient past, to the healing tradition that arose long ago on a small island in the Aegean Sea. We might do well to revisit and reconsider the words and writings of a man whose practice of medicine was truly holistic, encompassing not only rationality and clinical observation, but ethics, compassion, and even belief in a higher force."
I'm not sure what the author is suggesting (aside from hiding behind the weasel words "many now believe" and "We might do well to..."), but it sounds more like he's looking at history through rose-colored glasses. The "industrialization" of medicine allowed people from all walks of life to be treated by a growing supply of doctors, technicians, surgeons, and practitioners, all of whom treat their patients based on hundreds of years of objective studies, case histories, demographic data, and cited research. If the author is upset on how patients are treated today (and it's certainly a valid complaint), I'm not sure if referencing an age when patients were treated with poultices, bloodletting, prayer and humorism is the best way to make the point.
Additionally, ethics and compassion don't play a part in treatment? Bioethics is one of the most exciting and forward-thinking fields in medicine today, dealing with the impossible questions that will be dominating our lives in the next twenty to fifty years. Every hospital's ethics board works to recommend action (or inaction) on major decisions that they know will affect the lives of patients for perhaps years to come. And if he's so torn up about lack of compassion, why didn't he mention Florence Nightingale (and nursing) even once in the book?*
The tales of discovery, missed chances, and medical miracles are densely packed: How Mendel's study into the hereditary characteristics of peas were ignored for 34 years; how the use of anesthetics was delayed for years because of a rushed, failed demonstration (and when it finally became used, how it was applied with whatever was handy in the room at the time, such as a sock); the absurdly unlikely series of events that resulted in the discovery and development of penicillin (and how a random rotten cantaloupe helped treat injured soldiers during WWII). For these anecdotes, told with a deft (but dry) hand, I commend the author.
But I can't help but feel that it's the stories themselves that are thrilling, not the way they are told. The development of anesthesia, for instance, is one I've heard before, and much better (The story of Morton and the mad dash for credit, as told in the lecture series "Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed Through Biography" from The Great Courses company, is engrossing enough to be a major motion picture). These are some of the most inspiring and incredible tales of how the human mind uplifted the human condition! The victory of a single mind over the prevailing knowledge of the time! Great advances in civilization in a single generation! And we're presented with lists, gloss over events (claiming that Watson and Crick "discovered the secret to life," while practically ignoring Rosalind Franklin and Maurice WIlkins' seminal contribution [and successive denial of credit]), and we close with the singularly off-putting "The Rise of Alternative Medicine" — a chance for the author to truly let his subjective opinions and complaints roam free.
I won't go into much detail as to why I think this chapter pretty much single-handedly demolishes the author's credibility to determine medical breakthroughs at all (several reviewers have already done so). But I would like to point out several major issues I had with this chapter.
Firstly, using Dr. Andrew Weil's "integrated medicine" (a field of study that just happens to recommend products and treatments that Dr. Weil just happens to market and supply through his website) as a positive example in a chapter already saddled by quackery is not a good place to start.
Secondly, he claims that in 2007, "half of all Americans — 38% of adults and 12% of children" — used some form of [Complementary and Alternative Medicine]." Ignoring the statistical misery of combining two sets into one number, he further explains that CAM (aside from the standard homeopathy and chiropractic) includes massage, relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and meditation, movement-based therapies such as Pilates, naturopathic treatments (such as nutrition/lifestyle/exercise treatment regimens), and diet-based therapies such as Atkins, vegetarianism, and the South Beach Diet.
With a field as wide as that, it seems that I would be included in this group because I don't eat red meat and take deep breaths when I'm stressed.
Thirdly, he points out how often patients seek out alternative therapies for chronic diseases such as arthritis, back pain, and neck pain, and how traditional medicine typically isn't able to treat these conditions very well. I would be inclined to agree with him; the typical treatment for back pain can often be "take some NSAIDs or opioids for twenty years." But when the last nine chapters dealt with saving literally millions of lives from terrible, messy ends such as cholera, polio, and smallpox, forgive me if I'm not as impressed by a chiropractor's claim to be able to fix a crick.
In the end, it feels like this book was written as a mental exercise for the author, a Time Magazine article writ large. The tales and victories are worth the read, but the author's treatment of the material left me aggravated and disappointed.
*A scan through the book shows that he actually did bring up nursing, once, in the introduction. He referenced the British Medical Journal 2006 poll, that asked readers to name the top 15 medical breakthroughs since 1840 (the year BMJ started publishing). Nursing did not make this list, though the author called the profession a "sincere" entry.
June 28, 2020
Queijo reviews medical advances from the time of Hippocrates, and the first 9 chapters are useful and science based. Things fall apart in the last chapter - the rediscovery of alternative medicine. The author is a science writer, NOT a scientist or physician and it's very clear here. (Though some journalists have a strong science education, anyone can call themselves a science writer) He doesn't seem to understand alternative medicine that works is called medicine, or that modern medicine developed by discarding treatments that didn't work. Queijo suggests modern medicine lost its heart when doctors started using stethoscopes and stopped laying their ears directly on the patients chest, something I don't want any doctor doing to me!
January 6, 2018
Well written history of medical discoveries for all audiences.
April 22, 2018
все было отлично, пока не дошло до последней главы.
October 5, 2021
A wonderful and very informative book. Most stories are known but the author has laid out the facts in a palatable manner making the reading a pleasant experience.
February 14, 2011
This book really surprised me. It was a book I picked up for free off Amazon. It was only free for a limited time but often when things are free on Amazon they're either really old books or they're terrible. This was neither.
Some of the breakthroughs were really obvious. Penicillin was one of them and was one that everyone would agree with. However, there were some that you wouldn't necessarily think of as a medical breakthrough, like sanitation. In reality, however, sanitation is one of the best because it was something that revolutionized the medical community but it was something that was so simple.
I also liked the book because Queijo managed to explain all these medical discoveries without getting you lost in the medical jargon. Even the chapters that were in the most danger of that, like the one on DNA and Chromosomes, managed to keep me, if not interested, at least on track. I still understood everything that he was telling me.
I wasn't really interested in the chapter on DNA but that doesn't mean it wasn't pertinent or well written. It just didn't happen to be a subject that interested me but it was well written by Queijo and I actually learned a lot of interesting things while reading that chapter about how chromosomes and DNA works and about how it was discovered and also about genetics and heredity.
One of the best chapters was on vaccinations and how cures for things like small pox really did come from things like cow pox. Someone observed that the cow maidens didn't get small pox and it was because they got it's relative, cow pox. I liked that some of the "myths" we'd heard about certain medical breakthroughs were actually true like this particular story and like how penicillin was discovered by accident.
The chapter on alternative medicine seemed like a weak way to end the book however. Not that I don't think it's an important topic; I do. More and more people are trying different ways to cure their diseases because doctors can't fix things. Also, doctors are becoming impersonal and treating sicknesses, not patients. People are starting to turn toward alternatives because they don't like what's being offered to them. I just think that it should have been earlier in the book.
Also, the book was done chronologically, not by importance. It started with the distinction between medicine and mythology. Medicine became a science, something that was respected, not an occupation. The book ended with alternative medicine. I think it should have gone by order of importance, not chronologically.
Overall, Queijo's book was fascinating. I really enjoyed reading it. He presents the book in a way that even if you're not interested in medicine, you'll still enjoy it. You don't get lost in medical jargon and it's really easy to follow. I recommend this book to anyone who just has an interest in furthering their knowledge on some medical history.
Some of the breakthroughs were really obvious. Penicillin was one of them and was one that everyone would agree with. However, there were some that you wouldn't necessarily think of as a medical breakthrough, like sanitation. In reality, however, sanitation is one of the best because it was something that revolutionized the medical community but it was something that was so simple.
I also liked the book because Queijo managed to explain all these medical discoveries without getting you lost in the medical jargon. Even the chapters that were in the most danger of that, like the one on DNA and Chromosomes, managed to keep me, if not interested, at least on track. I still understood everything that he was telling me.
I wasn't really interested in the chapter on DNA but that doesn't mean it wasn't pertinent or well written. It just didn't happen to be a subject that interested me but it was well written by Queijo and I actually learned a lot of interesting things while reading that chapter about how chromosomes and DNA works and about how it was discovered and also about genetics and heredity.
One of the best chapters was on vaccinations and how cures for things like small pox really did come from things like cow pox. Someone observed that the cow maidens didn't get small pox and it was because they got it's relative, cow pox. I liked that some of the "myths" we'd heard about certain medical breakthroughs were actually true like this particular story and like how penicillin was discovered by accident.
The chapter on alternative medicine seemed like a weak way to end the book however. Not that I don't think it's an important topic; I do. More and more people are trying different ways to cure their diseases because doctors can't fix things. Also, doctors are becoming impersonal and treating sicknesses, not patients. People are starting to turn toward alternatives because they don't like what's being offered to them. I just think that it should have been earlier in the book.
Also, the book was done chronologically, not by importance. It started with the distinction between medicine and mythology. Medicine became a science, something that was respected, not an occupation. The book ended with alternative medicine. I think it should have gone by order of importance, not chronologically.
Overall, Queijo's book was fascinating. I really enjoyed reading it. He presents the book in a way that even if you're not interested in medicine, you'll still enjoy it. You don't get lost in medical jargon and it's really easy to follow. I recommend this book to anyone who just has an interest in furthering their knowledge on some medical history.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 28, 2014
Reading expands one’s mind and can cause one to be mindful. I was aware that I lived in an age where it is easy to take one’s health for granted – most infections are relatively minor, research and discoveries are honored, sanitation (in America) is an expectation to the point of being a “personal right.” In such an environment, it is important to be reminded of how those assumptions (and many others) came to be possible. This book opened doors I was unaware were closed and answered questions that had been of a nagging nature but knew not what to ask.
The book is divided into ten chapters and epilogue. Each chapter addresses the ten most important discoveries of medicine, as determined by polls taken by the British Medical Journal and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control. Each chapter is well researched and amazingly brief considering the material covered in each segment. Moving from the invention of medicine (chapter 1), to Sanitation (2), germs (3), anesthesia (4), x-rays (5), vaccines (6), antibiotics (7), Heredity, Genetics DNA (8), Drugs for Mental Illness (9) and the “Re-discovery” of alternative medicine, the author gives a thorough overview of each discovery. I found myself highlighting much of each chapter as the facts were somehow apparent but surprising.
Of all the “ah HA!” moments I found in this book, the largest came early in the book. Sanitation ranks second behind the discovery of medicine (Hippocrates was the first to use disciplined methods to treat the sick) as the most important medical discovery. Having a clean environment keeps disease from: forming, spreading, evolving, etc. Sanitation is a relatively recent concept and is still a foreign idea in many parts of the world. What struck me the most about this discovery is the reality that history is repeating itself; sanitation was discovered to be hugely beneficial and we are becoming increasingly aware of how unsanitary we are making our entire environment.
This is not the kind of book one will read in one setting, but it is one any self-respecting “useless facts” Geek will refer to with frequency. I will use this book while preparing for my next big Trivial Pursuit tourney.
The book is divided into ten chapters and epilogue. Each chapter addresses the ten most important discoveries of medicine, as determined by polls taken by the British Medical Journal and Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published by the Centers for Disease Control. Each chapter is well researched and amazingly brief considering the material covered in each segment. Moving from the invention of medicine (chapter 1), to Sanitation (2), germs (3), anesthesia (4), x-rays (5), vaccines (6), antibiotics (7), Heredity, Genetics DNA (8), Drugs for Mental Illness (9) and the “Re-discovery” of alternative medicine, the author gives a thorough overview of each discovery. I found myself highlighting much of each chapter as the facts were somehow apparent but surprising.
Of all the “ah HA!” moments I found in this book, the largest came early in the book. Sanitation ranks second behind the discovery of medicine (Hippocrates was the first to use disciplined methods to treat the sick) as the most important medical discovery. Having a clean environment keeps disease from: forming, spreading, evolving, etc. Sanitation is a relatively recent concept and is still a foreign idea in many parts of the world. What struck me the most about this discovery is the reality that history is repeating itself; sanitation was discovered to be hugely beneficial and we are becoming increasingly aware of how unsanitary we are making our entire environment.
This is not the kind of book one will read in one setting, but it is one any self-respecting “useless facts” Geek will refer to with frequency. I will use this book while preparing for my next big Trivial Pursuit tourney.
August 7, 2010
When I was a kid I had a book called The Great Doctors, which detailed advances in medicine from Hippocrates to the Modern Day (I would have said "to Heart Surgery," except that there wasn't a chapter on Christian Barnard, the book was written before the first heart transplant). Breakthrough! is an adult version of that book. Jon Queijo is a medical journalist, and has the ability to take complex medical and scientific information and make it accessible to the general reader, rather than just 'dumbing it down.'
The text covers Hippocrates and clinical medicine, sanitation, vaccines, and, much to my surprise, chapters on Mental Health and Alternative Medicine, both topics that rarely get mention, much less well covered, in most books about the history of medicine.
Quiejo gives a good list of references for each chapter, and does not bog the reader down with endless footnotes.
The Kindle edition was very well done ... it includes a fully hyperlinked index, the first I've encountered, as well as occasional hyperlinks within the text when the author refers you back to previous chapters.
The text covers Hippocrates and clinical medicine, sanitation, vaccines, and, much to my surprise, chapters on Mental Health and Alternative Medicine, both topics that rarely get mention, much less well covered, in most books about the history of medicine.
Quiejo gives a good list of references for each chapter, and does not bog the reader down with endless footnotes.
The Kindle edition was very well done ... it includes a fully hyperlinked index, the first I've encountered, as well as occasional hyperlinks within the text when the author refers you back to previous chapters.
January 17, 2013
I really loved the first part of this book. The history of medicine is really fascinating. But when I read the 10th discovery, on alternative medicine, it came across as a propaganda book.
I'm pretty supportive of alternative medicine, especially when it comes to surgery and chemotherapy and cancer treatment. I'm not sure I like the term "scientific medicine." When you're comparing the two, it sounds like you're saying that anything else is unscientific.
I agree that institutional medicine ignores the spiritual part of man. Health isn't just treating the physical person with a pill or a cut. Our physical, emotional, relational, spiritual health all affects each other. Bitterness in your heart will cause ulcers in your stomach.
But to have a chapter on Alternative medicine that lumps them all together, calling it "a discovery" that saved millions of lives is a little disingenuous. Chiropractics and eating healthy instead of invasive cancer treatment are one thing.
Some alternative medicine is essentially "using the force" and it really is quackery. By putting all alternative medicine together, you cheapen the legitimate stuff.
I'm pretty supportive of alternative medicine, especially when it comes to surgery and chemotherapy and cancer treatment. I'm not sure I like the term "scientific medicine." When you're comparing the two, it sounds like you're saying that anything else is unscientific.
I agree that institutional medicine ignores the spiritual part of man. Health isn't just treating the physical person with a pill or a cut. Our physical, emotional, relational, spiritual health all affects each other. Bitterness in your heart will cause ulcers in your stomach.
But to have a chapter on Alternative medicine that lumps them all together, calling it "a discovery" that saved millions of lives is a little disingenuous. Chiropractics and eating healthy instead of invasive cancer treatment are one thing.
Some alternative medicine is essentially "using the force" and it really is quackery. By putting all alternative medicine together, you cheapen the legitimate stuff.
March 13, 2015
An interesting take on what are classed as the most important medical breakthroughs in history and as the author points out many of them could be taken away and others added in depending on who you asked. The ones provided make interesting reading and detailed, well explained case studies to back up comments made. There was limited use of technical language making it easy for anyone to access and understand, allowing them to partake in the debate of what is an important breakthrough and what isn’t. It was very informative without being patronising, and I actually felt like I learnt something during reading, especially about the development of mental health issues which is still something that society seems to think needs to be left unspoken. It is also amazing how far medicine has come in the last 50-60 years ago with many of the techniques being used previous to that seeming almost barbaric now. A real eye-opener.
September 3, 2010
Lots of interesting information, but shallow -- I wasn't impressed by Queijo's writing style, which was heavy on italics for emphasis, and he didn't delve much into the many fascinating byways his topics suggested. I skipped most of the infamous "alternative medicine" chapter because it was just too intellectually sloppy and infuriating, but even in the remainder, I would have liked more depth and some coverage of, for instance, the philosophical angst people experience over antidepressants or the current hysteria over vaccines; he writes as though the cultural controversies over the breakthroughs are mostly settled and done.
Still, there's lots of interest covered in the book, from Mendel's pea vines to the infamous cholera-spreading public pump, and he very clearly lays out the sequence of events that lead to each innovation.
Still, there's lots of interest covered in the book, from Mendel's pea vines to the infamous cholera-spreading public pump, and he very clearly lays out the sequence of events that lead to each innovation.
June 11, 2011
Free for my nook on 3/4/2011 at www.barnesandnoble.com
It's written like a high school....maybe undergrad college....term paper. I nonetheless enjoyed reading this journey from the days of Hippocrates, the world's first physician to current times. Along the way Queijo points out the 10 most revolutionary discoveries whether made by accident; or by 99% persperation as is usually required. It continues to amaze me how people lived...didn't live...or live in agony throughout the early years of medical practice. All the things we take for granted today came from some hardworking, risk tolerant, and brilliant people. I wonder what some people thought that first time when some scientist suggested you inoculate your self with a cow's virus, or take some moldy cantolopue to cure that fever.
It's written like a high school....maybe undergrad college....term paper. I nonetheless enjoyed reading this journey from the days of Hippocrates, the world's first physician to current times. Along the way Queijo points out the 10 most revolutionary discoveries whether made by accident; or by 99% persperation as is usually required. It continues to amaze me how people lived...didn't live...or live in agony throughout the early years of medical practice. All the things we take for granted today came from some hardworking, risk tolerant, and brilliant people. I wonder what some people thought that first time when some scientist suggested you inoculate your self with a cow's virus, or take some moldy cantolopue to cure that fever.
September 11, 2012
9/10ths of a good book, as one of the reviewers on Amazon said. I think the first 9 of his 10 "breakthroughs" were interesting. But "the rise of alternative medicine" did not seem like it belonged on the list. I'm afraid that I'm of the school that there isn't such a thing as "scientific" medicine and "alternative" medicine. There is medicine that works and medicine that doesn't. His criteria for praising alternative medicine seemed idealistic as best and suckered in at the worst.
Anyway, I enjoyed the first 9 chapters and nearly threw the book across the room during the 10th. And that is even with using an osteopath as my regular doctor and having had a mother who found acupuncture helpful with her long-term illness!
Anyway, I enjoyed the first 9 chapters and nearly threw the book across the room during the 10th. And that is even with using an osteopath as my regular doctor and having had a mother who found acupuncture helpful with her long-term illness!
January 28, 2013
Feeling like I was indulging in too much light reading I went to this non-fiction that I'd had on my Nook for some time. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the 10 medical breakthroughs: first physician. discovery of sanitation, germs, anesthesia, x-rays, vaccines, antibiotics, genetics, medicines for the mind, rediscovery of alternative medicine. The author uses numerous anecdotes about patients, doctors and researchers to illustrate the importance and process of each discovery, making the book readable for the lay reader. I found a number of thought provoking issues including the medical field's resistance to new discoveries and research and the balance between cure and care.
February 2, 2016
A solid, albeit at some points workmanlike, tour through the top ten breakthroughs in medicine. This book is at it's best when it is describing the historical accidents surrounding medical discoveries; I wont's soon forget many of the anecdotes about early medical cases.
After plotting out the many benefits accrued by the slow triumph of evidence-based medicine, the inclusion of "Integrative Medicine" in the final chapter seem a bit incongruous- or at least premature - but the chapter on alternative treatments does give the author a good excuse for a digression into the history of medicine in the 19th century in the United States.
Overall: a worthwhile, quick read.
After plotting out the many benefits accrued by the slow triumph of evidence-based medicine, the inclusion of "Integrative Medicine" in the final chapter seem a bit incongruous- or at least premature - but the chapter on alternative treatments does give the author a good excuse for a digression into the history of medicine in the 19th century in the United States.
Overall: a worthwhile, quick read.
August 21, 2011
Free Friday from B&N 3-4-11
I like the topic of 10 medical breakthroughs, and this book may help some student with enough information for a report for a class in health or science. I give it only two stars for I did not enjoy the writing style of the author for it was too repetitive. I think this book could have benefitted from a better editor for his epilogue copied too much from the introduction and body of the book, and this ebook could have benefitted from a better copy editor for I noticed some misspelled homonyms or a word mistranslated from a different font.
I like the topic of 10 medical breakthroughs, and this book may help some student with enough information for a report for a class in health or science. I give it only two stars for I did not enjoy the writing style of the author for it was too repetitive. I think this book could have benefitted from a better editor for his epilogue copied too much from the introduction and body of the book, and this ebook could have benefitted from a better copy editor for I noticed some misspelled homonyms or a word mistranslated from a different font.
March 11, 2011
Very enjoyable and well written book on some of the key medical discoveries over time. The writing style was engaging, and it was clearly well researched. Looking at some of the importance discoveries in the field of medicine is interesting with different amounts of luck and work for all of them! Many of the discoveries also went against the views of the time, and so the way in which things we take for granted today were denied in the past was also fascinating. That said, I'm not sure that homeopathy should have made its way into this book.
April 27, 2011
This book basically details what the author has deemed to be the ten greatest breakthroughs in medicine.
What I like best about it is his focus on the human side of things. He integrates stories of the personal lives of patients and scientists into the text and shows the opposition that many of these new remedies faced and in some cases continue to face.
The book isn't too technical, it goes a little bit into the biology of things but you don't need any sort of background to understand it.
If you're interested in medicine or the history of medicine give this book a try.
What I like best about it is his focus on the human side of things. He integrates stories of the personal lives of patients and scientists into the text and shows the opposition that many of these new remedies faced and in some cases continue to face.
The book isn't too technical, it goes a little bit into the biology of things but you don't need any sort of background to understand it.
If you're interested in medicine or the history of medicine give this book a try.
November 21, 2014
This was a well put together book that I felt was very informative but not to the point of it feeling like a text book, which was very nice. It was separated into chapters and sub topics very well so you could easily put it down and pick it up later. If you are really interested in only one chapter you could easily read it and not be lost or feel the need to reference previous chapters. I enjoyed the book and the content, it shows how we have come to be where we are in medicine and the steps we took to get here.
December 17, 2015
Took me a bit to get through this. The book is a bit on the dry side, but it is so very interesting how medicine/science has evolved over the years and how it continues to grow everyday.. From handwashing, to vaccines, to antibiotics, to DNA. Shame though, that a comment dead on is, that because of the growth in technology and new ways evolving in healthcare everyday, it takes away the personableness between patient and doctor. Not so much by the doctor choice, but by the adminstraters in making a buck. Very good read
March 16, 2011
Free Friday e-book This was an amazing book in that the author managed to present and explain these discoveries in language that most people could understand. There were a few places where I got somewhat lost in the medical jargon, but I feel that I have a better grasp of vaccines, antibiotics, genetics, penicillin and drugs with which to treat mental illnesses, to name some of the subjects. This will probably be a book that I go back to, to check out some treatments.
July 19, 2014
Revolutionary medical breakthroughs haven’t just changed the way we treat disease, they’ve transformed how we understand ourselves and the world we live in. In Breakthrough, the author tells the hidden stories behind history’s medical discoveries. From germs to genetics, the ancient Hippocrates to the cutting edge, these are stories that have changed the world–and, possible, saved your life. Interesting, especially for those not in the medical industry.
March 15, 2011
READ this book. Fascinating. A great history of the development (past & present) of medicine. Makes you appreciate how the human mind can develop great theories, ignore evidence, continue to believe what isn't true, stumble into truth and finally accept it. Full of facts, history, people and just a great read. Makes one think that humans survive more by luck than anything else!
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