It’s the business of saving lives. Miracle Medicines goes behind the scenes of the pharmaceutical industry and into the high-security laboratories to tell the stories of the men and women---chemists, physiologists, medical and clinical researchers, engineers---who have chosen to toil for years in the lab in order to transform scientific theories into new lifesaving medicines. You’ll witness the day-to-day labors, victories and defeats of the dedicated professionals who are waging a war against the diseases that still plague mankind. From the confines of their laboratories, these pharmaceutical adventurers explore unknown territories in health and science. Miracle Medicines reveals what really happens during the long and uncertain journey that each new drug and its creators must endure from theory, to research, to testing and, finally, FDA approval and delivery to the public. It’s a very human story within the context of fascinating scientific innovation. Through first hand interviews you’ll also meet the patients who benefit from these manmade miracles and learn how, within their bloodstreams, an ongoing battle is raging. The drugs profiled are: Advair: GlaxoSmithKline’s revolutionary asthma medication, the first packaged as both a control and emergency drug. Gleevec: The Novartis’ chronic myeloid leukemia treatment born from decades of medical research in a field of study that was once considered hopeless. Humalog: Eli Lilly’s reinvention of insulin to control diabetes has been described as being better than nature Lipitor: Pfizer’s miracle antidote for high cholesterol that was nearly lost to the pharmaceutical vaults and has since become the world’s top-selling medicine. Norvir: Abbott’s contribution to the fight against HIV that nearly erases all traces of the disease from the bloodstream and prolongs the life of patients. Remicade: Created for the treatment of Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis and other Immune Mediated Inflammatory Diseases, Johnson & Johnson’s revolutionary biomedicine was developed from technology that once was only found in science fiction. Seroquel: AstraZeneca’s treatment for both schizophrenia and bipolar mania that has given millions of psychiatrics a new lease on life. This compelling and truth-revealing book will forever change the way you view the medicines in your medicine cabinet, and the people who create them.

The epic history of how antibiotics were born, saving millions of lives and creating a vast new industry known as Big Pharma. As late as the 1930s, virtually no drug intended for sickness did any good; doctors could set bones, deliver babies, and offer palliative care. That all changed in less than a generation with the discovery and development of a new category of medicine known as antibiotics. By 1955, the age-old evolutionary relationship between humans and microbes had been transformed, trivializing once-deadly infections. William Rosen captures this revolution with all its false starts, lucky surprises, and eccentric characters. He explains why, given the complex nature of bacteria—and their ability to rapidly evolve into new forms—the only way to locate and test potential antibiotic strains is by large-scale, systematic, trial-and-error experimentation. Organizing that research needs large, well-funded organizations and businesses, and so our entire scientific-industrial complex, built around the pharmaceutical company, was born. Timely, engrossing, and eye-opening, Miracle Cure is a must-read science narrative—a drama of enormous range, combining science, technology, politics, and economics to illuminate the reasons behind one of the most dramatic changes in humanity’s relationship with nature since the invention of agriculture ten thousand years ago.

The discovery of antibiotics heralded medicine's triumph over previously fatal diseases that once destroyed entire civilizations - thus earning their reputation as miracle drugs. But today, the terrifying reality of antibiotic-resistant bacteria resulting from our widespread misuse of antibiotics forewarns us that the miracle may be coming to an end. The seemingly innocent consumer who demands antibiotics to treat nonbacterial diseases such as the common cold or plays doctor by saving old prescriptions for later use is paving the way for a future of antibiotic failure. "What harm can it do?" is a popular refrain of people worldwide as they pop another antibiotic pill. Dr. Stuart Levy - the leading international expert on hazards of antibiotic misuse - reveals how this cavalier and naive attitude about the power of antibiotics can have deadly consequences. He explains that we are presently witnessing a massive evolutionary change in bacteria. This build-up of new antibiotic-resistant bacteria in individuals and the environment worldwide is an insidious and silent process. Thus, unwittingly consumers encounter resistant bacteria in their meat, poultry, fish, and vegetables. Unregulated dispensing of antibiotics in poorer countries breeds countless more resistant strains. Since bacteria recognize no geographical boundaries, resistant forms can travel the globe. If this trend continues to grow unchecked, we may someday find that all of our antibiotics are obsolete. Today doctors can no longer expect that their first choice of antibiotic for women's urinary tract infections or children's ear infections will work. Similarly, cancer therapy is rendered useless if patients are unable to fight infections that are sometimes resistant to eight to ten different drugs. In developing countries, people are now dying of previously treatable diseases that are no longer responsive to traditional antibiotics. These problems are just a harbinger of what will come if we do not act now. Dr. Levy, recognized by The New Yorker for his superb contributions to this field, is sending out an urgent message that the world cannot afford to ignore any longer. The goal of this unprecedented investigation into the dangers of antibiotic misuse is to protect the world community from resistant infections and ensure the success of antibiotics for generations to come

This book illustrates in detail the range of understandings of the human condition in New Testament times and remedies for ills that prevailed when Jesus and the apostles were spreading the Christian message and launching Christian communities in the Graeco-Roman world.

A doctor's astounding story of promising new treatments from the rainforests of Brazil for diseases that compromise the immune system. During a working visit to Brazil, Dr. Thomas David was given a packet of leaves and bark by a native patient as thanks for his work, and a shaman gave him a recipe for a tea used by the rainforest people to treat a variety of ailments. Dr. David began using these plants in his clinical research in Europe and soon discovered that they were producing amazing results among patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, and other diseases that compromise the immune system. Preliminary studies performed at Stanford and Harvard have substantiated his findings, bringing Dr. David international attention for his groundbreaking work. Dr. David's story is significant not only for its account of research that may herald a major breakthrough in curing diseases that have been the scourge of the modern world, but also for its emphasis on the vast and largely unrecognized pharmacopoeia of the rainforest that is in imminent danger of being lost forever.

In the decade from 1935-1945, while the Second World War raged in Europe, a new class of medicines capable of controlling bacterial infections launched a therapeutic revolution that continues today. The new medicines were not penicillin and antibiotics, but sulfonamides, or sulfa drugs. The sulfa drugs preceded penicillin by almost a decade, and during World War II they carried the main therapeutic burden in both military and civilian medicine. Their success stimulated a rapid expansion of research and production in the international pharmaceutical industry, raised expectations of medicine, and accelerated the appearance of new and powerful medicines based on research. The latter development created new regulatory dilemmas and unanticipated therapeutic problems. The sulfa drugs also proved extraordinarily fruitful as starting points for new drugs or classes of drugs, both for bacterial infections and for a number of important non-infectious diseases. This book examines this breakthrough in medicine, pharmacy, and science in three parts. Part I shows that an industrial research setting was crucial to the success of the revolution in therapeutics that emerged from medicinal chemistry. Part II shows how national differences shaped the reception of the sulfa drugs in Germany, France, Britain, and the United States. The author uses press coverage of the day to explore popular perceptions of the dramatic changes taking place in medicine. Part III documents the impact of the sulfa drugs on the American effort in World War II. It also shows how researchers came to an understanding of how the sulfa drugs worked, adding a new theoretical dimension to the science of pharmacology and at the same time providing a basis for the discovery of new medicinal drugs in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. A concluding chapter summarizes the transforming impact of the sulfa drugs on twentieth-century medicine, tracing the therapeutic revolution from the initial breakthrough in the 1930s to the current search for effective treatments for AIDS and the new horizons opened up by the human genome project and stem cell research.

During his career as a board-certified surgeon, Dr. John L. Turner's curiosity drove him to explore nontraditional healing techniques that broadened the scope of recovery for his patients, including energy healing, soul travel, astral projection, chanting, and meditation.