Body Signs

December 3, 2007
Despite today's sophisticated diagnostic tools, doctors still rely on the same powers of observation they've used for hundreds of years, parsing visual and olfactory clues for information about their patients' health. In their latest collaboration (after 2005's The Unoffical Guide to Getting Pregnant), medical sociologist Liebmann-Smith and medical journalist Egan, with help from a panel of experts, discuss a huge list of garden variety symptoms like dry skin, persistent coughs, embarrassing flatulence and strange body odors, none of which are necessarily worrying, but which may indicate something more serious afoot. For example, dry eyes are easily treated with lubricants, but may signal an adverse reaction to medication or the onset of autoimmune disease; likewise, scaly red patches on the skin may signal relatively benign, squamous-cell skin cancer, but dark spots resembling moles can indicate life-threatening melanomas. Though they do not deal with children's diseases or obvious call-the-doctor-now signs like high fever and vomiting, this volume is otherwise quite thorough and packed with information, a handy and entertaining resource that fulfills its mission "to alert you, warn you, and maybe even scare you into going to the doctor... and save you the time, expense and anxiety of going" when one isn't needed.

December 15, 2007
Medical sociologist Liebmann-Smith and medical journalist Egan have compiled descriptions of "body signs" to help adults differentiate minor physical issues from symptoms of disease or disorder. Covering head to toe in nine chapters is ambitious, but the authors do not claim comprehensiveness. The descriptions for a tingling posterior, streaked nails, extreme flatulence, and other signs are brief; simple graphics illustrate concepts or anatomy. Scattered throughout are "signposts," captions meant to inform or warn but more often distract the reader; some don't match the adjacent text, and at least two appear twice in the galley copy. The nonalphabetic arrangement of body signs also makes access challenging, and some of the content is irrelevant for lay readers, e.g., the signpost on CREST, a physicians' mnemonic for detecting limited scleroderma. Ultimately, this blend of important information with entertaining tidbits is awkward and hard to navigate. Not recommended.Lois K. Merry, Keene State Coll., NH

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