Editorial Review:

Home reference manual for older people and those who care about them.

Merck Pharmaceuticals have edited a clear and comprehensive reference for older adults. Dr. Mark Beers begins with the age-old questions: when does a person become old and why does the body change? The remainder of this guide is divided into preventive and active care for self and others. The list of topics is a virtual everything you want to know about aging: nutritional needs, finding a doctor, understanding tests, surgery and rehabilitation, and long term care. More than one hundred specific medical conditions including fractures, constipation, tinnitus, dental disease, and dementia are explained and cross referenced with useful details. Although a clinical explanatory model prevails, non-traditional methods such as acupuncture and homeopathy receive honorable mention. The guide takes an unflinching look at sexuality, end of life decisions, and mistreatment of elderly adults. Other practical c! hapters are devoted to driving dilemmas and navigating the Byzantine financing of health care. This information is punctuated with essays from older adults--including a cheeky Max Sendak cartoon. The essays, along with charts, photos, and illustrations help to lessen the book's encyclopedic tone. Many older adults and the people who care for them will welcome the well-organized format and richly detailed information of this guide. --Barbara Mackoff

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Disappointing:

After finding the Merck Index an invaluable reference over the decades, I purchased the Merck Manual. Unlike the Index, the Manual has virtually no supportive references for its claims. The Manual can only be viewed as a most rudimentary "reference" book for the relatively ignorant laymen. Entering terms into a Google search would prove a better use of your time than reading this ersatz Merck effort.

Book was a gift.:

I bought this as a gift. My mother wanted to know more about aging and what to expect at 60, what is normal. She seems to be utilizing the book.

Best I've Seen on Elder Care:

This manual is the best manual of information I have seen, and will be recommending it on my website for eldercaregive info for those who want the information in print.

Good coverage -- but a little dumbed down.:

This seems to be an abridgment of all the material found in the Merck Manual home addition of relevance to aging or typical diseases of aging. It is missing some of the detail, and my guess is that there are better books for a more sophisticated older reader, including the Merck Manual itself. It is printed in relatively large type. There is an enormous quantity of common sensical repetition, such as the trope about "people tend to slow down a bit as they age". This mantra is repeated in one form or another... more info

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