Good Human Anatomy and Physiology textbooks

[cronxeh]

Can anyone recommend a good textbook on A&P? I've seen a few on amazon but it did not quite have a feel to it. Also the Schaum's outline of Human A&P 2nd edition is over 10 years old :yuck:


This one https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805359095/?tag=pfamazon01-20 looks promising. Anyone have anything better?

 

[Moonbear]

What level are you looking for? Do you want something introductory, or more advanced, such as something intended for a graduate or medical level course? At a more advanced level, anatomy and physiology are usually taught as separate courses, but at an introductory level, you can find the combined anatomy and physiology texts.

 

[cronxeh]

I have Clinically Oriented Anatomy, I guess I only need Physiology textbook. Can you recommend anything good?

 

[Moonbear]

It'll depend a bit on what you're looking for and at what level.

An easy one to read to just gather quick facts is Ganong's text. A very comprehensive, in-depth text, but hard to read (not a beginner text at all) is Guyton and Hall's Medical Physiology. Berne and Levy's Physiology text is almost as comprehensive as Guyton's, but a bit easier to read. The Guyton and Hall and the Berne and Levy text have some different strengths, so you'll find people who prefer one or the other for their classes generally based on their own biases of which material they like to emphasize (my physiology course as an undergrad used Berne and Levy because our professor was a cardiovascular physiologist and that text has better cardiovascular chapters than Guyton's).

One that is not as good in terms of depth of material, but is easier to read at an introductory level (I've heard a lot more complaints about it when used for upper level courses though, that it's very inadequate) is Vander, Sherman and Luciano.

My thought is if you're looking for a reference text to just read a section here and there at your leisure, and don't need to get through it all in a short time, and have time to look up other texts in a library if it gets over your head, then the Guyton text is the best one. You might want to borrow the Vander text from a library for a quick review, but I wouldn't recommend spending the money to buy it as a reference.

Anyway, those are the major texts used in physiology courses. They each have some pros and cons and people choose different texts based on the level the course is being taught at, and will sometimes supplement material from other texts for some chapters. Unfortunately, none of them is going to make everyone happy in every subject, and that likely reflects the areas of expertise of the authors.

 

[cronxeh]

Thanks Moonie

The index on Guyton and Hall's Medical Physiology is 85 pages long

I think ill get that one :tongue2:

 

[Proton Soup]

i used the Kapit and Elson coloring book to learn anatomy. seriously.