Physical
Subtitle: an American checkup
By: James McManus.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 255
ISBN-13: 9780374232023
Subjects: McManus, James -- Health.; Social medicine -- United States.; Medical care -- United States.; Middle-aged persons -- Health and hygiene -- United States -- Case studies.
Genres: Case studies.
Description: The author, a hard-living, happily married, middle-aged American, gets a three-day "executive checkup" at the Mayo Clinic and is thereby forced to confront his mortality. He has to survive his own cardiovascular system, inherited habits, and genetic handicaps long enough to see his small children into adulthood. But with so much at stake, and in spite of his terror of death, he may not have the willpower to follow the Mayo clinicians' advice. The book negotiates the political and medical forks in the labyrinth of our health care system and calls for sanity and enlightenment in the stem cell research wars. It's a portrait of the looming mortality of a privileged generation that can't believe the party's winding down, if not over.--From publisher description.