"What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine--yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison--was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable,...

"A rigorous, skeptical, deeply reported look at the new science behind the mind's extraordinary ability to heal the body Have you ever felt a surge of adrenaline after narrowly avoiding an accident? Salivated at the sight (or thought) of a sour lemon? Felt turned on just from hearing your partner's voice? If so, then you've experienced how dramatically the workings of your mind can affect your body. Yet while we accept that stress or anxiety can damage...

Emergency department doctors should always assume every patient has a life-threatening illness—even though only 10% to 20% actually do. How do doctors manage this healthy “paranoia”? And how do they prepare themselves and their patients for the worst outcome while planning for the best?.

How do you handle patients in altered mental states, suffering from unusual thoughts and behaviors? How do you figure out their story and make an accurate diagnosis? Discover how, in cases like these, doctors rely more than ever on signs and clues from a patient’s family and friends..

A fever that’s actually a sign of a very dramatic, potentially deadly disease. Abdominal pain that’s not caused by illness or injury. Dr. Benaroch uses these and other eye-opening cases as a window into how doctors arrive at the big picture when a patient’s chief complaints fail to reveal the truth..

Are fevers your friend or your foe? In this lecture, learn the best clues to help distinguish between fevers that are signs of a viral infection and those that herald something much more serious. Then, learn some of the common triggers of fevers, as well as doctor-recommended treatments..

You're a doctor 11 hours into your shift, and you've just walked into a waiting area packed with patients. There's an elderly man complaining of chest pain, a teenage girl whose arms are swollen with bee stings, and an ambulance bringing in two unresponsive kids from a car crash. What do you do next? In Dr. Benaroch's 24 lectures, experience for yourself the high-stakes drama and medical insights of life in an everyday emergency department: the most...

It’s time for your last shift in the emergency department. In this closing lecture, Dr. Benaroch uses several case studies to help you review the big-picture lessons of good emergency care you’ve learned throughout the course—lessons that have opened your eyes to the excitement and challenges of emergency medicine and that can help you take better care of yourself and your loved ones..

Doctors are commanded to do no harm to their patients. What’s equally important is protecting themselves in those rare instances where a patient may do them harm. Get an inside look at how emergency doctors handle dangerous situations, including a patient acting violently and a patient suffering from a highly infectious disease..

Emergency department patients often aren’t ready to trust the doctors attending them, since they have just met. In this lecture, learn how doctors work with patients who aren’t completely forthcoming to build trust and coax out embarrassing—or seemingly irrelevant—details to arrive at the right diagnosis and get them the treatment they need..