Antibiotics can be lifesaving, but they are so often prescribed without good reason that they generate more drug side effects than any other class of medicines. On a personal level, antibiotics can cause mild to deathly side effects.

Antibiotic overuse in the larger society has forced the widespread growth of drug resistant bugs, causing a global health crisis according to the World Health Organization.

In this latest in the series of No-Nonsense Guides, Dr. Dolan describes a rational approach to appropriate antibiotic use or avoidance. This handy reference for many of the most common symptoms and illnesses discusses antibiotic characteristics and side effects in easy-to-understand language. As with Dr. Dolan's other SmartMEDinfo No-Nonsense Guides, this book is not 'anti-drug' but rather 'pro-informed consent' with the goal of empowering consumers to consider the risks and benefits of prescriptions for themselves.

Have you ever experienced brain fog, strange moods, or suicidal thinking while on a prescription medication?

Do you wonder if your doctor gave you all the necessary warnings about the mental effects of what has been prescribed?

Do you sometimes think you might not need to be on all those drugs?

Chances are you have not been given the opportunity for Informed Consent, because you were not told what is really known (and not known) about what the drug is doing in the body and brain, its possible side mental effects, what's known and not known about its safety, and the actual evidence regarding how well it works (or not).

Any drug that causes changes in mind, mood, emotion or behavior is, by definition, a psychotropic agent, regardless of whether it is prescribed in a psychiatric setting. Psychiatric drugs have the potential to cause the very things they claim to treat, or worse. Even common, non-psychiatric medications can have profound mental effects.

In today's assembly line health care with ten-minute office visits, often with only a non-physician assistant or nurse, the quick fix of dispensing a prescription almost never includes a thorough discussion of the factors you would really need to make a well-considered decision about accepting a drug. This user-friendly no-nonsense guide empowers the health care consumer with the basics in order to make informed decisions about psychiatric drugs and other meds with unsuspected mind-bending effects.

Dr. Dolan is passionate about patient empowerment and believes being an informed consumer is the only protection against becoming a victim of your medications.

Beware the pronouncements from medical authorities on high...

The good, the bad, and the ugly of the winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine are explored in these entertaining biographies of the world's most highly recognized scientists. From unapologetic Nazis to dedicated humanitarians who carried out prize-winning research while being resistance fighters or peace activists, these engaging true stories reveal the depths of both the human strength and depravity of the people who forged medical progress in the twentieth century.

In Heroes & Scoundrels (Volume 2 in the Boneheads and Brainiacs series), author and medical historian Moira Dolan, MD, continues her fascinating exploration of Nobel Prize in Medicine winners, focusing on the years 1951-1975. The book's many biographies include the delightful discoveries of a honeybee researcher who persisted through the carpet-bombing of Munich, in-depth reflections on the nature of consciousness from Nobel neuroscientists, and even wild, hard-to-believe self-experimentation in the name of medical progress.

Heroes & Scoundrels also provides readers with an eye-opening behind the scenes look at what one Nobel winner described as a few odd crooks in the Nobel Prize business of the post-War era, including researchers engaged in medical research dishonesty and fraud, and self-important scientists who leveraged their notoriety to influence public health affairs. The role of Nobel Prize winners is revealed in public debates about everything from water fluoridation to good genes and bad genes. One laureate wondered, whether mad scientists should really be allowed to police themselves in light of the lack of informed consent for vaccine research and modified viruses escaping from labs.

As put by another laureate, the medical priesthood is due for some critique, and Heroes and Scoundrels will get you thinking.

What is the influence of lowering cholesterol on risk of cancer, dementia, and death?

How have conflicts of interest shaped the national prescribing guidelines blindly followed by most doctors?

How do these medications affect the muscles and the liver?

Patients who read this book will know more facts about these drugs than most physicians, who are unthinkingly prescribing cholesterol-lowering medications very broadly.

Dr. Moira Dolan is passionate about empowering the consumer, and encourages every reader to become familiar with the principles of informed consent by finding out what is known and not known about the safety and effectiveness of common medications.

Dr. Moira Dolan is not preaching against the use of these medications, only providing you with facts about them so that you can make an informed decision about whether you should take them - or not. By describing each of the major studies on statin drugs in easy to understand language, this book illustrates the plus sides and downsides to cholesterol-lowering medications, including a section on the very newest drugs.

The goal is to make you a knowledgeable healthcare consumer so that you can exercise judgment and be smart about your healthcare decisions