This is an excellent guide to health and wellness written for lay people and quite comprehensive in its coverage. This second edition (first comes from 1997) adds about adds 35 chapters and 400 pages to the first edition, with updates throughout the book (e.g., on various drug therapies).It is very well-organized, primarily as 300 plus chpaters written around body systems (e.g.. digestive disorders) or topical areas (children's health, preventative medicine). The book has many short sub-sections within chapters (typically 5to 10 pages) that cover specific topics (skin cancer, glaucoma, family planning) that can readily be found in the table of contents.The book is extremely well written with a very detailed index that makes it easy to find information on specific topic.One nice feature of this book is that it is printed to be about the size of a college dictionary (though with larger print than most dictionaries). It also includes an excellent appendix listing other resources for information by topic, with organizations listed out with their mail addresses and web sites.Click Here to see more reviews about: The Merck Manual of Medical Information, Second Edition: The World's Most Widely Used Medical Reference - Now In Everyday Language (Hardcover)
