Bloodletting/ - , letting/ n. 1. Phlebotomy, the act or process of letting blood or bleeding, as by opening a vein or artery. 2. Outmoded medical practice used as a cure for illnesses ranging from fevers to hysteria. Bloodletting is a frank, compelling and at times darkly humorous memoir boldly challenging the silence surrounding one of mental health's last taboos. A close relative of bulimia and anorexia, it is estimated that up to 1 per cent of the population has intentionally harmed itself - yet for the most part it is a behaviour that goes unspoken, dismissed as the attention-seeking actions of prison in-mates or delinquent teenagers. If you had run into Victoria on the street during her darkest days you would never have known the torment she endured. Confident, polite and articulate she could have been your sister, your workmate, your friend, your lover. Yet from her late teens and throughout her twenties Victoria Leatham struggled with the overwhelming desire to hurt herself, a desire that was all-consuming and shaped every aspect of her life. And while not everyone who feels stressed, insecure or depressed will physically turn upon themselves, anyone who has ever felt out of control will recognise the logic that drove her. Today Victoria is a happy, successful 30-something professional who only occasionally glances sideways at the bathroom cabinet.

The first text on bloodletting therapy for Western practitioners of Chinese medicine, this authoritative text explores the theory and function of bloodletting, and provides detailed instruction on its clinical use. Bloodletting therapy, which works to remove internal and external disruptions to the system through the withdrawal of small quantities of blood, has numerous benefits, especially concerning the treatment of complex or chronic disease. Yet the technique is often met with alarm in the West and side-lined in favour of less controversial treatments such as fine-needle acupuncture, and moxibustion. This book provides a concise overview of its theory, historical and contemporary relevance, and clinical guidance. With detailed reference to the classic texts, the author clarifies the fundamental Chinese medical theory related to blood and the network vessels, and provides an in-depth discussion of the benefits of and practice guidelines for bloodletting. The book includes a chapter on the classical acupuncture techniques of Tung Ching Chang whose work is attracting increasing attention in the West. Through the exploration of classic texts and contemporary standards, the book provides everything needed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the technique and to encourage its use as a viable treatment option in the West. It will be an invaluable addition to the resources available for acupuncturists, as well as students and practitioners of Chinese medicine more generally, including those interested in all Chinese approaches to health.

Winner of the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize An astonishing literary debut centred around four students as they apply to medical school, qualify as doctors and face the realities of working in medicine, from a powerful voice in fiction. Following the interlinked stories of a group of medical students and the unique challenges they face, from the med school to the intense world of emergency rooms, evac missions, and terrifying new viruses. Riveting, convincing and precise, Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures looks with rigorous honesty at the lives of doctors and their patients, bringing us to a deeper understanding of the challenges and temptations that surge around us all. In this masterful collection, Vincent Lam weaves together black humour, investigations of both common and extraordinary moral dilemmas, and a sometimes shockingly realistic portrait of today’s medical profession.

Dr Brain has translated the works by the physician Galen on bloodletting, which provides by far the most comprehensive account of the practice in antiquity.

When competing medical society doctors rebuff his license application, Dr. Jabez Allen conceals his medical practice by opening the first drugstore in rural New York. Dr. Allen and his Underground Railroad activist wife endure a lifetime defined by service, and challenged by loss. Consumption, Anthrax, Cholera, The Civil War and Melancholia. Dr. Allen cares for poor and wealthy alike, including the daughter of a U.S. president, and never abandons the motto painted on his first office window, "No Cure, No Pay." Dr. Jabez Allen's drugstore opened in 1834 and still serves the village of East Aurora, NY. Based on actual events, 'Bloodletting and Germs' is the memoir Dr. Allen might have written.

Over the course of a single generation, without significant discussion or debate, a key practice of traditional medicine was almost completely abandoned in mid-nineteenth-century Europe. K. Codell Carter’s book describes how and why bloodletting was abandoned, noting that it was part of a process in which innovation was required so that modern scientific medicine could begin. This book is a masterful study on the collapse of a traditional medical practice. Bloodletting had been a prominent medical therapy in early nineteenth-century Europe and can be traced back to Greek and Roman physicians. The Hippocratic corpus contains several discussions of bloodletting. Galen, the most famous physician in classical antiquity, wrote tracts explaining and defending the practice. It was employed in ancient Egypt and is the most commonly mentioned therapy in the Babylonian Talmud. Indeed, it was practiced in virtually every part of the ancient world. Even though the practice abruptly ceased, there was little argument against it or reason to believe it ineffective. In reality, bloodletting actually worked. However, the rise of modern medicine required not just a change in how disease and causation were conceived, but also a change in the role of medicine in society. It has been claimed that the collapse of traditional medicine was a precondition for the rise of modern medicine, but there has been little support for this assertion before now. Carter provides this missing support. The result is a fascinating study in the history of medical practice and social expectations.