About Guyton and Hall Physiology ...

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

sekem

Senior Member
10+ Year Member
5+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
587
Reaction score
0
Points
0
  1. Pre-Medical
We used it at my PA school (98-00). Not sure if they're still using it. It was the reference of choice for the PT students and since we had a well-respected PT program and our physiology course was taught by the chair of PT (PhD Phys) this was what we used. It can be a difficult read, but hey, it's physiology. Some chapters were better than others. I ended up supplementing with NMS Physiology (I love the NMS series) and a few other sources to make it stick.
Good luck.
Lisa PA-C
 
I know USUHS uses this as their phys textbook. I personally like the read. Guyton had an engineering background, so he tends to present information from that perspective.

What is the NMS series?
 
interesting, never liked that book much. it wasted ma time during ma first year. Ended up using NMS and some other good review books. If you want to be seen as a serious student, then read it. But if you want to master phys and pass your exam, I suggest u try NMS.
 
Guyton is our required text; it is a pretty good book, overall, although some are more comprehensive - ie, Boron and Boulpaep, and much more importantly some are more concise - Costanzo is the super star in this category.

One thing that is nice about Guyton is they have some introductory chapters on immunology and biochem that most phys books don't have.
 
guyton is our textbook as well. like one person said, some chapters were good while others weren't.
 
guyton is our textbook as well. like one person said, some chapters were good while others weren't.

Costanzo Physio is all you need
 
Costanzo Physio is all you need

Seconded. My school is very heavy on Guyton and model almost all of the lectures after the chapters in the text, as one of the premier Phys. professors in the dept. studied under him. However after using Guyton for half the semester I switched to Costanzo's Phys. text and couldn't have been happier. She cuts out all of the extra fluff that med students don't need: Less filler, more killer.
 
Thanks for all of the tips on the books! I am taking an undergraduate level Human A & P course to prepare for med school (and to meet the biology prerequisite coursework), so it would be great if I could find some physio review books that will also be useful in med school.
 
G&H is much better from an actual learning standpoing than Costanzo. Her writing is terrible. That being said, her book is a lot shorter. NMS works just fine as well, but if you try and read Constanzo's book, you're going to need something else to reference, because she is dense. And by that I mean actually stupid when it comes to writing.
 
I think Costanzo is fairly good overall like the others have stated. However, some chapters are quite poorly written, for example, the chapter on respiratory physiology; it's so brief that it doesn't make sense to people who've never studied the respiratory system before.
 
I never understood guyton and hall for my life - i think its one of the most confusing books i have ever read. Does anyone have any other suggestions about books that break down concepts more and just have a more step by step approach?
 
I never understood guyton and hall for my life - i think its one of the most confusing books i have ever read. Does anyone have any other suggestions about books that break down concepts more and just have a more step by step approach?

Costanzo. (That was easy. 😀 )
 
I liked Guyton (and 2 profs at the school studied under him, Funk). But I read Guyton 2x's before each exam. The only sections I didn't read it for were GI, endocrine, sleep and aging. But I do the same for Robbins too, I read it for everything. Just depends on one's style.
 
I liked Guyton (and 2 profs at the school studied under him, Funk).

I stand corrected then. I didn't like them, either. 😉

Update: I stand corrected again. One of them is actually pretty good.
 
Our professors constantly rail against Costanzo and misinformation (for instance a passage about diarrhea being isoosmotic as it leaves, when the real issue of concern is the salt content . . . anyway).

However they assigned us Berne and Levy, which, quite frankkly, is awful.

So, I decided to man up and purchased Boron and Boulpaep. Couldn't have been happier. Yeah, it has things I don't need to know, but thus far recognizing what those things are hasn't been a problem.
 
Our professors constantly rail against Costanzo and misinformation (for instance a passage about diarrhea being isoosmotic as it leaves, when the real issue of concern is the salt content . . . anyway).

Could you elaborate more on this? Costanzo has been putting me through med school.
 
costanzo writes BRS phys too. That one is good too.
 
Top Bottom