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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Field sports: fishing, hunting, shooting > Fishing, angling
This book is about the author's life motivated by two pursuits:
medicine, his profession and flyfishing, his favourite recreation.
Each in their own way has provided him with challenges, enjoyment
and fulfilment.The book recounts the author's experiences as a
wartime school boy, post-war medical student, army doctor in Ghana,
and medical research worker at Hammersmith Hospital, London, the
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, the Methodist Hospital,
Houston and McGill University, Montreal. It describes his drastic
change in mid-career from gastroenterology to clinical lipidology
and his subsequent efforts to promote the lipid hypothesis of
atherosclerosis in the face of entrenched opposition from some
members of the cardiological establishment. Among his achievements
was the introduction of plasmapheresis to prolong the lives of
severely affected patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia
(FH), a hitherto fatal disorder, and he was among the first to
describe the efficacy of statins in FH patients in the UK. The book
also describes his leisure time activities including running in the
London and New York marathons, and the hazards thereof, and his
flyfishing expeditions to catch Atlantic salmon in Scotland and
Russia, bonefish in the Bahamas and brown trout in England.The
narrative covers the period from the Second World War to the
present day, during which there have been dramatic changes in
medical practice and social attitudes. It reflects the author's
experiences during the latter half of the 20th century, stretching
from the early days of penicillin to the introduction of statins,
and it concludes with his up to date appraisal of recent and
exciting advances in cholesterol-lowering therapy for
cardiovascular disease.
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