Summary: Instructive and gruesome in equal parts, this program enters the operating theater with eyes wide open to observe how "fast and dirty" surgery-inexpressibly brutal in the time before anesthesia-led to 19th-century breakthroughs in the area of pain management. Traveling from the Victorian era to the present day, the program charts the evolution of anesthesiology and reviews the trial-and-error...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: The use of hypnosis in medicine has a long history. In the early days of anesthesia, surgeons often used the trance-inducing technique as a fail-safe measure-and today the concept is being revisited. This program presents a scientific investigation into the idea that hypnosis can reduce or even replace the use of anesthesia. Exploring the merits of making the procedure available to more...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: It can turn a hard-driving, energetic person into a walking zombie-exhausted, confused, and unable to work. This program sheds light on the mysterious illness known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which has no known cause or cure. Case studies feature a former congressional worker who eventually found it impossible to perform her duties on Capitol Hill, and a clinical psychologist whose personal...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Pain has a clear purpose: warning the body of invasion and other dangers. But the connection between pain and the human mind is more mysterious. This program examines various types of pain and their frequently elusive neurological aspects; it also presents methods, both clinical and alternative, that help long-term sufferers cope with debilitating pain. Distinguishing between acute and chronic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: The human body manufactures its own painkillers to ensure survival when injured. This program shows how opium and its derivatives, heroin and morphine, hijack that natural pain-numbing ability. Illustrating the brain's ability to alter its own chemistry when attacked by drugs, the program depicts the process by which brain receptors become desensitized and thus addicted. Tranquilizers-and the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program discusses the development, organization, and functions of the nervous system and the input organs that stimulate it. Beginning with an introductory overview of neural anatomy, the video outlines the organization of the central and peripheral nervous systems and the processes of sensation, transduction, and perception. In addition, the senses of vision, hearing, taste, smell, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The human brain is made up of the same biological building blocks as the rest of the body, and yet somehow it manages to generate consciousness. In this program, Dr. Susan Greenfield seeks to understand the human body's most remarkable phenomenon-and explains why the existence of each mind's private world of experiences and feelings is actually more incredible than the fact that life on Earth...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Which is more enjoyable-the satisfaction of desire, or the sensation of longing itself? This program looks at the emotional, neurological, and genetic aspects of seeking and gaining pleasure, analyzing close ties between the search for gratification and the preservation of self and species. Examining a wide range of ways to follow one's bliss-including sex, artistic creation, the consumption of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007