• This classic textbook has been completely redesigned to improve readabilty and highlight key points.
• Includes new and redrawn figures and extensive new material
• Summary boxes facilitate retention of facts while end of chapter MCQs allow students to test their understanding of key concepts.
• Further reading recommendations allow students to explore respective chapter topics in greater depth.
• The book will be accompanied by an Online Resource Centre containing valuable teaching and learning resources for both lecturers and students.

New to this edition

• New material includes the discussion of osmolarity, osmotic pressure and tonicity; steroid and thyroid hormone receptors; iron absorption and its regulation by hepcidin; circadian rhythms; carbohydrate absorption in the small intestine; autonomic failure; the renal handling of uric acid; clinical aspects of electrocardiography and heart sounds; multiple organ and failure.
• Approximately 30 new figures have been added, while a further 40 have been revised.
• Increased emphasis on the insights that physiology provides for clinical medicine.
• Many new feature boxes improve readability and aid understanding.
• The bibliography has been updated and expanded.

Readership: Undergraduate medical and dental students. Students of physiology or human biology, preclinical, pharmacology and physiotherapy students will also find this book useful. The secondary markets include those studying nursing, sports science, health and exercise sciences, nutrition, chiropractice, osteopathy. This book is also supplementary reading for applied biology students with a human interest and medical pharmacologists.

Gillian Pocock, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Canterbury Christchurch University College, UK, and Christopher D Richards, Professor of Experimental Physiology, Department of Physiology, University College London, UK

1: What is physiology?
2: The chemical constitution of the body
3: Introducing cells
4: The transport functions of the plasma membrane
5: Principles of cell signaling
6: Nerve cells and their connections
7: Muscle
8: Sensory systems
9: The physiology of motor systems
10: The autonomic nervous system
11: Some aspects of higher nervous function
12: The hormonal regulation of the body
13: The properties of blood
14: Defense against infection: inflammation and immunity
15: The heart and circulation
16: The respiratory system
17: The kidney and the regulation of the internal environment
18: The digestive system
19: The nutritional needs of the body
20: The physiology of the male and female productive systems
21: Fertilization, pregnancy and lactation
22: Fetal and neonatal physiology
23: The control of growth
24: Energy balance and the control of metabolic rate
25: The physiology of exercise
26: The regulation of body temperature
27: The regulation of plasma glucose
28: The regulation of body fluid volume
29: Acid-base balance
30: The physiology of high altitude and diving
31: Clinical physiology