Editing Walter C. Alvarez

{{Short description|American medical doctor (1884–1978)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Walter C. Alvarez
| image       = Walter C Alvarez 1958.png
| alt         = 
| caption     = 
| birth_name  = Walter Clement Álvarez
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1884|7|22}}
| birth_place = [[San Francisco, California]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1978|6|18|1884|7|22}}
| death_place = San Francisco, California
| nationality = American
| other_names = 
| known_for   = 
| notable_works             = 
| occupation  = physician
| spouse                    = {{marriage|Harriet Skidmore Smythe|1907|1973|reason=died}}
| children                  = Gladys, [[Luis Walter Alvarez|Luis]], Robert and Bernice
| parents                   = [[Luis F. Alvarez]]
| relatives                 = [[Mabel Alvarez]]
| years_active              = 1913-1925
| alma mater= [[Stanford University School of Medicine|Cooper Medical College]]
}}
'''Walter Clement Alvarez''' (July 22, 1884{{spaced ndash}}June 18, 1978) was an American physician of [[Spanish American|Spanish]] descent. He authored several dozen books on medicine, and wrote introductions and forewords for many others.

==Biography==
He was born in [[San Francisco]] and spent his childhood in [[Hawaii]], where his father, [[Luis F. Alvarez]], was a government physician.  His father worked as a physician in California and Hawaii and developed a method for the better diagnosis of macular leprosy.  His sister was California artist and oil painter [[Mabel Alvarez]].  In 1910, having received his medical education in [[Stanford University]], he began his practice.

From 1913 to the end of 1925, Alvarez practiced internal medicine in San Francisco and conducted research at the [[University of California]], [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]]. He lived at 3837 Clay Street raising his family.  In 1926, he joined the [[Mayo Clinic]] practice in [[Rochester, Minnesota]] until his retirement in 1950,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Clark W. |date=1995-10-01 |title=Dr. Walter C. Alvarez at Mayo |url=https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)64368-1/abstract |journal=Mayo Clinic Proceedings |language=English |volume=70 |issue=10 |pages=924 |doi=10.4065/70.10.924 |issn=0025-6196|url-access=subscription }}</ref> where he lived at 815  5th St SW in the historic [[Pill Hill, Rochester, Minnesota|Pill Hill]] neighborhood. In 1934, he became Professor of Medicine at the [[University of Minnesota]] (Mayo Foundation) and later served as Consultant in Medicine Emeritus.

Alvarez was married to the former Harriet Skidmore Smythe<ref>{{cite news|title=Bride Born in China|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2040635/bride_born_in_china/|work=The San Francisco Call|date=16 Feb 1907|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> and the couple had four children:  Gladys, [[Luis Walter Alvarez|Luis]], Robert and Bernice. Luis later became a [[Nobel Prize]]-winning physicist. His grandson is [[Walter Alvarez]], a Professor of Geology at the [[University of California]], [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]].

Beginning after his retirement in 1951, Alvarez began writing a medical column which soon became syndicated throughout North America in hundreds of daily and weekly newspapers. The ''Walter C. Alvarez Memorial Award'' is named in his honor and is presented to a member or nonmember of the [[American Medical Writers Association]] to honor excellence in communicating health care developments and concepts to the public.  He is most notable for his enlightened approach to homosexuality and his efforts to educate the medical profession and the broader public about the topic. He is regarded as an ally of the homophile movement in the 1950s-1970s.

''[[Alvarez' syndrome]]'', a syndrome of hysterical or neurotic abdominal [[bloating]] without any excess of gas in the digestive tract,<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|178|Alvarez' syndrome}}</ref> and ''Alvarez-waves'', painless uterine contractions occurring during the length of pregnancy,<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|177|Alvarez-waves}}</ref> are named after him.

Alvarez was the first to investigate electric activity of a stomach and, thereby, became the founder of a new diagnostic gastroenterology branch&nbsp;— [[electrogastrogram|electrogastrography]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Alvarez W. C.|title=The electrogastrogram and what it shows|journal=[[Journal of the American Medical Association|J Am Med Assoc]]|volume=78|issue=15|pages=1116–19|date=April 15, 1922|doi=10.1001/jama.1922.02640680020008}}</ref>

He died in California in 1978.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dr. Walter Alvarez, Writer, Dies|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2040809/dr_walter_alvarez_writer_dies/|work=Santa Cruz Sentinel|date=20 Jun 1978|page=24|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>

His personal papers are held by Lane's Archives and Special Collections.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://elane.stanford.edu/aid/16_Alvarez/index.htm|title=Register of the Walter Clement Alvarez Papers 1884-1976 MSS 16|work=Lane Medical Archives|accessdate=2 July 2010|location=Stanford University Medical Center}}</ref>

== Alvarez' syndrome ==
Alvarez' syndrome is a medical disorder in which the abdomen becomes [[bloating|bloated]] without any obvious reason, such as [[Flatulence|intestinal gas]]. It may be caused when the muscles of the superior abdominal wall contract and push the contents of the abdomen inferiorly and anteriorly. It may be a [[psychogenic disease|psychogenic disorder]]. It was discovered by and named by Alvarez in the late 1940s.<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|178|Alvarez' syndrome}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Marked abdominal bloating not due to gas but to a neurosis of the abdominal wall |author=Alvarez WC |journal=Trans Assoc Am Physicians |date=1947 |volume=60 |issue=1 vol |pages=86–91 |pmid=18917246}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1001/archinte.1949.00230020020002|author=Alvarez WC|title=Hysterical type of nongaseous abdominal bloating|journal=[[Archives of Internal Medicine|Arch Intern Med]]|location=Chicago|date=Aug 1949|volume=84|issue=2|pages=217–245|url=http://archinte.highwire.org/cgi/content/summary/84/2/217|pmid=18138437|access-date=2010-07-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726151035/http://archinte.highwire.org/cgi/content/summary/84/2/217|archive-date=2011-07-26|url-status=dead|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Publications ==
{{collist|
* ''Alvarez on Alvarez'', 1977
* ''Walter C. Alvarez: American Man of Medicine'', 1976
* ''Inglenook Doctor Book'', 1975
* ''Dr. Walter C. Alvarez on Health & Life'', 1975
* ''Gay Liberation and Homosexuality and Other Forms of Sexual Deviance'' (co-written with Sue March), 1974
* ''The New Home Medical Encyclopedia'' (co-authored with Samuel L. Andelman), 1974
* ''Nerves in Collision'', 1972
* ''Danger Signals: How to Recognize the Warnings of Serious Diseases'', 1966
* ''Little Strokes'', 1966
* ''Incurable Physician, An Autobiography'', 1963<ref>{{cite journal|last=Di Cyan|first=E.|title=The Incurable Physician: An Autobiography of Dr. Walter C. Alvarez.|journal=Archives of Internal Medicine|date=1 March 1964|volume=113|issue=3|pages=462–463|doi=10.1001/archinte.1964.00280090148029}}</ref> 
* ''Minds that Came Back'', 1961
* ''Geriatrics: Devoted to Research and Clinical Study of the Diseases'', 1958
* ''Practical Leads to Puzzling Diagnoses: Neuroses that Run Through Families'', 1958
* ''Live at Peace with Your Nerves'', 1958
* ''How to Live with Your Arthritis'', 1953
* ''The Neuroses: Diagnosis and Management of Functional Disorders and Minor Psychoses'', 1951
* ''How to Live with Your Ulcer'', 1951
* ''Brief Psychotheraphy: A Handbook for Physicians on the Clinical Aspects of Neuroses'' (co-written with Bertrand S. Frohman and Evelyn P. Frohman), 1948
* ''Nervousness, Indigestion and Pain'', 1943 (Previously issued as ''Nervous Indigestion'')
* ''Help Your Doctor to Help You When You Have Food Allergy'', 1941
* ''Help Your Doctor to Help You When You Have Gallstones and Disease of the Gallbladder'', 1941
* ''The March of Medicine'' (co-written with Karl A. Menninger), 1940
* ''An Introduction to Gastroenterology'', 1940
* ''How to Live with your Ulcer'', 1933
* ''Nervous Indigestion'', 1931
* ''The Mechanics of the Digestive Tract: An Introduction to Gastroenterology'', 1928
* ''The Mechanics of the Digestive Tract'', 1922
}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commonscat}}
*[http://clendening.kumc.edu/dc/pc/Alvarez.jpg Early Photograph of Walter C. Alvarez]
*[http://genforum.genealogy.com/alvarez/messages/589.html Archive Dump - Alvarez] March 26, 2005 genealogy.com

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Walter C.}}
[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1978 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American physicians]]
[[Category:American Congregationalists]]
[[Category:American Eugenics Society members]]
[[Category:American expatriates in the Hawaiian Kingdom]]
[[Category:American gastroenterologists]]
[[Category:American people of Spanish descent]]
[[Category:Diet food advocates]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley staff]]
[[Category:University of Minnesota faculty]]
[[Category:Writers from San Francisco]]
[[Category:Hispanic and Latino American scientists]]
[[Category:Hispanic and Latino American physicians]]