Walter Clement Alvarez (1884 - 1978) was an American doctor. He authoured several books on medicine, writing in his own dry witted style.

He was born in San Francisco and spent his childhood in Hawaii, where his father was a government physician. In 1910, having received his medical education in Stanford University, he began his practice.

From 1913 to the end of 1925, Dr. Alvarez practiced internal medicine in San Francisco and did research at the University of California. In 1934 he became Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota (Mayo Foundation) and later served as Consultant in Medicine Emeritus.

The Walter C. Alvarez Memorial Award is named in his honor and is presented to a member or nonmember of AMWA to honor excellence in communicating health care developments and concepts to the public.

Alvarez' syndrome , a syndrome of hysterical or neurotic abdominal bloating without any excess of gas in the digestive tract, and Alvarez-waves , Painless uterine contractions occurring during the length of pregnancy, are named after him.

Lane's Archives and Special Collections contains his Personal Papers .

Bibliography

• Incurable physician, an autobiography. 1963
• The neuroses; diagnosis and management of functional disorders and minor psychoses, 1951.
• Minds that came back.
• The New Home Medical Encyclopedia
• Practical leads to puzzling diagnoses: neuroses that run through families.
• Dr. Walter C. Alvarez on health & life.
• Help your doctor help you
• Walter C. Alvarez : American man of medicine
• Homosexuality and other forms of sexual deviance
• Nerves in collision
• Live at Peace with Your Nerves
• The mechanics of the digestive tract, 1922.
• An introduction to gastroenterology, 1940.
• Alvarez on Alvarez
• How to live with your ulcer.
• Nervousness, indigestion and pain, 1943. Previously issued as Nervous indigestion in 1931.
• Little strokes, 1966
• The mechanics of the digestive tract: An introduction to gastroenterology, 1928.
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External links

• A photograph of him