Conquering Lyme Disease

Conquering Lyme Disease
Author: Brian A. Fallon
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2017-12-12
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0231545185

Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in the United States, with more than 300,000 cases diagnosed each year. However, doctors are deeply divided on how to diagnose and treat it, giving rise to the controversy known as the “Lyme Wars.” Firmly entrenched camps have emerged, causing physicians, patient communities, and insurance providers to be pitted against one another in a struggle to define Lyme disease and its clinical challenges. Health care providers may not be aware of its diverse manifestations or the limitations of diagnostic tests. Meanwhile, patients have felt dismissed by their doctors and confused by the conflicting opinions and dubious self-help information found online. In this authoritative book, the Columbia University Medical Center physicians Brian A. Fallon and Jennifer Sotsky explain that, despite the vexing “Lyme Wars,” there is cause for both doctors and patients to be optimistic. The past decade’s advances in precision medicine and biotechnology are reshaping our understanding of Lyme disease and accelerating the discovery of new tools to diagnose and treat it, such that the great divide previously separating medical communities is now being bridged. Drawing on both extensive clinical experience and cutting-edge research, Fallon, Sotsky, and their colleagues present these paradigm-shifting breakthroughs in language accessible to both sides. They clearly explain the immunologic, infectious, and neurologic basis of chronic symptoms, the cognitive and psychological impact of the disease, as well as current and emerging diagnostic tests, treatments, and prevention strategies. Written for the educated patient and health care provider seeking to learn more, Conquering Lyme Disease gives an up-to-the-minute overview of the science that is transforming the way we address this complex illness. It argues forcefully that the expanding plague of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases can be confronted successfully and may soon even be reversed.

The Deep Places

The Deep Places
Author: Ross Douthat
Publisher: Convergent Books
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2021-10-26
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0593237366

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the New York Times columnist tells the story of his five-year struggle with a disease that officially doesn’t exist, exploring the limits of modern medicine, the stories that we unexpectedly fall into, and the secrets that only suffering reveals. “A powerful memoir about our fragile hopes in the face of chronic illness.”—Kate Bowler, bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, D.C., to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain--a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which according to CDC definitions does not actually exist: the chronic form of Lyme disease, a hotly contested condition that devastates the lives of tens of thousands of people but has no official recognition--and no medically approved cure. From a rural dream house that now felt like a prison, Douthat's search for help takes him off the map of official medicine, into territory where cranks and conspiracies abound and patients are forced to take control of their own treatment and experiment on themselves. Slowly, against his instincts and assumptions, he realizes that many of the cranks and weirdos are right, that many supposed "hypochondriacs" are victims of an indifferent medical establishment, and that all kinds of unexpected experiences and revelations lurk beneath the surface of normal existence, in the places underneath. The Deep Places is a story about what happens when you are terribly sick and realize that even the doctors who are willing to treat you can only do so much. Along the way, Douthat describes his struggle back toward health with wit and candor, portraying sickness as the most terrible of gifts. It teaches you to appreciate the grace of ordinary life by taking that life away from you. It reveals the deep strangeness of the world, the possibility that the reasonable people might be wrong, and the necessity of figuring out things for yourself. And it proves, day by dreadful day, that you are stronger than you ever imagined, and that even in the depths there is always hope.

Lyme

Lyme
Author: Mary Beth Pfeiffer
Publisher: Island Press
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2018-04-17
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 1610918444

"Superbly written and researched." --Booklist "Builds a strong case." --Kirkus Lyme disease is spreading rapidly around the globe as ticks move into places they could not survive before. Mary Beth Pfeiffer argues it is the first epidemic to emerge in the era of climate change, infecting millions around the globe. She tells the heart-rending stories of its victims, families whose lives have been destroyed by a single, often unseen, tick bite. Pfeiffer also warns of the emergence of other tick-borne illnesses that make Lyme more difficult to treat and pose their own grave risks. Lyme is an impeccably researched account of an enigmatic disease, making a powerful case for action to fight ticks, heal patients, and recognize humanity's role in a modern scourge.

Red Book

Red Book
Author: Larry K. Pickering
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9781581107036

Developed by the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) Committee on Infectious Diseases in conjunction with the CDC (Centers for disease control), the FDA (Food and drug administration), and other leading institutions with contributions from hundreds of physicians nationwide, the newly revised and updated 2012 Red Book continues the tradition of excellence with the latest findings and clinical recommendations on the manifestations, etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of more than 200 childhood conditions. [Ed.].

Bite Me

Bite Me
Author: Ally Hilfiger
Publisher: Center Street
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2016-05-10
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1455567078

Ally was at a breaking point when she woke up in a psych ward at the age of eighteen. She couldn't put a sentence together, let alone take a shower, eat a meal, or pick up a phone. What had gone wrong? In recent years, she had produced a feature film, a popular reality show for a major network, and had acted in an off-Broadway play. But now, Ally was pushed to a psychotic break after struggling since she was seven years old with physical symptoms that no doctor could explain; everything from joint pain, to night sweats, memory loss, nausea, and brain fog. A doctor in the psych ward was finally able to give her the answers her and her family had desperately been searching for, and the diagnosis that all the previous doctors had missed. She learned that she had Lyme disease-and finally had a breakthrough. What she didn't know was that this diagnosis would lead her down some of the most excruciating years of her life before beginning her journey to recovery from eleven years of misdiagnosis and physical pain. She would need to find her courage to heal physically, mentally, and emotionally, and become the survivor she is today. Set against the backdrop of the fast-paced fashion and entertainment industries, Bite Me shares the heartbreaking and hilarious stories that moved Ally forward on her journey from sickness to health. Its themes will be familiar to more than 300,000 Americans diagnosed with Lyme disease each year, many of whom, like Ally, wondered for years what was wrong with them. Bite Me offers readers hope and ideas for how one can transition from victim to survivor, and shares the spiritual principles and actions that have contributed to her wholeness as a human, mother, and international spokesperson against Lyme disease.

Bull's-eye

Bull's-eye
Author: Jonathan A. Edlow
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9780300103700

Provides information on the history of Lyme disease focusing on the scientific processes involved in its discovery.

Rickettsial Diseases

Rickettsial Diseases
Author: Didier Raoult
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2007-04-26
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 142001997X

The only available reference to comprehensively discuss the common and unusual types of rickettsiosis in over twenty years, this book will offer the reader a full review on the bacteriology, transmission, and pathophysiology of these conditions. Written from experts in the field from Europe, USA, Africa, and Asia, specialists analyze specific patho

Under the Weather

Under the Weather
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2001-06-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309072786

Since the dawn of medical science, people have recognized connections between a change in the weather and the appearance of epidemic disease. With today's technology, some hope that it will be possible to build models for predicting the emergence and spread of many infectious diseases based on climate and weather forecasts. However, separating the effects of climate from other effects presents a tremendous scientific challenge. Can we use climate and weather forecasts to predict infectious disease outbreaks? Can the field of public health advance from "surveillance and response" to "prediction and prevention?" And perhaps the most important question of all: Can we predict how global warming will affect the emergence and transmission of infectious disease agents around the world? Under the Weather evaluates our current understanding of the linkages among climate, ecosystems, and infectious disease; it then goes a step further and outlines the research needed to improve our understanding of these linkages. The book also examines the potential for using climate forecasts and ecological observations to help predict infectious disease outbreaks, identifies the necessary components for an epidemic early warning system, and reviews lessons learned from the use of climate forecasts in other realms of human activity.

Recovery from Lyme Disease

Recovery from Lyme Disease
Author: Daniel A. Kinderlehrer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2021-03-16
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 151076206X

From the foreword by world-leading Lyme expert Joseph J. Burrascano, Jr., MD: A detailed and thoughtful road map is sorely needed. And it is in this context that I am so pleased that we have this book by Dr. Kinderlehrer. I wish I’d had a book like this back in the day to guide me! It covers just about everything—the infections, diagnostic tests, treatments, and yes, the all-important terrain. It gives the reader an in-depth, but easily understandable, guide through the many subtleties of tick-borne illnesses. I am impressed with the knowledge presented and grateful for this information, which has helped so many people recover from chronic illness. To anyone touched by tick-borne diseases, be they a patient, a caregiver, loved one, or health practitioner, this book is a must-read. It will serve as a continuing reference as it gets read and reread to assimilate all it has to offer. I congratulate Dr. Kinderlehrer and thank him for this most impressive work. The ultimate guide to recognizing, coping with, and overcoming chronic infection. Lyme Disease is a substantial problem. While the CDC reported 427,000 new cases in 2017 based on surveillance criteria, actual numbers based on clinical diagnosis put that number at over one million. It is now well accepted that 10 to 20 percent of these cases go on to become a chronic illness, and these numbers don't even include those people who became chronically ill without ever witnessing a tick attachment or a bulls-eye rash. In other words, hundreds of thousands of people develop a chronic illness every year. This is why Dr. Dan Kinderlehrer’s book is so important and timely and has the potential to help millions who are victims of this epidemic. His integrative approach offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive plan available for treating and beating this disease. It will discuss brand new treatments such as disulfiram, which is being hailed as a major breakthrough, as well as the use of cannabis to treat pain and anxiety, among other developments in the field. With the staggering growth we are seeing in numbers of people afflicted, this book becomes more important every day. Kinderhlehrer is in a unique position to write this book. After completing a residency in Internal Medicine in 1979, he opened one of the first practices in the US in what was then called Holistic Medicine. After becoming an expert in nutrition and environmental illness, he became ill himself with Lyme disease complex. His long road to recovery has given him insights into what patients are going through; his background in internal medicine trained him to understand the complexities of his multi-systemic illness; his knowledge of environmental illness has enabled him to evaluate immune dysregulation; and his study of energetic medicine, spiritual alignment, and healing from trauma has yielded insights into how to help patients shift their belief systems to being well. Recovery from Lyme Disease is by far the most thorough book available on Lyme Disease Complex. It will provide patients with information that will guide them on their healing journeys, as well as supplying doctors with instruction on appropriate diagnosis and treatment approaches.

The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness

The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness
Author: Sarah Ramey
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 030774194X

The darkly funny memoir of Sarah Ramey’s years-long battle with a mysterious illness that doctors thought was all in her head—but wasn’t. In her harrowing, darkly funny, and unforgettable memoir, Sarah Ramey recounts the decade-long saga of how a seemingly minor illness in her senior year of college turned into a prolonged and elusive condition that destroyed her health but that doctors couldn't diagnose or treat. Worse, as they failed to cure her, they hinted that her devastating symptoms were psychological. The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a memoir with a mission: to help the millions of (mostly) women who suffer from unnamed or misunderstood conditions—autoimmune illnesses, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic Lyme disease, chronic pain, and many more. Ramey's pursuit of a diagnosis and cure for her own mysterious illness becomes a page-turning medical mystery that reveals a new understanding of today's chronic illnesses as ecological in nature, driven by modern changes to the basic foundations of health, from the quality of our sleep, diet, and social connections to the state of our microbiomes. Her book will open eyes, change lives, and, ultimately, change medicine. The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness is a revelation and an inspiration for millions of women whose legitimate health complaints are ignored.