The Autoimmune Epidemic [Paperback]

Donna Jackson Nakazawa (Author), Dr. Douglas Kerr (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: February 10, 2009

From the foreword by Dr. Douglas Kerr, Director, Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center

"The Autoimmune Epidemic by Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an astounding book....It is the kind of book that will rivet you and scare you. It will make you angry. It will amaze you with the courage of some of the people described in the book...The Autoimmune Epidemic is every bit as compelling as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle...It is also every bit as necessary as An Inconvenient Truth....

You will leave this book with no reservations about the veracity of the conclusions: put simply, there is no doubt that autoimmune diseases are on the rise and increasing environmental exposures of toxins and chemicals is fueling this rise. The research is sound. The conclusions unassailable....

Reading The Autoimmune Epidemic is a necessary first step. Reading The Autoimmune Epidemic is a life-altering event. It needs to be."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Type 1 diabetes, Crohn's disease, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis—all these increasingly common illnesses are autoimmune diseases in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues or nervous system. Equally alarming, as journalist Nakazawa tells us, is researchers' growing suspicion that autism may be an autoimmune disease, brought on in part by genetic predisposition, exposure of young bodies to man-made chemicals and perhaps viral triggers. Nakazawa (Does Anybody Else Look like Me?), who herself has been diagnosed with the autoimmune Guillain-Barré syndrome, tells of a lower-income Buffalo, N.Y., neighborhood where the growing number of relatively young residents with lupus led one persistent woman to discover that a lot where children played had been a dumping ground for industrial chemicals. She also chronicles the work of researchers at Johns Hopkins and other medical centers who have been able to regrow nerves using embryonic stem cells and destroy errant T cells of the immune system that have run amok. Included are suggestions for foods that may promote healthy immune response and consumer body care products to avoid. Everyone with a friend or family member with an autoimmune disease will find this a must read.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"In this important book, Donna Jackson Nakazawa sounds the alarm about the rise of autoimmune disorders, and the too-often unexamined evidence of linkages to the environmental contaminants we encounter on a daily basis in our homes, schools and workplaces. I encourage every American to read this book and learn about the choices you can make to reduce the spread and impact of this growing epidemic." --Senator John Kerry

"For the first time sufferers from the epidemic of autoimmune disease are offered a ray of hope and understanding about why their bodies have rebelled against themselves. Seriously asking the question "why", Donna Jackson Nakazawa provides answers and a roadmap for recovery which just doesn't exist with conventional medicine." -- Mark Hyman, MD, Founder and Medical Director of The UltraWellness Center; Author of the New York Times bestselling UltraMetabolism, The UltraSimpleDiet, and UltraPrevention; and Editor in Chief, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine

"An insightful exploration of one of the greatest medical mysteries of our time." --Frederick W. Miller, MD, PhD, Chief, Environmental Autoimmunity Group, National Institutes of Health

"Autoimmune diseases touch millions of Americans. Most of these diseases seem to be increasing in frequency. It is most likely that the environment is a major contributor to this increase. Ms. Nakazawa deserves credit for putting this important issue before the public". --Noel R. Rose, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Autoimmune Disease Research

"Donna brilliantly blends personal stories with pure science highlighting the severity of autoimmunine disorders and the role everyday environmental toxins play in triggering onset of a myriad of diseases. As patients and policymakers, we must heed her warnings and demand attention to the causes and potential cures for this growing autoimmunine epidemic." --Congressman Fortney H. "Pete" Stark (California)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1 Reprint edition (February 10, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743277767
• ISBN-13: 978-0743277761
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,837 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Medical Books > Basic Sciences > Immunology
  • #11 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Diseases & Physical Ailments > Immune Systems
  • #35 in Books > Medical Books > Administration & Medicine Economics > Public Health

More About the Author

Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an award-winning science journalist and public speaker. In her newest book, The Last Best Cure (Hudson Street, February 2013), she chronicles her year-long journey investigating the groundbreaking neuroscience on how mind-body therapies such as meditation, yoga and acupuncture awaken the healing potential of our brains, change our biology, and revitalize our cells and our health.

Along the way, Nakazawa unveils a little known branch of research showing the profound link between "adverse childhood experiences" and chronic illness in adulthood; a discovery that helps to turn her own life around. Critics call Nakazawa's "story-telling art" "masterful" and The Last Best Cure "a genuine page-turning science/non-fiction thriller;" a book that will not only "change lives; it may even save some."

She is also the author of The Autoimmune Epidemic (Touchstone/Simon and Schuster, 2008, 2009), an investigation into the reasons behind today's rising rates of autoimmune and related diseases. In The Autoimmune Epidemic, Nakazawa lays out the mounting evidence showing how our modern lifestyles, stress levels, chemical-laden environment and twenty-first century diet have created the ripest possible conditions for today's autoimmune epidemic to take hold.

Ms. Nakazawa lectures nationwide and has keynoted numerous events including the 2012 International Congress on Autoimmunity; Johns Hopkins Annual Women's Health Conference, "A Woman's Journey;" and New York's 92nd Street Y's To Your Health Lecture Series. She has also moderated panels for national symposiums including the American Association of Autoimmune and Related Diseases (AARDA) 2010 Summit.

She is also the author of Does Anybody Else Look Like Me? A Parent's Guide to Raising Multiracial Children (Perseus 2003), as well as a contributor to the Andrew Weil Integrative Medicine Library book, Integrative Gastroenterology, (Oxford University Press, April 2010).

Ms. Nakazawa has appeared on The Today Show, National Public Radio, and ABC News. Her work has been featured on the cover of Parade, in Time, USA Today Weekend, Parenting, and Psychology Today. She has been a regular contributor to More, and her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Glamour, Ladies Home Journal, and AARP the Magazine.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2012 AESKU award, presented to those who have made a lifetime contribution to the field of autoimmune disease, and the 2010 National Health Information Award, recognizing the nation's best magazine articles in health.

Ms. Nakazawa has received writing in residence fellowships from the Corporation of Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Public Policy from Duke University and is a graduate of the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Program.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 92 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars View From a Family Member/Health Researcher March 9, 2008

By Robert Fazzi

Format:Hardcover

The Autoimmune Epidemic is an extraordinary book. "Extraordinary" may be an understatement. My wife suffers from an undiagnosed form of autoimmune. She has gone through many years of excruciating pain and uncertainty. We visited countless doctors, had more medical test than seemed humanly possible, searched through volumes of articles and professionals journals (we both have extensive professional experience doing research), learned the trials (so many of them) and tribulations of steroid therapy and, of course, began exploring an array of alternative approaches, all to limited avail. This is all to simply say we fortunately or unfortunately know a lot about autoimmune disease and better yet, know when we have found a resource that it comprehensive, timely and thoroughly researched (48 pages of citations). The Autoimmune Epidemic provides a comprehensive review of the evolution, impact, potential causes and potential strategies for managing and possibly dealing with various forms of autoimmune disease. Many of the major types of autoimmune disease (Lupus, Crohn's Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, etc.) are explored in detail. The damaging affect environmental factors, some that we control and some that we don't, play on our immune systems are thoroughly analyzed. The personal stories are riveting. The connection and statistics related to the various diseases are made clear. The author, Donna Jackson Nakazawa is not only an accomplished writer (Parade Magazine, AARP the Magazine and author of Does Anyone Else Look Like Me), she is another victim, a statistic but not a quiet statistic in what we are learning is a serious and growing epidemic. If you have one of the many autoimmune diseases, if you know someone who has one or if you are looking for a well documented analysis of the evolution, present status, research and potential breakthroughs, this book is for you. You will be educated, informed and possibly enraged.

82 of 89 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reporting, Riveting Information March 3, 2008

By Joni Pinker

Format:Hardcover

The librarians in my community have had the insight to purchase three copies and have them on our shelves in the month that this book was published. Important? Yes, quite.

There's a web site referenced in the book, from Chapter Three, entitled "Dirty Little Secrets," that includes history about what happened to children in a Buffalo, NY neighborhood. Nakazawa refers you to a web site and invites you to type in the zip code for Buffalo and then read the story that unfolds about it.

Try this now! Go to the EPA dot gov web site using /enviro/emef as a suffix and type in YOUR zip code, then look at the map that pops up. It's color coded with all the locations being monitored by the EPA right now. The water was RED in mine.

So many people I know and love have had autoimmune diseases and/or cancer. This book has made me wonder even more than I already had how this all fits together - nutrition, the environment, our health, our children, our sick or already lost loved ones. If you read this book, perhaps the puzzle will begin to fit together for you too.

Have you noticed how many CHILDREN you see in WHEELCHAIRS these days? I see several children every day in wheelchairs at our elementary school. Was it like that where you grew up as a child?

I picked up a flyer at my son's school last week about dealing with ASTHMA in your school-aged child that's being presented here this week to teachers and parents and families in our county school system. How many children did you know with ASTHMA or DIABETES when you were growing up? I lived in a community where there were 5,000 people in my church alone. I don't recall a single person with asthma in my group of friends, and there was one person that I knew of in that group of 5,000 with Type 1 diabetes - he was my family doctor.

Now, in our 740 student primary school, there are 17 children that I know with asthma and several with Type 1 diabetes and more with significant allergies and even more with some level of autism. All of these are autoimmune or related issues and are addressed in this book. What has caused this and how many more will have to happen before we get it?

This book's footnoted current facts and information about the environment, current medical advances, and many details about individuals with autoimmune conditions and progressions, including cancer will educate many people.

In Chapter six, called Shielding Your Immune System: Rethinking Food, Stress and Everyday Chemicals, there's a life-altering story about a 43 year old M.D. named Gerard Mullin. Mullin was a specialist in autoimmune disease as head of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division at North Shore University Hospital in New York. "He became a 43 year old disabled, unmarried, living alone, unemployed patient with a roaring autoimmune disease of his own, almost overnight." He says that for the first time, he "had become just another hard-to-treat patient that doctors didn't know what to do with." Mullin's personal experiences with his own health and the outcomes that he found to heal himself is wonderfully enlightening for anyone who takes the time to read this book.

Thank you, Donna Jackson Nakazawa for your work. I am awed at the clarity and skill in sharing this very technical information with excellent story-telling about the individuals whose lives have been forever affected, and many lost by their struggles with autoimmune diseases. Ms. Nakazawa has equaled the caliber of writing by the New York Times Reporter David Kirby, [Evidence of Harm] maybe even better.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brings it all together; Eye-opening February 18, 2008

By Lisa Coker

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been learning about nutrition and whole foods (instead of processed), "diseases of civilization", and brain health lately. This book really brings all those subjects together.

Full of thought-provoking, frightening, but hopeful examples of how - in the last several decades - we have created a toxic environment.

The most striking image was that of the "barrel effect." If one fills a rain barrel full of water - even above the top - the water will stay within. But when one more drop is added, the water just cascades down the sides. Many people, mainly women, seem to just fall apart suddenly with one autoimmune disease after another. We live in and consume this toxic soup for years and years, our body fighting it off as best as it can, until it just can't complete with the onslaught anymore.

If you wonder why each succeeding generation is suffering from more allergies, arthritis, neurological disorders, ms, etc. read this book.

If you have had doctors or family tell you that you are crazy or a hypochondriac, read this book.

Identify those things in your environment and diet you CAN change.

Change them.