The Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema Handbook (Paperback)

by François Haas (Author), Sheila Sperber Haas (Author) "The business of the respiratory system is twofold..." (more)
Key Phrases: asthma component, air sac walls, lung reduction surgery, United States, New York, Low Dog (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"Dr. François Haas is an unusually gifted scientist and a compassionate human being."–HOWARD A. RUSK, M.D. Founder and Chairman, Rusk Institute

The bestselling guide for chronic bronchitis and emphysema sufferers–newly revised and expanded. For the millions of people diagnosed with chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema, this bestselling guide is now revised and expanded to offer the most up-to-date information available. From helping you understand your disease and its proper care to showing you how to restore vitality and satisfaction to your relationships, Dr. François Haas and Dr. Sheila Sperber Haas provide you with the facts and information needed to find the right treatment and take full advantage of it. Written in a clear and helpful style, The Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema Handbook now includes current information on useful complementary approaches–including herbal therapy–plus effective exercises and the latest medical advances. You’ll discover:

• How to find the right doctor for you and discuss your treatment options
• How to deal with HMOs and the companies that provide supplemental oxygen
• Which new surgical techniques are most promising
• How to manage stress and anxiety
• How to slow your disease and substantially improve your quality of life
• A variety of helpful resources accessible by phone or web
• The newsletters written by experts that will keep you up-to-date

From the Publisher
This invaluable work offers new hope to the 20 million sufferers from chronic respiratory disorders, teaching them how to self-manage the disease and lead happy, healthy lives. In an easy-to-follow style, readers are shown how to tailor a rehabilitation program to their life-style. Highlights include: comprehensive and practical guidance featuring the latest techniques developed at one of the nation's top clinics; rehabilitation programs that slow the progress of the disease at any age and dramatically improve the quality of life; selecting the right medication; finding the right doctor; managing stress and anxiety; physical therapy; job retraining; an appendix of community and public resources and a guide to other information sources. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; Rev Sub edition (October 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047123995X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471239956
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #366,127 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #24 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Aging > Lung Disease
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Gifted Scientists write a Compassionate Treatise, October 23, 2000

By	M KIRK-DUGGAN "Reverse Mike" (El Cerrito Fellowship, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In July, 2000, my MD pointed to my chest XRay and said: "There's your Emphysema." So I needed to learn more about this total surprise: I went to Amazon, and the 1990 Edition of this book was available, and I bought it, and placed a pre-order for this Updated Edition. The 1990 Edition is superb: it gave me a quick Cook's Tour into my own terra incognita. This Revised Edition builds on the 1990's firm foundation, and adds the break-thru's of the last five years: LVRS [Lung Volume Reduction Surgery] and herbal therapy as two specific examples. And the changes in health insurance practices means that COPD [chronic bronchitis and emphysema] patients must now fend for themselves in obtaining quality and quantity treatment. And this book gives the tools to do just that.

"COPD can be an exhausting and overwhelming burden to live with. Patients [and their caregivers] who continually fear running out of air, who watch their capacities dwindle prematurely, struggle with a heightened sense of their fragility. They and those close to them are usually frightened, depressed and angry. Doctors treating COPD patients do the best they know how to do. The problem is that so many were taught only to treat the medical aspects of COPD--and many [doctors] have never learned since to appreciate the importance of rehabilitating their patients. . . . Restoration to a happier, healthier lifestyle should be the goal of any tratment program -- and it is certainly [the aim of this book] in educating you."

This revised edition is the best there is for the trained, scholarly, and lay patient audiences: it is the terra firma when one is innundated with the contrary and steroid fueled anecdotal opinions one encounters in certain EST-like effort-less support groups on the Internet.

This "Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema Handbook helps COPD patients and their families achieve the kind of realistic perspective about their disease that allows them to live confidently and reasonably calmly with it, and so remove needless limitations from their lives. . ."

With this book, I learned to breathe easily and breathe well.AMDG

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema Handbook, December 2, 2005

By	L. Edmison (Long Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I writing this review with the thought that I owe the authors a BIG thank you and it's my hope to do a little payback for their huge contribution to the health of my Father. Ten plus years ago, my father was diagnosed with severe Emphysema which was causing heart failure. The Doctor's managed to get his heart out of fibulation by putting him on an oxygen tank. They said he would always have to be on oxygen. My father did the breathing excercises in this book and was off the oxygen with in a few months and went on to live a much better life for the next 10 years. He always attributed his health to me for buying him this book. He amazed his doctors. He bought this book for other patients Doctors told him they wouldn't read and follow the excercises. I don't know if they did or not. At any rate I'm now purchasing this for my Father-in-law whom has just had a quadrople bypass yesterday and it was found that he has severe empysema. So, hopefully I can pursade him to follow in my Dad's foot steps and take charge of his healing by doing the breathing excercises in this book religiously!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Makes You Want to Shoot Yourself!, May 23, 2006

By	B. Phelps "bartlcsw" (Roseville, Ca. United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I absolutely found this book repugnant. The illustractions are frightening and grim. In fact Figure 3.1 a wicked line drawing of a "pink puffer and a blue bloater" looks like a dark ages depiction of hell. Everyone with COPD knows we are going to die and that we are going to die younger than our cohorts. At fifty-five and having been diagnosed at forty, this book temporarily robbed me of any hope to lead an even worthwhile life. This was all compounded by the once again grotesque illustrations by Kenneth Axen. Far better and more hopeful is the "Courage" book that offers a story of hope, dignity, and the ability to cope. As a licensed psychotherapist I actually think the "Handbook" could be psychologically damaging to some patients. Since depression and anxiety go hand in hand with COPD, the "in your face" approach to this book is best to be avoided