53 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
WORST BOOK EVER on CFS/CFIDS/Fibromyalgia:, October 16, 2007
This review is from: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome For Dummies (Paperback)
This book is so bad, so full of misinformation, I don't know where to start. I'm tempted to say it was written by Dummies, but that would be stooping to their level. It was certainly written by two people who have NO EXPERTISE w/CFIDS or knowledge of the latest research. Dr. Lisman is an anethesiologist! What is she doing writing a book on Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction? This is like reading a book on heart valve replacement surgery if it were written by a dentist. Ironically, one section is entitled "Gauging Your Doctor's CFS Knowledge".
In all fairness, I estimate that approximately 25-30% of the information in this book is accurate. But the rest is not only not accurate, but potentially harmful and even dangerous to patients clinically diagnosed with CFIDS or CFS. The chapter on drug therapy is full of misstatements. Clonazepam (Klonopin) is mentioned as a potential sleep aid, but no mention is made of the fact that it is habituating and needs to be tapered very slowly when coming off of it. No mention is made of the fact that it may lower white blood cell count (not a good thing when one is trying to improve immune function). Most of the other sleep medications she lists are in fact 'potentially habit forming' or can cause a 'drug dependence". She lists these troublesome drugs, yet makes no mention of natural and proven sleep aids like melatonin, l-theanine, gaba, etc..
22 pages are spent on pharmaceutical drugs, while only 2 deal with natural remedies. 15 pages are spent on Cognative Behavioral Therapy, yet only 2 on chemical and toxin exposure. In this 362 page book, there is not one mention of fungal infections or parasite infections, and no mention of potentially harmful food additives/chemicals like MSG, artificial flavorings or colors...all of which can have a significant impact on this illness.
The author mentions nausea and other intestinal problems, but makes no connection between these and their potential relation to CFIDS. (Hint: 70% of one's immune system is in the gut.)
She spends 3 sentences early on in the book on 'food allergies', while completely missing the CFS connection (although she does later discuss an 'elimination diet' to find out if one is sensitive to certain foods). Her primary solution however is more drugs to suppress instestinal symptoms, rather than test for bacterial or fungal infections or intestinal permeability which may be contributing big time to one's illness.
Thirty pages are spent on EXERCISE for CFS, despite multiple studies that have shown that in almost every case, 'normal' exercise can make the vast majority of CFS patients much worse. While Dr. Lisman does advise patients to pace themselves and start off slowly, she loses all credibility when she suggests the following exercises 'to work up to': BACKPACKING, RUGBY, SOCCER, and TEACHING AN AEROBIC DANCE CLASS!
Another insulting section is entitled: "Weighing the Pros and Cons of Disability."
NEWSFLASH: One chooses disability only as an absolute last resort. To suggest otherwise is just bizarre, and reflects again a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness and devastation of this illness.
I could go on and on -- there's ignorance on practically every other page. Just a review of some of the subchapter titles will give you an idea how pathetic this book is:
"Cranking up your energy level with Stimulants"
"Mesmerizing CFS symptoms with Hypnosis" !
"Finding the Right Personal Trainer for You" (do they accept Medicaid?)
"Ow! My Aching Muscles"
"Singling out seniors: Cranky Old Fart of CFS Sufferer?"
Yes, these are the actual subchapter headlines in this dreadful book. Save your money, steer clear of it in the library, and burn it if you see it lying in the street.
Instead buy or reserve " Hope and Help for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia by Alison C. Bested M.D.", a Canadian doctor who actually treats CFS/CFIDS patients, and helped write the comprehensive Canadian Criteria (definition) for CFIDS.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Lacking in both experience and depth, February 4, 2011
This review is from: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome For Dummies (Paperback)
This book holds little information that you couldn't otherwise read in 5 minutes on Wikipedia.
The authors clearly lack knowledge of the scientific literature, debates about the clinical definitions (eg Canadian Consensus Criteria vs Fukuda criteria). It described the CDC epistemology study as "excellent", when in reality it had major methodological flaws. The primary flaw being that most of the so called CFS cases had never been diagnosed with CFS, since they used an "empirical" definition and it was primarily a phone survey. The "empirical" definition is questioned by many experts, including Dr Leonard Jason. (see Jason et. al., J Dis Pol. Studies 2009)
Secondly, there is a theme that exposure to excessive stress precipitates CFS or prevents patients from getting better. The problem is that there is little scientific evidence base for this, most studies are of poor quality. The first flaw is there have been no longitudinal studies. So implications of stress as a precipitating factor are ad-hoc. Secondly, implications of stress are merely implied, rather than measured - there is no evidence of a biological response indicating stress in a majority of patients. Thirdly, when measured, stress hormones such as cortisol tend to be under expressed in CFS. To a level comparative to healthy controls who are taking a day of relaxation. These results may simply be explained by the fact that CFS patients are often unemployed and therefore have less daily stressors than the general population.
There are plenty of biological findings in CFS cases, to distinguish them from other groups, these findings are not discussed in this book. Although part of the problem of results is due to the likely fact that CFS is not a single disease and many patients are misdiagnosed. (for published evidence on misdiagnosis, see Newton et al., J.R. Coll. Physicians Edinb. 2010)
The reason why there is a lack of good treatments in CFS is simple - a lack of funding. CFS has the worst ratio of any disease in terms of economic cost (see Jason et. al. Dyn Med 2008, Lin et all, Cost Eff Resour Alloc. 2011) and NIH (US) spending. If CFS had a similar economic costs-funding ratio as diabetes or autism, funding would be 30-60 times higher - $150-300 million per year, not $5 million.
This outcome is even sadder, when you realise that diabetes is highly treatable, whereas there are no proven treatments that will mostly resolve CFS symptoms for a large majority of patients who were not misdiagnosed.
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