Customer Reviews

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome For Dummies

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

The book is large but the information is the same you get in any book on Chronic Fatique Syndrome but too much filler to create a regular size book from the Dummies series. Most of the smaller books I ordered I found to be much more helpful.

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.

I agree with another reviewer that an anesthesiologist shouldn't have written a book on ME. Only a real specialist should right a book on this complicated disease whose science is very confusing if one has not both immersed oneself in it for a long while and realizes that those 'scientists' promoting a psychogenic etiology are actually insurance lobbyists who lie about ME. The book thus gives some credence to this fake science such as that supporting graded exercise 'therapy', which actually makes the disease worse, not better. The book is also expensive and big for the amount of info in it.

On the other hand, the author did a great job for a doctor who does not specialize in ME and thus, as explained above, does not fully understand it. She did research the science fairly thoroughly, but again this by itself does not guarantee an accurate book. So she gets two stars instead of one for trying and because this book is not quite as bad as other inaccurate books.

I hope the author corrects these problems. If she does I will be more than happy to give this book 5 stars. For accurate info on ME, pls see the 2011 International ME Consensus Criteria and 2003 Canadian Consensus Criteria. The author is invited to contact me for more free info and guidance. Thanks for reading and good luck with healing!

I recommend Hope and Help for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia (Second Edition) (Hope & Help for) and of course the real ME bible (and my favorite book of all time): Osler's Web: Inside the Labyrinth of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic.

I've had cfids for 3 years. I have read many books and wasted many hours on the net for information. This book is the best I've encountered yet. It has so much information and is all right on the money. She is very practical and down to earth as well as diving into the scientific stuff. Since CFS is so complex she covers all kinds of aspects and suggests things to help cope. As far as excercise, yes it can make you feel worse if you overdo it, of course you aren't going to do what normal people do or do it on a 'bad' day but on decent days most can do stretching and walking. It doesn't help to just let yourself go. I'm surprised at the other review here that gave one star. I say check it out for yourself so you don't miss out on this awsome book as a result of one bad review.

This is a good book with some great information in it. If you want solid medical advice, this is where you turn. Some of it's a little basic, but I think it would be really useful to someone who's just been diagnosed. By the way, Anesthesiologists treat all kinds of pain (a hallmark of CFS) and are certainly experienced in drugs. Yes, drugs have side effects. But, they have been proven to work and are acceptable medical practice.

The book is well written, funny, and immensely helpful. I suffer from both fibromyalgia AND chronic fatigue syndrome, so I know what I am talking about. Please, everyone, give the book a chance and don't let the ravings of one anti-medicine fringe-type scare you away.

Highly recommended as a primer on this difficult subject! Chronic Fatigue Symdrome for Dummies is an easy read that sheds much light on this syndrome. My sister has suffered from CFS for years, and this is the first book I've read that explained what she's going through in a comprehensive and understandable manner. I sent a copy to my mom, who was finally able to "get it". Kudo's to the author for providing a step by step guide to understanding the dynamics to this much misunderstood and malaigned disorder.

CFS is always a misdiagnosis. What patients told they have 'CFS' need is a real diagnosis, not advice from 'CFS' experts.

Illnesses most often misdiagnosed as 'CFS' include Lyme disease, vitamin deficiencies, cancer, MS, Bechet's disease, thyroid and adrenal illnesses, FM and so on.

Many of the illnesses misdiagnosed as 'CFS' are testable and treatable...but only once patients and their doctors ditch the useless 'CFS' misdiagnosis. Many illneses can also be very serious or fatal if not correctly diagnosed and treated, and this includes Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. (M.E. is NOT the same thing as 'CFS'! M.E. is also not invisible or untestable as 'CFS' is.)

The last thing patients need are books telling them 'CFS' can be easily cured or treated and treating them as if they each had the same disease.

People with vitamin deficiencies need that vitamin. People with Lyme disease need certain antibiotics. A correct diagnosis is everything and 'CFS' books like this do not help, no matter how kind they seem on the surface of things. Patients need real information relevant to their actual disease.

Please, if you have a 'CFS' (mis)diagnosis, do everything you can to find your correct diagnosis, do not accept 'CFS' ever as an end point to the process of diagnosis. And avoid books like this one like the plague!

What you need to know is:

M.E. patients were treated appropriately and correctly diagnosed until around 1988, when there was an increase in the number of M.E. patients and outbreaks in the US. Some medical insurance companies (and others) decided that they would prefer not to lose many millions of dollars on so many new claims and so they created a new vague fictional disease category called 'Chronic Fatigue Syndrome' to try to confuse the issue of M.E. and to hide M.E. in plain sight.

Under the cover of 'CFS' certain vested interest groups have assiduously attempted to obliterate recorded medical history of M.E.; even though the existing evidence has been published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals around the world and spans over 70 years.

M.E. is a distinct, scientifically verifiable and measurable, acute onset, organic neurological disease. 'CFS' in contrast, is not a distinct disease. 'CFS' doesn't exist. Every diagnosis of CFS - based on any of the CFS definitions - can only ever be a misdiagnosis. A watebasket diagnosis.

The fact that a person qualifies for a diagnosis of 'CFS' (a) does not mean that the patient has M.E., and (b) does not mean that the patient has any other distinct illness named CFS.' M.E. and 'CFS' are not the same.

Far fewer than 0.5% of the population has the distinct neurological disease known since 1956 as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is an artificial construct created in the US in 1988 for the benefit of various political and financial vested interest groups. It is a mere diagnosis of exclusion based on the presence of gradual or acute onset fatigue lasting 6 months. If tests show serious abnormalities, a person no longer qualifies for the diagnosis, as 'CFS' is 'medically unexplained.' A diagnosis of 'CFS' does not mean that a person has any distinct disease (including M.E.). According to the latest CDC estimates, 2.54% of the population qualify for a 'CFS' (mis)diagnosis.

The patient population diagnosed with 'CFS' is made up of people with a vast array of unrelated illnesses, or with no detectable illness. However, while 'CFS' is not a genuine diagnosis, those given this misdiagnosis are in many cases significantly or even severely ill and disabled. 'CFS' is made up of people with cancer, MS, Lyme disease, depression and hundreds of other unrelated conditions.

Sub-grouping different types of 'CFS,' refining the bogus 'CFS' definitions further or renaming 'CFS' with some variation on the term M.E. (such as 'ME/CFS') would achieve nothing and only create yet more confusion and help to continue and further entrench the mistreatment and abuse.

The problem is not that 'CFS' patients are being mistreated as psychiatric patients; some of those patients misdiagnosed with CFS actually do have psychological illnesses. There is no such distinct disease/s as 'CFS' - that is the entire issue.

Due to outrageous political influences on medicine and govermnent policy, the vast majority of M.E. patients will not be able to be correctly diagnosed with M.E. Most M.E. patients will unfortunately be misdiagnosed with 'CFS.' It is extremely important to note, however, that only a very tiny percentage of those told they have 'CFS' will be M.E. patients. The overwhelming majority of those misdiagnosed with 'CFS' do NOT have M.E. 'CFS' is NOT just another term for M.E.

The name Myalgic Encephalomyelitis must be fully restored (to the exclusion of all others) and the World Health Organization classification of M.E. (as a distinct neurological disease) must be accepted and adhered to in all official documentations and government policy. M.E. patients must again be diagnosed with M.E. and treated appropriately for M.E. based on actual M.E. research. For this to happen, there is a real need for patients (and others) to participate in genuine advocacy and activism.

The bogus disease category of 'CFS' must be abandoned. All those misdiagnosed with 'CFS' must immediately reject this harmful misdiagnosis and begin the search to find their correct diagnosis whether this be M.E., PVFS, depression, cancer, or any other disease. Correct diagnosis is vital in obtaining the correct treatment.

Jodi Bassett, HFME