Customer Reviews

Hope and Help for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia (Second Edition) (Hope & Help for)

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A MUST READ! In a personal, informal manner, the authors explain these complex illnesses in layman's language. They offer patients -

HOPE through knowledge and understanding:
* Learn about the exciting advances in research.
* Understand how the mechanisms of multi-system abnormalities cause the array of seemingly unrelated symptoms and how diagnoses are made.
* Learn about the potential benefits and limitations of various mainstream medical and complementary treatments.

HELP through awareness and guidance:
* Become aware of what you can do to help yourself.
* Learn how to improve your quality of life through various life-style changes and Self-Help-Strategies such as pacing and energy conservation, sleep hygiene, pain management and nutritional/dietary support.
* Learn mind-body techniques to lessen stress.
* Become aware of how to deal with disability and associated legal issues.

Authors are experts in their field:
Dr. Alison Bested, a hematological pathologist, is a clinician and medical lecturer specializing in chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and multiple chemical sensitivities. She was a member of the Expert Medical Consensus Panel, selected by Health Canada, which developed the Canadian Consensus Document for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She played a key role in the implementation of a billing code and time-based billing for chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia by the Ontario Medical Association. Dr. Alan Logan is a graduate of the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine and Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has published numerous papers and is the Nutrition Editor of the International Journal of Naturopathic Medicine. Mr. Russell Howe is a well-known attorney who specializes in medical disability cases.

Hope and Help for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia is a valuable and uplifting patients' resource, which we are pleased to advertise on our website!

Marjorie van de Sande, B Ed, Grad Dip Ed
Consensus Coordinator for Canadian Consensus Documents for ME/CFS and FMS
National ME/FM Action Network, Advisor & Webmaster

Hope and Help for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia (Second Edition) (Hope & Help for)

I've had this illness for 20 years and have, during this time, read any new information that comes out. I'm currently beginning to see a doctor in Dr Nancy Klimas' clinic at the University of Miami Medical Center and she recommended this book. It was easy to read but packed with information. Even though I knew much of it, having it all together in one place was extremely helpful, all the way down to charts for making sure you build in your rest periods to treatment options to supplements that help to research to alternative therapies. I would recommend this to anyone with CFS or Fibromyalgia.

Good overview of available treatment options for FMS and CFS. Since they often strike together, it's nice to have information on both in one book. Buyer should remember that not all treatment modalities work for everyone. If read and shared with an open mind this book can be a good way to encourage those who haven't found the right treatment/medication regimen yet to press on until they do.

My doctor recommended this book and it was as good as she described. She told me that if I want to really see scientific evidence presented for various modalities to help with chronic fatigue, this was an excellent book to read. I am very skeptical about supplements, such as coq10, which my doctor insists I need. This book provided a lot of information that was new to me and gave a very measured and, I think, objective view of what does and doesn't work. In fact, I originally got the book from the library as I'm so tired of buying books before I know if they are really worth owning! After reading it, I immediately bought a copy as I will be marking it up and using it over and over. So much is changing and coming to light that parts of this book may be out of date, but it is an overall excellent resource to help manage this debilitating condition. In fact, the author has provided daily activity sheets that I have begun using (imperfectly), but they have already shown me that I do far too much and don't get enough rest. I think every chronic fatigue patient should read this book.

Allow me to state bias, which is that of being employed with a national charity for FM & CFS in Canada. We link to the book from our site, fm-cfs.ca and know the value of the book - its ability to help patients and practitioners get better results.

You may not know, but the authors behind this book are truly leaders in the FM & CFS community. Dr. Bested has put years of on-going strategic effort into advancing the community's cause, with success after success, and of course, working with others. Just to say, the authors are in a position to know a great deal, and have respect from the community.

One success, Spring 2006: one of the authors plays a key role in the campaign to get new billing codes and higher compensation rates for physicians in Ontario. This is a first in Canada which will help all the other Provinces.

Read their book, these are trustworthy authors, and learn what they know about dealing with FM & CFS.

John Ernst
fm-cfs.ca

This book was the most helpful book I have read on Fibromyalgia. It was a book that was also recommended by my doctor.

Many patients are told 'CFS' is never fatal, and it is why we push ourselves so hard and end up so so ill. (It is a big part of why I am now housebound and bedbound, and ridiculously ill.) Some of us even die.

Of course 'CFS' isn't fatal, but M.E. is and many with M.E. are told incorrectly that what they have is 'CFS.'

'CFS' however isn't just a misdiagnosis for M.E. patients, it's a misdiagnosis for everyone, always.

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'!)

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.

Some of the diseases misdiagnosed as 'CFS' ARE fatal despite what this book claims. All patients given this misdiagnosis need a corect diagnosis and treatment finally. The needless deaths need to stop!

Jodi Bassett, HFME