Environmental Illness: Myth & Reality [Hardcover]

Herman Staudenmayer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 1998 | ISBN-10: 1566703050 | ISBN-13: 978-1566703055 | Edition: 1

Environmental illness: certain health professionals and clinical ecologists claim it impacts and inhibits 15 percent of the population. Its afflicted are led to believe environmental illness (EI) originates with food, chemicals, and other stimuli in their surroundings -as advocates call for drastic measures to remedy the situation.
What if relief proves elusive-and the patient is sent on a course of ongoing, costly and ineffective "treatment"?
Several hundred individuals who believed they were suffering from EI have been evaluated or treated by Herman Staudenmayer since the 1970s. Staudenmayer believed the symptoms harming his patients actually had psychophysiological origins-based more in fear of a hostile world than any suspected toxins contained in the environment.
Staudenmayer's years of research, clinical work-and successful care-are now summarized in Environmental Illness: Myth & Reality. Dismissing much of the information that has attempted to defend EI and its culture of victimization, Staudenmayer details the alternative diagnoses and treatments that have helped patients recognize their true conditions-and finally overcome them, often after years of prolonged suffering.

Editorial Reviews

From The New England Journal of Medicine

Environmental illness is a variably defined collection of symptoms also known as multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome, total allergy syndrome, and 20th century disease. It is currently classified among functional somatic syndromes -- that is, physical illnesses without organic explanations and devoid of demonstrable structural lesions or reproducible laboratory abnormalities. The category also includes chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, premenstrual syndrome, interstitial cystitis, temporomandibular joint pain syndrome, repetitive strain injury syndrome, and atypical chest pain syndrome.

The degree to which these syndromes have been characterized as unique entities spans a considerable spectrum. At one end is premenstrual syndrome, a fully validated and scientifically accepted disorder, with symptoms that are directly associated with the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and predictably responsive to selective inhibition of serotonin reuptake in the brain. At the other end of the spectrum one finds environmental illness, a condition said to be caused by exposure to levels of chemicals much lower than those known to cause sickness in the general population and the only functional somatic syndrome whose proposed definition and mechanism have not been recognized by any major medical organization.

Herman Staudenmayer has been at the forefront of the scientific investigation of environmental illness for two decades and has contributed important factual knowledge about the biologic and psychological dimensions of this syndrome. With exceptional candor, he acknowledges that the writing of this book was motivated by "incredulity, disgust, sadness, and frustration," as he witnessed the victimization of patients by "charlatans, manipulators, and social parasites who offer diagnostic tests which have never been scientifically validated and phantom treatment practices couched in pseudoscientific rhetoric."

These are strong words. And, oh, how different from the gentle composure we were supposedly taught by idolized role models who moved so fluidly from the classroom to the bedside and then to the laboratory. Yet Staudenmayer's book is not a derogatory pamphlet; it is a serious, stubborn, and successful defense of the scientific method as the only avenue for reaching the truth about this illness. After postulating that the testable hypothesis must prove the causal relation between chemical exposure and illness, Staudenmayer describes the experimental setting in which he conducted double-blind, placebo-controlled provocation challenges. Exposed to substances that caused symptoms during open-label challenges, the patients' appraisals of the ill effects were no different from those after exposure to a placebo gas delivered during the double-blind phase of the study. This fundamental finding has been upheld by a substantial number of epidemiologic assessments of symptoms occurring after alleged toxic exposure, ably described by Staudenmayer from the vantage point of the scholar informed by the principles of evidence-based etiologic research.

When all is said and done, Staudenmayer concludes that environmental illness is iatrogenic, induced in vulnerable patients by unscrupulous physicians and advocates. For him, the phenomenon represents nothing short of medical cultism, with the expected moral superiority, rigidity of thought, and contempt for scientific laws, in which much time is spent on rituals, confessions, and group testimonials. His is a courageous hypothesis and one whose testing merits our support.

Reviewed by Peter Manu, M.D.
Copyright © 1999 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: CRC Press; 1 edition (September 29, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566703050
• ISBN-13: 978-1566703055
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,535,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Where is the truth in this book?, May 28, 2000

By 

"arealtruthseeker" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Environmental Illness: Myth & Reality (Hardcover)

This book has all the makings of a person who has no concept of this illness. A man who hasn't the MEDICAL training to understand the systemic ramifications of toxic chemicals on the human system.

Mr. Staudenmayer is an independent consultant to the insurance industry and is using cigarette science to make up for his lack of knowledge and current research on this illness. More and more physicians are seeing that the human body is not able to process all the chemcials that they are in contact with in a normal day.

If these so called chemicals are safe, which he alludes to in his book, why is the government calling for MAJOR investigations on the safety of over 2000 chemicals by the year 2004?

Mr. Staudenmayer needs to learn to do research not reiterate publications of an industry that sponsors him.

I would NOT recommend this book to anyone, as the facts are not true, his alliance to the chemical industry precludes him from making an unbiased assessment of this illness.

13 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I Wish This Author Could Experience Environmental Illness., April 28, 2000

By 

A Book Lover "Carol" (ny USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Environmental Illness: Myth & Reality (Hardcover)

This author wrote a book about something that he was determined to find does not exist except in the minds of those who are afflicted with it. He is right that there are a lot of charletans out there ready and willing to take your money but there is more to multiple chemical sensitivity than a mental predisposition to it. This author is in the dark ages and unfortunately, it will be years before the truth comes out. There is much money invested by the chemical, pesticide and building industries to keep the general public ignorant of the problems with many products and their connection to multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and asthma. If you are looking for a book that will help you with any of these conditions, this is not it.

9 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent synposis of current understanding of EI!, January 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Environmental Illness: Myth & Reality (Hardcover)

This book provides an authorative, well researched examination of the phenomena of environmental illness. It is a "must read" for anyone who has any interest in this area.