I HAVE IBS...Now What?!!!: A Comprehensive Guide for Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (English and Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Dr. Ashkan Farhadi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 20, 2007

The goal of this book is to increase your basic knowledge about Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and potential treatments of this common problem. In this book, I have tried to elaborate on several aspects of this disorder and to answer frequently asked questions. The format of the book is 'question and answer' or 'Q and A'. These are real questions and answers that have been asked by patients and answered by me. The format is very similar to what occurs during a typical visit to your physician's office. Thus, you would save a lot of time and money by going through this book. Additionally, the language of the book is straightforward, in an effort to enable individuals with a non-medical background to understand the basic concepts of IBS. There are currently numerous publications that address Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Many of them are good resources for patients with IBS and most of them are really comprehensive. The advantage of this book over other publications is in the simplicity of the content and emphasis on subtle but important issues that you confront in your daily life. I tried to avoid discussing complicated and impractical issues to ensure that you will easily grasp the major issues related to IBS. My aim is to create a realistic impression of the disorder in your mind. This knowledge not only will improve your understanding of the disorder, but also will provide you with new insight into treatment options. I believe this simple but broad view of the disorder reduces most of your fears and anxiety about IBS and offers you increased confidence and control over your illness. The idea and inspiration of this book occurred to me while I was answering questions that patients usually raise during typical office visits. I thought that by putting these questions and answers in a small booklet, I would save a lot of time for both my patients and myself. I never intended to publish this book on a large scale basis. However, within a short time, 10,000 copies of the first edition were sold and the second edition was published shortly thereafter. The book was very successful and received extremely positive feedback. In this edition, I present the most up to date information and recent advances in the field. I also used the help of several consultants in writing this new edition. Adding their knowledge as well as more than 10 years of experience in diagnosis, treatment and research in this field, I believe this book presents cutting-edge information about IBS in simple terms and helps you to understand the problem. This knowledge will not only increase your coping capability, it will help you to be an effective part of a management team. Here, I use a lot of medical terminology and jargon that you may have already heard of in your numerous medical encounters. However, simple explanations of these words are presented throughout the book. The creation of this book is a wonderful project and was accomplished because of contribution of many particularly all of the patients who have shared their stories with me and were real inspiration of this project. Also, I am very grateful to my consultants who shared their wisdom and knowledge to readers of this book. Thank you all for a job well done. Ashkan Farhadi, MD, MS, FACG

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (July 20, 2007)
• Language: English, Spanish
• ISBN-10: 1419671820
• ISBN-13: 978-1419671821
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,010,721 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of IBS! Great format for patients!, August 2, 2007

By 

A.B.B. - See all my reviews

This review is from: I HAVE IBS...Now What?!!!: A Comprehensive Guide for Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (English and Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

As a health educator who works in the field of gastroenterology, I highly recommend this book. Dr. Ashkan Farhadi has written an exceptionally informative book for patients to learn about irritable bowel syndrome in an easy question and answer format. This book utilizes many of the medical terms that a patient will hear in their doctor visits. The book covers many aspects of the disease, not only the basics for the newly diagnosed, but includes the latest research and information about alternative treatments for IBS.

Dr. Farhadi has also created a website for patients with further information and the ability to ask additional questions which were not addressed in the book. [...]

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understandable AND comprehensive, August 16, 2007

By 

E. Anderson (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I HAVE IBS...Now What?!!!: A Comprehensive Guide for Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (English and Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

From a patient's perspective, I found the question/answer format to be very helpful. I did appreciate the inclusion of medical terminology, even though the text is meant for a consumer audience. I often find that some patient education texts tend to "dumb down" their information for the average medical consumer, but I don't find this practice helpful. The inclusion of actual medical terms is very useful to the patient who may be hearing these terms during a patient visit.

Overall, the text is excellently written and very helpful.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, August 10, 2007

By 

LH - See all my reviews

This review is from: I HAVE IBS...Now What?!!!: A Comprehensive Guide for Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (English and Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

The Q & A format of this book makes it extremely useful and easy to understand IBS. You can easily jump from one section to another and in less than an hour you know more about IBS than the previous weeks that you had been reading articles online and researching Google links.

This book also gives you a simple vocabulary to communicate your symptoms with your doctor. It feels great finishing the book, and knowing that you are not really sick and you will be fine soon -- even if IBS comes back again some time (i.e., IBS causes discomfort, but does not indicate a serious health problem).

The book also mentions some symptoms that you haven't even noticed before, which justifies even more that you have IBS and nothing more serious. For example, not losing weight or not waking up in the middle of the night.

My husband also skimmed through the book in no time and we are both very comfortable knowing about IBS. Dr. Farhadi's book is truly a great book and I recommend it to people with IBS or people whose friends and family suffer from IBS.