Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic (Hardcover)

by Pamela Weintraub (Author) "In the year 1993, I spread a map across the sunken living room of our co-op apartment in Forest Hills, Queens, and marked a bull's-eye..." (more)
Key Phrases: tick bite, golden fleece, gallbladder study, Cure Unknown, New York, The Lyme Diaspora (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
*Starred Review* When journalist Weintraub and her family moved from their cramped, treeless home in New York City to a spacious, tree-shaded manse in suburban Chappaqua, they believed it was all good. Or at least the big yard with deer cavorting in nearby woods would be better, healthier, than their city digs. Within a short time, first one son, then the other, became sick with a series of increasingly debilitating disorders. Soon Weintraub and her husband presented a laundry list of similar complaints, many serious enough to threaten to sidetrack their careers. The family turned to local physicians for answers. Lyme disease, an infection communicated by the bite of a tick carried by those cavorting deer, was mentioned but discounted for a variety of reasons. Weintraub turned to the most prestigious medical centers New York had to offer and got similar responses. Hearing one implausible diagnosis after another and, worse, seeing no improvement in their individual conditions, the credentialed science writer began independent research and turned up what amounts to a controversy as contentious as creationism versus evolution. Weintraub turns a tragic (her children are still unwell) yet eye-opening experience into a shocking exposure of what can happen when egos, greed, and peer pressure supercede objective evidence, allowing patients to suffer chronic, disabling illness. --Donna Chavez

Review

“Pamela Weintraub's book is compelling, clear and troubling.”
–Patti Adcroft, editorial director of Discover magazine

 

“In Cure, Unknown, Pamela Weintraub has produced both the definitive book about Lyme disease and associated disorders and a survivor’s account of a grueling medical odyssey. Weintraub is a masterful science writer and storyteller, and she tackles the quarrels and quagmires surrounding this baffling illness with intelligence and pathos. This is an important and unforgettable book, destined to make a lasting contribution to the field of investigative health journalism.”
–Kaja Perina, editor in chief of Psychology Today

 

"A thoroughly researched and well-written account of the disease's controversial history."

--Jane Brody, New York Times

 

 

 

"Pam Weintraub, veteran science writer, weaves personal narrative with hard-hitting investigative journalism to bring the underground epidemic of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases up from under the

radar."

-Rebecca Wells, author of Ya-Yas in Bloom and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

 

 

 

"I sometimes wonder if the only investigative writers who will possess the necessary temerity to remove the white gloves and tackle these putative experts to the ground will be those, like Weintraub and the

late Randy Shilts, whose personal experience demands that they follow the rocky trail that leads to the truth."

-Hillary Johnson, author of Osler's Web: Inside the Labyrinth of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Epidemic

 

 

 

"Millions suffering from symptoms of a mysterious disease need suffer confusion and loss no longer. If you want to know the real story behind Lyme disease and how to find your way back to health, read this book."

-Mark Hyman, MD, author of the New York Times bestseller, UltraMetabolism.

 

 

 

"Science journalism at its best."

--Amiram Katz, MD, Clinical Faculty, Neurology Department, Yale School of Medicine

 

 

 

"Weintraub turns a tragic yet eye-opening experience into a shocking exposure of what can happen when egos, greed, and peer pressure supercede objective evidence, allowing patients to suffer chronic,

disabling illness."

–Donna Chavez, Booklist

 

 

"Exhaustively researched and highly recommended."

–Tina Neville, Library Journal

 

 

 

"A tale of biological complexities, scientific turf battles, political intrigue, human egos and money – lots of it."

–Dorothy Kupcha Leland, Sacramento Bee

 

 

 

"Living with Lyme gave Weintraub both the insight and the dogged ambition to find out some truths ...  rather than remaining stuck at the pro-Lyme, anti-Lyme debate, Weintraub spent many hours

interviewing researchers who are experts in the ticks that spread Lyme, and the bacterial spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi, that causes it. What she found is that these researchers -- at places like the

State University of New York at Stony Brook on Long Island, and the University of California at Davis -- are slowly figuring out how complex the bacteria and the disease are. And Weintraub said, these

researchers, by and large, confirm what many Lyme patients have learned through bitter experience -- the bacteria can cause a persistent infection that may not be treated easily by a couple of

weeks of antibiotics."

--Robert Miller, Danbury News-Times

 

 

 

"The view from inside the tick tornado: Sober but scary ...A science and health journalist, Weintraub writes clearly and passionately about a mysterious illness that has confounded physicians, patients and

scientists for more than three decades, while she tries to balance personal narrative and objective journalism... a comprehensive and compassionate guide to a dreaded illness named after a bucolic,

tick-infested town on Long Island Sound."

--Bill Williams, Hartford Courant

 

 

 

"In the war of information on Lyme disease, patient activist groups have started from a marked disadvantage to the medical establishment in terms of visibility and credibility. That may be changing, and science journalist Pamela Weintraub's new book, "Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic" (St. Martin's Press), could be one reason. Weintraub, a senior editor at Discover magazine, uses her family's protracted Lyme odyssey as the jumping off point for an exploration into the history, politics and, predominantly, the patient experience of the tick-borne disease."

--- Susan Morse, Washington Post

See all Editorial Reviews

---

Product Details Hardcover: 432 pages Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (June 10, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 0312378122 ISBN-13: 978-0312378127 Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews) Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,267 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books) Popular in these categories: (What's this?) #8 in  Books > Science > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Infectious Disease #21 in  Books > Science > Medicine > Diseases

Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
In the year 1993, I spread a map across the sunken living room of our co-op apartment in Forest Hills, Queens, and marked a bull's-eye at Grand Central Terminal, where trains come in from the 'burbs. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tick bite, golden fleece, gallbladder study, erythema migrans rash, living spirochetes, deer preserve, burgdorferi spirochetes, lone star tick, swollen knees

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Cure Unknown, New York, The Lyme Diaspora, Stony Brook, Allen Steere, Doors of Perception, Joe Burrascano, New Jersey, Pat Smith, Ken Liegner, United States, Leonard Sigal, Charles Ray Jones, Polly Murray, Vicki Logan, Shelter Island, Dave Martz, Old Lyme, Yale Medicine, Long Island, Brian Fallon, Sheila Statlender, Willy Burgdorfer, Peter Welch, Mount Kisco

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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!

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	84% buy the item featured on this page: Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic 4.9 out of 5 stars (51) $18.45
	6% buy Healing Lyme: Natural Healing And Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis And Its Coinfections 4.6 out of 5 stars (37) $13.57
	4% buy The Top 10 Lyme Disease Treatments: Defeat Lyme Disease with the Best of Conventional and Alternative Medicine 4.1 out of 5 stars (39) $30.36
	3% buy The Lyme Disease Solution 4.7 out of 5 stars (3) $29.95

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Customer Reviews

51 Reviews 5 star:  (49) 4 star:    (0) 3 star:  (2) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review 4.9 out of 5 stars (51 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews 77 of 80 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Doctor recommended, a compelling read!, June 11, 2008 By  Dr Tedde M. Rinker (Redwood City, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)    As a California physician, I have found myself diagnosing Lyme disease in an increasing number of patients who come to me with vague, multi-system complaints, but certain consistent patterns: living, working or playing in outdoor brush or field areas (gardening, golf, hiking, camping)is the first, but many have only a little outdoor exposure. Second, complaints of the slow onset of stiff, aching joints that get better and worse, sore muscles, that spasm, tingle and turn numb off and on, headaches and fatigue, problems with sleep, an up and down course that slowly gets worse. Pamela Weintraub, a professional writer and editor, tells her story of her family's move to a rural New York community as healthy active people, only to have all four family members contract Lyme disease in the early 90's, and face not only the disability of this infection but also the confusing double talk of a medical community in denial. She tells not only her story but those of others, and in the telling reveals the difficulties in getting an accurate diagnosis, in finding a doctor to believe and treat the patient, and in being able emotionally and financially to continue the treatment until the disease is resolved. If you are a patient with Lyme disease, perhaps you will learn some things you didn't know before. If you are someone who has believed that perhaps Lyme disease is a myth, or that the people who have it are exaggerating, this is the book for you. If you are a physician, and have quoted the Infectious Disease Society of America's treatment guidelines to a suffering patient to explain why you will not treat them, or will only treat them for three weeks- this is the book for you. Those of us who have Lyme disease, or treat Lyme disease, know it to be as devastating and disabling as a HIV infection, and in many cases, as difficult to cure. Give this book to doctors, to journalists, to scout leaders who take kids into the woods, to your friends who go camping, gardening, horseback riding; to your friends with furry pets, or those who enjoy the deer in their yards. We have a serious growing epidemic in this country, affecting young and old. Let's wake ourselves up to proper treatment and prevention. Dr. Tedde M. Rinker, Redwood City, California 45 of 48 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars PHYSICIAN ADDICTED TO AMAZING STORY AND WRITING, June 15, 2008 By  TROY MARKS, MD "Physician" (Maine (United States)) - See all my reviews I have grown very bored with reading--including my own books. But this work is so well done I literally find myself getting up in the early morning, and grabbing the book as fast as my cherished morning coffee. I have struggled for years to make sense of the Lyme instructional chaos, such as eccentric thinking and directions from health departments and the CDC. Some medical societies offer various Lyme "guidelines" and confusing Lyme treatment suggestions that make no sense. They simply have never appeared practical in the real world of clinical medicine. No patient is the same, and the extended lab testing I do, sometimes unveils other infections or a wide range of inflammation residues a year AFTER so called "curative" antobiotic treatment. I also never hear discussions about Lyme's BbTox 1 which is a patented Lyme surface biotoxin in a potent poison family. In this context, the delicious writing of the master of the pen, Weintraub, is such a help, even for a full time researcher and author of infection textbooks. On this one, she is a lighthouse in the storm, who calms and clears the dark water and allows all of us to see the rocks and the insanity in a clear manner. My only criticism is that I will be done reading this book in a few hours. Books of this powerful clarity and fascination only come along every few years. So buy and enjoy. Since I just read the veterinarians have declared Lyme is in all states, perhaps Weintraub's timing is perfect. This is not an infection you want to treat in yourself or your loved ones after many years--you want to get it now, before permanent injury occurs to the brain, the cartilage or other physical areas. 26 of 27 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars HISTORIC, POWERFUL AND ENGROSSING , June 12, 2008 By  Louise C. "Louise C." (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews I have followed this famous author's long and respected career in science writing for some time. This is a writer's writer. And when I recently saw she was going to apply her keen mind, wit and brilliance to the issue of Lyme and the other infections routinely carried by the deer tick plague, I was delighted. I had been to so many Ivy tower experts with the experience of children, and the blind mechanical reasoning of robots, who would look at obviously ill children or other relatives, and sadistically place some kind of Woody Allen joke psychiatric diagnosis on them. Once I even found myself sniffing their breath--no one is this idiotic, are your a drunk? The infections before them were so far over thier skill and knowledge, they were fumbling like a toddlers in a pool, but they were causing us to drown. Many had fancy administrative positions which deluded them into arrogance and the deception they really knew what they were doing with Lyme (and Babesia, Bartonella and Ehrlichia). After a few years of full time reading and almost having relatives and children die, and after all the sages and big name physicians sounded less and less informed, I fired them all and a relative fixed my family. Weintraub gets it. She is not seduced by someone's position with the CDC or NIH. She is an ACTUAL reflective journalist of the old school who is a hard worker, who does not want an easy story, she wants the real deal. She wants the facts. This is Watergate medical style, and I feel it will be one of the most important medical books of the century. Because as IDSA and other dubious medical groups with simplistic clone-like treatment "guidelines," found to be profoundly questionable by the CT state attorney general, will lose the Lyme war, because reality always wins.... But often not until the last act. This is a massive uncovering of the ugly side of medical politics and scams. And yet it is very engrossing and highly readable. If you have Lyme or have a relative with Lyme or you might have Lyme, you really want to be on a solid foundation before you get tricked into being given junk care. I have walked that road and believed in medical Popes. Yet now I know so many years later, there is no single expert Lyme medical group, and certianly NOT routine infection societies who are still stuck in the early 1990's.		Most Recent Customer Reviews 5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book If you only read one book on Lyme disease, then this is the book to read. It reads more like a novel than a text, so it is fun to read, yet it is packed with information. Read more Published 16 days ago by Jack Flash 5.0 out of 5 stars This is a must read!!! This is an EXCELLENT book! It explains the history of the lyme disease controversy, and the corruption of the Infectious Disease Society. Read more Published 19 days ago by A. Koerner 5.0 out of 5 stars 5 Stars from a patient, veterinarian Diagnosed with chronic Lyme in 2004, while I was pregnant, threw me into the Lyme wars. I have read lots of books, articles and web sites about Lyme. Read more Published 20 days ago by Shannon M. Bass 5.0 out of 5 stars insightful, frightening and shocking The four Weintraub's left New York City to live in a dream home in Chappaqua in Westchester County as they thought this would be better for the kids. Read more Published 25 days ago by Harriet Klausner 5.0 out of 5 stars Historically compelling but practically skewed This book is to lyme disease what Osler's Web is to CFS, and yes the two diseases not only share physical similarities but are historically interwoven like fornicating worms. Read more Published 1 month ago by J. Tuan 5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful This was the first Lyme book we read after my husband was diagnosed with late-stage Lyme 1 year ago. A very interesting, thorough book! Read more Published 1 month ago by Sam Manns 5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening Book... Very impressed with the book. Well researched, and I find it comforting to know that the woman who wrote the book is a science journalist with years of experience, especially... Read more Published 3 months ago by T. Park 3.0 out of 5 stars A Frustrating Account I was prepared to have this book confirm my sense that in the course of becoming big business, medical practice has become increasingly unresponsive, uncoordinated, and... Read more Published 3 months ago by R. Schultz 5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for EVERYONE I just finished Pamela Weintraub's Cure Unknown, required reading for anyone with Lyme disease. But really, EVERYONE should read this. Read more Published 3 months ago by Kimberly Kooyers 5.0 out of 5 stars Cure Unknown/ Inside the Lyme Epidemic I am very pleased with the service and the condition of the book. It is also very factual and informative. I am a Lyme sufferer and need to be on the know. Read more Published 3 months ago by Denise S. Smith Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (June 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312378122
• ISBN-13: 978-0312378127
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,267 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #8 in	Books > Science > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Infectious Disease
  #21 in	Books > Science > Medicine > Diseases

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doctor recommended, a compelling read!, June 11, 2008

By	Dr Tedde M. Rinker (Redwood City, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a California physician, I have found myself diagnosing Lyme disease in an increasing number of patients who come to me with vague, multi-system complaints, but certain consistent patterns: living, working or playing in outdoor brush or field areas (gardening, golf, hiking, camping)is the first, but many have only a little outdoor exposure. Second, complaints of the slow onset of stiff, aching joints that get better and worse, sore muscles, that spasm, tingle and turn numb off and on, headaches and fatigue, problems with sleep, an up and down course that slowly gets worse. Pamela Weintraub, a professional writer and editor, tells her story of her family's move to a rural New York community as healthy active people, only to have all four family members contract Lyme disease in the early 90's, and face not only the disability of this infection but also the confusing double talk of a medical community in denial. She tells not only her story but those of others, and in the telling reveals the difficulties in getting an accurate diagnosis, in finding a doctor to believe and treat the patient, and in being able emotionally and financially to continue the treatment until the disease is resolved. If you are a patient with Lyme disease, perhaps you will learn some things you didn't know before. If you are someone who has believed that perhaps Lyme disease is a myth, or that the people who have it are exaggerating, this is the book for you. If you are a physician, and have quoted the Infectious Disease Society of America's treatment guidelines to a suffering patient to explain why you will not treat them, or will only treat them for three weeks- this is the book for you. Those of us who have Lyme disease, or treat Lyme disease, know it to be as devastating and disabling as a HIV infection, and in many cases, as difficult to cure. Give this book to doctors, to journalists, to scout leaders who take kids into the woods, to your friends who go camping, gardening, horseback riding; to your friends with furry pets, or those who enjoy the deer in their yards. We have a serious growing epidemic in this country, affecting young and old. Let's wake ourselves up to proper treatment and prevention. Dr. Tedde M. Rinker, Redwood City, California

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PHYSICIAN ADDICTED TO AMAZING STORY AND WRITING, June 15, 2008

By	TROY MARKS, MD "Physician" (Maine (United States)) - See all my reviews

I have grown very bored with reading--including my own books. But this work is so well done I literally find myself getting up in the early morning, and grabbing the book as fast as my cherished morning coffee.

I have struggled for years to make sense of the Lyme instructional chaos, such as eccentric thinking and directions from health departments and the CDC. Some medical societies offer various Lyme "guidelines" and confusing Lyme treatment suggestions that make no sense. They simply have never appeared practical in the real world of clinical medicine. No patient is the same, and the extended lab testing I do, sometimes unveils other infections or a wide range of inflammation residues a year AFTER so called "curative" antobiotic treatment. I also never hear discussions about Lyme's BbTox 1 which is a patented Lyme surface biotoxin in a potent poison family.

In this context, the delicious writing of the master of the pen, Weintraub, is such a help, even for a full time researcher and author of infection textbooks. On this one, she is a lighthouse in the storm, who calms and clears the dark water and allows all of us to see the rocks and the insanity in a clear manner.

My only criticism is that I will be done reading this book in a few hours. Books of this powerful clarity and fascination only come along every few years. So buy and enjoy. Since I just read the veterinarians have declared Lyme is in all states, perhaps Weintraub's timing is perfect. This is not an infection you want to treat in yourself or your loved ones after many years--you want to get it now, before permanent injury occurs to the brain, the cartilage or other physical areas.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HISTORIC, POWERFUL AND ENGROSSING , June 12, 2008

By	Louise C. "Louise C." (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews

I have followed this famous author's long and respected career in science writing for some time. This is a writer's writer. And when I recently saw she was going to apply her keen mind, wit and brilliance to the issue of Lyme and the other infections routinely carried by the deer tick plague, I was delighted.

I had been to so many Ivy tower experts with the experience of children, and the blind mechanical reasoning of robots, who would look at obviously ill children or other relatives, and sadistically place some kind of Woody Allen joke psychiatric diagnosis on them. Once I even found myself sniffing their breath--no one is this idiotic, are your a drunk?

The infections before them were so far over thier skill and knowledge, they were fumbling like a toddlers in a pool, but they were causing us to drown. Many had fancy administrative positions which deluded them into arrogance and the deception they really knew what they were doing with Lyme (and Babesia, Bartonella and Ehrlichia).

After a few years of full time reading and almost having relatives and children die, and after all the sages and big name physicians sounded less and less informed, I fired them all and a relative fixed my family.

Weintraub gets it. She is not seduced by someone's position with the CDC or NIH. She is an ACTUAL reflective journalist of the old school who is a hard worker, who does not want an easy story, she wants the real deal. She wants the facts. This is Watergate medical style, and I feel it will be one of the most important medical books of the century. Because as IDSA and other dubious medical groups with simplistic clone-like treatment "guidelines," found to be profoundly questionable by the CT state attorney general, will lose the Lyme war, because reality always wins.... But often not until the last act.

This is a massive uncovering of the ugly side of medical politics and scams. And yet it is very engrossing and highly readable. If you have Lyme or have a relative with Lyme or you might have Lyme, you really want to be on a solid foundation before you get tricked into being given junk care. I have walked that road and believed in medical Popes. Yet now I know so many years later, there is no single expert Lyme medical group, and certianly NOT routine infection societies who are still stuck in the early 1990's.