The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance--and the Cutting-Edge Science that Promises Hope (Hardcover)

by Donna Jackson Nakazawa (Author), Dr. Douglas Kerr (Foreword)
Key Phrases: autoimmune epidemic, immune fighter cells, viral hits, East Ferry, United States, Environmental Protection Agency (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Type 1 diabetes, Crohn's disease, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis—all these increasingly common illnesses are autoimmune diseases in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues or nervous system. Equally alarming, as journalist Nakazawa tells us, is researchers' growing suspicion that autism may be an autoimmune disease, brought on in part by genetic predisposition, exposure of young bodies to man-made chemicals and perhaps viral triggers. Nakazawa (Does Anybody Else Look like Me?), who herself has been diagnosed with the autoimmune Guillain-Barré syndrome, tells of a lower-income Buffalo, N.Y., neighborhood where the growing number of relatively young residents with lupus led one persistent woman to discover that a lot where children played had been a dumping ground for industrial chemicals. She also chronicles the work of researchers at Johns Hopkins and other medical centers who have been able to regrow nerves using embryonic stem cells and destroy errant T cells of the immune system that have run amok. Included are suggestions for foods that may promote healthy immune response and consumer body care products to avoid. Everyone with a friend or family member with an autoimmune disease will find this a must read.
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Review
"In this important book, Donna Jackson Nakazawa sounds the alarm about the rise of autoimmune disorders, and the too-often unexamined evidence of linkages to the environmental contaminants we encounter on a daily basis in our homes, schools and workplaces. I encourage every American to read this book and learn about the choices you can make to reduce the spread and impact of this growing epidemic."--Senator John Kerry

"For the first time sufferers from the epidemic of autoimmune disease are offered a ray of hope and understanding about why their bodies have rebelled against themselves. Seriously asking the question "why", Donna Jackson Nakazawa provides answers and a roadmap for recovery which just doesn't exist with conventional medicine."-- Mark Hyman, MD, Founder and Medical Director of The UltraWellness Center; Author of the New York Times bestselling UltraMetabolism, The UltraSimpleDiet, and UltraPrevention; and Editor in Chief, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine

"An insightful exploration of one of the greatest medical mysteries of our time."--Frederick W. Miller, MD, PhD, Chief, Environmental Autoimmunity Group, National Institutes of Health

"Autoimmune diseases touch millions of Americans. Most of these diseases seem to be increasing in frequency. It is most likely that the environment is a major contributor to this increase. Ms. Nakazawa deserves credit for putting this important issue before the public".--Noel R. Rose, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Autoimmune Disease Research

"Donna brilliantly blends personal stories with pure science highlighting the severity of autoimmunine disorders and the role everyday environmental toxins play in triggering onset of a myriad of diseases. As patients and policymakers, we must heed her warnings and demand attention to the causes and potential cures for this growing autoimmunine epidemic."--Congressman Fortney H. "Pete" Stark (California)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1 edition (February 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743277759
• ISBN-13: 978-0743277754
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #136,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Reporting, Riveting Information, March 3, 2008

By	Joni Caldwell "reikijoni" (Knoxville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The librarians in my community have had the insight to purchase three copies and have them on our shelves in the month that this book was published. Important? Yes, quite.

There's a web site referenced in the book, from Chapter Three, entitled "Dirty Little Secrets," that includes history about what happened to children in a Buffalo, NY neighborhood. Nakazawa refers you to a web site and invites you to type in the zip code for Buffalo and then read the story that unfolds about it.

Try this now! Go to the EPA dot gov web site using /enviro/emef as a suffix and type in YOUR zip code, then look at the map that pops up. It's color coded with all the locations being monitored by the EPA right now. The water was RED in mine.

So many people I know and love have had autoimmune diseases and/or cancer. This book has made me wonder even more than I already had how this all fits together - nutrition, the environment, our health, our children, our sick or already lost loved ones. If you read this book, perhaps the puzzle will begin to fit together for you too.

Have you noticed how many CHILDREN you see in WHEELCHAIRS these days? I see several children every day in wheelchairs at our elementary school. Was it like that where you grew up as a child?

I picked up a flyer at my son's school last week about dealing with ASTHMA in your school-aged child that's being presented here this week to teachers and parents and families in our county school system. How many children did you know with ASTHMA or DIABETES when you were growing up? I lived in a community where there were 5,000 people in my church alone. I don't recall a single person with asthma in my group of friends, and there was one person that I knew of in that group of 5,000 with Type 1 diabetes - he was my family doctor.

Now, in our 740 student primary school, there are 17 children that I know with asthma and several with Type 1 diabetes and more with significant allergies and even more with some level of autism. All of these are autoimmune or related issues and are addressed in this book. What has caused this and how many more will have to happen before we get it?

This book's footnoted current facts and information about the environment, current medical advances, and many details about individuals with autoimmune conditions and progressions, including cancer will educate many people.

In Chapter six, called Shielding Your Immune System: Rethinking Food, Stress and Everyday Chemicals, there's a life-altering story about a 43 year old M.D. named Gerard Mullin. Mullin was a specialist in autoimmune disease as head of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Division at North Shore University Hospital in New York. "He became a 43 year old disabled, unmarried, living alone, unemployed patient with a roaring autoimmune disease of his own, almost overnight." He says that for the first time, he "had become just another hard-to-treat patient that doctors didn't know what to do with." Mullin's personal experiences with his own health and the outcomes that he found to heal himself is wonderfully enlightening for anyone who takes the time to read this book.

Thank you, Donna Jackson Nakazawa for your work. I am awed at the clarity and skill in sharing this very technical information with excellent story-telling about the individuals whose lives have been forever affected, and many lost by their struggles with autoimmune diseases. Ms. Nakazawa has equaled the caliber of writing by the New York Times Reporter David Kirby, [Evidence of Harm] maybe even better.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for physicans!, February 23, 2008

By	Joyce C. Miller (Annapolis, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Donna Jackson Nakazawa has just about done the impossible! As a medical librarian for the past 25 years, I was curious as to how a lay person could possibly tackle the complexities of the workings of the immune system and the myriad autoimmune diseases that spin off from a system gone awry. Although everyone should read this book, I think the main audience for this book should be all physicians! Donna's research is impeccable - there are no flaws in her interpretation of very complex medical studies. This highly intelligent work has taken the research and made it understandable without "dumbing it down" - and that's harder to do than to write a medical text. Donna writes with a beautiful, natural flair and sprinkles the book with real people (including herself) who have struggled with autoimmune diseases, and explains the synergistic interaction of our toxic, polluted environment with genetics, and perhaps a "triggering event" such as a virus that presents the unsuspecting individual with a "barreling effect" that sends the body into sometimes a fight for one's life as the body attacks it's own cells. That these diseases have increased so dramatically over the past few decades gives us all cause to pause and question what we are exposed to environmentally on a daily basis. I urge every physician to read this book.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars View From a Family Member/Health Researcher, March 9, 2008

By	Robert Fazzi (Northampton, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The Autoimmune Epidemic is an extraordinary book. "Extraordinary" may be an understatement. My wife suffers from an undiagnosed form of autoimmune. She has gone through many years of excruciating pain and uncertainty. We visited countless doctors, had more medical test than seemed humanly possible, searched through volumes of articles and professionals journals (we both have extensive professional experience doing research), learned the trials (so many of them) and tribulations of steroid therapy and, of course, began exploring an array of alternative approaches, all to limited avail. This is all to simply say we fortunately or unfortunately know a lot about autoimmune disease and better yet, know when we have found a resource that it comprehensive, timely and thoroughly researched (48 pages of citations). The Autoimmune Epidemic provides a comprehensive review of the evolution, impact, potential causes and potential strategies for managing and possibly dealing with various forms of autoimmune disease. Many of the major types of autoimmune disease (Lupus, Crohn's Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, etc.) are explored in detail. The damaging affect environmental factors, some that we control and some that we don't, play on our immune systems are thoroughly analyzed. The personal stories are riveting. The connection and statistics related to the various diseases are made clear. The author, Donna Jackson Nakazawa is not only an accomplished writer (Parade Magazine, AARP the Magazine and author of Does Anyone Else Look Like Me), she is another victim, a statistic but not a quiet statistic in what we are learning is a serious and growing epidemic. If you have one of the many autoimmune diseases, if you know someone who has one or if you are looking for a well documented analysis of the evolution, present status, research and potential breakthroughs, this book is for you. You will be educated, informed and possibly enraged.