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Your Symptoms Are Real: What to Do When Your Doctor Says Nothing Is Wrong Hardcover – October 1, 2007
| Benjamin H. Natelson (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Your Symptoms Are Real
""Thank God for this book. It provides the help that millions of Americans with 'silent illnesses' like chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia have been waiting for. Dr. Natelson is a brilliant and compassionate clinician who covers the best treatments that medical science has to offer, along with a thorough consideration of complementary approaches. Short of cloning him, this book offers the specific help you need to work in partnership with your own physician.""
--Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of
Minding the Body, Mending the Mind
""Natelson is the kind of doctor every patient is looking for: smart, thoughtful, empathetic, and supportive. Reading Your Symptoms Are Real is the next best thing to having a world-renowned specialist managing your case.""
--Charles W. Lapp, M.D., Director of the Hunter-Hopkins Center
and Assistant Consulting Professor at Duke University Medical Center
""Do not throw up your hands and give up when one doctor after another tells you there is nothing wrong with you--instead, read this book! Benjamin Natelson is the person you have been looking for to guide you on your path to recovery.""
--Sandra Blakeslee, coauthor of The Body Has a Mind of Its Own
""Natelson superbly incorporates research studies, clinical trials (even on drugs in development), and patient case reports in this book. If you are battling pain and fatigue symptoms but your tests are all normal, you will enjoy reading Natelson's pro-patient approach to explaining the real nature of your illness, his recommended treatment approaches, and how to cope with everything that is going on in your life.""
--Kristin Thorson, editor of the Fibromyalgia Network and President of the American Fibromyalgia Syndrome Association
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWiley
- Publication dateOctober 1, 2007
- Dimensions6.21 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100471740284
- ISBN-13978-0471740285
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Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
If you're one of the millions of people who suffer from debilitating pain or chronic fatigue that has gone undiagnosed, it is possible that your symptoms are caused by an "invisible illness" such as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS). Because your symptoms are undetectable, your doctor may have misdiagnosed you or told you there's nothing wrong, or, worse yet, that it's all in your head.
Now help is at hand. In this insightful book, Dr. Benjamin Natelson draws on his eighteen years of dedicated research into "invisible illnesses" that defy medical explanation to reassure you that your symptoms are real and empower you to take charge of your health with a step-by-step blueprint to wellness. First, he addresses youyour feelings, your symptoms, and the options available to you despite the diagnoses or treatments you may have already received. Next, he arms you with the simple tools you need to seek out the doctors and specialists who are most likely to recognize and treat your symptoms and explains how to talk with them so that they'll actually listen. Finally, he explains the dietary, medicinal, and gentle physical conditioning programs that can gradually help relieve your symptoms and offers a look at the cutting-edge research and promising treatments that are on the horizon.
You'll learn how alternative treatments such as acupuncture and hypnosis and stress relievers (including exercise and imaging techniques) can help ease your symptoms. You'll also discover how to budget your energy effectively in order to work with your fatigue and how changing whatand howyou eat can help you feel better. Throughout the book, Dr. Natelson includes case histories sharing lessons others have learned along the way to taking charge of their health.
If youlike millions of othersfeel alone and powerless against the chronic pain and fatigue you're faced with every day, this book is the weapon you need to take charge of your health and get your life back.
From the Back Cover
Praise for
Your Symptoms Are Real
"Thank God for this book. It provides the help that millions of Americans with 'silent illnesses' like chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia have been waiting for. Dr. Natelson is a brilliant and compassionate clinician who covers the best treatments that medical science has to offer, along with a thorough consideration of complementary approaches. Short of cloning him, this book offers the specific help you need to work in partnership with your own physician."
Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of
Minding the Body, Mending the Mind
"Natelson is the kind of doctor every patient is looking for: smart, thoughtful, empathetic, and supportive. Reading Your Symptoms Are Real is the next best thing to having a world-renowned specialist managing your case."
Charles W. Lapp, M.D., Director of the Hunter-Hopkins Center
and Assistant Consulting Professor at Duke University Medical Center
"Do not throw up your hands and give up when one doctor after another tells you there is nothing wrong with youinstead, read this book! Benjamin Natelson is the person you have been looking for to guide you on your path to recovery."
Sandra Blakeslee, coauthor of The Body Has a Mind of Its Own
"Natelson superbly incorporates research studies, clinical trials (even on drugs in development), and patient case reports in this book. If you are battling pain and fatigue symptoms but your tests are all normal, you will enjoy reading Natelson's pro-patient approach to explaining the real nature of your illness, his recommended treatment approaches, and how to cope with everything that is going on in your life."
Kristin Thorson, editor of the Fibromyalgia Network and President of the American Fibromyalgia Syndrome Association
About the Author
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D., is a Professor of neurosciences at New Jersey Medical School and has headed an eighteen-year program of federally funded research into understanding the reasons for severe and long-lasting fatigue and pain. Dr. Natelson also maintains a private practice and has appeared on national media, including Fresh Air and Larry King Live. His previous books are Tomorrow's Doctors and Facing and Fighting Fatigue.
Product details
- Publisher : Wiley; 1st edition (October 1, 2007)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0471740284
- ISBN-13 : 978-0471740285
- Item Weight : 1.08 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.21 x 1.1 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,214,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #325 in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia
- #1,372 in Pain Management (Books)
- #67,967 in Medical Books
- Customer Reviews:
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Dr. Natelson's writing style is notable for its clarity, and his voice is one of respect for the reader, as he understands that by the time you've picked up his book you've often been patronized and made to feel like an annoyance by many doctors. Often one has to concurrently contend with a lengthy battle with disability insurance companies, with whom you have to battle to get them to understand that you aren't a "malingerer," because of the difficulty of finding what is believed to be "objective" evaluations of your illness.
His easily understood approach to helping you find the appropriate treatment for your condition begins with finding the right doctor for you. (In fact, I wish his section on finding the right doctor were required reading for med school students).
Dr. Natelson's program for finding the right treatment is comprehensive in its discussion of the relationship of depression and chronic illness, and his exploration of various treatments that have found to be effective in patients with these symptoms. And he uses solid research when evaluating various courses of treatment, whereas unfortunately there are far too many books on the shelves about CFS/FM that offer only anecdotal evidence at best.
Highly recommended.
Even though Dr. Natelson's book is helpful for doctors, it is written in a way that is also very easy for patients to understand. If he needs to bring up something in one part of his book, such as problems with sleep, in reference to the current topic, but the detailed discussion of that topic comes later in the book, he tells the reader that he will go into it in detail in a specific subsequent chapter. At the end of each chapter, he includes a very helpful summary, and tells the reader what he will discuss next. These writing techniques make the book easy to understand (especially for those of us with CFS "brain fog"), and also provides a reference book of information at our fingertips.
This book is written in a way for anyone to understand it. It is very explanatory [ in a layman language] of what people with Chronic fatigue syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Irritable bowel syndrome, ..experience in their lives, and why they are not diagnosed, and treated by traditional M.D.s .It delivers truth, knowledge, understanding, of all one's Real symptoms, and most of all HOPE. Yes there is help, read this book.
First he takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the realm of a doctor encountering this mysterious and frustrating disease. As he winds his way through the possible causes and treatments for FM and ME/CFS he carefully explains why he does and does not use embrace one treatment or another. An engaging writer, he draws us skillfully and painlessly into the complex world of ME/CFS research. A prolific researcher, towards the end of the book we gain some intriguing insights into his latest findings and some new therapies I haven't seen discussed before.
Dr. Natelson's views may not fit everyone (not unusual in this field!) but when physician of his experience speaks (and he speaks very well) everyone should give him a listen. All in all a thoroughly engaging and above all educational book by one of our foremost researchers and physicians.
I have given copies of this book to friends with chronic pain and fatigue, but I would recommend it to everyone for it's insights into the minds and realities of physicians and treatments for illness.




