The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance--And the Cutting-Edge Science That Promises Hope

After reading this book i was understand lots of autoimmune diseases around the world and what precaution one should take to avoid it or be careful down the road..

I agree with many of the other reviews - everyone in the medical community should read this book. It is not only extremely well-written and thoroughly researched, but it also conveys the true anguish and fear that patients with autoimmune disease experience. I had to take numerous breaks from reading because it was so emotionally draining. Donna is a phenomenol writer who is able to truly get to the heart of this problem by enabling the reader to "feel" the impact of autoimmune disease through the personal stories of several people (not just her own, and not just lupus as another reviewer implied). I have actually found a real appreciation for my own body, as I have 4 different autoimmune disorders, but thankfully none have caused me the severe disability that others have experienced. I am happy Donna covered the dietary approaches to managing immune function. I am a dietitian and I have long suspected that diet plays a key role. Personally, I have found relief in many of the supplements that are mentioned in Chapter 6- fish oil (omega 3), ginger, turmeric (curcumin), and vitamin D. And, although I know there is truth to the need to focus on a whole foods diet, I think this is going to be very challenging to achieve in a country that runs on processed foods. Regardless, being mindful of everything we put in our bodies really is the only way to insure optimal health. I used to take the stance that we can't be obsessed with every little thing, but I am definitely changing my mind about that. It seems that all the little things - pesticides, chemicals, food colorings, preservatives - are adding up to big problems. Before reading this book I thought I knew a lot about autoimmune disease. But, the truths surrounding our toxic environment and the ignorance surrounding treating this problem are far beyond what I could ever imagine. This book truly is life changing.

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.

If you're like most people in this country, you know someone who has an autoimmune disease. Did you know, for instance, that more people in the United States suffer from autoimmune disease than from cancer? I was shocked to learn this from Donna Jackson Nakazawa's brilliantly written book, The Autoimmune Epidemic. And if you are most people in this country, you MUST read this book - we all need the information that Ms. Nakazawa has painstakingly researched and accessibly written. She not only shares what scientists are saying about how and why autoimmune disease rates are rising, but what we can do to reduce our own - and perhaps more importantly - our children's risks of developing autoimmune disease. I think her message and her research are so important that I have already bought copies of this book for my children, for my parents and for several friends.

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." Mu

I've been learning about nutrition and whole foods (instead of processed), "diseases of civilization", and brain health lately. This book really brings all those subjects together. Full of thought-provoking, frightening, but hopeful examples of how - in the last several decades - we have created a toxic environment. The most striking image was that of the "barrel effect." If one fills a rain barrel full of water - even above the top - the water will stay within. But when one more drop is added, the water just cascades down the sides. Many people, mainly women, seem to just fall apart suddenly with one autoimmune disease after another. We live in and consume this toxic soup for years and years, our body fighting it off as best as it can, until it just can't complete with the onslaught anymore. If you wonder why each succeeding generation is suffering from more allergies, arthritis, neurological disorders, ms, etc. read this book. If you have had doctors or family tell you that you are crazy or a hypochondriac, read this book. Identify those things in your environment and diet you CAN change. Change them.