Written by my very own Gastroenterologist, this is a very new and current general overview of the disease. It is a good summary of many different topics, and it provides readers with a good overall knowledge of the disease. It is a definate reference to get for any sufferer of IBD, as it is great to have to search for general information.

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Product Description

"It is estimated that as many as one million Americans have IBD [inflammatory bowel disease] -- with that number evenly split between Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis" - Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America

Crohn's and Colitis: Understanding the Facts About IBD is written by a leading expert in the field and provides the most current and significant information on these conditions. The book answers important questions and covers topics such as: - What is Inflammatory Bowel Disease? - What are the symptoms? - How do you get Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis? - What to expect when you have IBD? - Dietary treatment - Drug therapy - Surgery - Psychological factors - Children with IBD, and - Alternative medicinal therapies.

Learning as much as possible about the condition is an important step toward taking charge and alleviating the negative effects of IBD on daily life. With this book, patients will gain a better understanding of diagnosis and treatment and begin to lead useful and productive lives. While there is no cure at this time for either condition, Dr. Steinhart's expertise and realistic advice will go a long way to improving a patient's health and quality of life and providing reassurance to their loved ones.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #860146 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780778801320
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Would I recommend this [book] to my patients? I would do so absolutely and without reservation. (Ford Bursey, MD, FRCPC, FACP, Associate Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology), Memorial University of Newfoundland Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada )

About the Author
Dr. A. Hillary Steinhart, MD, MSc, FRCP (C) is Head of the Combined Division of Gastroenterology for Mount Sinai Hospital and the University Health Network in Toronto. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in the areas of clinical trials, outcomes assessments, and the genetics of inflammatory bowel diseases.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

Living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can be a challenge, not only for those of you who have Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, but also for those of you who have a family member or close friend afflicted with one of these disorders. Meeting this challenge requires the help of knowledgeable health-care professionals. Knowing yourself what impact Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis may have on your life and what management strategies are available is also very important. The well-informed patient may have the best chance for recovery.

However, the amount of information you can find when trying to learn about inflammatory bowel disease can be overwhelming. There are so many possible sources of information -- doctors, nurses, books, pamphlets, websites, patient associations, Internet chat rooms, friends, and relatives. Often this information is confusing and contradictory. The quality of the information varies greatly from source to source. This information overload can leave you confused and frustrated, thus making it even more difficult to deal with these chronic diseases.

We have written this book in order to provide patients, families, friends, and health-care professionals with a clear, current, and concise account of the possible underlying causes, clinical features, and effective treatments of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Rather than simply presenting a list of facts about the disorders, we have given them an applied clinical context based upon our years of experience with many hundreds of patients who have been evaluated, followed, and treated at the Mount Sinai Hospital IBD Centre. We have also tried to make this information directly relevant to IBD sufferers and their families by recounting case histories and answering the questions patients frequently ask. We hope to provide another means for dealing with these diseases, which we are only now really beginning to understand.

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Customer Reviews

Look elsewhere - ambitious efforts falls short, shallow and without helpful information
Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are chronic diseases which vary widely between patients and over time in the same patient -- so writing a helpful book about understanding and managing these two related disorders is an ambitious undertaking. Unfortunately, Dr. Steinhart's book falls well short of the goal, as the book does not have enough information to be helpful to a patient.

The text is too superficial and general. For example, the text devotes only 15 pages to discussing the causes of these two, distinct chronic illnesses -- which is surprising since the causes are not scientifically known and substantial lay controversy exists regarding potential causes like the bacteria that causes Johne's disease in cattle. Those pages include almost no details regarding the scientific bases for the consideration of the potential causes nor the learned rejection or ambivalence regarding some of those potential causes.

The discussion of dietary strategies is equally frustrating. Diet and medication are likely to be the two areas that most patients are interested in as well as the two areas that patient knowledge will be most helpful for (i.e., the patient can do little with knowledge of the cause but quite a lot with knowledge of dietary strategies). As Dr. Steinhart notes, no one diet is accepted as efficacious. However, the doctor devotes little time to the exploration of the many diets popular with the lay experts that patients are likely to be curious about - and a terse rejection is unlikely to be helpful to a curious patient. The one exception appears to be lactose-intolerance issues - if the text was devoted to other dietary concerns in the same way it addressed lactose intolerance, the book would have been much better

Additionally, much of the advice is frustratingly fruitless. Dr. Steinhart counsels repeatedly (and not surprisingly) that patients should seek advice from their doctors and not from Internet sources. However, any dutiful investigator will quickly find that the most fruitful source of detailed information is the Internet. Obviously, credibility issues abound, but doctors are not beyond mistake either. Dr. Steinhart does not provide a useful way to evaluate credibility or a listing of Internet sources likely (or unlikely) to be useful.

Also, perhaps things are different in Canada, but in the United States it is not likely to be very productive to seek to learn everything from your doctor. Most doctors meetings are quick, and the doctor has a list of things she'd like to accomplish. The time available for general inquiry is usually short, and appointments are often infrequent. The doctor can answer some questions or point the patient down the right research path, but the good patient will conduct a great deal of outside research - indeed, that is the point of books like this.

Similarly, the reader is advised that it is generally the case (hence, presumably not always) that denial, avoiding any response, and acting out of anger are "less successful" ways of coping. Although there may well be cases where denial, avoidance, and anger are successful, most of us would generally assume otherwise, and don't need to be advised as much. If, indeed, there are times when these "strategies" care called for, Dr. Steinhart provides no suggestion of what criteria to look for or what questions to ask.

In sum, Dr. Steinhart's book is an extensive exercise in "Ask your doctor," not particularly useful advice for the sufferers of these two chronic illnesses - 2 stars.