Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95051 in Books
• Published on: 1995-01-17
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Baptized by the press in 1985 as the "Yuppie Flu," Chronic Fatigue/Immune Dysfunction Syndrome, otherwise known as CFIDS, is a bewilderingly little understood disease which combines severe fatigue with the presence of immune system markers. Bell, an instructor at Harvard Medical School, seeks to "provide an overview of the current knowledge of CFIDS, including history, signs and symptoms, clinical course, laboratory findings and recent advances." The book is organized into five parts: an overview, a description of the disease, diagnostic tests, treatment options and the search for a cause. The author estimates that millions of Americans suffer from CFIDS, 30% of them children. The disease is still considered one of exclusion--a diagnosis of CFIDS is only considered when all other diseases which may cause the same groups of symptoms are ruled out. And diagnosis is difficult; the symptoms are misleading and may range from fatigue or exhaustion, headaches and muscle pain to depression, short-term memory loss and difficulty concentrating. Bell describes the hardships patients encounter when they seek medical help due to the lack of information currently available about CFIDS. He also recognizes the frustration of physicians and researchers who want to alleviate the suffering but have not yet found a way.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This text is a physician's primer on Chronic Fatigue/Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS), a condition whose hallmark is debilitating fatigue of six months' duration or longer. Initially dismissed as "yuppie flu," CFIDS ("see-fids") is a diagnosis of exclusion lacking a definitive lab test or biological marker. Bell, a leader in CFIDS research, writes clearly and passionately about its history, symptoms, theoretical causes, treatments, and research in progress. For a book from the patient's perspective, see Susan Conant's Living with Chronic Fatigue ( LJ 7/90). Recommended for popular health collections.
- Anne C. Tomlin, Auburn Memorial Hosp. Lib., N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
David S. Bell, M.D., an instructor at the Harvard Medical School and a staff member of Cambridge Hospital, is on the board of directors and the scientific advisory committee of The CFIDS Association of America, a national non-profit organization that funds both CFIDS research and advocacy efforts.

Customer Reviews

This Doctor Is WONDERFUL!
Dr. Bell is WONDERFUL!!! For years I was going from doctor to doctor trying to get a CORRECT diagnosis for what I had and then I found him. The man had just met me and it was like he had been my doctor all my life! He was able to describe health issues and symptoms I had been experiencing from childhood into my adult life. What a relief to FINALLY understand what it is that I have. His books are the next best thing to him being your doctor and I would recommend anything that he has written.

Chronic Fatigue Described
This is by far the best book I've read on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I've suffered with it for 30 years. Anyone who has it or knows someone who has it would benefit from reading what Dr. Bell has to say.

ring a Bell?
Bell's book is now an antique, but I suggest it if you really cannot get a dignosis of that mysterious, painful disease which, among other things, has virtually eliminated any possibility of sustained exercise; that is, provided you can get no meaningful diagnosis of it. Do not expect one. Possibly the most denied, derided, trivialized disease of the Western world, with absurd diagnostic criteria and case definition attributed to it, this ancient echo of reason is an isolated one.