Here are 30 books that Love, Hope, Lyme fans have personally recommended if you like
Love, Hope, Lyme.
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Nineteen years ago, my 13-year-old daughter became wracked in severe pain for no discernible reason. She found walking, lying flat, or sitting up straight impossible. She had a host of other bizarre physical symptoms, too. The doctors we consulted not only didn’t help us, they decided she was faking it. We had to step outside the medical mainstream to discover she had chronic Lyme disease. After many difficult years, she got better, and I began working to change the system. As president of LymeDisease.org, a national Lyme advocacy and research organization, I write and speak on behalf of Lyme patients and their families.
This is one of the first books I recommend to Lyme patients who email me for advice about getting better. It’s a sad fact that most people with chronic Lyme disease don’t have “just” Lyme disease. Their condition is complicated by toxic mold exposure, environmental chemicals, other infectious bacteria and viruses, and/or a highly sensitized nervous system.
Whether they’ve been diagnosed with Lyme disease or not, I think anyone with complex health problems that they just can’t resolve could benefit from reading this book.
Millions of people are suffering from chronic illnesses that, unbeknownst to them, are the result of exposure to environmental toxins and infectious agents such as mold and Borrelia, which causes Lyme disease. Millions. Because the symptoms of these illnesses are so varied and unusual, many of these individuals have sought medical care only to be dismissed, as if what they are experiencing is “in their head.” Many (if not most) have tried to tough it out and continue to function without hope of improvement. Unfortunately, their illnesses are very real.
Toxic is a book of hope for these individuals, their…
Nineteen years ago, my 13-year-old daughter became wracked in severe pain for no discernible reason. She found walking, lying flat, or sitting up straight impossible. She had a host of other bizarre physical symptoms, too. The doctors we consulted not only didn’t help us, they decided she was faking it. We had to step outside the medical mainstream to discover she had chronic Lyme disease. After many difficult years, she got better, and I began working to change the system. As president of LymeDisease.org, a national Lyme advocacy and research organization, I write and speak on behalf of Lyme patients and their families.
Dr. Daniel Kinderlehrer was already a prominent holistic physician when he became quite sick. None of the many doctors he consulted could figure out what was ailing him or how to help him in any way.
He turned out to have persistent Lyme disease—which can be notoriously hard to diagnose—and the experience spun his life and career in a completely different direction. I like this book because he shares so much of his personal story and imparts excellent information about the immune system, healing the gut, detoxifying the body, and treating infections.
From the foreword by world-leading Lyme expert Joseph J. Burrascano, Jr., MD:
A detailed and thoughtful road map is sorely needed. And it is in this context that I am so pleased that we have this book by Dr. Kinderlehrer. I wish I'd had a book like this back in the day to guide me! It covers just about everything-the infections, diagnostic tests, treatments, and yes, the all-important terrain. It gives the reader an in-depth, but easily understandable, guide through the many subtleties of tick-borne illnesses. I am impressed with the knowledge presented and grateful for this information, which has…
Nineteen years ago, my 13-year-old daughter became wracked in severe pain for no discernible reason. She found walking, lying flat, or sitting up straight impossible. She had a host of other bizarre physical symptoms, too. The doctors we consulted not only didn’t help us, they decided she was faking it. We had to step outside the medical mainstream to discover she had chronic Lyme disease. After many difficult years, she got better, and I began working to change the system. As president of LymeDisease.org, a national Lyme advocacy and research organization, I write and speak on behalf of Lyme patients and their families.
Anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders are on the rise globally. And although this book's title specifies young people, I think Dr. Bock’s message can apply to just about anyone at any age. He presents case studies of children and teens who came to him after being on a laundry list of psych meds—with no improvement and often getting worse.
Many of these kids turn out to have thyroid problems, or low Vitamin D, or celiac, or yes, Lyme disease. And after he treats them for these underlying issues, often their supposed "psych" symptoms improve. If you or any member of your family struggles with mental health issues, I particularly recommend this book.
From renowned integrative family physician Dr Kenneth Bock, a groundbreaking approach to understanding and treating mental health among adolescents and teens.
Over the past decade, the number of 12- to 17-year-olds suffering from mental health disorders has more than doubled. While adolescents and teens are notorious for mood swings and rebellion, parents today are navigating new terrain as their children are increasingly at risk of struggling with a mental health issue. But the question remains: What is causing this epidemic of illness?
In Brain Inflamed, acclaimed integrative doctor Dr Kenneth Bock shares a revolutionary new view of adolescent and teen…
Nineteen years ago, my 13-year-old daughter became wracked in severe pain for no discernible reason. She found walking, lying flat, or sitting up straight impossible. She had a host of other bizarre physical symptoms, too. The doctors we consulted not only didn’t help us, they decided she was faking it. We had to step outside the medical mainstream to discover she had chronic Lyme disease. After many difficult years, she got better, and I began working to change the system. As president of LymeDisease.org, a national Lyme advocacy and research organization, I write and speak on behalf of Lyme patients and their families.
If you had 16 nails sticking in the bottom of your foot, removing only one of them wouldn't fix your problem, would it? That's the question posed by Dr. Richard Horowitz, one of the top Lyme-treating doctors in the world.
In his “16-Point Differential Diagnostic Map” for evaluating chronically ill patients, he looks at many different factors that can prevent you from getting well. Lyme is a complex illness and you might not even realize there is a connection between different things you are experiencing. His book is a good reference manual for many symptoms and physical disorders.
When Dr. Richard Horowitz moved to the Hudson Valley over a decade ago to start his own medical practice, he didn't know that he would be jumping into the centre of one of the fiercest, most heated medical disputes being waged today. The ongoing debate over Lyme disease as a chronic illness has made it difficult for sufferers to find care, as doctors are in many cases unable or unwilling to diagnose it. This is how once-treatable infections can become chronic, causing disabling conditions that may never be cured. In a field where the number of cases is growing each…
I am a feminist writer and sexologist. My recent book narrates my search for sexual empowerment and presents my vision for a world where no woman is objectified. I teach courses on topics including orgasms, neurodiversity, and childbirth. I also coach people on their sex and love lives, empowering them to take control over their relationships. I am now working on a new book that imparts my long and winding triumph over chronic illness and reveals that having a female body is not a curse but a blessing.
This book provides an answer to the looming modern-day question of why so many women are chronically ill. Author Sarah Ramey tells the moving story of her own chronic illness while putting the pieces together as to what so many women are suffering from and how we can help.
As someone who has dealt with chronic illness myself, this book illuminated not only what was happening in my body but also what was happening within my culture that needed to be overhauled along with my own life.
'A visceral, scathing, erudite read that digs deep into how modern medicine continues to fail women and what can be done about it' Booklist
The darkly funny memoir of Sarah Ramey's years-long battle with a mysterious illness that doctors thought was all in her head - but wasn't. A revelation and an inspiration for millions of women whose legitimate health complaints are ignored.
In her harrowing, defiant and unforgettable memoir, Sarah Ramey recounts the decade-long saga of how a seemingly minor illness in her senior year of college turned into a prolonged and elusive condition that destroyed her health but…
As a woman who suffers from chronic illness, I am interested in sharing my experience and learning about other women who also suffer and survive their chronic conditions. I have had endometriosis, a painful disease, since I was a teenager. I’ve always enjoyed stories about different kinds of chronic illnesses, and I appreciate the way pain and sickness can be translated into memorable books.
O’Rourke blends personal anecdotes, meticulous research, and compelling conviction as she argues that how we treat chronic illness needs to change.
She unpacks the complex nature of autoimmune conditions offering the history of Western Medicine’s approach to illness and even shedding a light on why so many sick people are often left without definitive diagnoses or helpful treatment plans. This is a multi-dimensional portrait of autoimmune disease and chronic illness that I could not put down.
As a woman who suffers from chronic illness, I am interested in sharing my experience and learning about other women who also suffer and survive their chronic conditions. I have had endometriosis, a painful disease, since I was a teenager. I’ve always enjoyed stories about different kinds of chronic illnesses, and I appreciate the way pain and sickness can be translated into memorable books.
Although I may be biased in recommending my former mentor’s book, this memoir about Khakpour’s experience with mysterious illnesses and addictions is a must read.
Written in sharp, often poetic prose, the author offers an intimate portrait of a chronically ill woman of color navigating the frustrating world of doctors, tests, theories, medications, and doubt. The reader is pulled into this dark, gritty story of benzodiazepine abuse, debilitating symptoms, economic hardship, and, ultimately, diagnosis.
I love every book ever written by Khakpour, however, Sick is my absolute favorite (so far!) Not only could I relate to her experience in many ways, I adore her willingness to share all the messy, difficult pieces of her life.
A Best Book of the Year: Real Simple, Entropy, Mental Floss, Bitch Media, The Paris Reivew, and LitHub.
Time Magazine's Best Memoirs of 2018 • Boston Globe's 25 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2018 • Buzzfeed's 33 Most Exciting New Books • GQ Best Non Fiction Book of 2018 • Bustle’s 28 Most Anticipated Nonfiction Books of 2018 list • Nylon’s 50 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018 • Electric Literature’s 46 Books to Read By Women of Color in 2018
“Porochista Khakpour’s powerful memoir, Sick, reads like a mystery and a reckoning with a love…
My passion for this topic dates back to my childhood and being impressed by the scary diseases and unhygienic toilets that were part of my family lore. I grew up to be a historian of medicine, which allowed me to indulge my interest in deadly diseases—at a safe historical distance! That curiosity led me to write the Gospel of Germs, a history of popular understandings of the germ theory of disease. Post-COVID, I am thinking about how to get ready for the next big pandemic that climate change and globalization will likely throw at us: will it be bird flu, dengue, mpox, or some new COVID variant?
I love this book because Quammen looks at pandemics in terms of the changing relationships between humans and animals. A master of science writing, he explains how global economic and climate change is bringing us closer contact with many species in the wild—bats, parrots, chimpanzees—whose pathogens can “jump” to domestic animals (pigs and chickens). If you are worried about the bird flu, this is a great book to gain perspective on.
In 2020, the novel coronavirus gripped the world in a global pandemic and led to the death of hundreds of thousands. The source of the previously unknown virus? Bats. This phenomenon-in which a new pathogen comes to humans from wildlife-is known as spillover, and it may not be long before it happens again.
Prior to the emergence of our latest health crisis, renowned science writer David Quammen was traveling the globe to better understand spillover's devastating potential. For five years he followed scientists to a rooftop in Bangladesh, a forest in the Congo, a Chinese rat farm, and a suburban…
I'm co-founder of a grassroots social justice, civic engagement, and service organization called ForwardCT, which I started with my friend and current state representative Eleni Kavros DeGraw with the intention of mobilizing community-centered action. Our work centers on these four pillars: Connect, Inform, Serve, and Lead. Those pillars guide my work as chair of my town’s Clean Energy Commission, as teacher and facilitator of workshops and events, and as an author of books for young people. I'm drawn to the powerful use of storytelling as a tool for starting conversations, stirring up “good trouble,” and inspiring activism. Read a book, approach your library or town to host a community conversation, leave with actionable takeaways, repeat!
I chose Lyme: The First Epidemic of Climate Change because I live in Connecticut and my own family and friend group have been gravely impacted by tick-borne infections. In fact, the subplot of my novel focuses on the frustrating story of a family seeking answers to this “mystery” illness.
We are at a moment where climate change is accelerating new and worsening pathogenic diseases and public health isn’t catching up fast enough. Mary Beth Pfeiffer provides a well-researched glimpse into the politics and pain of tick-borne infections in a climate-changing world.
I recommend this book as a community conversation starter because, more and more, citizens are coming together to share medical resources and put pressure on the public health community to act.
"Superbly written and researched." -Booklist "Builds a strong case." -Kirkus Lyme disease is spreading rapidly around the globe as ticks move into places they could not survive before. The first epidemic to emerge in the era of climate change, the disease infects half a million people in the US and Europe each year, and untold multitudes in Canada, China, Russia, and Australia. Mary Beth Pfeiffer shows how we have contributed to this growing menace, and how modern medicine has underestimated its danger. She tells the heart-rending stories of families destroyed by a single tick bite, of children disabled, and of…
I have expertise on this theme because I've devoted the last almost thirty years of my life to body healing and a soulful path. I've studied the physical body and have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree to reflect those studies. But I needed a deeper understanding and I wanted to find healing laws that didn't apply to the average set of eyes. I spent a lot of years in pain, suffering from severe anxiety and panic, and I needed any help I could get to help me rebuild myself and reclaim my life into something powerful and independent. These books served as my guides in the creation of a brave and soulful path.
I am recommending this book because it’s a must-read for every single person who has something in their life that needs to be recovered and healed. I became friends with Amy after finding her books and she is truly the real deal. A young woman who had end-stage Lyme disease with no more hope of surviving it, went to India for a possible life-saving stem cell treatment that had an equal chance of killing her as it did of saving her. She takes us with her through India and through her treatment. When she went through all of this, she was not yet a writer, she was just trying to save her life. Now she shares with the world everything she had to learn in order to do that. Her story is heartwarming, terrifying, hilarious, and also heartbreaking. If you or anyone you know is faced with some sort of…
"A heartwarming and inspiring story that will change the way you look at life." -Vikas Swarup, New York Times bestselling author of Slumdog Millionaire
"An Eat Pray Love-like memoir." -Pam Grout, #1 New York Times bestselling author of E-Squared
When doctors have all but given up, when a diagnosis eludes you, and when every test result raises more questions than answers, how do you save yourself?
By the time Amy B. Scher was twenty-eight-years-old, she had lived through almost a decade of misdiagnoses, excruciating pain, brain lesions, bone marrow biopsies, blood transfusions, and multiple hospital stays to treat her late-stage,…
