Unseen: The secret world of chronic illness


Jacinta Parsons - 2020
    Doctors couldn’t explain why, and Jacinta wondered if it might be in her head. She could barely function, was frequently unable to eat or get out of bed for days, and gradually turned into a shadow of herself. Eventually she got a diagnosis: Crohn’s disease. But knowing this wouldn’t stop her life from spiralling into a big mess of doctors, hospitals and medical disasters.What’s most extraordinary about Jacinta’s story is how common it is. Nearly half of Australians live with a chronic illness, but most of these conditions are not obvious, often endured in secrecy and little understood. They are unseen.With compelling candour, Jacinta trains a microscope on the unique challenges of living with an invisible condition. She lays bare the struggles with shame, loss of identity, the threat of mortality, and the profoundly complex relationships between the chronically ill and their own bodies, as well as with those around them. It’s a story of trying to fix an unfixable illness, getting beaten down then clawing back up, and how that experience can shape a life.

Case Files: Family Medicine


Eugene C. Toy - 2006
    Case Files: Family Medicine reviews 60 high-yield family medicine cases, each with USMLE-format review questions and clinical pearls that highlight key concepts. In this score-boosting resource, you'll find must-know family medicine cases in an interactive and memorable format written by experienced educators.

The Mindfulness Toolbox: 50 Practical Mindfulness Tips, Tools, and Handouts for Anxiety, Depression, Stress, and Pain


Donald Altman - 2014
    The awareness boosting methods in this guidebook offer participants a means of reappraising and observing negative and anxious thoughts, habits, pain, and stress in fresh ways that produce new insight, positive change, and a sense of hope. Featuring over 40 easy to use, reproducible handouts and expertly crafted, guided scripts -- such as working with the breath, overcoming depression with here and now pleasantness, calming the anxious mind with sense grounding, expanding a client's strength narrative, the stress pause S-T-O-P technique, and meditations for peace, acceptance, and re-envisioning pain -- this book is ideal for clinicians wanting to integrate mindfulness into their work.

The Truth About Statins: Risks and Alternatives to Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs


Barbara H. Roberts - 2012
    Now, the Director of the Women’s Cardiac Center in Providence, Rhode Island uses case studies and anecdotes to discuss the uses, misuses, dangers, and benefits of statins, enabling you to make informed decisions on how and when to use them.  Including information on when statins help and when they don’t, common side effects, gender differences and drug use, as well as tips and recipes that promote heart health, The Truth About Statins is a timely and invaluable tool for improving cardiovascular health and helping you meet your lipid-lowering goals.

The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss


Jason Fung - 2016
    Weight gain and obesity are driven by hormones—in everyone—and only by understanding the effects of insulin and insulin resistance can we achieve lasting weight loss.In this highly readable and provocative book, Dr. Jason Fung sets out an original, robust theory of obesity that provides startling insights into proper nutrition. In addition to his five basic steps, a set of lifelong habits that will improve your health and control your insulin levels, Dr. Fung explains how to use intermittent fasting to break the cycle of insulin resistance and reach a healthy weight—for good.

The Yoga Birth Method: A Step-By-Step Guide for Natural Childbirth


Dorothy Guerra - 2013
    Applying the wisdom of yoga throughout the stages of pregnancy and labor, author Dorothy Guerra presents an eight-step pathway for connecting with your mind, body, and spirit from start to finish.This easy-to-use guide will help you prepare for a positive and joyful childbirth. Learn how to manage pain, eliminate anxiety, and encourage labor progression with breathing and meditation techniques, affirmations, and yoga poses. Couples choose an intention that becomes a focal point for embracing a calm state of mind throughout the physical and emotional challenges of labor. You'll also find guidance in drafting a birth plan, labor-support techniques for birth partners, helpful illustrations, information on medical intervention, and a go-to chapter with detailed advice on all stages of labor to use when the big day arrives.Praise: A beautiful mind-body-spirit approach to birth!--Penny Simkin, PT, author of The Birth Partner

In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope


Rana Awdish - 2017
    Rana Awdish never imagined that an emergency trip to the hospital would result in hemorrhaging nearly all of her blood volume and losing her unborn first child. But after her first visit, Dr. Awdish spent months fighting for her life, enduring consecutive major surgeries and experiencing multiple overlapping organ failures. At each step of the recovery process, Awdish was faced with something even more unexpected: repeated cavalier behavior from her fellow physicians—indifference following human loss, disregard for anguish and suffering, and an exacting emotional distance.Hauntingly perceptive and beautifully written, In Shock allows the reader to transform alongside Awidsh and watch what she discovers in our carefully-cultivated, yet often misguided, standard of care. Awdish comes to understand the fatal flaws in her profession and in her own past actions as a physician while achieving, through unflinching presence, a crystalline vision of a new and better possibility for us all.As Dr. Awdish finds herself up against the same self-protective partitions she was trained to construct as a medical student and physician, she artfully illuminates the dysfunction of disconnection. Shatteringly personal, and yet wholly universal, she offers a brave road map for anyone navigating illness while presenting physicians with a new paradigm and rationale for embracing the emotional bond between doctor and patient.