Through the shadowlands : a science writer's odyssey into an illness science doesn't understand

First Title Value for Searching:

Personal Author:

Rehmeyer, Julie

Physical Description:

xi, 324 pages ; 23 cm.

Summary:

Julie Rehmeyer felt like she was going to the desert to die. Julie fully expected to be breathing at the end of the trip―but driving into Death Valley felt like giving up, surrendering. She’d spent years battling a mysterious illness so extreme that she often couldn’t turn over in her bed. The top specialists in the world were powerless to help, and research on her disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, was at a near standstill. Having exhausted the plausible ideas, Julie turned to an implausible one. Going against both her instincts and her training as a science journalist and mathematician, she followed the advice of strangers she’d met on the Internet. Their theory―that mold in her home and possessions was making her sick―struck her as wacky pseudoscience. But they had recovered from chronic fatigue syndrome as severe as hers. To test the theory that toxic mold was making her sick, Julie drove into the desert alone, leaving behind everything she owned. She wasn’t even certain she was well enough to take care of herself once she was there. She felt stripped not only of the life she’d known, but any future she could imagine. With only her scientific savvy, investigative journalism skills, and dog, Frances, to rely on, Julie carved out her own path to wellness―and uncovered how shocking scientific neglect and misconduct had forced her and millions of others to go it alone. In stunning prose, she describes how her illness transformed her understanding of science, medicine, and spirituality. Through the Shadowlands brings scientific authority to a misunderstood disease and spins an incredible and compelling story of tenacity, resourcefulness, acceptance, and love.

Contents:

Part 1. Descent -- Construction and destruction -- Crippled -- Doctors -- The split between the worlds -- The great collapse -- The miracle -- Alone -- Part 2. Solitary -- Rage -- A life, limited -- The circus -- An unlikely hypothesis -- Part 3. The womb of the earth -- Death Valley -- The mold tour -- Homecoming -- An embryonic life -- A wake and a baptism -- Part 4. Emergence -- Connection -- The devil disease -- Moldy science -- Crazy neurological people -- Timmy the wood elf -- Rebirthday -- Psychic science -- A Shakespearean ending.

Subject Term:

Chronic fatigue syndrome -- Patients -- Biography.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis -- Patients -- Biography.

Chronic fatigue syndrome

Publication Info:

New York, New York : Rodale, [2017]

Subject:

Chronic fatigue syndrome -- Patients -- Biography.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis -- Patients -- Biography.

Chronic fatigue syndrome

Rehmeyer, Julie -- Health.

Chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome

Chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome

Akureyri disease

Benign myalgic encephalomyelitis

Epidemic myalgic encephalomyelitis

Epidemic neuromyasthenia

Iceland disease

Icelandic disease

ME (Disease)

Neuromyasthenia, Epidemic

Post-viral fatigue syndrome

SAILS ISBN:

9781623367657

Available:

Library	Shelf Number	Shelf Location	Status
Searching... Fairhaven-Millicent	B REHMEYER (JUL) REH 2017	NONFICTION	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Julie Rehmeyer felt like she was going to the desert to die.

Julie fully expected to be breathing at the end of the trip--but driving into Death Valley felt like giving up, surrendering. She'd spent years battling a mysterious illness so extreme that she often couldn't turn over in her bed. The top specialists in the world were powerless to help, and research on her disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, was at a near standstill.

Having exhausted the plausible ideas, Julie turned to an implausible one. Going against both her instincts and her training as a science journalist and mathematician, she followed the advice of strangers she'd met on the Internet. Their theory--that mold in her home and possessions was making her sick--struck her as wacky pseudoscience. But they had recovered from chronic fatigue syndrome as severe as hers.

To test the theory that toxic mold was making her sick, Julie drove into the desert alone, leaving behind everything she owned. She wasn't even certain she was well enough to take care of herself once she was there. She felt stripped not only of the life she'd known, but any future she could imagine.

With only her scientific savvy, investigative journalism skills, and dog, Frances, to rely on, Julie carved out her own path to wellness--and uncovered how shocking scientific neglect and misconduct had forced her and millions of others to go it alone. In stunning prose, she describes how her illness transformed her understanding of science, medicine, and spirituality. Through the Shadowlands brings scientific authority to a misunderstood disease and spins an incredible and compelling story of tenacity, resourcefulness, acceptance, and love.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Science journalist Rehmeyer's deeply personal illness memoir stands out for the lucidity of her self-analysis and pragmatism about managing a life turned upside down by chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). She emerges as simultaneously a science journalist frustrated with established medicine's dismissiveness, a patient open to the pseudoscientific approaches of non-traditional practitioners, and a desperate woman reaching out to suffering peers on the Internet for support and advice. This last avenue ultimately leads her to an extreme removal of mold from her environment, starting with a body-resetting solo expedition to Death Valley. Exploring ideas of dependence and self-sufficiency, Rehmeyer shows her illness through the lens of her personal relationships-with her strange and abusive mother, mentally ill first husband, mostly distant siblings, and two successive partners, the second of whom is supportive where the first one is not. In this way, she explores her illness's psychological aspects while never giving up the idea that CFS has a real and profound physiological component. Rehmeyer's frustrated but cautiously optimistic story will resonate with readers who value an intelligent, scientific approach to life but wonder what to do when there aren't any good answers. Agent: David Doerrer, Abrams Artists Agency. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Most of us know what it feels like to be bone-weary exhausted. But a good night's rest usually allows us to wake up the next day feeling refreshed. But not Rehmeyer. A mathematician and science journalist, she reveals what it is like to live with chronic fatigue syndrome, a mysterious illness that still bewilders doctors. She describes feeling so tired that she could barely walk, never mind work, because of overwhelming lethargy. After seeing doctor after doctor who failed to help her, she decided to head for the desert, fully expecting to die. But instead, she slowly learned how to manage her illness. She worked when she could; she socialized when she felt up to it. She experimented with her diet. She met with an immunologist. She researched the possible causes of her condition, looking into the effects of mold and trauma on the human body, and she studied the positive effects of physic healing. I'm doing really well, she concludes, but I'm also not cured. A hopeful memoir laced with ample doses of reality.--Sawyers, June Copyright 2017 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Science journalist Rehmeyer, contributing editor at Discover magazine, takes readers on a journey through her struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), an illness for which the medical establishment had no cure. Once a strong individual who ran marathons and performed search-and--rescue operations, the author sometimes felt so weak that she couldn't even move in bed. After an exhaustive course of visiting doctors, being tested repeatedly, and even being labeled with a psychosomatic disorder, she took matters into her own hands and headed out into the desert, heeding advice from Internet strangers about a possible link between her illness and mold. Rehmeyer became her own doctor and found herself contradicting earlier findings of the scientific community, with the results being a better understanding of the processes her body had gone through. Like Sarah -Myhill's Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalitis, this book encourages readers to consider causations and natural treatments that mainstream science has not delved into. VERDICT This personal account will appeal to CFS patients who are looking beyond the usual diagnoses and prognoses. The writer's reputation as a scientist will be of interest to researchers and medical professionals.-Bonnie Parker, Southern Crescent -Technical Coll., Thomaston, GA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Excerpts

PART 1 DESCENT CHAPTER 1 CONSTRUCTION AND DESTRUCTION Excerpted from Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer's Odyssey into an Illness That Science Doesn't Understand by Julie Rehemeyer All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Prologue	p. ix
Part 1 Descent
Chapter 1 Construction and Destruction	p. 3
Chapter 2 Crippled	p. 13
Chapter 3 Doctors	p. 23
Chapter 4 The Split between the Worlds	p. 35
Chapter 5 The Great Collapse	p. 49
Chapter 8 The Miracle	p. 63
Chapter 7 Alone	p. 77
Part 2 Solitary
Chapter 8 Rage	p. 91
Chapter 9 A Life, Limited	p. 103
Chapter 10 The Circus	p. 115
Chapter 11 An Unlikely Hypothesis	p. 125
Part 3 In the Womb of the Earth
Chapter 12 Death Valley	p. 141
Chapter 13 The Mold Tour	p. 151
Chapter 14 Homecoming	p. 165
Chapter 15 An Embryonic Life	p. 177
Chapter 16 A Wake and a Baptism	p. 187
Part 4 Emergence
Chapter 17 Connection	p. 199
Chapter 18 The Devil Disease	p. 213
Chapter 19 Moldy Science	p. 225
Chapter 20 Crazy Neurological People	p. 237
Chapter 21 Timmy the Wood Elf	p. 249
Chapter 22 Rebirthday	p. 263
Chapter 23 Psychic Science	p. 275
Chapter 24 A Shakespearean Ending	p. 289
Epilogue	p. 299
A Note on Accuracy	p. 309
Acknowledgments	p. 311
Endnotes	p. 315

Available:

Bound With These Titles

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Summary

Summary

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

Excerpts

Excerpts

Table of Contents