Breaking Out of Environmental Illness: Essential Reading for People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Allergies, and Chemical Sensitivities - Softcover

Sampson M.D., Robert; Hughes B.S.N., Patricia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 187918141X ISBN 13: 9781879181410

Publisher: Bear & Company, 1997

Synopsis

This is a book written to accelerate the personal healing of anyone suffering from any form of environmental illness. It tells the story of how a physician and a nurse liberate themselves from a common debilitating condition. After exhaustive attempts to heal themselves through conventional methods, they moved beyond feeling victimized by physical symptoms. Instead, they learned how to interpret them as communications from their bodies about unexpressed emotions and various structures they had created in their lives which no longer supported them.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Sampson, M.D., is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale with a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He has studied alternative approaches to healing for more than twenty years, and lectures frequently on accessing inner resources for healing. Patricia Hughes, B.S.N., was a staff nurse in intensive care and coronary intensive care units for fourteen years. Her personal battle with environmental illness led her on a journey of healing that defied conventional wisdom. She is now in private practice with Dr. Sampson in Andover, Massachusetts.

Reviews

When Sampson and Hughes met in 1989, both already manifested signs of environmental illness. They chronicle their subsequent experiences with chemical sensitivities and also Hughes' realization that she was a survivor of the post-traumatic stress of recovering from an abusive childhood. Feeling trapped in the city, the couple fled to the country, adopting flexible work hours so they needed to stay in their in-town apartment only several nights weekly. But country life brought unusual fatigue, muscle spasms, and worse. Through channeling and such other means of accessing and releasing inner spiritual energy as kinesiology, they eventually turned the corner to improved health by clearing themselves of anger, anxiety, and other negative energies. Fans of Shirley MacLaine's books well may love Sampson and Hughes' effort, while others may find it somewhat unbelievable. Whitney Scott

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), or EI (environmental illness), is a poorly understood phenomenon that has no scientifically accepted definition or treatment. However, one commonality among MCS sufferers is development of physical symptoms after exposure to chemical substances. As symptoms appear, sufferers can become hypersensitive to many everyday chemicals, such as perfume, household cleansers, and exhausts. Many self-help books address this medical mystery, including classics like Bonnye Matthews's Chemical Sensitivity (McFarland, 1992), Janice Stubbe Wittenberg's The Rebellious Body (LJ 11/1/96), and Sherry Rogers's Tired or Toxic? Of the two new additions to the field, Radetsky's book is the more comprehensive in terms of MCS case histories, the relationship of MCS to Gulf War syndrome, medicolegal difficulties in establishing MCS as a "real" disease entity, and the possible cause(s) of MCS. By contrast, Breaking Out of Environmental Illness is an account by two MCS sufferers who on their journey to find a cure find solace from a "great spiritual teacher and healer who has a deep connection to Earth and humanity." This book is interesting if not essential reading for people with MCS/EI, but Radetsky's book belongs on the shelf with established MCS works.?Susan Maret, Auraria Lib., Univ. of Colorado, Denver
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bear & Company
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 187918141X
• ISBN 13: 9781879181410
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272