Facing and Fighting Fatigue: A Practical Approach

In this book, an eminent specialist in fatigue disorders - a physician who is sensitive and empathic to patients' complaints - discusses all kinds of fatigue problems, explaining what fatigue is, what causes it, how to combat it, and what patients should know when consulting a doctor about symptoms.

As a professor of neurosciences and director of the V.A.'s East Orange, N.J., Gulf War Research Center and the New Jersey Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Center, Natelson has clinical and research experience with a broad range of patients suffering from fatigue. He writes for the more than 10 percent of Americans who frequently suffer from it. Although he devotes much space to chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, the two major causes of fatigue, he also explores other possible causes, methods of avoiding all causes, and many treatments. He discusses stress and depression and emphasizes, above all, the need for a knowledgeable and sympathetic physician. Natelson's practical book deserves special credit for the observation that "often the doctor has not realized that the job is not to cure but to help." William Beatty

"A surprising thing often occurs when doctors cannot hold an abnormal test result in their hands: they tend to think that there is nothing wrong with the patient." How true this statement proves for many fatigue sufferers! For the ten percent of the population who have a frequent problem with fatigue, Natelson (neurosciences and director of the New Jersey Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Ctr.) offers a fact-based approach to treatment while being open to nonharmful, alternative therapies, and he advocates a "whole person" approach in this well-documented guide. Coverage includes causes, how to tell the difference between being tired and having chronic fatigue, ways to manage either problem, and advice on finding the right physician and support group. There have been many books on fatigue in recent years, including Hillary Johnson's Osler's Web: Inside the Labyrinth of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (LJ 2/15/96), which was endorsed by the CFIDS Association of America, Inc., but this one is recommended as an addition to any library whose readers are interested in the subject. Would that we all had physicians with Natelson's blend of practicality, open-mindedness, and empathy. Recommended for the consumer health collections of public and medical libraries.?Dixie Jones, Louisiana State Univ. Medical Ctr., Shreveport
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.