About the Book
Autoimmune and chronic illness are a global crisis, with an estimated 50 million sufferers in the US alone. What is fueling this twenty-first century pandemic?
In this eye-opening tour de force, Steven Phillips, MD, and his former patient, singer-songwriter Dana Parish, take on the medical establishment. Backed by a trove of published data, Chronic reveals striking evidence that a broad range of microbes, including the Lyme bacteria, cause a variety of recurrent conditions and autoimmune diseases. Chronic delves into the history and science behind common infections that are difficult to diagnose and treat, debunks widely held beliefs by doctors and patients alike, shows how medicine got the facts patently wrong, and provides solutions that empower readers to get their lives back.
Dr. Phillips was already an internationally renowned physician specializing in complex chronic diseases when he became a patient himself. After nearly dying from his own mystery illness, he experienced firsthand the medical community’s ignorance about the pathogens that underlie a deep spectrum of chronic conditions—from fibromyalgia, lupus, multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis to depression, anxiety, and neurodegenerative disorders. Parish, too, watched her health spiral after twelve top doctors missed an underlying infection that caused heart failure and other sudden debilitating physical and psychiatric symptoms. Now, they’ve come together with a mission: to change the current model of simply treating symptoms, often with dangerous, lifelong drugs, and shift the focus to finding and curing root causes of chronic diseases that affect millions around the world.
About the Author :
STEVEN PHILLIPS, MD, is a renowned, Yale-trained physician and researcher who lectures internationally. He regularly appears in the media as an expert on Lyme and other chronic infections. In private practice since 1996, he has treated over 20,000 patients from nearly twenty countries. His practice is located in Wilton, Connecticut.
DANA PARISH developed Lyme-induced heart failure as a result of being improperly diagnosed by some of the best doctors in the country--and had her life saved by Dr. Phillips. An award-winning singer/songwriter for Sony/ATV, she has become a powerful voice for change in the field of Lyme disease. She lives in New York City.
Review :
"This book shines an alarming light on emerging infections that cause chronic illnesses. Brimming with bulletproof science, Chronic is an insightful clarion call for more attention to this plague of the 21st century."
--Sanjay Gupta, MD
"History will reflect back upon this book as a revelation for millions living with chronic illness. It's a fascinating, superbly researched dive into the mysteries of autoimmune diseases and provides critical insights to patients and clinicians. Chronic is bold, iconoclastic, and addresses one of the most important and challenging problems facing modern medicine with compassion, love, and hope."
--Ying Zhang, MD, PhD, Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins University
"This trailblazing book should serve to galvanize efforts to solve the autoimmune crisis in the same way And the Band Played On did for HIV."
--George Church, PhD, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School and Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology
"Phillips and Parish take us on a personal, illuminating journey of scientific discovery. Their brilliant work could not have come at a more urgent time. Chronic is both thoughtful and thought-provoking, but perhaps most of all, it's intellectually and emotionally honest. A must-read for everyone, but even more so for physicians of all specialties."
--Haideh Hirmand, MD, MPA, FACS, Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery, Weill-Cornell Medical College
"Speaking truth to power is hard. Speaking truth to established medical and scientific institutions is nearly impossible . . . and extraordinarily rare. But this book does exactly that--it is an act of bravery in its purest form, and it's for all of us, as none of us are immune."
--Kristen T. Honey, PhD, PMP, Policy Advisor, White House Office of Science & Technology Policy (2015-2017); Senior Research Scholar, Stanford University
"A powerfully informative guide for patient and practitioner from a misinformed past toward a future of recovery and health."
--David Perlmutter, MD, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Grain Brain and Brain Wash
"A clarion call to start reversing the enormous human cost of autoimmune and chronic disease by finally addressing actual root causes."
--Michael VanElzakker, PhD, neuroscientist, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School
"With fascinating case studies and the latest science, Chronic offers hope for achieving a better future for the millions suffering with complex and severe symptoms."
--Terry Wahls, MD, author of The Wahls Protocol
"Phillips and Parish show us where and how the medical paradigm for chronic illness has failed us all and exposes the truth. It's a modern-day version of The Emperor's New Clothes."
--Holly Ahern, Associate Professor of Microbiology, SUNY
"An informative guide to 'the pandemic in plain sight, ' urgent without undue alarmism."
--Kirkus Reviews
