Interesting and Useful Reading
I recently became a support group leader for The Myositis Association. They have a book club for all the support group leaders, and The Invisible Kingdom: Reimaging Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke is one of the chosen books. She writes about having found she had a disease no one knew very much about. She did a great job describing what she went through, and it resonated with me and my experiences. It is tough to convey the emotions and physical changes to anyone who has not been there. This author did a magnificent job of that. Her descriptions of medical care were in line with my experience, too, with some physicians seeing you as a birthdate and a disease they’ve never heard of rather than a human being. This may, in part, be due to physicians being uncomfortable being confronted with something they know little about or that they know has no cure, but respecting someone’s human identity should always be the core of care. The book may or may not be your cup of tea, but I enjoyed it.
Another book I recently read is Goodbye Lupus by Brooke Goldner, MD. The author describes how she became desperate to find a way to feel better and had no luck with allopathic (“Western”) medicine finding answers. She learned how diet affects your body’s ability to function and researched diet specifically in Lupus. She recommends a plant-based diet and feels she is cured of Lupus. Michael Greger, MD, also recommends plant-based diets in his book How Not to Die. I have yet to get to purely plant-based myself, though I have done some of his Daily Dozen. There’s even a Daily Dozen app for one’s iPhone or Android. Do any of you have experiences with positive results changing your diet significantly? Tell us in the comments box.
I love reading books about the human brain. It’s great to be reminded what an amazing organ it is. One I read while in the HBOT pod not too long ago is The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge, MD. He’s written another book called The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity. I’ve not read it, but if it’s as good as the other, I’m sure it’s great.
There is no shortage of books, articles, podcasts, online classes, videos, and more that can help people change their lives and experience positive outcomes. I have read my share over the years, and some have changed my life. A seminar called More Time, Good Time, for example, played a significant part in the success of owning my own business. Visit your library and browse books with great-looking covers or a section you are interested in, like health and medicine, spirituality, or self-help. If your eyes get tired reading, you can listen to audiobooks or podcasts. If you have a library card, you can access Libby (audiobooks), Hoopla (audiobooks, music, and videos), and Kanopy (films) for free.
Here are a couple more books from which I’ve gotten at least one idea.
Brave New Medicine by Cynthia Li, MD
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Volkl, MD
On a lighter note
I received a book of pages with questions to answer called The Story of My Life. It prompts you to answer questions about your life, like what you remember about your best friend in grade school or your first day of high school. There are several top ten pages—the top things that motivated you and the top 10 foods you like. I hope to use it to write a book about my life if I ever get the urge to do so.
I hope a few of these books interest you or inspire you to find some good books to read. You might remember that IBM Warrior has a Bookshop.org shop, where many of the book links above lead. Bookshop.org is a way for independent bookstores to survive in the age of Amazon. Whether or not you buy it through the click, the book cost is the same. If you buy it through the click, IBM Warrior gets a few bucks as an affiliate - just a way to help support us.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
This blog post is based on personal experiences and is not meant to provide medical advice.
Always consult your healthcare professional for personalized guidance on your health journey.
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