SUGGESTED READING
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Grown Woman Talk: Your Guide to Getting and Staying Healthy
Dr. Sharon Malone is an OB/GYN who wrote this book to help older women deal with the complexities of aging. Often ignored or gaslight by the healthcare system, older women may have their chronic pain and discomfort dismissed as female hysteria caused by menopause. Dr. Malone has tips to end this “normalized suffering” and empower grown women to live better, age better, and get better medical treatment.
Long Illness: A Practical Guide to Surviving, Healing and Thriving
Drs. Meghan Jobson and Juliet Morgan wrote this book to give patients and providers a better understanding of long-lasting illnesses such as autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, inflammation and Long Covid. They take a holistic approach to managing symptoms through cognitive behavioral therapy, traditional Eastern medicine, mindfulness and self-care — emphasizing that recovery is a process and not always a destination.
Toxic Stress: How Stress Is Making Us Ill
Dr. Lawson Wulsin is a psychiatrist who has found that toxic stress and childhood trauma often play hidden roles in the development of heart disease, diabetes, depression and chronic illnesses in midlife. In this book, Dr. Wilsun offers practical advice and tools to recognize signs of toxic stress in our lives, and learn how to help your mind and body recover from it.
Handbook for Intractable Pain: Recognition and Treatment
Dr. Forest Tennant’s latest book is a primer for patients and providers who want to learn how to recognize and treat intractable pain (IP). People with IP suffer from constant, unrelenting pain that cannot be cured and will have a profound effect on their cardiovascular, endocrine and gastrointestinal systems if untreated. Tennant has developed treatment protocols that help reduce IP symptoms and improve the lives of people suffering from this painful malady.
Doctor Bison’s Fables: An Allegory of the American Pain Refugee Crisis
Dr. Mark Ibsen uses animals as lead characters in a series of fables to convey the crisis faced by many pain sufferers in the U.S. Doctor Bison and his patient (an otter) are joined in a crowded exam room by a menagerie of other animals representing insurers, hospitals, federal health agencies, and law enforcement. All want to have a say in what Dr. Bison prescribes to his sick patient — resulting in little actual treatment for the otter.
Eat to Treat: A Three-Step Plan to Reduce Inflammation and Detoxify
Nurse practitioner Maggie Berghoff has a personalized dietary plan to help you fight chronic inflammation caused by autoimmune problems, digestive issues, stress, and allergies. Her recipes are designed to supercharge your immune system, while avoiding food triggers that make your symptoms worse. In addition to dietary changes, Berghoof has tips on how to detoxify by avoiding personal hygiene products that could be affecting you.
The Long Covid Reader
Author Mary Ladd shares the stories of 45 people living with Long Covid, who recount in essays and poems how COVID-19 continues to impact their lives long after their initial infections. A long-hauler herself, Ladd spent a year gathering personal stories about Long Covid in an effort to humanize the neglected suffering of millions of people who live with a mysterious chronic illness from the “world's biggest mass-disabling event.”
The Silver Bullet Solution: Is It Time to End the War on Drugs?
Author James Gierach is a former Illinois prosecutor who believes the War on Drugs is an epic failure — the “worst public policy in the history of mankind.” Drug prohibition fueled the overdose crisis, caused mass incarceration, eroded civil liberties and made healthcare unaffordable. His solution is to end the regulation of controlled substances and change public opinion about drugs, much like what happened with the legalization of cannabis.
Z’s Odyssey
In his sequel to “Patient Z,” author Stefan Franzen updates the personal story of a loved one with intractable pain who was unable to find effective treatment due to the crackdown on prescription opioids. He eventually found relief by taking buprenorphine, a “widely misunderstood” opioid that, when used in its purest form, can be just as potent as morphine.
Chronic Pain Reset
Psychologist Afton Hassett, PysD, has compiled a list of 30 simple activities that people in pain can do to improve their lives — from mindfulness walking and paced breathing to healthy sleep habits and random acts of kindness. Perform one activity each day (in 15 minutes or less) and select the ones you like to develop a personalized pain management plan that may lessen your pain, and give your life more joy and a better sense of purpose.
The Chronic Pain Couple
Author Karra Eloff knows firsthand what chronic pain can do to a relationship. Pain disrupted her romantic and social life, and held her back from personal joy and professional success. To save their marriage, Karra and her husband made simple changes to improve their intimacy and agreed not let illness sidetrack their relationship. If you live with pain or love someone with a chronic illness, this book could help save or restore your relationship.
Burden of Pain: A Physician's Journey through the Opioid Epidemic
Dr. Jay Joshi went to prison for prescribing opioids to an undercover DEA patient posing as a patient. Now a free man and practicing medicine again, Joshi wrote this book as a cautionary tale for both physicians and patients, explaining how he fell victim to DEA misconduct and public health policies that portray doctors as drug dealers.
The Mindful Body
Psychologist Ellen Langer’s latest book is not about mindfulness meditation, but about “mindless decisions” — how negative thoughts and prejudices can have profound effects on our well-being. She encourages readers to move past conventional thinking about what is right, wrong or risky; to accept our differences; and to avoid social comparisons or ranking yourself — which are not good for either health or happiness.
Cannabis Lullaby: A Painsomniac’s Quest for a Good Night’s Sleep
Health journalist David Sharp struggled for years with chronic pain and poor sleep caused by “painsomnia.” Then he ate a brownie made with cannabis and slept like a baby. In this book, Sharp shares what he’s learned about cannabis, how to shop for it, what strains work best, how to find the right dose, and who should — or shouldn’t — use cannabis.
CRPS: Learning About the Different Aspects of a Painful Syndrome
This is the fourth volume of a book series by Eric Phillips on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a complex neurological disease that affects millions of people. The causes and symptoms of CRPS vary from person to person, making its diagnosis and treatment more difficult. After four decades of living with CRPS, Phillips says the biggest problem remains a lack of understanding about the disease by medical professionals.
8 Steps to Conquer Chronic Pain: A Doctor’s Guide to Lifelong Relief
Dr. Andrea Furlan takes a holistic approach to treating chronic pain, recommending changes in lifestyle, diet, sleep and mindset. Instead of taking opioids and becoming dependent on them, she believes pain sufferers can learn how to “rewire” their brains by controlling their emotions, recharging their bodies and educating themselves about the nature of pain.
Not Weakness: Navigating the Culture of Chronic Pain
After 20 years of coping with Crohn’s disease and autoimmune conditions, author Francesca Grossman finally realized she wasn’t alone after speaking with many other women who also suffer silently from chronic pain. In this memoir, Grossman shares what she learned about living and loving with chronic pain while managing work, motherhood, friendships, sexual intimacy and medical gaslighting.
Heal Your Disc, End Your Pain
Dr. Gregory Lutz believes degenerative disc disease can be treated without drugs or surgery through the use of regenerative medicine — using a specialized concentration of a patient’s own stem cells to help heal tears inside the disc. Unlike other treatments for chronic lower back pain, which only provide temporary relief, Lutz says stem cells give long-term results.
