Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), also known as idiopathic environmental intolerances (IEI), is an unrecognized and controversial diagnosis characterized by chronic symptoms attributed to exposure to low levels of commonly used chemicals. Symptoms are typically vague and non-specific. They may include fatigue, headaches, nausea, and dizziness.
Tension myositis syndrome (TMS), also known as tension myoneural syndrome or mindbody syndrome, is a name given by John E. Sarno to a condition of psychogenic musculoskeletal and nerve symptoms, most notably back pain. Sarno described TMS in four books, and stated that the condition may be involved in other pain disorders as well. The treatment protocol for TMS includes education, writing about emotional issues, resumption of a normal lifestyle and, for some patients, support meetings and/or psychotherapy. In 2007, David Schechter published a peer-reviewed study of TMS treatment in the journal "Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine," showing a 54% success rate for chronic back pain. In terms of statistical significance and success rate, the study outperformed similar studies of other psychological interventions for chronic back pain.
Neurasthenia is a term that was first used as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves. It became a major diagnosis in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after neurologist George Miller Beard reintroduced the concept in 1869.
Laura Hillenbrand is an American author of books and magazine articles. Her two bestselling nonfiction books, Seabiscuit: An American Legend (2001) and Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (2010), have sold over 13 million copies, and each was adapted for film. Her writing style is distinct from New Journalism, dropping "verbal pyrotechnics" in favor of a stronger focus on the story itself.
The SOAP note is a method of documentation employed by healthcare providers to write out notes in a patient's chart, along with other common formats, such as the admission note. Documenting patient encounters in the medical record is an integral part of practice workflow starting with appointment scheduling, patient check-in and exam, documentation of notes, check-out, rescheduling, and medical billing. Additionally, it serves as a general cognitive framework for physicians to follow as they assess their patients.
Pain disorder is chronic pain experienced by a patient in one or more areas, and is thought to be caused by psychological stress. The pain is often so severe that it disables the patient from proper functioning. Duration may be as short as a few days or as long as many years. The disorder may begin at any age, and occurs more frequently in girls than boys. This disorder often occurs after an accident, during an illness that has caused pain, or after withdrawing from use during drug addiction, which then takes on a 'life' of its own.
Farmer's lung is a hypersensitivity pneumonitis induced by the inhalation of biologic dusts coming from hay dust or mold spores or any other agricultural products. It results in a type III hypersensitivity inflammatory response and can progress to become a chronic condition which is considered potentially dangerous.
Meghan O'Rourke is an American nonfiction writer, poet and critic.
Clinical descriptions of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) vary. Different groups have produced sets of diagnostic criteria that share many similarities. The biggest differences between criteria are whether post-exertional malaise (PEM) is required, and the number of symptoms needed. The pathology of ME/CFS is unknown, and it can be a difficult condition to diagnose because there is no standard test, many symptoms are non-specific, and because doctors and patients may be unfamiliar with post-exertional malaise. Subgroup analysis suggests that, depending on the applied definition, CFS may represent a variety of conditions rather than a single disease entity.
Medical diagnosis is the process of determining which disease or condition explains a person's symptoms and signs. It is most often referred to as diagnosis with the medical context being implicit. The information required for diagnosis is typically collected from a history and physical examination of the person seeking medical care. Often, one or more diagnostic procedures, such as medical tests, are also done during the process. Sometimes the posthumous diagnosis is considered a kind of medical diagnosis.
Patricia A. Fennell is the chief executive officer of Albany Health Management Associates. She is a clinician, research scientist, educator, and author specializing in chronic illness, chronic and post-viral syndromes, trauma, forensics, hospice, global health care concerns, autoimmune and post-viral disease, clinical education, and training.
Functional disorder is an umbrella term for a group of recognisable medical conditions which are due to changes to the functioning of the systems of the body rather than due to a disease affecting the structure of the body.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), also called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or ME/CFS, is a complex, debilitating, long-term medical condition. The root cause(s) of the disease are unknown and the mechanisms are not fully understood. Distinguishing core symptoms are lengthy flare-ups of the illness following ordinary minor physical or mental activity, known as post-exertional malaise (PEM); greatly diminished capacity to do tasks that were routine before the illness; and sleep disturbances. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) diagnostic criteria also require at least one of the following: (1) orthostatic intolerance or (2) impaired memory or attention. Frequently and variably, other common symptoms occur involving numerous body systems, and chronic pain is very common. The often incapacitating fatigue in CFS is different from that caused by normal strenuous exertion, is not significantly relieved by rest, and is not due to a previous medical condition. Diagnosis is based on the person's symptoms because no confirmed diagnostic test is available.
Blue Nights is a memoir written by American author Joan Didion, first published in 2011. The memoir is an account of the death of Didion's daughter, Quintana, who died in 2005 at age 39. Didion also discusses her own feelings on parenthood and aging. The title refers to certain times in the "summer solstice [...] when the twilights turn long and blue." Blue Nights is notable for its "nihilistic" attitude towards grief as Didion offers little understanding or explanation of her daughter's death. Writing for The New York Review of Books, Cathleen Schine said,
"'We tell ourselves stories in order to live,' Didion famously wrote in The White Album. Blue Nights is about what happens when there are no more stories we can tell ourselves, no narrative to guide us and make sense out of the chaos, no order, no meaning, no conclusion to the tale."
Rosamund Vallings is a medical doctor, known as one of the leading authorities on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) in New Zealand.
Post-exertional malaise (PEM), sometimes referred to as post-exertional symptom exacerbation (PESE), is a worsening of chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) or long COVID symptoms that occurs after exertion. PEM is often severe enough to be disabling, and is triggered by ordinary activities that healthy people tolerate. Typically, it begins 12–48 hours after the activity that triggers it, and lasts for days, but this is highly variable and may persist much longer. Management of PEM is symptom-based, and patients are recommended to pace their activities to avoid triggering PEM.
Diagnosis is a 2019 documentary streaming television series. The series follows Dr. Lisa Sanders as she attempts to help patients with rare illnesses and searches for a diagnosis and cure using wisdom of the crowd methods. The show is based on her column for The New York Times Magazine. It was released on August 16, 2019, on Netflix.
Eating You Alive is a 2018 vegan health documentary film about why Americans are suffering from chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, autoimmune disease, among other diseases, and whether the outcome can be changed.
Sonya Huber is a U.S.-born essayist and writer of memoir and literary nonfiction. She is an associate professor of creative writing at Fairfield University. She is the author of Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir, Opa Nobody, and other books. Huber's essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Hotel Amerika, LitHub, The Rumpus, River Teeth, among other literary journals, and in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Washington Post, and the Washington Post Magazine.
Perfect Chaos is a 2012 memoir co-written by Linea Johnson and her mother, Cinda Johnson. The book follows a mother-daughter journey of the struggle of the diagnosis and living with bipolar disorder and depression.
