Chronic: The Hidden Cause of the Autoimmune Pandemic and How to Get Healthy Again by Dr. Steven Philips, MD & Dana Parish.
Dr. Steven Phillips, the expert guest on our upcoming Season 2 Episode 1 launching this week, has not only witnessed the agony and frustration of the many thousands of chronic Lyme and Lyme-related patients he’s diagnosed and treated over several decades. He’s experienced these agonies himself, as has his Chronic co-author, the science writer Dana Parish.
Dr. Phillips recalls the low point in his own battle when he was “confined to my memory-foam mattress prison for a full year, ultimately requiring twenty-four hour care, unable to turn over in bed or sit up on my own….”
From this nadir he persevered on his own path to wellness and toward a better understanding of the complexities of tick-borne Lyme infections triggering chronic illnesses affecting tens of thousands of North Americans each year.
Phillips argues these illnesses are more accurately called “Lyme Plus” to reflect other pathogens at work alongside Lyme bacteria. Yet current testing methods for Lyme and Lyme plus are woefully inadequate, in Phillips experience. This leads to high rates of misdiagnosis and mistreatment for up to 40% of infected individuals not cured by a typical course of antibiotics.
Chronic is both unusually an unusually powerful memoir and a science-based wake-up call to the mainstream medical community which has yet to fully recognize the ravages of chronic Lyme and Lyme plus conditions.
Episodes
Stories of everyday athletes facing physical and behavioral obstacles, and the rewards & challenges of an active lifestyle. With input from doctors, researchers, and other wellness experts.
Ultimate Mark: “I Just Love Playing Too Much!”
In My Body Odyssey’s first full episode we meet Ultimate Mark– an uber competitive weekend warrior in many sports, but most frequently Ultimate Disc (formerly Ultimate Frisbee).
Mark hurls himself on the Ultimate field just as he once did as an aspiring soccer goalie. Problem is, Mark today has a fully fused spine dating back to severe scoliosis in high school. And that lack of spinal flexibility, along with his love of competition and high pain tolerance, puts him at risk for frequent injuries and possibly another major surgery.
“There’s something called adjacent segment disease,” explains Mayo Clinic Neurosurgeon Mohamad Bydon, one of two experts providing insights into Mark’s Body Odyssey. “It's not unforeseeable that as, as the years go by, he'll begin to develop problems and a decision will have to be made on extending that fusion.”
Meanwhile, Ultimate Mark continues to play at high intensity. “I'm extremely competitive and I want to win at all costs, he tells us. “Like I, I do what I can to win and if it hurts me, but it helps the team, it's worth it in my mind.”
Our second expert guest, Mark Stoutenberg, PhD of Temple University and the NGO Exercise is Medicine, has led numerous studies and programs on the benefits of sport and exercise. Still, Dr. Stoutenberg sounds a cautionary note on Ultimate Mark’s love of intense competition with a fully fused spine. “I don't think our younger selves really understand what being 50 and having chronic back pain is like,” says Dr. Stoutenberg. “I just hope people at that point would say, you know what, I gotta change my lifestyle.”
Does Ultimate Mark love sport too much? Mark finds the tradeoff acceptable for the social and behavioral benefits he gets from Ultimate Disc. Tune in to learn more about Mark’s highly intentional sacrifice of bodily injury for a healthier mind on this first episode of My Body Odyssey, a podcast about the rewards and challenges of an active lifestyle.
Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.