Product Description
From the foreword by Dr. Douglas Kerr, Director, Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center "The Autoimmune Epidemic by Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an astounding book....It is the kind of book that will rivet you and scare you. It will make you angry. It will amaze you with the courage of some of the people described in the book...The Autoimmune Epidemic is every bit as compelling as Upton Sinclair's The Jungle...It is also every bit as necessary as An Inconvenient Truth....You will leave this book with no reservations about the veracity of the conclusions: put simply, there is no doubt that autoimmune diseases are on the rise and increasing environmental exposures of toxins and chemicals is fueling this rise. The research is sound. The conclusions unassailable....Reading The Autoimmune Epidemic is a necessary first step. Reading The Autoimmune Epidemic is a life-altering event. It needs to be."

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 29 reviews)

autoimmune epidemic by genya (oregon)

4 Stars
September 29, 2009
I noticed someone who criticized this book said it was the same old advice but I found it very interesting. I learned more about auto immune response and found it very informative. I have colitis and found the advice while familiar went a little further and gave me a little more insight. I would recommend this book.

You Need to Know About This! by Trisha R. Norsworthy (West Texas)

5 Stars
September 02, 2009
Autoimmune diseases are proliferating like crazy and as a society we are horribly uninformed. This affects us in several ways. I have been diagnosed with several autoimmune diseases, which are generally incurable. Rarely do I encounter someone who doesn't tell me, "Hope you're all better by _______." No one knows what autoimmunity is, much less Sjogren's or Addison's diseases. So when I continue to be ill, I am written off as lazy. But these diseases cost society and my family a bundle in lost wages, medical spending, etc Even though most of my friends are well educated, many of them don't know that autoimmune diseases are not the same as AIDS. Who will vote for funding for desperately needed autoimmunity research, when most of us think the studies already have been completed with AIDS funds? It's not even close to the same problem. Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mis-identifies a part of the body as foreign, i.e. a flu virus, and then attacks destroying a needed part of your body. Autoimmune research currently receives a tiny fraction of medical research dollars, which is way out of proportion to the number of patients with one or more of the 100+ autoimmune diseases. This book is fantastic and it's not only for patients. The author presents verifiable information, citing trustworthy sources, about the dangers in our food chain, cleaning products, environmental toxins and much more. You will learn why and how to keep yourself healthy--or to help your doctors if one of these nasty diseases has gotten hold of you. The reading is easy, but I learned so much.

The Autooimmune Epidemic by Diane V (Boston, MA)

5 Stars
May 31, 2009
The Autoimmune Epidemic A must read for anyone who has experienced an autoimmune disease, either first-hand, or as family member, or friend. This book makes some thought provoking observations about the current state of our environment and draws parallels to the changes in our water, air, soil and food sources with the alarming rise in various autoimmune diseases. This is a meticulously researched work that balances good journalism with sound science. The author dedicates a chapter to a day in the life of a typical American family and uncovers the various pollutants and carcinogens that it is exposed to as a matter of course. To further illustrate, there is a fascinating (and maddening) case study of one community's epidemic of Lupus and the chemical contamination that may have caused it. The message of this book is clear, there is a huge rise in the incidence of autoimmune disease and it is likely to become a public health emergency. Yet since autoimmune diseases are not one disease but many, each is seen separately and the epidemic has largely gone unnoticed. The book ends on a somewhat optimistic note, documenting current research that shows how modern science is hot on the trail of the causes and cures of some of the more well known autoimmune diseases.

Cutting Edge by J.D. Bishop

4 Stars
April 04, 2009
Every Dr. in America should read this book! The author has done her research -- the genius is in pulling all the information together to make a compelling link between the autoimmune disease eruption and environmental exposure. However, I did not appreciate the "political" references about Inconvenient Truth and global warning. Autoimmune disease is not an issue for partison politics.

Proceed to Read, With Caution by James Gerofsky

4 Stars
March 01, 2009
Donna Jackson Nakazawa has written a prophetic book, but not an entirely objective book. She is truly passionate about the topic of autoimmune disease and its potential links to environmental degradation and the lax regulation of foods and consumer products containing harmful substances. Given that she suffers from an autoimmune condition, one can understand her motives. However, the reader must account for that fact and take a step back from what she presents. There are legitimate reasons to suspect that many Americans are increasingly at risk of developing chronic autoimmunity because of "better living through chemistry". But much of the data and research needed to support this theory is incomplete. This is certainly a topic that needs public attention, but one that could be discredited if embraced too quickly. The author interweaves human stories regarding the angst of having a strange and not fully understood medical condition with a bevy of facts and concepts about autoimmune disease. She also throws in a pinch of politics, as she narrates the struggles of communities seeking bureaucratic acknowledgment of disease clusters occurring near toxic waste sites. Her stories are compelling, and her knowledge of the processes of the immune system and its interactions with harmful substances such as mercury and TCE is extensive. Unfortunately, she fails give her readers "the big picture" of immunity and autoimmunity. As such, her references to CD44 proteins, toll-like receptors and other mechanisms of the immune system are scattered and disjointed. Ms. Nakazawa provides an extensive notes section that backs up much of what she asserts. However, there are curious gaps for some of her more important and interesting claims. For example, on page 53 she talks of the "education process" in the thymus for T-cells, without any references that might assist the interested reader. On page 75, she says "if you were to look today at a chart detailing increasing rates of autoimmune disease . . " However, no citation follows. It would be nice to know where to find those charts or even see them in the book! Then on page 150, she talks about the process by which mercury forms hybrid proteins in the body, without any citation. Regarding the studies listed in the notes about the influence of toxins on autoimmune response, one sees that most are mouse studies. Most of the supporting materials regarding disease clusters are small studies or local reports from about 12 cities. Nakazawa does not list any national studies comparing incident rates across a large number of toxic sites, and offers no references to investigations seeking common etiological factors across cluster victims. She focuses on a lupus cluster in the city of Buffalo and an academic study that was started after much bureaucratic footdragging. However, Ms. Nakazawa leaves us hanging, as the study was "not yet wrapped up" at the time of publication. Furthermore, most of the autoimmune incidence studies that Nakazawa cites are time-limited and based on small geographic areas (sometimes in foreign nations). The only nationwide study cited regards lupus over the years 1950 to 1992. Nakazawa does not provide any sources concluding that all or most autoimmune conditions have an increasing incidence trend (although many studies show an increasing PREVALANCE, partly because of better recognition of autoimmune disease by medical workers in recent years). The author herself admits that reliable nationwide information regarding autoimmune conditions is not collected, as with AIDS and cancer. Two more points: in several places, Nakazawa indicates that autoimmune diseases are primarily triggered by the process of viral molecular mimicry. Other sources, including The Merck Manual and William Clark's In Defense of Self, say that mimicry is one of several possible autoimmune "vectors", which may be relevant in different proportions to different diseases. I.e., one size does not fit all. Ms. Nakazawa does acknowledge these other factors, but conflates them under her "barrel" theory (which might be better described as a "tipping point" or "transition from order to chaos"). By putting everything into her allegorical barrel, environmental toxins always get in on the act. Also, Nakazawa gets behind the autism / thimerosal theory despite recent studies that conclude against it. Thimerosal, a mercury-based substance added to vaccines as a preservative, was removed from infant vaccines in California in 2001; however, studies there show that the child autism rate continued to climb. The central premise of "The Autoimmune Epidemic" raises an obvious question: why now? Before the formation of the EPA in 1970, US citizens were exposed to many toxic pollutants that have since been eliminated or controlled. Also, since the late 1980s our economy has deindustrialized, and much of the toxic residue from our industrial past has been contained in Superfund cleanups (if imperfectly). Our paints and gasoline no longer have lead, we no longer dust our gardens with DDT, we no longer clean our paintbrushes with benzene. I feel that Ms. Nakazawa owes us a more careful analysis of whether the average American is now exposed to greater or fewer toxins. Perhaps we are exposed to different ones; but why should that set our immune systems reeling, when the old ones didn't? In my opinion, the immune system and its disorders are an extremely important health topic. Many important discoveries are expected which will greatly increase our knowledge of the body's workings and its complicated responses to disease and injury. This will set the groundwork for therapeutic advances rivaling the antibiotics revolution of early 20th century. Toxic chemical exposure from the environment and from home products and the food chain could well be a contributor to the increasing incidence of certain autoimmune conditions. However, commercial interests having high levels of resources will challenge any public policy response. Recall how long they dragged out the global warming debate. Donna Jackson Nakazawa has taken a brave first step in garnering public attention, but carefully developed scientific evidence will be needed if her "epidemic" contention is to hold.

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