The Other Side of Impossible

April 17, 2017
At age three, journalist Meadows’s son Shepherd was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. Concerned about the side effects of traditional medications, she entered “the healthcare underground” of patients struggling with chronic, debilitating autoimmune illnesses and willing to look at complementary or alternative strategies for treating and defeating them. This book presents the stories of several people who found relief through new, still-unproven approaches such as dietary changes or fecal transplants. Meadows is skeptical in the best sense, considering the treatments, as well as the character traits of her subjects, as potential keys to success. She never sufficiently acknowledges that her stories are anecdotes, not conclusive research, but she has confidence that they point to real solutions. Her purpose is to “suggest potential targets for new research,” and she does so with writing that’s compelling and fair. When presenting a case, she is balanced, as in discussing Terry, a doctor stricken with multiple sclerosis, who subdued her illness through medicine, diet, meditation, physical therapy, strength training, and massage. This is a terrific book for those who need encouragement to take control of their diagnoses, and for their physicians and families.

April 1, 2017
Can eating the right food play a major role in healing medical problems?Rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, ADHD, severe seizures, multiple sclerosis, and food allergies related to peanuts, gluten, dairy, soy, and a host of other allergens--these are just some of the medical issues explored by former Newsweek senior writer Meadows in her first book. Most of the author's interviewees are parents of children with these serious, sometimes life-threatening illnesses who have tried every conventional medical method--most often, prescription drugs--to help their children lead healthy lives. But when those traditional methods have failed to produce long-term positive results, they have turned to alternative methods, often as a last resort, and been overwhelmed by the drastic, progressive changes. Highly attentive to important details, Meadows takes readers through the agonizing months and years of pain, suffering, anxiety, and fears that these parents and adults faced as they tried to find solutions to their medical issues. As the author discovered, food played a significant role in all of these situations. Once the diet was changed, the symptoms changed, and the children improved, primarily because the body's gut bacteria, or microbiome, had changed. Other methods Meadows clearly discusses include fecal pills and enemas, identifying the mind-body connection between food and its allergic reaction in the body, and the importance of positive feedback and the drive to feel better. Although the author doesn't outline a specific diet, she includes enough information about foods that helped others for readers to piece together their own menu and do their own experimentation to help overcome some of these debilitating diseases. The author's helpful additions include further resources, websites, a sample menu, and bibliography, as well as references to the many doctors and practitioners interviewed in the text. Encouraging, honest information and real-life cases that show the role food can play in healing the body.

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April 1, 2017

Journalist Meadows's quest for a cure for her son's juvenile arthritis led her to complementary and alternative therapies. Along the way, she encountered others seeking solutions for serious medical conditions. This book introduces readers to courageous patients, parents seeking help for their children, and scientists searching for cures and explanations. Among them are a physician with multiple sclerosis, a mother determined to stop her daughter's seizures, and parents helping a child with ADHD. While noting that both traditional and alternative medicine practices are useful and that much is still unknown about what works and why, the author highlights the importance of persistence, hope, and research when facing difficult medical situations. Those profiled here refused to give up and were willing to try unproven therapies with no guarantees. This title includes supplementary information with websites for updates from the researchers and patients profiled and a glossary. VERDICT For those facing catastrophic illness and willing to explore alternative therapies. Public and consumer health collections will want to consider.--Barbara Bibel, formerly Oakland P.L.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2017
Mainstream medicine doesn't always have an answer. Meadows brings to light multiple cases of recovery in which conventional medical care had little left to offer, and frustrated, anxious, and desperate patients or their parents sought alternative (nontraditional) or complementary remedies. The stories portray a young woman with rheumatoid arthritis, an infant with severe food allergies, a boy with ADHD, a girl with recurrent seizures and possible autism, a woman with multiple sclerosis, and the author's son, who was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Some successful treatments include elimination diets (typically no gluten, sugar, dairy), adhering to vegetarian diets, pushing probiotics and a sundry of supplements, fecal transplant (administering stool from a healthy donor to a sick patient), and a BioScan machine with a wand that delivers electrical currents. Throughout these tales, a common attitude binds people together: hope. It is difficult to draw definitive conclusions from these anecdotes. Other explanations are possibleplacebo effect, spontaneous remission, perhaps misdiagnosis. But what cannot be refuted is the will power, perseverance, and hopefulness of the patients and families profiled here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)