- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (Jun 4 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0446529079
- ISBN-13: 978-0446529075
- Product Dimensions: 16.1 x 3.2 x 23.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 572 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #466,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Outlining a program equally useful for those suffering from CFS, fibromyalgia ME, or post-polio sequelae, The Polio Paradox enables patients to overcome the emotional issues surrounding the disease and begin a helpful regimen of long-term self-care. Using simple diagrams and illustrations, along with plenty of references to medical studies the world over, Dr. Richard Bruno has written a straightforward guide that deals with both the physical and social concerns these illnesses raise.
The first section of the book outlines the recent history of the poliovirus, and how it affected, and continues to affect, several generations. From childhood agonies to adult experiences of extreme fatigue that worsen when patients attempt to stay active, every stage is examined, with a special focus on both how the virus works and how surviving the disease often resulted in a host of social stigmas. In blunt, often humorous prose, Bruno outlines recommendations to aid in dealing with recurring symptoms.
Admonishments like "walls, furniture, and spouses are not assistive devices" and "brake before you break" are aimed at helping patients develop a reasonable exercise program in combination with curtailing exhausting activities and gaining an understanding of how to live with a chronic, potentially debilitating illness. Supplying both a historical perspective and a healthy dose of practical support, Bruno offers an excellent and thorough introduction to the world of post-polio management. --Jill Lightner
From Publishers Weekly
Bruno, chairperson of the International Post-Polio Task Force and director of the Post-Polio Institute, has made an important contribution to the available literature on post-polio syndrome (PPS). Since the early 1980s, many polio survivors who were diagnosed with the disease during epidemics that occurred before the vaccine became available (in 1954) have been experiencing serious symptoms of muscle weakness, fatigue, joint pain, excessive coldness and difficulty in swallowing. In an informed scientific overview of polio, the author explains how motor neurons, damaged during polio's onslaught on the body, have been overworked and are dying off, leading to PPS. Of great interest is Bruno's overview of the harsh manner in which medical professionals treated children with polio during the 1940s and '50s. Separated from their families, these young people were subjected to painful treatments that did not work and told that they should suppress their emotions, hide their disability as much as possible and overcome the disease by hard work and striving to appear normal. This resulted in a rash of polio survivors who became Type A overachievers who denied their own needs. Bruno's paradox is that this very Type A behavior is a hindrance to treating PPS, which must be managed by self-care, including slowing down physically, avoiding stress, accepting help from family members and utilizing assistive devices such as braces and wheelchairs, when necessary. Bruno provides a wealth of advice that will encourage anyone experiencing PPS to seek treatment. Included also is a helpful discussion of chronic fatigue syndrome and its relationship to PPS.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
One winter morning I happened to take a phone call in my office at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center from a thirty-six-year-old polio survivor from New Jersey. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
One winter morning I happened to take a phone call in my office at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center from a thirty-six-year-old polio survivor from New Jersey. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like Maslow, Every Paragraph Grabs the Reader Who Suffers,
By C Thompson (Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Polio Paradox: What You Need to Know (Hardcover)
"Ah ha!" are the words I'd suck in as I read Dr. Bruno's book. After a year's research on my own, I found the PPS Institute and Dr. Bruno's book. Those of us who had Polio (or didn't know that "it" was Polio) only knew one thing - we were over it and had to get on with life and catch up ASAP. We had fear at our back door, and it pushed us onward, every minute of our lives. For me, after cancer, I kept thinking "Its just the chemo" but I had been told in 1982 I had PPS and "Use it or lose it" was the theory protocol, so I kept going like I was short in the back with a "22" fearing I'd lose some dendrite that would nourish a neuron, and the first symptom I had (in '82) would come back. Instead, I became worse - the results were what drove me to discover Dr. Bruno's book and go to the Institute: hundreds of falls, broken bones, lacerated head injuries, tripping for the past 50 years and feeling like a clutz, when I was known as the regional "Happy Tom-Boy" BP (before Polio).By the time Dr. Bruno told me to just "rest - chill for a few weeks" I had to do it; nothing else worked. It DID. I read the book again, and again...trying to find a glitch in his neuro-networking and neurology statements, but I couldn't. So, I did go to the Institute. Everyone who knows anyone who's had Polio, or any sudden onset illness, or even as my little sister, used to drip food out of her nostrils at age 2 (it was Polio - 1954), must read this book. Be prepared to talk to doctors - they must have PPS as part of their required CMEs NOW. Post Polio surivors can no longer accept mediocre care, and repeated anesthesia "accidents (as I did)." With or without insurance, humans have a basic right to respect and care. I had Polio - I knew I did - and the fears associated with going "back" into it were at times paralyzing in itself...thus I kept swimming daily - often for three hours and lifting weights, anything to avoid breathing problems again, or the horrid stiff neck, or ... seeing my arm next to me and not moving even when I yelled at it! Post Polio Paradox will give the reader the information needed to take to the medical professionals, and to educate themselves, and . . . gradually, safely, comfortably, change their lives from the fatalistic Type A personalities (which did get us through the horrors of Polio), but paradoxically - aptly put, can destroy us now. IF we are real, we will be able to see our 'worn' parts, accept them, and move on to another phrase in our lives - taking care of ourselves. "Polio Class of 1950"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dr. Bruno is the utmost authority!,
By
This review is from: The Polio Paradox: What You Need to Know (Hardcover)
If you or someone you love is a polio survivor, this is a MUST read. Informative and written in plain language that a layman can understand! Thank you Dr. Bruno for enlightening me!
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you have CFS/ME, you need to read this book!,
By Joanne (Franklin,TN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Polio Paradox: What You Need to Know (Hardcover)
After 25 plus years of questions about what in the US has ridiculously been labeled; CFS, The Post Polio Paradox truly explains even unusual and vague symptoms that I never would have connected to CFS. It all makes sense now. Though detailed, Dr.Bruno keeps it fairly simple. He really gives a 'from the heart' explanation of the trauma polio victims went through,and what many are experiencing now. Even those of us with CFS/ME, who though perhaps not 'diagnosed' with polio need to look into this in order to preserve our health, as we know it. I thank God for the patient/doctor interaction with a listening ear that has given Dr.Bruno the ability to really care for his patients,helping them, and share skillfully this terrific, realistic, informative book.After this book I read "A Virus Within" by Nicholas Regush, which expanded even more understanding the "WHY?" of it all. Another must read for CFS/ME sufferers, or those who love them.
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