Graves' Disease In Our Own Words

Rating:
Summary: Saved me mountains of worry!!
Review: After being diagnosed with GD my doctor wanted to immediately perform RAI although I didn't have an enlarged gland. I knew nothing about the disease and was scared. My intuition told me there may be another way. This book taught me all I needed to know and gave me the insight and courage to persuade my doctor to let me try PTU first. In Our Own Words confirmed from the start that aggressive treatment wasn't always necessary. I took PTU for only 3 months and responded so well I am now in remission. However, I learned from the book the serious nature of GD and how to work closely with the doctor and lab results. IT's an on going journey. This book served as an important first navagational tool. An update on my condition 6/25/04: I had a recurrance of all hyper symptoms after only one month remmission. I opted to try PTU again, still with good results in bringing down my T4 but I'm constatantly juggling the dose. I still sense this is the way to go for me, but I get discouraged. I will look at some of the other suggested books on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: Graves' Disease In Our Own Words, by Jake George and Nancy Patterson, was a disappointment. I expected a great deal more. I hoped that a book endorsed by a national organization on Graves' disease would provide fairly up-to-date information, but this book has outdated information, and a number of weak and scanty sections.

Overall, it left me with more questions than answers, and even contradicted information I've received from my endocrinologist, who is considered top in his field.

I'd suggest Ridha Arem's Thyroid Solution, Elaine Moore's book on Graves' disease, or Sara Rosenthal's books before I'd recommend this one to others.

Rating:
Summary: Easy to read, while very informative
Review: Having researched a number of the available titles about Graves' Disease, it was refreshing to find one which is not too technical, nor too "dumbed down". This well researched, yet easy to read book provides help and hope! I recommend it as a first choice to my recently diagnosed patients seeking information about their disease.

Rating:
Summary: Very helpful and informative!
Review: I have Graves disease. Having said that, I decided to read absolutely everything I could find that has been written about this disease. The other books I read presented the technical and medical information very well. This book presented not only that technical information in a very understandable way, but it also presented information regarding the impact (other than on the body) that this disease can have. This extra information is what sets this book apart. When I told my endocrinologist that someone should write a book solely about Graves disease, he said, "why? It is a very straightforward disease." Wrong! This disease is not straightforward at all! (I am going to send my copy of this book to him!) This book is very very helpful! Thank you!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful information
Review: I wish this book had been availably a year ago when I started my battle with Graves' Disease. Gives honest, well-researched information. If you are just starting your battle with this disease and struggling with getting info. from Doctor and need easy to understand, not too technical information then this book will give you or your family members a better understanding of what you could be going through, what may happen down the road and how to work with your Doctor at making you better.
What can I say, I loved the book and only wish there was more than 210 pages to it.

Rating:
Summary: another kind of bias
Review: Jake did a fairly lousy job in this book which contains many of wrong information. He went into the other extreme of bias from that of Elaine Moore in her book Graves Disease: a practical guide. While Elaine tends to promote ATD for long time use to achieve remission, Jake tends to lead all patients into radical treatment such as RAI and surgery.

Many clinical trials have pointed out that ATD has modest rate of remission rate for Graves. However, Jake tends to ignore the current medical finding in his book. Instead, he tends to use some out of dated information about remission rate with ATD, which might completely dismiss the hope for remission on ATD. This kind of bias might lead patient to choose radical treatment for Graves from very beginning. Though clinical studies have shown safety of RAI and surgery, non-invasive treatment should always be promoted first.

Personally, I would recommand neither Jake George's book nor Elain Moore's book to any of Graves patients thought Jake did a a bit better job than Elaine. Instead, I would suggest whoever had a diagnosis of Graves to search in Medline for more accurate information for treatment of Graves.