Goodbye Autoimmune Disease – by Dr. Brooke Goldner

First let’s examine: will it prevent and reverse all the chronic illnesses mentioned on the cover? Probably not. In fact, for several of the things mentioned, it is not currently known what causes them, and others, there are known genetic factors that may not be undone by lifestyle changes.

However! A more modest claim would have been more justified, such as “alleviate the symptoms of”.

On account of this, the book still has merit.

The main thrust of the book is, as you might expect, to reduce inflammation by avoiding inflammatory things and enjoy anti-inflammatory things. It’s not just diet, though, and it also covers a lot of other lifestyle factors, including the obvious topics of exercise, sleep, etc but also various mental health aspects that often go overlooked. The dietary component is important, though, and has a 6-step process that is absolutely integral to her method, so that’s an important thing to focus on.

The book makes heavy use of anecdotal case studies. Case studies are great when one wants to illustrate how something works; they’re not so great as a putative proof that something works, so we’d rather have seen fewer anecdotes and more actual science.

The author is also her own case study, having recovered from systemic lupus nephritis, which means two things:

1. She does understand what it is like to have a chronic illness, which sets her apart from a lot of doctors
2. She overlooks survivorship bias, and posits that the same approach will work for everyone with all chronic illnesses

The latter may be a little overly optimistic, but on balance, optimism is generally a beneficial thing, so this is better than the alternative of (just as incorrectly) assuming there is no hope.

Bottom line: this may not in fact cure all autoimmune conditions, but at the very least it will alleviate a lot of symptoms, if not reverse disease. So, if you have an autoimmune condition, following this book’s very reasonable advice does seem very sound.

Click here to check out Goodbye Autoimmune Disease, and see what a difference it can make for you!