About a month ago, I was reading Goop. (Shut up, I look at it from time to time. She is not running my damn life or anything.) There was an interview with the doctor who wrote Spent. The book seemed interesting enough and it obviously had Paltrow's seal of approval, so I bought it.
I've got some issues with this book. Here's the thing, I can't believe this book about exhaustion and chronic pain and digestive issues was possibly written without a single mention of fibromyalgia or candida. See, Dr. Lipman seems to be making a brand new illness called Spent. I don't mind how he wants to treat it holistically or any of that. Dr. Lipman ignores a lot. I've read most books on fibro at this point. I've also read all of Dr. Crook's books on candida. It seems like Dr. Lipman uses the symptoms of both issues and refuses to label it as what it is. Instead, let's create something new.
Simply put, I'm returning the book. This is the kind of shit that irritates me about views on fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. They are both very real illnesses. Yet, instead of taking his work on an approach to healing, and applying it to an illness for an illness for which so many are searching for answers, he calls it something else. Sigh. Fibro is finally starting to gain acceptance that it's "not just in your head" and now we have to call it something new because he has high profile clients? Oh, wouldn't I love to see a celebrity spokesperson for fibro so that people might actually believe it is real.
The book's methods weren't objectionable. I am simply not supporting someone who refuses to call it what it is. It's fibromyalgia. It's chronic fatigue. It's Epstein Barr. It's candida. It's Leaky Gut Syndrome. It's not Spent, Dr. Lipman. As someone who has been "Spent" for years, I had years of doctors not believing me until I went to the FFC. I'm sure as hell not going into my doctor and saying, Yeah, I think I've got Spent, see, it's in this book that Gywneth Paltrow recommended... I think you could have done something great for people who suffer from these illnesses. Instead, you try to make something new. It's not new and it sucks.
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