In Collaboration With The
Book Reviews of Gut Feelings
The Team Behind “Gut Feelings” Will Lead You to Victory Over Your Hidden Health Nemesis
By Judy Moreno| July 12th, 2021|Author Spotlight, Author Spotlight - Featured
Listen to Your “Gut Feelings” and Feel Your Best After Reading This Groundbreaking Book
By Barbara Wilkov| July 2nd, 2021|Better Self, Better Self - Featured, Nonfiction
"Gut Feelings: Disorders of the Gut-Brain Interaction and the Patient-Doctor Relationship" by Douglas Drossman MD, and Johannah Ruddy, MEd
-Review by John Pandolfino, MD and C. Prakash Gyawali, MD
A comprehensive yet simplified description of the concepts underlying gut-brain interaction, and disorders thereof, commonly termed functional gastrointestinal disorders, written collaboratively by a master clinician and researcher in functional bowel disorders, and an accomplished patient advocate who brings her personal perspective on functional bowel disorders as a patient herself.
"Gut Feelings" is written in elegant yet eminently understandable language, for not just the practitioner seeking the scientific basis of disorders of the gut-brain interaction, but also for the patient seeking understanding of their symptoms and management recommendations. The practitioner benefits from a deeper understanding of the patient’s frustrations and concerns, learning better interview technique, and focusing on risk factors, triggers and epiphenomena of functional bowel disorders while managing patients. The patient and lay person benefits from understanding the reasoning behind typical and advanced physician recommendations in the management of their symptoms, and why they should persist with complementary and behavioral approaches.
"Gut Feelings" also provides a detailed list, with established diagnostic criteria, of all the disorders of gut-brain interaction as recognized by ROME IV, as well as an international listing of centers of excellence and experts around the world who can provide consultative care for management of these disorders. Video links provided in the book lead to actual interactions between the authors and patients. We feel that anyone who manages functional bowel disorders, and anyone who suffers from these disorders stands to benefit from reading "Gut Feelings," and having the book at hand for reference.
Doc Matters – American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society
December 2020
-Review by John Pandolfino, MD and C. Prakash Gyawali, MD
A comprehensive yet simplified description of the concepts underlying gut-brain interaction, and disorders thereof, commonly termed functional gastrointestinal disorders, written collaboratively by a master clinician and researcher in functional bowel disorders, and an accomplished patient advocate who brings her personal perspective on functional bowel disorders as a patient herself.
"Gut Feelings" is written in elegant yet eminently understandable language, for not just the practitioner seeking the scientific basis of disorders of the gut-brain interaction, but also for the patient seeking understanding of their symptoms and management recommendations. The practitioner benefits from a deeper understanding of the patient’s frustrations and concerns, learning better interview technique, and focusing on risk factors, triggers and epiphenomena of functional bowel disorders while managing patients. The patient and lay person benefits from understanding the reasoning behind typical and advanced physician recommendations in the management of their symptoms, and why they should persist with complementary and behavioral approaches.
"Gut Feelings" also provides a detailed list, with established diagnostic criteria, of all the disorders of gut-brain interaction as recognized by ROME IV, as well as an international listing of centers of excellence and experts around the world who can provide consultative care for management of these disorders. Video links provided in the book lead to actual interactions between the authors and patients. We feel that anyone who manages functional bowel disorders, and anyone who suffers from these disorders stands to benefit from reading "Gut Feelings," and having the book at hand for reference.
Doc Matters – American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society
December 2020
This innovative, dual-focused volume from Drossman and Ruddy offers a study of the history, diagnosis, and treatment of Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction from Drossman, the eminent scientist of gastroenterology, with an emphasis on new approaches to these chronic illnesses that too often have been misunderstood by a conventional medical wisdom that failed to grasp their negative impact on patient health. Gut Feelings pairs this specialist’s intervention in his field with an urgent effort to improve communication between doctors and patients, especially in cases of chronic illnesses where there’s a disconnect, as in the case of DGBI, between symptoms and medical findings. Ruddy, a patient advocate and executive director of the Rome Foundation, has endured DGBI herself; she pens clear-eyed, authoritative passages for patients about how to optimize their communication with their physicians.
Together, Drossman and Ruddy address physicians and patients, with Drossman explaining his findings over a lifetime or treating and researching DGBI. With rousing passion rare in medical literature, Gut Feelings urges physicians to adopt George Engel’s biopsychosocial model of treating patients—to create the conditions in which patients and physicians can “engage collaboratively on the care that will improve the clinical outcome.” The book itself is evidence of what doctors and patients can achieve when they collaborate: Drossman treated Ruddy and her DGBI.
In moving testimonial, Ruddy recounts how other doctors proved dismissive of her symptoms–“Women can get hysterical and exaggerate pain, especially at certain times of the month,” she recalls a physician telling her. Drossman, though, listened to her and understood that there’s more to gastrointestinal health than what colonoscopies can reveal, as he spells out in persuasive detail in the book’s first half. While it offers sound advice for patients, Gut Feelings will most resonate with medical practitioners eager to optimize communication between doctors and patients, especially in cases of chronic illness or pain that’s not traditionally been well diagnosed and treated.
Takeaway: This innovative medical text guides patients and doctors toward greater understanding of disorders of gut-brain interaction—and greater communication.
Great for fans of: Emeran Mayer’s The Mind-Gut Connection, Peter Tate and Francesca Frame’s The Doctor's Communication Handbook.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
© COPYRIGHT 2020, DrossmanCare
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