Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer's Odyssey into an Illness Science Doesn't Understand

Science journalist Rehmeyer, contributing editor at Discover magazine, takes readers on a journey through her struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), an illness for which the medical establishment had no cure. Once a strong individual who ran marathons and performed search-and-rescue operations, the author sometimes felt so weak that she couldn't even move in bed. After an exhaustive course of visiting doctors, being tested repeatedly, and even being labeled with a psychosomatic disorder, she took matters into her own hands and headed out into the desert, heeding advice from Internet strangers about a possible link between her illness and mold. Rehmeyer became her own doctor and found herself contradicting earlier findings of the scientific community, with the results being a better understanding of the processes her body had gone through. Like Sarah Myhill's Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalitis, this book encourages readers to consider causations and natural treatments that mainstream science has not delved into.