The Immune Mystery: A Doctor's Impassioned Quest to Solve the Puzzle of Autoimmune Disease

by Anita Dr. Kåss, Alison McCullough (Translator), Jørgen Jelstad

Overview

A page-turning and powerful medical mystery for readers of Diagnosis by Lisa Sanders and The Beauty in Breaking by Michele Harper

More than 20 million Americans have autoimmune diseases, which occur when the immune system attacks the body. Autoimmune diseases are often misdiagnosed by doctors and overlooked by medical researchers. Almost all affect women more often than men.

The Immune Mystery follows doctor and researcher Anita Kåss’s quest to solve the autoimmune puzzle, beginning with the premature death of her mother, who developed rheumatoid arthritis shortly after giving birth to Anita. As a child, Anita vowed to study the illness and one day find a cure.

Becoming a respected doctor and researcher, Anita devoted herself to studying auto-immune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and multiple sclerosis. Why do so many autoimmune diseases start to show symptoms during and after childbirth, perimenopause, and menopause? Could autoimmune diseases be linked to our changing hormones?

Despite the groundbreaking nature of her research, Anita had to fight for her ideas against the conventional wisdom and casual sexism of the medical industry––even as she made a discovery that earned her a record-breaking US$95 million pharmaceutical deal.

A compelling blend of incredible determination and cutting-edge science, The Immune Mystery changes the way we think about autoimmune diseases. Anita offers solace to patients struggling with questions about their health, and introduces a powerful new voice in medical storytelling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771645508
Publisher:	Greystone Books
Publication date:	05/18/2021
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,081,057
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

DR. ANITA KÅSS is a physician and researcher who has conducted research into autoimmune diseases for many years. She received widespread media attention when her research into a potential cure for rheumatoid arthritis resulted in the largest licensing agreement with a drug company in Norwegian medical history. Born in Liverpool, England, to Indian immigrant parents, she is a graduate of the Royal Liverpool University and now lives in Porsgrunn, Norway, with her husband and three daughters.

JØRGEN JELSTAD is a Norwegian journalist and writer.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 Beginnings 6

2 The Master and a Clue 19

3 Nature Versus Nurture 30

4 A Dance out of the Wheelchair 37

5 The Lonely Researcher 47

6 The Body at War 62

7 An Autoimmune Attack 73

8 Judgment Day 89

9 The Female Diseases 97

10 Gold, Mustard Gas, and the World's Most Valuable Medicine 107

11 Going Against the Stream 122

12 A Nobel Prize Winner Answers the Phone 128

13 Digging Deep in the Trash 141

14 The Experiment 150

15 The Billion-Dollar Companies Arrive 164

16 Nothing Is Black and White 177

Epilogue: The Search for a Longer Life 183

Acknowledgments 188

Overview of Autoimmune Diseases 190

What Do We Know About Environmental Factors? 239

Immune-Suppressing Medications 244

Sources 247

Index 267

Editorial Reviews

An impressive account of an ambitious medical researcher and her struggles…. Kåss watched her mother suffer from the debilitating effects of rheumatoid arthritis; she died when the author was in her early teens. After performing brilliantly in medical school, Kåss devoted her life to the study of autoimmune diseases, bravely stepping into a male-dominated field that garners far less attention than other areas of research….Good popular science combined with a moving memoir.”
—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2021-02-08
An impressive account of an ambitious medical researcher and her struggles.

Raised in Britain, now living and working in Norway, Kåss watched her mother suffer from the debilitating effects of rheumatoid arthritis; she died when the author was in her early teens. After performing brilliantly in medical school, Kåss devoted her life to the study of autoimmune diseases, bravely stepping into a male-dominated field that garners far less attention than other areas of research. In the U.S., she writes, “health authorities have allocated ten times as much funding to cancer research as to research into autoimmune diseases.” Kåss delivers a lucid explanation of our complex immune system, which fiercely attacks germs and viruses when they enter the body but must tolerate other foreign substances such as food and medicine. Autoimmunity occurs when it mistakenly attacks the body it is supposed to protect, and women make up 80% of victims, in part because their immune system has the almost impossible task of ignoring an enormous foreign invader: a fetus. Autoimmune disease often begins around pregnancy. The author paints an eye-opening portrait of the grueling life of a clinical researcher: pleading for money, struggling with technical details, persuading patients to volunteer for a study that’s unlikely to help them, laboring for years, and trying to persuade skeptical journal editors to pay attention to her findings. The author’s discovery that blocking a certain brain hormone may relieve symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis has persuaded pharmaceutical companies to invest millions in large-scale testing; after five years, the results remain “promising.” Kåss concludes her engrossing book with a 50-page description of scores of diseases, from obscure to everyday (diabetes, colitis, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis), whose relations to autoimmunity range from proven to pure speculation, as well as a list of possible environmental causes ranging from gluten to UV radiation.

Good popular science combined with a moving memoir.

Kirkus Reviews