Someone wrote my biography!
Friday, June 11th, 2010I’m not a doctor, but I play one whenever I’m on webmd, a friend is not well or a neighbor’s kid has a bad case of diaper rash. I was recently sent this press release and I don’t think I’ve been more excited about a book launch since Judy Blume released Then Again Maybe I Won’t (the boy’s version of Are You There God? Its Me Margaret). My new bedside table companion is: the Hypocondriac’s Handbook, Symptoms and Illnesses That Should Have Killed You By Now, by Ian Landau.
I imagine this book will thrill and reassure me just the same way Then Again did. It will reveal all the dirty details of disease, I’ll tell myself I should stop but I won’t be able to to because illness, after real estate, is a fetish of mine. Soon after, it will become my life story as I quickly am struck down and (miraculously) recover from the most troubling ailments. Don’t worry about me though, I’ll make it through. Its David my darling husband who will have suffer through my symptom obsession, he’s who you should be concerned about.
Cotard’s Syndrome! Carrot Addiction!
Foreign Accent Syndrome! Ondine’s Curse!
Like a Whole Season of the TV Show House in One Book . . .
HYPOCHONDRIAC’S HANDBOOK
Syndromes, Diseases, and Ailments that
Probably Should Have Killed You by Now
By Ian Landau
Sure, catching a cold is annoying, and influenza will lay you out for a week, but those ailments are easy to diagnose and everyone knows how to treat them. What do you do when you have a persistent crawling and biting sensation underneath your skin that eventually erupts into legions (Morgellons disease), start looking like Thing from the Fantastic Four (Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, a.k.a., Stone Man Syndrome), develop a British accent (Foreign Accent Syndrome), or start growing excessive body hair despite the lack of a full moon (Hypertrichosis, a.k.a., Human Werewolf Syndrome)? Your doctor may not know, and WebMD.com won’t have the answers, but The Hypochondriac’s Handbook: Syndromes, Diseases, and Ailments that Probably Should Have Killed You by Now tells you everything you need to know.
With dozens of the strangest uncommon diseases known to science, Ian Landau offers in The Hypochondriac’s Handbook the symptoms and treatments for:
· Dracunculiasis
· Cat Scratch Fever
· Cutaneous Horn
· Human Bot Fly Myiasis
· Hypertrichosis
· Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
· Mud Wrestler’s Rash
· Necrotizing Fasciitis
· Pica
· Alien Hand Syndrome
· Dissociative Fugue
· Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome
· Moebius Syndrome!
· Locked-in Syndrome
· And so many more
With detailed descriptions of each disease and its history, tips for self-diagnosis, and suggested
treatments, Ian Landau has given you everything you need to know to diagnosis yourself. So, don’t wait for next week’s episode of House, get a copy of The Hypochondriac’s Handbook and diagnosis yourself and your friends today! Discover which of these diseases you should have already died from by now.
About the Author
Ian Landau is a freelance writer who lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his family. He is not a doctor, but his two children don’t know that.
Hypochondriac’s Handbook
Syndromes, Diseases, and Ailments that Probably Should Have Killed You by Now
By Ian Landau
Skyhorse Publishing Hardcover Original
On Sale: July 13, 2010