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Invisible No More: Embracing Your Road to Recovery from Long Covid and Other Complex Chronic Illnesses
While Covid-19 has brought increased attention to chronic and complex illnesses, these conditions have impacted millions worldwide, long before the pandemic. Covid was not the first exposure to cause long-term disease and disability, nor will it be the last.
In Invisible No More, Dr. Ilene Ruhoy aims to empower the long-term patients of chronic and complex diseases, delving into her own harrowing experience as a patient. She details her evolution as a neurologist, toxicologist, and integrative physician to work with people across the globe in treating their chronic symptoms and disabling disease, all while amplifying their own voices. This book serves as a practical guide with sections on nutrition, breathing, supplements and more. With a focus on healing and empowerment, Invisible No More will answer patients' most pressing questions and take their health into their own hands.
In Invisible No More, Dr. Ilene Ruhoy aims to empower the long-term patients of chronic and complex diseases, delving into her own harrowing experience as a patient. She details her evolution as a neurologist, toxicologist, and integrative physician to work with people across the globe in treating their chronic symptoms and disabling disease, all while amplifying their own voices. This book serves as a practical guide with sections on nutrition, breathing, supplements and more. With a focus on healing and empowerment, Invisible No More will answer patients' most pressing questions and take their health into their own hands.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published June 17, 2025
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4064 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 31, 2025
Firstly, thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review.
I was immensely excited to see this title coming to press, as the topic – Long COVID and chronic illness – are at the front of mind for me as a person who has struggled with both. I went into this book hoping that the title was an accurate summary of the book’s content and that the writer being a neurologist would lend some legitimacy to Long COVID, a disability which many people often downplay, ignore, or worse yet, claim is made up.
The book is split into three parts, each meaning to give a primer on the topics, some strategies for recovery, and then the importance of staying diligent on your road to recovery. I was surprised to read the first section, which was less focused on the background of Long COVID and chronic illnesses, but instead gave quite a thorough history on the author’s own struggle with chronic illness, more specifically her bout with brain cancer and the ensuing difficult recovery she experienced. While it was interesting to read this firsthand account, it seemed positioned more so as a means of giving her narrative legitimacy on the topic as a cancer survivor.
The remainder of the book did not, from my perspective, focus much on Long COVID and was also selective on which chronic illnesses were mentioned. Much of the content within the middle section focused on recovery strategies was written generally enough to potentially be applied to any number of chronic illnesses. I did see some of mine mentioned – namely, POTS, hyper-mobility spectrum disorder, and CFS – which was appreciated. It did, however, leave me wondering which other chronic illnesses were left out of consideration and why.
The more I read this, the more I believed that this book would mostly, if not exclusively, be helpful to highly wealthy white people who are invested in “wellness culture” and a bootstraps approach to the medical field. The encouragement I read in this book – to starve oneself for most of the day (called “intermittent fasting” by its proponents), go to the grocery store 4+ times a week for ingredients to drink freshly pressed juice every morning, not talk on a cell phone for more than 3 minutes at a time, turn off one’s wifi overnight to “reduce radiation exposure,” and jump into a series of involving exercises despite having a condition in which post-exposure malaise and intense pain is experienced post-workout – was enough to make me realize this was not the book I neither needed nor wanted to read.
Most, if not all, of the focuses on potential recovery avenues in this book are astronomically expensive, difficult to access even for ill folks who are lucky enough to be believed by doctors, not covered by insurance, and likely impractical with most folks’ schedules and lifestyles. For example, there was a chapter devoted to regenerative therapies in which none of the suggested interventions were affordable nor offered in traditional medical means. Stem cell replacement? Hyperbaric oxygen therapy? Plasmapheresis? And of course, this was followed by the author declaring, “Its important, though, not to look at these as shortcuts to replacements for the lifestyle strategies discussed earlier in the book. There is no replacement for healthy living: smart diet, good sleep, activity and (if you are able) exercise, going outside and being exposed to light and abundant oxygen.” So, I felt like the narrative came to a roadblock: either seek interventions possibly called “shortcuts” for those privileged enough to afford them, or those of us too sick and exhausted to get out of bed every day are to blame for our lack of energy in the first place.
I would absolutely not recommend this book, particularly if you are a person impacted by chronic illness and/or disability, nor if you are someone interested in learning more about the topic. There are lots of other titles focused on first-person experiences with illness which are less likely to be victim blaming, ableist, or very detached from the average person’s capabilities.
I was immensely excited to see this title coming to press, as the topic – Long COVID and chronic illness – are at the front of mind for me as a person who has struggled with both. I went into this book hoping that the title was an accurate summary of the book’s content and that the writer being a neurologist would lend some legitimacy to Long COVID, a disability which many people often downplay, ignore, or worse yet, claim is made up.
The book is split into three parts, each meaning to give a primer on the topics, some strategies for recovery, and then the importance of staying diligent on your road to recovery. I was surprised to read the first section, which was less focused on the background of Long COVID and chronic illnesses, but instead gave quite a thorough history on the author’s own struggle with chronic illness, more specifically her bout with brain cancer and the ensuing difficult recovery she experienced. While it was interesting to read this firsthand account, it seemed positioned more so as a means of giving her narrative legitimacy on the topic as a cancer survivor.
The remainder of the book did not, from my perspective, focus much on Long COVID and was also selective on which chronic illnesses were mentioned. Much of the content within the middle section focused on recovery strategies was written generally enough to potentially be applied to any number of chronic illnesses. I did see some of mine mentioned – namely, POTS, hyper-mobility spectrum disorder, and CFS – which was appreciated. It did, however, leave me wondering which other chronic illnesses were left out of consideration and why.
The more I read this, the more I believed that this book would mostly, if not exclusively, be helpful to highly wealthy white people who are invested in “wellness culture” and a bootstraps approach to the medical field. The encouragement I read in this book – to starve oneself for most of the day (called “intermittent fasting” by its proponents), go to the grocery store 4+ times a week for ingredients to drink freshly pressed juice every morning, not talk on a cell phone for more than 3 minutes at a time, turn off one’s wifi overnight to “reduce radiation exposure,” and jump into a series of involving exercises despite having a condition in which post-exposure malaise and intense pain is experienced post-workout – was enough to make me realize this was not the book I neither needed nor wanted to read.
Most, if not all, of the focuses on potential recovery avenues in this book are astronomically expensive, difficult to access even for ill folks who are lucky enough to be believed by doctors, not covered by insurance, and likely impractical with most folks’ schedules and lifestyles. For example, there was a chapter devoted to regenerative therapies in which none of the suggested interventions were affordable nor offered in traditional medical means. Stem cell replacement? Hyperbaric oxygen therapy? Plasmapheresis? And of course, this was followed by the author declaring, “Its important, though, not to look at these as shortcuts to replacements for the lifestyle strategies discussed earlier in the book. There is no replacement for healthy living: smart diet, good sleep, activity and (if you are able) exercise, going outside and being exposed to light and abundant oxygen.” So, I felt like the narrative came to a roadblock: either seek interventions possibly called “shortcuts” for those privileged enough to afford them, or those of us too sick and exhausted to get out of bed every day are to blame for our lack of energy in the first place.
I would absolutely not recommend this book, particularly if you are a person impacted by chronic illness and/or disability, nor if you are someone interested in learning more about the topic. There are lots of other titles focused on first-person experiences with illness which are less likely to be victim blaming, ableist, or very detached from the average person’s capabilities.
June 9, 2025
⭐⭐.5
Pre-Read Notes:
I tend to read books about disability and chronic illness. In this case I think the perspective is interesting, as this book is written by Ilene Sue Ruhoy, MD, PhD, a disabled physician specializing in neurology. This seems like a good fit to me.
"Denial and suppression were a big deal in my family during my childhood , and that is what I was used to, and I guess that is where I was comfortable. Deny it and it does not exist. Oh, but it does. Suppress it and it goes away. But it doesn’t. You just don’t have to face it until it grows into a big, angry monster that is now a way more formidable foe." p69
Final Review
This book doesn't really cover any new ground regarding the care and treatment of complex and chronic illness. After becoming disabled by a seemingly ordinary infection, Dr. Ruhoy realized her colleagues ceased treating her like a cohort and started treating her like she was invisible, often blaming her complaints on stress and anxiety. She couldn't help but notice they all shared the same basic existence as she did and only she was experiencing a slow onset of multiple disabling symptoms. Any yet, her colleagues continued diagnosing her life and not her health.
What the book hopes is that Dr. Ruhoy will bring some kind of legitimacy to her experiences-- that being both a doctor and a thoroughly informed patient in the US healthcare system would make readers listen who might otherwise not do so. She's experienced her fair share of being ignored and silenced as a patient. But this whole concept suggests something very sad about both the doctors and the patients forced to use a system in which neither one trusts the other or the system that forces them together.
For me, this one is only okay and I have a lot of quibbles with it. Probably most importantly, she charges chronically ill patients to defeat the worst aspects of the US medical system with sheer positivity. You, too, can feel better, if you just become a doctor and convince *your* doctor to listen to and respect you! It would be funny if it wasn't so ableist and blindly privileged.
Dr. Ruhoy recommends many different kinds of treatments for symptoms of chronic illness, but many of these, like Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and something called Vesper Therapy (which sounds like torture to me), are inaccessible both in cost and practicality. So I wouldn't say this book has accessibility in mind, nor is it written for the population that needs it most. If you have the inclination and budget to make yourself fresh pressed juice multiple times a day, then this book is for you-- unless you are one of many people with disability or chronic illness who needs to avoid sugar, fodmaps, gluten, or any number of other ingredients in her juices.
My 3 Favorite Things:
✔️ It was validating for me at first, as someone who has a complicated relationship with the medical system, to hear Dr. Ruhoy discussing feeling invisible in her appointments with other doctors, some of whom were her colleagues. I was not surprised to hear how much pushback she experienced, even as an accomplished neurologist. In that capacity, she represents to the doctor someone untrustworthy-- a patient.
✔️ I think it's good to shine a spotlight on long Covid. I remember a similar fight for recognition on the parts of individuals with chronic Lyme disease decades ago, and now it is widely accepted that Lyme disease does have a chronic expression. The only way we can change the landscape is to first identify the parts need changing.
✔️ A lot of good general help for wellness here, like recommended vitamins and supplements. She seems sensitive to the needs of people with dietary needs but never acknowledges fodmaps and recommends several food that are not fodmap safe.
Notes:
1. Content Notes: Covid, infectious disease, chronic conditions, descriptions of surgery, doctors, hospitals, diet culture, fasting, juicing.
Thank you to the author Ilene Sue Ruhoy, MD, PhD, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of INVISIBLE NO MORE. All views are mine.
Pre-Read Notes:
I tend to read books about disability and chronic illness. In this case I think the perspective is interesting, as this book is written by Ilene Sue Ruhoy, MD, PhD, a disabled physician specializing in neurology. This seems like a good fit to me.
"Denial and suppression were a big deal in my family during my childhood , and that is what I was used to, and I guess that is where I was comfortable. Deny it and it does not exist. Oh, but it does. Suppress it and it goes away. But it doesn’t. You just don’t have to face it until it grows into a big, angry monster that is now a way more formidable foe." p69
Final Review
This book doesn't really cover any new ground regarding the care and treatment of complex and chronic illness. After becoming disabled by a seemingly ordinary infection, Dr. Ruhoy realized her colleagues ceased treating her like a cohort and started treating her like she was invisible, often blaming her complaints on stress and anxiety. She couldn't help but notice they all shared the same basic existence as she did and only she was experiencing a slow onset of multiple disabling symptoms. Any yet, her colleagues continued diagnosing her life and not her health.
What the book hopes is that Dr. Ruhoy will bring some kind of legitimacy to her experiences-- that being both a doctor and a thoroughly informed patient in the US healthcare system would make readers listen who might otherwise not do so. She's experienced her fair share of being ignored and silenced as a patient. But this whole concept suggests something very sad about both the doctors and the patients forced to use a system in which neither one trusts the other or the system that forces them together.
For me, this one is only okay and I have a lot of quibbles with it. Probably most importantly, she charges chronically ill patients to defeat the worst aspects of the US medical system with sheer positivity. You, too, can feel better, if you just become a doctor and convince *your* doctor to listen to and respect you! It would be funny if it wasn't so ableist and blindly privileged.
Dr. Ruhoy recommends many different kinds of treatments for symptoms of chronic illness, but many of these, like Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and something called Vesper Therapy (which sounds like torture to me), are inaccessible both in cost and practicality. So I wouldn't say this book has accessibility in mind, nor is it written for the population that needs it most. If you have the inclination and budget to make yourself fresh pressed juice multiple times a day, then this book is for you-- unless you are one of many people with disability or chronic illness who needs to avoid sugar, fodmaps, gluten, or any number of other ingredients in her juices.
My 3 Favorite Things:
✔️ It was validating for me at first, as someone who has a complicated relationship with the medical system, to hear Dr. Ruhoy discussing feeling invisible in her appointments with other doctors, some of whom were her colleagues. I was not surprised to hear how much pushback she experienced, even as an accomplished neurologist. In that capacity, she represents to the doctor someone untrustworthy-- a patient.
✔️ I think it's good to shine a spotlight on long Covid. I remember a similar fight for recognition on the parts of individuals with chronic Lyme disease decades ago, and now it is widely accepted that Lyme disease does have a chronic expression. The only way we can change the landscape is to first identify the parts need changing.
✔️ A lot of good general help for wellness here, like recommended vitamins and supplements. She seems sensitive to the needs of people with dietary needs but never acknowledges fodmaps and recommends several food that are not fodmap safe.
Notes:
1. Content Notes: Covid, infectious disease, chronic conditions, descriptions of surgery, doctors, hospitals, diet culture, fasting, juicing.
Thank you to the author Ilene Sue Ruhoy, MD, PhD, publishers St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of INVISIBLE NO MORE. All views are mine.
March 5, 2025
i have very mixed feelings about this book. on one hand, i think there are parts that would be incredibly helpful for someone recently diagnosed with a lingering or chronic illness. or even for someone who has been seeking understanding for their health symptoms and decline and doesn’t know what exactly is going on. i also found the authors own story incredibly interesting and insightful. unfortunately, at some point this book took a turn for me.
some of the treatment options recommended teetered on pseudoscience which makes me uncomfortable. it can be hard to hear when you’re already dealing with an illness many don’t acknowledge to then be presented with a magical juice that is supposed to provide relief, even from medical exposure to radiation! a book like this would have greatly benefitted with citing (in detail) some genuine studies with tangible answers as to how and how much those things can help some patients. there are studies in footnotes but the specific data taken from them isn’t outlined for the reader. seeing as the average person does not have the knowledge or skill to read a medical study and genuinely understand and critically consume it against similar trials, it seems like not enough to me.
being in and interacting with the chronically ill community it’s become clear to me that some people target us with the prospect of some alternative to medicine that will make things better. like if we only fasted long enough or tried this unregulated supplement it would be better.
unfortunately, that’s not how any of this works. and although lifestyle changes absolutely can make a huge difference in quality of life, it’s not ever going to be “enough.” i think the parts of this book that focused on validation and understanding were the strongest by far and the most useful for people affected by these conditions.
Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book.
some of the treatment options recommended teetered on pseudoscience which makes me uncomfortable. it can be hard to hear when you’re already dealing with an illness many don’t acknowledge to then be presented with a magical juice that is supposed to provide relief, even from medical exposure to radiation! a book like this would have greatly benefitted with citing (in detail) some genuine studies with tangible answers as to how and how much those things can help some patients. there are studies in footnotes but the specific data taken from them isn’t outlined for the reader. seeing as the average person does not have the knowledge or skill to read a medical study and genuinely understand and critically consume it against similar trials, it seems like not enough to me.
being in and interacting with the chronically ill community it’s become clear to me that some people target us with the prospect of some alternative to medicine that will make things better. like if we only fasted long enough or tried this unregulated supplement it would be better.
unfortunately, that’s not how any of this works. and although lifestyle changes absolutely can make a huge difference in quality of life, it’s not ever going to be “enough.” i think the parts of this book that focused on validation and understanding were the strongest by far and the most useful for people affected by these conditions.
Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book.
June 17, 2025
If you're newly diagnosed with a chronic illness, then INVISIBLE NO MORE will absolutely validate your feelings. You'll feel seen and understood, which is a gift for anyone who has been told variations of "it's all in your head."
But if you've been struggling within the medical system for any length of time, then there isn't much new here.
Ruhoy offers some helpful information, such as what exactly is happening in a body with autoimmune disease. A lot of the treatment advice, as is typical with this type of book, only helps if you're wealthy enough to pay hefty out-of-pocket expenses for treatments not covered by insurance. Because the truth is that our "conventional" medical system does nothing to help chronically ill people.
Most of us don't share Ruhoy’s privileges. Most of us are exhausted, mentally and physically. We're swimming in brain fog. We're drowning in debt. And the very people we're supposed to trust to help us—doctors—are responsible for blowing us off, beating us down, and labeling us as "difficult," as if our body's failure is our own fault.
When respected doctors like Ruhoy (a neurologist) develop an "invisible" illness, and they can't get their fellow professionals to listen, where does that leave the average person?
I think, rather than writing books for those who are sick and struggling, it would be more helpful for doctors who have experienced this madness to write books meant to educate their fellow doctors. Change the system from within, because sick people can't be expected to constantly fight to be heard.
And that's my soapbox rant for today.
*Thanks to St. Martin’s Essentials for the free copy!*
But if you've been struggling within the medical system for any length of time, then there isn't much new here.
Ruhoy offers some helpful information, such as what exactly is happening in a body with autoimmune disease. A lot of the treatment advice, as is typical with this type of book, only helps if you're wealthy enough to pay hefty out-of-pocket expenses for treatments not covered by insurance. Because the truth is that our "conventional" medical system does nothing to help chronically ill people.
Most of us don't share Ruhoy’s privileges. Most of us are exhausted, mentally and physically. We're swimming in brain fog. We're drowning in debt. And the very people we're supposed to trust to help us—doctors—are responsible for blowing us off, beating us down, and labeling us as "difficult," as if our body's failure is our own fault.
When respected doctors like Ruhoy (a neurologist) develop an "invisible" illness, and they can't get their fellow professionals to listen, where does that leave the average person?
I think, rather than writing books for those who are sick and struggling, it would be more helpful for doctors who have experienced this madness to write books meant to educate their fellow doctors. Change the system from within, because sick people can't be expected to constantly fight to be heard.
And that's my soapbox rant for today.
*Thanks to St. Martin’s Essentials for the free copy!*
June 13, 2025
In today's modern medical world, the technology to diagnose chronic and complex illnesses has never been more cutting edge. Unfortunately, the treatment options for these conditions can be expensive, limited, non-existent, or otherwise ignored, leaving sufferers in the lurch when it comes to learning to survive and thrive with these often lifelong conditions. In "Invisible No More", Dr. Ilene Sue Ruhoy shares her own harrowing experiences as a suffer of chronic illness and her work as a neurologist with additional training in toxicology, environmental science, and integrative medicine, and how her background has led her to work with long-term sufferers of chronic illness. With her book - which combines autobiography, medical history, and guidelines for various topics, such as nutrition, supplements, and breathwork - her hope is that "Invisible No More" will help patients better take their health in their own hands.
I had a lot of conflicting feelings about this book, and I think there are things it did well, and things that I would be more wary about coming from the perspective of a (freshly graduated) physician and graduate student in biomedical sciences. I am not a suffer of chronic illness, but thought this might be a good resource for patients and am always looking for books from patient perspectives as someone who reads a lot of medical non-fiction.
The "Bad" (things I would think about more when deciding to recommend this book and which I don't have enough information on to make an informed opinion): I am always very wary of supplements as a cure-all for things, and even through the author offers a lot of caveats with regards to supplements and vitamin use, this portion of the book is somewhat based on her own experience and more in the realm of integrative medicine, and since I listened to an audiobook copy of this title, I was not able to see if an index comes with the book that would offer more avenues for research on supplement use, etc. There were some more examples of this kind of toeing-the-line on science versus pseudoscience for me, which I will leave the reader to decide for themselves, but another example that sticks out to me was the author's dogged support of juicing.
While the author does her best to offer practical suggestions and small steps towards improving health and well-being for chronic illness sufferers, I do have to wonder at the financial, emotional, and functional means many patients will have in abiding by some of the author's guidelines (juicing again comes to mind here with the state of the economy in June 2025), but the author also offers caveats with every suggestion she makes regarding financial and practical feasibility of the treatments and products she recommends - and could do a little more in my opinion, but also makes efforts to offer ideas that are low- or no-cost for those starting out. An improvement to a future edition of this book could be a supplement at the back of the book with suggestions for financial resources, free online materials, and/or organizations which could help connect chronic patients to the care they are seeking based on the author's suggestions.
I also wish the author had at least mentioned the even higher barriers to care that patients in marginalized groups might have seeking this care, let alone offering resources or suggestions for these groups in seeking specific care. If they don't have experience in providing care for marginalized groups, a section acknowledging this deficiency and a supplement offering resources for practitioners with this experience would have been a great addition to this book.
The "Good": Despite some of my (hopefully constructive) critiques of this book, I actually thought overall it did a good job of offering a balance of stories, medical knowledge, and some tips/guidelines which could be really helpful for those beginning to navigate their chronic illness journey, or for those with chronic illness patients in their lives (whether as family, friends, or patients). I certainly think the author has the relevant background to speak on this topic and thought the perspectives she brings from an integrative and especially environmental background gave me some food for thought during her explanations. I also think being able to speak from the perspective of both patient and physician really worked in this book, and I imagine would feel validating for patients who have struggled with finding physicians who understand what they're going through.
Most importantly, I think the author does a good job of highlighting the failures of the (American) health care system in helping patients from diagnosis to long term care - a sentiment that could be applied to conditions other than chronic illness, but which she demonstrates acutely through her own experiences and with anecdotes from her patients. She highlights that the way she practices medicine 'works' because she offers a multitude of treatments (not just pharmaceuticals necessarily) and spends a great deal of time with her patients. She also notes that her privilege as a physician married to another physician and with resources the average patient does not have access to allowed her the time and space to manage her own illness (and she still had pushback from colleagues in regards to her diagnoses) has helped her immensely, which I appreciated.
Overall, I think I would recommend this book anyone interested in this topic or who is a sufferer of chronic illness (or knows someone who is). I think it would be a great jumping-off point for those with general knowledge gaps or those who are interested in some possible further treatment options, or who need to be pointed in the right direction, and could serve as some good food for thought or provide some discussion points for patients to bring to their own care teams. I am hesitant on some of the suggestions the author makes and think there needs to be more emphasis on the financial, cultural, and emotional burden of organizing one's chronic care in the very messy, broken American healthcare system. However, the author is steadfast in imploring patients to make baby steps towards reclaiming their own healthcare and putting their future in their own hands and acknowledges throughout the book that the path to managing chronic care and the suggestions she offers are small parts of an broad picture, and never claims to offer panaceas, big fixes, or magic cures, which I think is really important in these kinds of books too.
I had a lot of conflicting feelings about this book, and I think there are things it did well, and things that I would be more wary about coming from the perspective of a (freshly graduated) physician and graduate student in biomedical sciences. I am not a suffer of chronic illness, but thought this might be a good resource for patients and am always looking for books from patient perspectives as someone who reads a lot of medical non-fiction.
The "Bad" (things I would think about more when deciding to recommend this book and which I don't have enough information on to make an informed opinion): I am always very wary of supplements as a cure-all for things, and even through the author offers a lot of caveats with regards to supplements and vitamin use, this portion of the book is somewhat based on her own experience and more in the realm of integrative medicine, and since I listened to an audiobook copy of this title, I was not able to see if an index comes with the book that would offer more avenues for research on supplement use, etc. There were some more examples of this kind of toeing-the-line on science versus pseudoscience for me, which I will leave the reader to decide for themselves, but another example that sticks out to me was the author's dogged support of juicing.
While the author does her best to offer practical suggestions and small steps towards improving health and well-being for chronic illness sufferers, I do have to wonder at the financial, emotional, and functional means many patients will have in abiding by some of the author's guidelines (juicing again comes to mind here with the state of the economy in June 2025), but the author also offers caveats with every suggestion she makes regarding financial and practical feasibility of the treatments and products she recommends - and could do a little more in my opinion, but also makes efforts to offer ideas that are low- or no-cost for those starting out. An improvement to a future edition of this book could be a supplement at the back of the book with suggestions for financial resources, free online materials, and/or organizations which could help connect chronic patients to the care they are seeking based on the author's suggestions.
I also wish the author had at least mentioned the even higher barriers to care that patients in marginalized groups might have seeking this care, let alone offering resources or suggestions for these groups in seeking specific care. If they don't have experience in providing care for marginalized groups, a section acknowledging this deficiency and a supplement offering resources for practitioners with this experience would have been a great addition to this book.
The "Good": Despite some of my (hopefully constructive) critiques of this book, I actually thought overall it did a good job of offering a balance of stories, medical knowledge, and some tips/guidelines which could be really helpful for those beginning to navigate their chronic illness journey, or for those with chronic illness patients in their lives (whether as family, friends, or patients). I certainly think the author has the relevant background to speak on this topic and thought the perspectives she brings from an integrative and especially environmental background gave me some food for thought during her explanations. I also think being able to speak from the perspective of both patient and physician really worked in this book, and I imagine would feel validating for patients who have struggled with finding physicians who understand what they're going through.
Most importantly, I think the author does a good job of highlighting the failures of the (American) health care system in helping patients from diagnosis to long term care - a sentiment that could be applied to conditions other than chronic illness, but which she demonstrates acutely through her own experiences and with anecdotes from her patients. She highlights that the way she practices medicine 'works' because she offers a multitude of treatments (not just pharmaceuticals necessarily) and spends a great deal of time with her patients. She also notes that her privilege as a physician married to another physician and with resources the average patient does not have access to allowed her the time and space to manage her own illness (and she still had pushback from colleagues in regards to her diagnoses) has helped her immensely, which I appreciated.
Overall, I think I would recommend this book anyone interested in this topic or who is a sufferer of chronic illness (or knows someone who is). I think it would be a great jumping-off point for those with general knowledge gaps or those who are interested in some possible further treatment options, or who need to be pointed in the right direction, and could serve as some good food for thought or provide some discussion points for patients to bring to their own care teams. I am hesitant on some of the suggestions the author makes and think there needs to be more emphasis on the financial, cultural, and emotional burden of organizing one's chronic care in the very messy, broken American healthcare system. However, the author is steadfast in imploring patients to make baby steps towards reclaiming their own healthcare and putting their future in their own hands and acknowledges throughout the book that the path to managing chronic care and the suggestions she offers are small parts of an broad picture, and never claims to offer panaceas, big fixes, or magic cures, which I think is really important in these kinds of books too.
September 1, 2025
Why do I keep wasting my time and spoons on these books?
I'm 125+ pages in and I'm not sure that I'm going to finish this. The first section was interesting, particularly the author's own story about being ignored when trying to get a very serious condition diagnosed. If you have had a long-term chronic illness, you have probably experienced that, and it can make you feel a bit crazy. It's disturbing that a neurologist with a brain tumor could be ignored by her own doctors, but I guess it's kind of validating for those of us "regular people" who have experienced it too. (But also - how broken is our medical system? I knew it was bad, but good grief! What the heck was wrong with her doctors?)
That said, I picked up this book at the library hoping that it would have something new to try. I have had fibromyalgia for 12 years and have tried what few treatments exist, as well as most of the alternative medicine options. Fibro historically got nickels in research funding, and now that the Chronic Pain Team at NIH has been disbanded, there is no more research that I can hope will help in the future. When this book mentioned Long COVID, I was hoping that there was new research that would cross over to help fibro patients, but in reality, Long COVID seems to be in the title more as a marketing thing than because it's covered in depth in the book. The chronic illnesses mentioned seem pretty hit or miss, with fibro only getting a mention because her mother has it and was miraculously improved when she quit smoking. (If only it were that easy for the rest of us, although admittedly I have never smoked).
When I started into section II (Strategies for Recovery), I found more of the same advice that every other book and website has. Change your diet (preferably vegan), exercise even if the pain is unbearable, intermittent fasting, and general advice on sleep. (Oh, plus juicing...so much juicing). I have tried every one of these things except the juicing, and none of them helped. At all. As other reviewers have said, many of the other options provided are very expensive and not covered by insurance, so they are out of reach for the average person, much less a person with a chronic illness who may be on disability or like me, had to retire early due to health issues.
Also, this is a nit to pick but please stop giving general advice about "advocating for yourself" and "taking charge of your own healthcare." The reality is that most doctors will act just the way that the author's did, and not listen to the patient, especially if she is a women over 50 and/or a person of color. The only solution to being ignored is to keep looking until you find someone who will listen, as expensive and difficult as that can be. (Which if you read closely, is exactly what the author did).
I'm very glad I checked this book out of the library instead of buying it, or it would end up on the "abandoned" shelf with all the others that I bought with similar results. I'd be sad if I spent actual money on this.
Side note - If you have fibromyalgia and are looking for something to help, check out The Fibro Manual by Dr. Genevra Liptan instead. That's a book I actually found helpful, and she's a doctor who has fibromyalgia so she really understands. She also has a really good YouTube channel, so you can get a lot of good and helpful information free.
I'm 125+ pages in and I'm not sure that I'm going to finish this. The first section was interesting, particularly the author's own story about being ignored when trying to get a very serious condition diagnosed. If you have had a long-term chronic illness, you have probably experienced that, and it can make you feel a bit crazy. It's disturbing that a neurologist with a brain tumor could be ignored by her own doctors, but I guess it's kind of validating for those of us "regular people" who have experienced it too. (But also - how broken is our medical system? I knew it was bad, but good grief! What the heck was wrong with her doctors?)
That said, I picked up this book at the library hoping that it would have something new to try. I have had fibromyalgia for 12 years and have tried what few treatments exist, as well as most of the alternative medicine options. Fibro historically got nickels in research funding, and now that the Chronic Pain Team at NIH has been disbanded, there is no more research that I can hope will help in the future. When this book mentioned Long COVID, I was hoping that there was new research that would cross over to help fibro patients, but in reality, Long COVID seems to be in the title more as a marketing thing than because it's covered in depth in the book. The chronic illnesses mentioned seem pretty hit or miss, with fibro only getting a mention because her mother has it and was miraculously improved when she quit smoking. (If only it were that easy for the rest of us, although admittedly I have never smoked).
When I started into section II (Strategies for Recovery), I found more of the same advice that every other book and website has. Change your diet (preferably vegan), exercise even if the pain is unbearable, intermittent fasting, and general advice on sleep. (Oh, plus juicing...so much juicing). I have tried every one of these things except the juicing, and none of them helped. At all. As other reviewers have said, many of the other options provided are very expensive and not covered by insurance, so they are out of reach for the average person, much less a person with a chronic illness who may be on disability or like me, had to retire early due to health issues.
Also, this is a nit to pick but please stop giving general advice about "advocating for yourself" and "taking charge of your own healthcare." The reality is that most doctors will act just the way that the author's did, and not listen to the patient, especially if she is a women over 50 and/or a person of color. The only solution to being ignored is to keep looking until you find someone who will listen, as expensive and difficult as that can be. (Which if you read closely, is exactly what the author did).
I'm very glad I checked this book out of the library instead of buying it, or it would end up on the "abandoned" shelf with all the others that I bought with similar results. I'd be sad if I spent actual money on this.
Side note - If you have fibromyalgia and are looking for something to help, check out The Fibro Manual by Dr. Genevra Liptan instead. That's a book I actually found helpful, and she's a doctor who has fibromyalgia so she really understands. She also has a really good YouTube channel, so you can get a lot of good and helpful information free.
June 25, 2025
Millions of people live with Long Covid and other chronic illnesses. I am one, so I was very interested in checking out this book. Sadly, I have mixed feelings on it.
Dr. Ruhoy shares her own experiences of living with chronic illness, and her background as a neurologist provides added credibility to the book, and it also offers an insider's perspective. It contains a bit of medical history, her autobiography, and tips on trying to navigate the healthcare system, nutrition, and breathwork. The intent of this book is to better equip patients to advocate for themselves.
The author does give a lot of information on possible "treatments" to try, such as supplements, integrative medicine, and alternative therapies. While these may be helpful to some readers, they may be cost prohibitive for many people living with chronic illness. The author also mentions some things which could be considered pseudoscience, so there are mixed opinions on their effectiveness.
Ruhoy shares a lot of stories, but she does infuse a number of tips, as well as her medical knowledge, into this book. And much of it could be helpful for those living with chronic illness when they are trying to navigate their journey through the healthcare system. Unlike other books I have read, this book is unique in the fact that the author is both a medical professional and a patient. Therefore, she does have a lot of insight into what she is saying, including her critiques of the healthcare system when it comes to helping patients navigate diagnoses. She explains how she, personally, works with her patients. But unfortunately, the average reader is unlikely to easily find a medical professional who may be as diligent as the author is in this regard.
Sadly, there was a bit more information on the author's personal journey than on how to navigate this road for the average patient than I was expecting based on the title and summary. However, there is a great deal of information that could be helpful to users, so if you live with a chronic illness, it may be worth checking out this book.
Dr. Ruhoy shares her own experiences of living with chronic illness, and her background as a neurologist provides added credibility to the book, and it also offers an insider's perspective. It contains a bit of medical history, her autobiography, and tips on trying to navigate the healthcare system, nutrition, and breathwork. The intent of this book is to better equip patients to advocate for themselves.
The author does give a lot of information on possible "treatments" to try, such as supplements, integrative medicine, and alternative therapies. While these may be helpful to some readers, they may be cost prohibitive for many people living with chronic illness. The author also mentions some things which could be considered pseudoscience, so there are mixed opinions on their effectiveness.
Ruhoy shares a lot of stories, but she does infuse a number of tips, as well as her medical knowledge, into this book. And much of it could be helpful for those living with chronic illness when they are trying to navigate their journey through the healthcare system. Unlike other books I have read, this book is unique in the fact that the author is both a medical professional and a patient. Therefore, she does have a lot of insight into what she is saying, including her critiques of the healthcare system when it comes to helping patients navigate diagnoses. She explains how she, personally, works with her patients. But unfortunately, the average reader is unlikely to easily find a medical professional who may be as diligent as the author is in this regard.
Sadly, there was a bit more information on the author's personal journey than on how to navigate this road for the average patient than I was expecting based on the title and summary. However, there is a great deal of information that could be helpful to users, so if you live with a chronic illness, it may be worth checking out this book.
June 11, 2025
I just finished Invisible No More - Embracing your read to recover from long covid and other complex chronic illnesses and here are my thoughts.
Firstly, If I was planning on buying this… Putting the words ‘long covid’ in the title, would have been enough for me that I would have put it back. Include it in the book, great but trying to sell off a time that had the whole world divided and all the lies and turmoil.. I feel icky to be honest.
Putting my feelings aside, I have RA so I cracked it open and sat down to read.
As someone who put my RA into FULL REMISSION with some of the things the author talks about, I believe that what she has to say is valid, because I have lived it. I was on cancer meds to keep my immune system down. I was so ill. I was so sick I couldn’t walk, hold a fork.
You can call it pseudoscience all you like but cancer drugs didn’t cure me. Moving my body even when my joints felt like crushed glass… helped me. Whole foods and finding the right vitamins for me. The cancer drugs made me so sick I had to come off them so lifestyle changes saved my life and my kidneys. Pharma is a bandaid and if you don’t want a real solution or aren’t willing to go in with an open mind… this book isn’t for you.
Now a lot of the recommendations made are outrageously priced. How do you expect anyone to afford it and it’s not covered by insurance. Honestly I don’t know what this book was trying to accomplish but I don’t think it did what it was supposed to do.
It was an interesting book, well reasoned and written but there's nothing here that can help anyone in my opinion without them already having their minds set on going this way. This book won’t guide anyone to make these choices. Real shame though.
3 stars
Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy
Firstly, If I was planning on buying this… Putting the words ‘long covid’ in the title, would have been enough for me that I would have put it back. Include it in the book, great but trying to sell off a time that had the whole world divided and all the lies and turmoil.. I feel icky to be honest.
Putting my feelings aside, I have RA so I cracked it open and sat down to read.
As someone who put my RA into FULL REMISSION with some of the things the author talks about, I believe that what she has to say is valid, because I have lived it. I was on cancer meds to keep my immune system down. I was so ill. I was so sick I couldn’t walk, hold a fork.
You can call it pseudoscience all you like but cancer drugs didn’t cure me. Moving my body even when my joints felt like crushed glass… helped me. Whole foods and finding the right vitamins for me. The cancer drugs made me so sick I had to come off them so lifestyle changes saved my life and my kidneys. Pharma is a bandaid and if you don’t want a real solution or aren’t willing to go in with an open mind… this book isn’t for you.
Now a lot of the recommendations made are outrageously priced. How do you expect anyone to afford it and it’s not covered by insurance. Honestly I don’t know what this book was trying to accomplish but I don’t think it did what it was supposed to do.
It was an interesting book, well reasoned and written but there's nothing here that can help anyone in my opinion without them already having their minds set on going this way. This book won’t guide anyone to make these choices. Real shame though.
3 stars
Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy
May 4, 2025
Dr. Ruhoy is a brilliant doctor. She also runs a highly predatory practice that only serves the super rich and is out of touch in many important ways. While this book has some useful advice, the realities of how she practices diminishes her words. She charges a sliding scale of $2,500 to $8,000 per MONTH. And only if you are able to pay the high range of that absurd pay structure will she even coordinate care with others doctors or write letters for disability insurance purposes. I offer this information because her book is full of promises on how navigate recovery from Long COVID and complex illness. But in reality, this book, like her practice is all about money, and promises broken. It doesn't tackle the real issue: access to affordable, world-class care that millions are lacking, in part, because people like Dr. Ruhoy have set the price of the market that very few can afford.
She could run a practice that: (a) takes insurance; (b) doesn't charge $30,000 to $100,000 annually to retain her as her doctor; and (c) use a collaborative approach with other doctors. Instead, she has made deliberate choices to take advantage of very sick people, like myself, and to make every service an item on an extremely expensive menu that few can afford. As a result, while I appreciate some of the knowledge she shares in her book, it rings hollow. Knowing how she actually practices, it reads like a grifter who excludes those most vulnerable from receiving adequate care. She says, "Invisible No More," but her practice renders millions who deserve care exactly that: invisible and out of luck.
She could run a practice that: (a) takes insurance; (b) doesn't charge $30,000 to $100,000 annually to retain her as her doctor; and (c) use a collaborative approach with other doctors. Instead, she has made deliberate choices to take advantage of very sick people, like myself, and to make every service an item on an extremely expensive menu that few can afford. As a result, while I appreciate some of the knowledge she shares in her book, it rings hollow. Knowing how she actually practices, it reads like a grifter who excludes those most vulnerable from receiving adequate care. She says, "Invisible No More," but her practice renders millions who deserve care exactly that: invisible and out of luck.
June 10, 2025
This book does a beautiful job of validating the emotional and physical toll of living with chronic illness, including long COVID. Dr. Ruhoy writes with compassion and understanding, and I really appreciated how she introduces more holistic ways of thinking about treatment options. This can be especially helpful for people who feel overlooked or dismissed by traditional medical approaches. For me, my experience with chronic illness didn’t begin with long COVID. I was born with my conditions, so I came to this book with a slightly different perspective. If you’ve been living with chronic illness for a while, you might not find a lot of brand new information here. But for someone who is new to this journey, there is a lot to take away and some great first steps toward understanding and healing. If you’re having trouble getting your doctor to understand what you’re going through, this book could be a great tool to bring with you to appointments. It offers helpful insight and suggestions that could open the door to more supportive conversations. This book isn’t the ultimate guide to treatment, and I can say that from personal experience. But it is a strong and validating place to start. For many, just feeling seen and heard is already a huge part of the battle.
February 11, 2025
Dr. Ilene Ruhoy has created a much-needed resource for many suffering from chronic illnesses. Dr. Ruhoy is extremely knowledgeable and adds in her personal experiences with adversity in dealing with a chronic illness. The book is partitioned into three major sections: Part 1 - Something is Not Right, Part 2 - Strategies for Recovery, Part 3 - Determination and Diligence. The writings give a lot of clinical information and data that is relevant to a variety of chronic illnesses, including Long-Covid, Connective Tissue disorders, Auto-immune diseases, Neurological diagnoses, and many more. The abundance of strategies and useful information in guiding the reader towards better health include topics such as nutrition, movement, oxygen and breathing, sleep and the circadian rhythm, regenerative therapies, and the environment (impacts on health). I highly recommend this book to everyone, because in our society today, if we are not dealing with some type of health issue as stated above, we definitely know someone who is, and the content learned in this book is life-changing! Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
June 1, 2025
Thank you Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced electronic audio review copy of this book. This very informative volume is a practical guide for people with chronic & complex illnesses. Its focus is on healing and empowerment of those who are ready and willing to take health into their own hands. Some of the included topics focus on breathing, nutrition, movement, sleep, regenerative therapies, and others. I highly recommend this book to everyone who wants to feel better and is ready to do something about it.
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