Never Bet Against Occam
Dr. Afrin received a B.S. in computer science from Clemson University in 1984 and an M.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in 1988, where he also completed an internal medicine residency and clinical and research fellowships in hematology/oncology. He was involved in undergraduate and graduate medical education, educational and information technology administration, hematology/oncology practice and research, and medical informatics.
In 2008, Dr. Afrin began to realize that a newly recognized type of mast cell disease, now known as mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), was the underlying diagnosis in many of the patients he was seeing, who were all suffering from a wide range of chronic multisystem inflammatory illnesses with unknown causes. Dr. Afrin quickly learned that MCAS is substantially more common than the sole mast cell disease previously known to medicine (the uncommon disease of mastocytosis), and that most MCAS patients, once correctly diagnosed, can eventually discover significantly helpful disease-specific drugs.
The frequency and magnitude of the improvements Dr. Afrin has seen — even the relief that comes from finally having a unifying diagnosis other than "psychosomatism" — have driven him to concentrate his efforts in this area, not only tending to the needs of his patients but also pursuing research to advance the understanding of the disease and helping to educate other professionals who, in turn, can help even more of the many people who have long suffered not only the symptoms of the disease but also the disease itself. As it turns out, such people are not so unfortunate and have only one fundamental issue (and a very frequent one at that) that has the biological capability of developing, directly or indirectly, into most or all of their previously diagnosed disorders.
There is still much to learn about this, but even with our current very limited understanding, the opportunity to diagnose and help MCAS patients appears enormous, and Dr. Afrin felt that a description of the disease written for the general public might help lead some MCAS patients on a journey to diagnosis and improvement sooner rather than later. Dr. Afrin thinks that Never Bet Against Occam will assist persons who may or may not have MCAS. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be used to fund research and teaching in this field.
Author: Lawrence B. Afrin
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Never-Bet-Against-Occam-Activation/dp/0997319615/
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