{"title":"Life Sized Publishing","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"the-human-cost-of-long-covid","title":"The Human Cost of Long Covid","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat if the hardest part of your illness were not only its debilitating symptoms, but trying to make sense of a body that no longer follows the rules, where doing what you have always believed is healthy, like exercising more and pushing through, can actually make you worse?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen Dr. Jasmin Tzortzakakis Malik first fell ill with COVID-19, she expected recovery. Instead, she entered a world of relentless fatigue, neurological disruption, fluctuating symptoms, and a medical system still struggling to understand what millions were experiencing. As a clinical philosopher, healthcare professional, and researcher, she has spent over 20 years helping others navigate illness, shifts in identity, and the search for understanding. Nothing prepared her for becoming a patient of a condition that science had barely begun to describe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eThe Human Cost of Long COVID\u003c\/em\u003e, Dr Malik blends lived experience with emerging research to show that Long COVID is not just a list of symptoms; it is a complex, interconnected multisystem disruption that affects the brain, immune function, metabolism, autonomic stability, and a person's sense of self. With clarity and compassion, she offers a framework that helps readers understand what is happening beneath the surface and why recovery often feels unpredictable, fragile, and profoundly isolating.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing from her Adaptive Integration Framework, readers get the tools to:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUnderstand the science behind fatigue, brain fog, relapses, and multisystem symptoms\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRecognise the emotional and identity shifts that accompany invisible illness\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReconnect with a body that feels unfamiliar\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNavigate uncertainty with self-compassion rather than self-blame\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not just a medical text. It is a guide for anyone living with Long COVID, caring for someone who is, or supporting patients through chronic, post-viral illness. Dr. Malik brings together what research reveals, what patients live, and what clinicians need to understand, offering clarity in a landscape where answers have often been scarce.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhether you're a patient, a caregiver, a clinician, or someone seeking to understand the deeper impact of this global condition, \u003cem\u003eThe Human Cost of Long COVID\u003c\/em\u003e will help you see the invisible, name the complexity, and recognise that although healing is rarely linear, it is possible.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57492211007861,"sku":"9781997730354","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781997730354.jpg?v=1786529039"},{"product_id":"the-human-cost-of-long-covid-1","title":"The Human Cost of Long Covid","description":"Long COVID has become one of thedefining medical challenges of the twenty-first century. Emerging in the wakeof the COVID-19 pandemic, it has affected millions of people worldwide,challenging long-held assumptions about post-viral illness, recovery and theremarkable complexity of the human body. What was once expected to be ashort-lived infection has, for many, become a chronic, multisystem conditionthat continues to reshape clinical practice, research and our understanding ofhuman health.   When Dr Jasmin Tzortzakakis Malikfirst developed COVID-19, she expected to recover. Instead, she entered a worldof relentless fatigue, neurological disruption, fluctuating symptoms anduncertainty. Over the years that followed, repeated COVID-19 infectionscompounded her illness, with each infection resulting in months of worseningsymptoms and reinforcing the unpredictable nature of Long COVID.   As both physician and patient, DrMalik experienced not only the impact of Long COVID itself, but also thereality of navigating a healthcare system that was learning in real time.   Delayed recognition, evolving evidence and limited treatment options oftenmeant waiting for science and clinical practice to catch up with patients'lived experiences. Faced with uncertainty, she turned to the scientificliterature, critically reviewing the evidence to understand what her own bodyrequired to recover and how the body's adaptive responses could be supportedrather than overwhelmed.   Drawing on more than twenty yearsof clinical experience as a General Practitioner, researcher, wellbeingspecialist and health inclusion leader, alongside her own lived experience, DrMalik brings together science, clinical practice and personal insight toexplore the human cost of Long COVID beyond the infection. She examines howdisruption across the nervous, immune, metabolic and autonomic systems affectsnot only physical health, but also identity, relationships, work and everydaylife.   Grounded in scientific evidenceand enriched by personal insight, The HumanCost of Long COVID explains why recovery is rarely linear, whypushing through exhaustion can be harmful, and how understanding the body'sadaptive responses can help make sense of this complex condition. Introducingthe foundations of Dr Malik's Adaptive Integration Framework, the book providesa practical framework for understanding Long COVID, supporting recovery andapplying these principles more broadly to health and wellbeing. While rooted in the experience of Long COVID, the book also shines a light onthe broader landscape of post-infectious illness, including ME\/CFS and relatedconditions, exploring the shared physiological mechanisms that challengeconventional approaches to diagnosis, recovery and rehabilitation.   Readers will discover how to:·        Understandthe science behind fatigue, brain fog, post-exertional symptom exacerbation andmultisystem symptoms.   ·        Recognisethe emotional and identity changes associated with chronic illness and LongCOVID.   ·        Make senseof fluctuating symptoms, repeated infections and the uncertainty of recovery.   ·        Developpractical strategies that support healing while working with, rather thanagainst, the body's adaptive responses.   ·        Betterunderstand how Long COVID relates to the broader family of post-infectiousconditions, including ME\/CFS and other complex multisystem illnesses.   Written for people living with post-viralillness, their families and carers, healthcare professionals, employerssupporting individuals returning to work, and anyone seeking to understand oneof the defining health challenges of our time, TheHuman Cost of Long COVID bridges scientific evidence with livedexperience to provide clarity, compassion and practical understanding.   More than an account of illness,it is an exploration of resilience, adaptation and recovery. It offers readersa language for experiences that often feel invisible, a deeper understanding ofthe remarkable capacity of the human body to adapt, and hope that recovery canbe supported through science, understanding and a more compassionate approachto health.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57492212121973,"sku":"9781997730361","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"when-the-body-whispers-1","title":"When the Body Whispers","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhen the Body Whispers: Reclaiming Energy, Balance, and Wellbeing\u003c\/strong\u003e explores how the body signals strain long before symptoms become impossible to ignore. Drawing on clinical experience, research, and her own lived experience of illness and recovery, Dr Jasmin Tzortzakakis Malik examines how stress, trauma, grief, and chronic overload shape nervous system function, disrupt biological rhythms, drain energy, and gradually erode wellbeing - often in ways that are normalised until the body can no longer compensate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCentral to the book is the Adaptive Integration Framework (AIF), a clinically informed model that understands health and recovery as dynamic and non-linear. Rather than treating symptoms in isolation or encouraging people to push through depletion, AIF prioritises restoring physiological capacity and stability. The framework focuses first on foundational processes - awareness, rest and recovery, nourishment, and movement - before expanding into adaptability, including boundaries, connection, purpose, and resilience, and ultimately integration, where insight becomes sustained, lived change.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBridging stress physiology, nervous system science, and real-world application, the book offers clear explanations for common patterns such as fatigue, pain, dysregulation, and burnout, reframing them as adaptive responses to prolonged load rather than personal failure. Structured reflections and practical approaches support earlier recognition of strain and more informed responses, helping readers intervene before the body is forced into more extreme compensatory states.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten for a broad readership, \u003cem\u003eWhen the Body Whispers\u003c\/em\u003e speaks to those living with chronic stress, illness, burnout, or recovery after sustained load, translating stress physiology and nervous system science into clear, accessible understanding. It sits at the intersection of health, psychology, and self-care, offering depth without requiring a clinical background.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"This succinct volume presents wise and compassionate advice about how to listen to our bodies' subtle messages, from a physician who had to learn through her own hard experience what happens when we do not. Dr. Malik combines personal insight, keen clinical observation, social awareness, and science to offer a new path to health.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- \u003cstrong\u003eGabor Maté, MD\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57492213793141,"sku":"9781997730453","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781997730453.jpg?v=1786529042"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/publisher-life-sized-publishing.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}