From Lyme Disease To Root Cause Advocacy featuring Sylvia Reisman

Patient Advocacy Now

In this episode, we talk with Sylvia Reisman, whose passion for patient advocacy began in 1998 when she was researching treatment options for her father who was a five year survivor of stage III pancreatic cancer. ​In 2006, she became mysteriously ill and ran from doctor to doctor, consulting with a long list of specialists in multiple states before finally being properly diagnosed with Lyme Disease several years later. She became convinced that if she had a knowledgeable professional patient advocate to help her 15 years ago, it would have saved her thousands of dollars, unnecessary suffering, and a timely diagnosis.

​Following her Lyme Disease diagnosis, Sylvia became an avid researcher and discovered functional medicine, a treatment approach that goes outside traditional boundaries to identify the root causes of a medical condition. After experiencing the benefits of functional medicine, she felt a sense of obligation to help people with chronic medical conditions like hers.

She started Purity Patient Advocates LLC, a patient advocacy service that replicates the navigation process she learned from her own personal experiences. Please enjoy this engaging interview with a self-made advocate who started her advocacy practice i8n order to help prevent others with complex medical conditions find answers when the formal health system simply is ineffective.