In Starving to Heal in Siberia, Dr. Michelle Slater takes us on her journey from her bed, where she was sidelined much of the time, to Siberia, where she was cured of the debilitating effects of advanced Lyme disease. After a years-long struggle with extreme chronic fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, and other mysterious symptoms that ultimately prevented her from teaching and doing simple tasks like reading and driving, Michelle began considering assisted suicide. She had tried every known treatment, from aggressive allopathic methods to holistic remedies, without success. In a last-ditch effort to save her life, she found a radical alternative treatment offered by the world's leading expert on dry fasting and traveled to Siberia to give it a chance.

​Starving to Heal in Siberia is both a moving and insightful memoir of recovery from devastating chronic illness and a practical guide to the science and psychology behind safely dry fasting. If you are curious about intermittent fasting and the research on dry fasting, this book offers compelling and useful information. If you are a doctor who has had to tell your patients to adjust to the chronic symptoms of an autoimmune disorder that didn't dissipate under your best care, this book offers new hope. And if you struggle with chronic illness or love someone who does, this book is an antidote to despair. Michelle's thoughtful account of her wellness journey provides similarly afflicted readers with the tools and encouragement to begin their own.

Michelle Slater is a scholar of comparative literature and president of the educational nonprofit Mayapple Center for the Arts and Humanities in Connecticut. She holds a Ph.D. in French literature from Johns Hopkins University.

Her long battle with and recovery from late-stage neurological Lyme disease served as the genesis for this book. Debilitated by the disease to the extent that she was no longer able to teach at her university or perform simple tasks like driving and reading, Slater spent several years pursuing every known treatment, from aggressive allopathic methods to holistic remedies. When all failed to deliver recovery, she discovered Dr. Sergey Filonov's dry fasting program and spent two months in Siberia under his care. She recovered completely from Lyme disease, regaining her memory and returning to researching, writing, hiking, and running. Since 2017, she has not experienced a single symptom.