Fibromyalgia: Pain With No Cause

Fibromyalgia is an interesting, intriguing problem which I have personally experienced.  My case is actually quite unusual because I’ve read articles that said that around 90% of the people who have this are women.  I guess that makes me fairly unique as a man having personally experienced fibromyalgia.

It’s kind of interesting what medicine does with it and where they place it and it’s treatment. It is included medically as an arthritis, in the arthralgias.  In fact, the most common one, only after osteoarthritis.  Yet it doesn’t have anything to do with joints.   It’s related to muscles and tendons and pain.  

Fibromyalgia defined, is pain bilateral all over the body that lasts greater than 3 months.  Doctors have 18 specific sites that they test and you have to have 11 of those 18 to qualify officially for having fibromyalgia.   It’s characterized by aching, by pain in these spots, and by disturbed sleep patterns.  People rarely get good stage 4 sleep and that causes some other problems.

Fatigue is a major symptom.  Morning stiffness and depression are other symptoms, but not primary depression, only secondary depression.  You don’t have depression and then get this as a result of it. The depression comes because you’re in pain and there doesn’t appear to be any hope because there aren’t any good medicines, because it is going on for a long period of time, and because it actually changes neuro-transmitter levels of good feeling things in the brain; oxytocin and dopamine and different brain chemicals that help us to feel good.

Recurrent headaches are another of the symptoms.  It’s not migraines, you can actually get worse headaches than that, muscle tension headaches, usually of the occipital nerves in the back of the head.  

Also, you can get tender lymph nodes.  There can be bowel and bladder disturbances, and in fact irritable bowel syndrome is one of the things that characterize fibromyalgia.  Finally, some lesser symptoms include sensitivity to heat and cold, anxiousness, dizziness, occasional palpitations of the heart and even decreased coordination.  Sounds like that wrapped all of us up in there together.  I guess we’ve all got fibromyalgia.  

In my next post I'll talk a little about the history of fibromyalgia in the medical community and the possible causes of fibromyalgia. 

Drugs & chemo: not always the right choice.

This summer, the New York Times wrote an article about the drug Avastin, a drug sold by the company Genentech and used by many doctors to treat breast cancer. In the article, however, the New York Times notes that the drug “promotes life only by a few months, if that,” and that “some new studies suggest the drug might be less effective against cancer than the Food and Drug Administration had understood when the agency approved its uses.” 

Unfortunately, the sad truth is that drug companies usually know those things long in advance before it is disclosed. It’s about the money. I hate to be that honest and simplistic, but that’s the bottom line.  

I went to a breast cancer seminar probably 5-6 years ago.  Of course there were a lot of drug companies there. They had set up the booths and they were sponsoring it.  But the statistics at that time were that, if women who had recurrent breast cancer took chemo and radiation (in other words, traditional treatment provided by pharmaceutical companies) they lived 22 months on the average.  If they didn’t take these drugs they lived 20 months.  That is not statistically significant.  If you ask a statistician, there is no difference in those two, 20 or 22 months.  So you’re talking about women being damaged and nauseated, sick with hair falling out and all kinds of horrible side effects, all the while getting no increase in life that is of statistical significance.

I asked the drug company reps at this seminar, “So why are we giving this?”  They told me, “Oh, well, two months!”  But that’s two months of misery for these poor women. Medicine is supposed to be very scientific and about the patient, but unfortunately the sad truth is that many times it’s not in the best interest of patients.  

That doesn't mean that there isn't hope for a longer life for those who suffer from breast cancer. With a healthy lifestyle, careful decisions about your diet, and some alternative treatments and preventative measures, I've seen many women live far longer than the doctors had given them, with some even experiencing remission.  If you want to learn more, I'll shamelessly plug my book here, but you can also stay tuned to this blog to learn more about different ways to stay healthy without padding the pockets of drug companies. 

Antiperspirants and your health.

If you're a women and you use antiperspirants, your health may be in danger. There
 has 
long
 been 
concern 
that
 aluminum
 in products
 like 
cookware 
and
 antiperspirant
 deodorants 
might
 contribute 
to
 Alzheimer’s
 disease, 
but
 newer
 research 
connects 
antiperspirants
 with
 breast
 cancer
 as
 well.


The
 primary 
lymph 
nodes 
in 
the
 armpits 
carry 
toxins
 out
 of
 your
 body
 by
 several
 methods,
 including
 perspiration.
 One
 theory
 about
 the
 association 
between 
breast
 cancer 
and 
antiperspirant
 use 
is 
that 
the 
lymph
 nodes
 are
 not
 allowed 
to
 do
 their 
job 
properly.
 Another 
theory 
is 
that
 the aluminum in
 the 
antiperspirants interferes
 with 
estrogen
 action
 and 
possibly
 even
 changes
 the 
cellular
 matrix
 of
 breast
 cells.
 It is 
certainly 
telling 
that
 the
 majority
 of
 breast 
cancers
 occur 
in 
the
 upper 
outer
 quadrants
 of 
the breast.
 Since 
that’s
 the
 place
 closest 
to
 the
 armpit, 
it’s
 enough 
for
 us 
to
 recommend
 that
 you
 change
 your
 deodorant
 if
 you’re
 using 
antiperspirants.

Take 
a
 good
 look 
at 
the label
 and 
reject
 anything
 with
 aluminum
chlorhydrate.
 There 
are
 many
 natural
 deodorants
 on the
 market
 that 
work
 very
 well
 without 
aluminum. One particular quality brand is Crystal Body Deodorant®. If you want to learn more about breast health, check out my new book on breast health at my website, where you can read a free chapter and find links to buy it.