End Fatigue
New This Week — CFS/Fibromyalgia News: April 29, 2009
Treating Fibromyalgia Pain — an Organized Approach
The FDA has recently (and for the first time) begun to approve medications for treating fibromyalgia pain. In the last year, the FDA has approved Lyrica, Cymbalta, and now Minalcipran. Although these medications can be helpful, and you will hear about them (each company will spend about $70 million per year advertising them), it is critical to remember that the key to pain relief is to use the "SHINE Protocol" to eliminate the underlying causes of the pain. Pain is like the "oil light on your dashboard" telling you that something urgently needs attention. By treating SHINE, you address:
Sleep
Hormonal support (despite normal lab tests)
Infections
Nutritional support, and
Exercise as able
Most of you will find that when you treat "SHINE" your pain will go away, or at least markedly decrease. In the interim, or even long term in cases where we can't get to the root cause of the pain, pain medications can offer a lot of relief.
In this issue of the newsletter, our focus will be on getting you pain free. To do this, I've written a detailed article which will take you through a step-by-step process to help you get pain free. It will review how to treat the underlying causes of the pain and how to use natural remedies for pain. It will also review how to use over a dozen pain medications (and the order in which to try them) so you can get pain relief while going after root causes of the pain.
We have been able to get excellent pain relief in most of our patients. The problem is not with a lack of ways to get you pain free — but rather with a lack of physicians trained in this area. This newsletter’s feature article will tell you what you can do to get pain free. In addition, I encourage you to see a Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Center physician (there are clinics nationwide), so that you can get the help you need.
Are you ready to get pain free? Then let's go!
RESEARCH BRIEFS
More on Effectiveness of Minalcipran
More research on the effectiveness of Minalcipran (Savella), the third medication to be FDA approved for fibromyalgia pain. Read more »
Vitamin D Deficiency Associated with Fibromyalgia Pain
People with lower vitamin D levels are almost twice as likely to have chronic widespread pain (e.g., fibromyalgia). Read more »
Chronic Pain Linked to Low Vitamin D
Another study showed that low vitamin D levels, common in chronic pain, were associated with needing twice as high of a narcotic dose for pain relief. Though we can usually get people pain-free without narcotics, this is one more study showing the importance of vitamin D. Read more »
Vitamin B12 May Be More Effective Than Medications for Diabetic Nerve Pain
FEATURED QUESTIONS FROM READERS
Q: What could be causing my heart palpitations? Read more »
Q: Feeling much better on Corvalen (ribose). Also, is the increased urination in CFS considered diabetes insipidus? Is whey helpful? Read more »
Q: What brand of Probiotics do you recommend? Read more »
COOL STUFF
Chalk Art From Julian Beever
He just keeps getting better. Julian Beever — the Pavement Picasso!
Tissue Regeneration
Is it possible to regrow skin, fingers, whole arms and legs? Hearts and kidneys? It seems very possible — and it's happening!
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Quotes — Mouth Running Before Brain in Gear
"I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
— Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest, answering the question "If you could live forever, would you and why?"
"Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry. I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff."
— Mariah Carey
"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
— Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for a federal anti-smoking campaign
"I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body."
— Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward
"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country."
— Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, D.C.
"Half this game is ninety percent mental."
— Philadelphia Phillies Manager Danny Ozark
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."
— Al Gore, Vice President
"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."
— Dan Quayle
"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?"
— Lee Iacocca
"The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."
— Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback and sports analyst
"We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people."
— Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor
"Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."
— Keppel Enderbery
"Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances."
— Department of Social Services, Greenville, South Carolina
"If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record."
— Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman
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