August 3, 2012
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Fibromyalgia
The book I read to research this post was Fibromyalgia for Dummies by Roland Staud MD which is an excellent book which I bought from Kindle. I don’t suffer with fibromyalgia although I did hear an interview on an internet radio station which was quite interesting. The author of this book is a doctor who has done a lot of research into ME or fibromyalgia. It is characterized by chronic tiredness, almost continual aches and pains, either the runs or constipation and a lowered tolerance to pain and depression. Gulf War Syndrome can be similiar and about 50% of the people involved in that conflict had at least one symptom although research is ongoing they haven’t isolated the factor that caused. I saw something on tv about that spent uranium shells were used and the soldiers had a lot of vaccines which made that conflict almost unique. Often soldiers with PTSD get fibromyalgia as part of the illness also other illnesses like hepatitus B & C have similiar symptoms so it’s worth getting it checked out. For the depressive side of the illness sufferers are sometimes given paroxetene or venlafaxine or sometimes other antidepressants. Venlafaxine contains a pain killer although it needs quite high doses to be used in that way. Some sufferers take tranquillizers like ativan and valium particularly for the anxiety aspect of the illness. Some people find the pain on certain days can be managed by something like paracetamol or ibuprofen and then on bad days take something stronger. A lot of people find a TENS machine useful although it’s recommended you use it with other pain control measures. The first time you use a TENS machine you calibrate it to the type of pain and it helps block these signals from reaching the brain. Many people find biofeedback helps in controling the anxiety, this machine tells you how anxious you are and as you relax gives you feedback as to how anxious you are. Finally acupuncture is quite popular with sufferers which is where special needles are inserted into energy centres and the needles are so sharp you don’t feel any pain as they go in.
