The most up-to-date, comprehensive treatment guide to fibromyalgia, by a renowned physician who herself has the condition If you suffer from fibromyalgia and are struggling to get help from your doctor, you’re far from alone. Ten million Americans experience the widespread muscle pain, profound fatigue, and fuzzy brain (“fibrofog”) that have long frustrated both patients and doctors. In this unique resource, Ginevra Liptan, M.D., shares a cutting-edge new approach that goes far beyond mainstream medical knowledge to produce dramatic symptom improvement. Dr. Liptan’s program incorporates clinically proven therapies from both alternative and conventional medicine, along with the latest research on experimental options like medical marijuana. Since many health care providers have limited fibromyalgia expertise, The FibroManual includes a thoroughly sourced “health care provider guide” that enables readers to help their doctors help them. Alleviate fibromyalgia symptoms in four simple steps (Rest, Repair, Rebalance, and Reduce) and you will • restore deep, restful sleep • achieve long-lasting pain relief • optimize hormone and energy balance • reduce fatigue This accessible and empowering resource provides essential information about understanding and treating fibromyalgia from a physician who, as both patient and provider, understands the illness from the inside.
Called the “invisible disease,” fibromyalgia is estimated to impact more than 10 million Americans. And yet, so much is still misunderstood about this chronic disorder. Mayo Clinic Guide to Fibromyalgia is an invaluable resource for understanding fibromyalgia and its debilitating symptoms. Those living with fibromyalgia know it is an invasive disorder, one that can cause overwhelming fatigue, joint stiffness, sleep problems, migraines, digestive problems, and troubles with memory and concentration, a symptom so common it is often referred to as “fibrofog.” While it's believed that humans have suffered from fibromyalgia for hundreds, even thousands, of years, a delay in medical research means many people living with fibromyalgia are still in the dark, confused by their symptoms and what causes the painful disorder. By drawing upon decades of advanced research in studying and treating fibromyalgia, Mayo Clinic Guide to Fibromyalgia combines anecdotes from real cases with expertise from Mayo Clinic’s rheumatology and chronic pain experts to provide an all-encompassing guide for understanding one of the most common chronic illnesses affecting Americans today. This book also offers reasonable, proven strategies—like worksheets to help readers craft a personalized daily plan—for managing common fibromyalgia symptoms, while serving as a comforting guide for those who may feel alone in their journey with fibromyalgia. This book breaks down what fibromyalgia is—and isn’t—in 4 separate sections: · Section 1 introduces fibromyalgia, the history and modern discoveries of fibromyalgia research, as well as common myths and misconceptions associated with the condition · Section 2 outlines the different treatment options available to those who suffer from fibromyalgia, including prescription medications, therapies, and forms of integrative medicine · Section 3 offers helpful tips for managing—and improving—chronic pain through diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management · Finally, Section 4 explains how to find guidance and support from your family, friends, and physicians to help you live a life unhindered by fibromyalgia If you’re struggling to advance past your painful fibromyalgia symptoms, get the book Publisher’s Weekly described as “the first [book] a newly diagnosed patient should consult.”
The My Physician association is composed of top medical professionals who have come together with the goal of educating the public on critical health issues. Drawing on expert knowledge and decades of experience, we have created the My Physician guides to bring you only the most relevant information on the conditions that affect you. Inside the My Physician Guide to Fibromyalgia, you will learn the leading causes of fibromyalgia, lifestyle changes you can make to avoid future complications, what you can do to relieve full body pain, new treatments for fibromyalgia, which OTC treatments and prescription medications work best to suppress symptoms, heat therapies that target deep musculoskeletal soreness, ways to lead a calmer, stress-free life, and much more.
Over a decade ago, Dr. R. Paul St. Amand, an experienced endocrinologist and UCLA assistant clinical professor, published his protocol for reversing fibromyalgia based on nearly half a century of research. This book offers Dr. St. Amand's latest research on guaifenesin, an inexpensive, safe, an incresingly available medication that can help reverse the disease. The authors have seen symtpoms eliminated and normal quality of life restored in an astonishing 90 percent of pateints they treated with guaifenesin. Updated and revised with more patient anecdotes and a deeper understanding of symptoms, treatments, and results, readers will find: --more information about the current treatment of fibromyalgia and what causes it --new results from Dr. St. Amand's studies about the efficacy of guafenesin treatment --changes in disease protocol --discussion of pharmaceuticals in treatment --and much more
Many people have either been told or read that fibromyalgia isn't real, or it is just all in their heads. This misunderstanding, unfortunately, causes harm and is a disservice to those suffering. If you are one of the estimated 4 million people in the United States who are suffering from fibromyalgia, then you know it is real. If you don't have FM, you will, at a minimum, gain a deeper understanding of what you or your loved one is experiencing. If you do have FM, you will feel validated for what you have had to endure. You also will receive actionable steps you can take to thrive, not just survive with FM and its related disorders. You will also learn practical and realistic strategies for conquering your fibromyalgia.BIODr. Michael Lenz is a practicing physician in Waukesha county, Wisconsin. He is Board Certified in Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. He is also a diplomat of the Board of Lifestyle Medicine and a diplomat of the Board of Clinical Lipidology. Dr. Lenz also has received a T. Colin Campbell Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate. Dr. Lenz graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and completed his Residency at the Virginia Commonwealth University Hospitals in Richmond, Virginia. He now provides care to families at a clinic in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Dr. Lenz has helped hundreds of patients suffering from fibromyalgia-like pain. He is committed to educating, inspiring, and equipping patients to walk through this battle triumphantly.
Fibromyalgia is real. The pain you awaken with is not in your head. You're not even remotely a hypochondriac. If anyone--doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist, well- meaning loved one--ever tries to convince you otherwise, tune them out. They are wrong. Likewise, if anyone ever tells you fibro is incurable and you'll just have to learn to live with it, understand they're seriously misinformed. You may even be able to fix your fibromyalgia on your own, without doctors and without drugs. This book will tell you how. So begins author David Edelberg, MD, an internist specializing in fibromyalgia, in his long-awaited book Healing Fibromyalgia. Dr Edelberg has treated 1,600+ women with fibro using the plan presented here, including step-by-step instructions for Dr E's Six-Week Nearly Natural Fibro Cure. In clear, reassuring language, Dr E explains how with fibro your whole self--the mind and body totality that makes you you--is under protective siege, your body trying desperately to guard itself from the assault of multiple sources of stress. Envision your muscles tightening up and creating a protective suit of armor. That's fibro in a nutshell. Your muscles aren't sick or inflamed, but they're definitely tired of being locked up like this, trying to protect you and making you utterly exhausted in the process. Ironically, if your muscles could talk, they'd probably say, Look, lady, we're just doing our job. We got this message from you that we're under serious stress. This tightening-up is what muscles do. Statistics prove it: Some 10 to 14 million Americans currently fulfill the diagnostic criteria for fibro and 80-90% of that group are undiagnosed. Than means more American women have fibromyalgia than diabetes. Wait, you think. Am I hearing this right? Is Dr E saying that the 12 million American women with fibro are so stressed that they're engaged in a 24/7 painful muscle lock-up of self protection and self preservation? That's exactly what he's saying. Don't live with fibromyalgia a single day longer than necessary. Whether your fibro responds to the Nearly Natural Cure or you need a little extra help from prescription drugs, this plan will help resolve your painful fibromyalgia forever. Also includes: Dr E's precise (and invaluable) fibro drug dosing instructions are radically different from what your own doctor might recommend and they increase your chances of success. Your doctor doesn't believe in fibro? The book provides expert advice on finding one who will take your condition seriously. As a bonus, Healing Fibromyalgia includes the Physician's Guide to Fibromyalgia, including Dr E''s complete treatment protocols. If your stubborn fibro requires prescription drugs, print out the guide and hand it to your physician. Don't go it alone. With this book and the Dr E's physician's guide in hand, you and your doctor will become an educated team in resolving your fibro. Includes: How Do I Know If I Have Fibro? Take the Quiz How to Classify Your Fibro Severity Memories in Your Muscles Tests Every Fibro Patient Should Know About Dr E's Six-Week Nearly Natural Fibro Cure Fibro-Friendly Eating Plan Medications for Fibro: How They Work and How They Can Help Pain Drugs for Fibro Alternative Medicine for Fibromyalgia You've Got A Friend: Women Speak Out About Their Fibro Fibro's Larger Message: Women Under Siege Physician's Guide to Fibromyalgia
This book is about empowerment for chronic pain patients and care providers alike. Every chronic pain condition has a treatable myofascial trigger point component, including fibromyalgia. Many of the localized symptoms now considered as fibromyalgia are actually due to trigger points. The central sensitization of fibromyalgia amplifies symptoms that trigger points cause, and this book teaches care providers and patients how to identify and treat those causes. Chronic myofascial pain due to trigger points can be body-wide, and can cause or maintain fibromyalgia central sensitization. Trigger points can cause and/or maintain or contribute to many types of pain and dysfunction, including numbness and tingling, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, plantar fasciitis, osteoarthritis, cognitive dysfunctions and disorientation, impotence, incontinence, loss of voice, pelvic pain, muscle weakness, menstrual pain, TMJ dysfunction, shortness of breath, and many symptoms attributed to old age or "atypical" or psychological sources. Trigger point therapy has been around for decades, but only recently have trigger points been imaged at the Mayo Clinic and National Institutes of Health. Their ubiquity and importance is only now being recognized. Devin Starlanyl is a medically trained chronic myofascial pain and fibromyalgia researcher and educator, as well as a patient with both of these conditions. She has provided chronic pain education and support to thousands of patients and care providers around the world for decades. John Sharkey is a physiologist with more than twenty-seven years of anatomy experience, and the director of a myofascial pain facility. Together they have written a comprehensive reference to trigger point treatment to help patients with fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, and many other conditions. This guide will be useful for all types of doctors, nurses, therapists, bodyworkers, and lay people, facilitating communication between care providers and patients and empowering patients who now struggle with all kinds of misunderstood and unexplained symptoms. Part 1 explains what trigger points are and how they generate symptoms, refer pain and other symptoms to other parts of the body, and create a downward spiral of dysfunction. The authors look at the interconnection between fibromyalgia and myofascial trigger points and their possible causes and symptoms; identify stressors that perpetuate trigger points such as poor posture, poor breathing habits, nutritional inadequacies, lack of sleep, and environmental and psychological factors; and provide a list of over one hundred pain symptoms and their most common corresponding trigger point sources. Part 2 describes the sites of trigger points and their referral patterns within each region of the body, and provides pain relief solutions for fibromyalgia and trigger point patients and others with debilitating symptoms. Pain treatment plans include both self-help remedies for the patient—stretching or postural exercises, self-massage techniques and prevention strategies—as well as diagnostic and treatment hints for care providers. Part 3 offers guidance for both patients and care providers in history taking, examination, and palpation skills, as well as treatment options. It offers a vision for the future that includes early assessment, adequate medical training, prevention of fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, changes to chronic pain management and possible solutions to the health care crisis, and a healthier version of our middle age and golden years, asserting that patients have a vital role to play in the management of their own health.
Dr. Murphree explains everything one needs to know about Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in concise, easy-to-understand terms and provides safe, consistent, and natural remedies.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic health condition affecting 6 million to 12 million people in the U.S. Though various controversies exist surrounding fibromyalgia, the illness is very real and stress can actually worsen its symptoms. In The Cleveland Clinic Guide to Fibromyalgia, Dr. William Wilke, an expert on the forefront of this elusive disease, presents critical information about the latest scientific studies and progress in fighting fibromyalgia and related conditions. He offers a proven, interdisciplinary medical approach by drawing on other specialties, including women’s health and rheumatology. This important resource gives readers the cutting-edge medical guidance Dr. Wilke offers his patients, including: How to feel immediate relief Why fi bromyalgia is so difficult to diagnose Accurate information on symptoms, treatments, and myths surrounding the condition Clear explanations of the newest studies Personal stories of those who have triumphed over fibromyalgia Fast facts and red-flag sidebars Plus, advice on how to make the necessary lifestyle choices to live an active and healthy life The Cleveland Clinic is top-ranked for its care of patients with rheumatic and immunologic conditions.
This year, six million Americans--most of them women--will go to their doctors, complaining of an illness they have no name for. The majority will be turned away or treated for depression; the few who persist will go to an average of four doctors before they receive the correct diagnosis: fibromyalgia. In their earlier Making Sense of Fibromyalgia, noted medical writer Janice Wallace and Dr. Daniel Wallace, a leading expert on this disorder, provided a comprehensive guide--for both patients and professionals--to this little known and poorly understood syndrome. Now, in All About Fibromyalgia, the Wallaces provide a thoroughly revised and updated version of that highly successful volume, incorporating a wealth of new information. This edition provides the current understanding of the disease as well as the latest drug treatments--all laid out in clear and accessible language. As in the previous volume, the authors provide a detailed, yet clear explanation of the disease. Fibromyalgia, they explain, is a form of chronic neuromuscular pain, a pain-amplification syndrome brought on by abnormal interactions between hormones, the immune system, neurotransmitters, and the autonomic nervous system. Sometimes the syndrome occurs spontaneously; in most cases, the authors write, it is associated with trauma, stress, such conditions as lupus and hypothyroidism, and over forty microbes, from hepatitis to Epstein-Barr to Lyme disease. Drawing on actual cases to illustrate their points, the authors help break through the isolation that patients often feel when doctors misdiagnose or simply ignore their symptoms. All About Fibromyalgia addresses a desperate need for information on this disease and offers reassurance to patients and their families.
