Is
Fibromyalgia Real?
By: Dr. William Wong, ND, PhD.
For all
of the strides Fibromyalgia Syndrome
(FMS) patients have made in getting their
condition recognized as a true disease,
even to the point of having a diagnostic
(CPT-4) code for the condition: now,
the major movers and shakers in the medical
insurance world are pushing to reverse
the recognition and have FMS patients
relegated to psychiatric wards again!
To make matters worse they (the insurance
companies), it seems have bought the
MD who first documented the facts behind
the condition and called it a true disease.
Why
the turn around in this doc? And, why
are so many other doctors turning away
from FMS patients and, even turning against
them? It's simple, they are frustrated...
- Frustrated at not being able to
put a dent in the disease with conventional
drugs and therapies.
- Frustrated at non compliant patients
who don't want to participate in their
own healing, but are looking for someone
with magic fairy dust to suddenly take
away their pain and make everything
better". (Even I won't work with
these patients).
- Frustrated that their theories on
the cause of the disease have not panned
out and since they can't figure out
the cause of the disease they relegate
the condition to the scrap heap of
psychosomatic diseases!
Also,
many of these docs's are seeing the handwriting
on the wall: insurance companies are
about to cut off all coverage of treatment
for FMS patients. Just as what happened
with the Chiropractors in the 70's and
80's when they ran up charges and caused
a cut off reaction by the insurance companies
and Medicare; the MD's have done the
same with FMS patients with useless trigger
point injections, electro therapy, hands
on fascia remolding, endless chains of
office visits and medication taking etc.etc.
etc.
Do I
sound like I'm against FMS treatment?
No, not in the least! I'm against the
doc's using up patient insurance coverage's
with treatments they are guessing "may" work.
I'm against medical conferences on FMS
that don't even address the primary causes
of the disease - Fibrosis, all the while
doing the allopathic thing and concentrating
only on the symptoms and symptomatic
relief! (Remember the condition IS called
FIBRO Myalgia or "Fibrosis caused
Muscle Pain").
Well
now that their symptomatic methods have
proven useless it's not they who are
wrong; it's the 3.5 million Fibromyalgia
patients who are! Now that they have
drained out the insurance companies and
those firms are balking at paying for
treatment or disability, they've jumped
ship and joined the cry against the people
who depended on them to get them better!
In a
way I can understand the frustration
of the doc's; about half the FMS patients
out there won't lift a finger to help
themselves. At first the dependence of
these patients is good for office visits
but when things don't work their dependence
becomes burdensome to the doc. These
folks bring so much psychological baggage
to the office, no wonder many docs legitimately
think the patients are faking or crazy.
The other half of FMS patients do want
to be involved and work for their recovery.
They can discern and separate the things
that have gone wrong and the things they
have done wrong in their lives from the
disease state and what must be done to
recover. These patients get better if
they find the right mix of support and
self treatment to get them past the pity
party stage into the "well poop;
if you ain't going to help me, I'll help
myself" stage.
What
must be done by FMS patients to better
themselves?
- Take systemic enzymes to
eat away at the fibrosis that is
the cause of the ischemic pain of
FMS. (Remember the pain of ischemia
cannot be lessened by pain med's
or anti depressants).
- Strength Exercise,
to increase the number of blood vessel
feeding muscles (this reduces ischemia
and therefore the pain).
- Strength Exercise to
increase the number of mitochondria
the muscle cells have so these can
produce ATP (the sugar they lack that
runs everything in the body). It's
the lack of ATP and mitochondria that
produces the extreme fatigue just like
in Mononucleosis. No supplement, drug
or hocus pocus build mitochondria in
muscle cells, only exercise can!
- Strength Exercise to
increase strength so the Activities
of Daily Living are not such a burden.
(ADL's are things like getting out
of bed, combing your hair, cooking,
rising off the potty, etc.). I told
you, you had to work for it!
- Time, it will take
weeks or even months of effort before
the pain begins to abate and the ADL's
become easier. And after you feel better
you can't stop doing. If you stop you'll
slide back to where you were in 8 weeks
or less.
- Follow a rounded program like
the one I outlined in "10 Natural
Treatments You Haven't Heard of Until
Now". (Yes, I'm going to make
you buy the book, it's only 14 dollars.
While I'm an FMS patient myself, I
give away enough therapeutic advice
and experience for free)! It has worked
for me and for every FMS patient I've
worked with since coming up with the
plan.
Fibromyalgia
does exist; FMS is as real as the pain
we constantly live with. But maybe it's
a good thing that medicine is about to
kick out FMS patients - it might make
the dependent ones see that they need
to work to attain their own well-being
and they'll stop looking to others to
bring about their return to health and
function.
Sounds
heavy handed, wasn't this article about
the way FMS patients are being mistreated
by the doc's and insurance companies?
Yes it was. But, in a way, we've only
ourselves to blame that MD's and insurance
companies think most of us are nuts and
disregard our pain and dysfunction.
Tough
love can be a wonderful thing. |
