Fibroworks Discussion Board

Nita Busby's article on porphyria

k2 — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:57:01 GMT

I am pleased to be able to help spread the word about porphyria by posting Nita Busby's article, published in the American Holistic Health Association's articles section.

Please click here:

http://ahha.org/articles.asp?Id=119

Fibromyalgia Seminar Feb 9th, Avon Park, FL

k2 — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 13:22:27 GMT

Dear Fibromyalgia Friends,

The Fibromyalgia Treatment Center based in Marina del Rey, CA is sponsoring a one-day seminar with Claudia Marek, co-author with Dr. Paul St. Amand, WHAT YOUR DOCTOR MAY NOT TELL YOU ABOUT FIBROMYALGIA. The seminar will be an explanation of the guaifenesin protocol which reverses fibromyalgia in most people.

The seminar for professionals, patients, friends and family will take place Saturday, February 9th at 1:30 p.m. at the Union Congregational Church in Avon Park, FL. After the seminar we will have a tasty dinner prepared by the church chef. Cost of the seminar is $20 and the dinner is $15. Dinner MUST be prepaid.

All proceeds after expenses will be donated to the Fibromyalgia Treatment Center for reserarch projects. Forms can be found at the following address:

http://fibromyalgiatreatment.com/board/index.php

Please share this message with others who have fibromyalgia. There is hope! Guaifenesin is a 400 year old medicine which is sold over the counter as Muscinex! However, salycilates can block the guaifenesin from doing its work so we have to learn how to identify and eliminate them in our daily products. Claudia will be talking about the chemical reasons for all this and will have time to answer your questions. Claudia has completely reversed her own fibromyalgia as has Dr. St. Amand. Dr. St. Amand is an 80 yr. old endocronologist and still practices daily helping those with fibro. He has completely reversed his own fibromyalgia.

Hope to see you on February 9th. Feel free to contact me should you have any questions.

Julie

julie56@strato.net

NFA referrals, please go to other forum

k2 — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:30:50 GMT

Anyone referring her from the NFA web site, please use our other forum:

http://www.fibroworks.com/board2

Happy Thanksgiving!

Exercise Benefits by Jonny Bowden

k2 — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:51:55 GMT

Exercise Benefits

By Jonny Bowden

There's probably no one out there who hasn't gotten the message that
exercise is good for you. But when it comes to the question of how much, how often,
and what results you can expect, the answers are all over the map.

Any physical activity from walking around the mall to running a marathon,
doing Pilates to lifting weights counts as exercise. Ideally, you want to
include both exercise for your heart (running, jogging, stair climbing) and
strength training in your routine. Here are some of the documented benefits of
exercise:

Stronger Bones
Weight bearing exercise (i.e. jogging and walking) helps build bones and
protect against osteoporosis.

Better Mood
Studies have shown that regular exercise has a significant positive effect
on mood and can lift you out of a mild depression. Exercise also helps deliver
oxygen to your brain, keeping neurons healthy and your performance sharp.

Heart Health
Exercise is one of the best ways to protect and strengthen the heart. It
also lowers blood pressure. And exercise is one of the best ways to increase HDL
(the "good", protective cholesterol in the blood).

Diabetes Prevention and Management
Exercise lowers blood sugar and increases the sensitivity of the cells to
insulin, which is a great thing. We want to be insulin sensitive; the opposite
is insulin resistant, which sets us up for diabetes, obesity and metabolic
syndrome.

Better Sleep
Poor sleep is a stressor that increases cortisol, which signals the body to
store fat around the middle. Increased cortisol also leads to muscle
breakdown and causes the body to overproduce insulin.

Exercise is one way to improve sleep. Physical activity tires you out and
makes you more likely to sleep soundly. It also increases feel-good chemicals
in the brain that help you feel good and more relaxed.

Reduced Cancer Risk
Researchers aren't exactly sure how it works, but have found that exercise
can lower the risk of colon, prostate and breast cancer.

Strong Muscles and Joints
People who exercise regularly tend to have stronger joints, less pain and
greater mobility as they age.

Weight Management
The overwhelming majority of people who maintain a healthy weight exercise
regularly.

Exercise and Weight Loss
It's simple: Working out burns calories. To maximize the burn, do interval
training, where you exercise at a high intensity for 30 seconds to a minute
before falling back to a more relaxed pace while your heart calms down. Repeat
for up to 10 times a workout.

For weight loss, strength training is more important than you might think.
Calories are burned by muscle, so the more muscle you have the more calories
(and fat) you burn. Building muscle is the best ally you have in the battle of
the bulge.

Though exercise by itself is probably not the most effective way to lose
weight, it's the most effective way to keep it off. To lose weight, you need to
change your diet (in addition to exercise). But research from the National
Weight Control Registry shows that people who are successful in losing weight
maintain it by exercising at least 30 minutes every day.

To get the benefits from exercise you don't have to spend all your spare
time on a treadmill. Most professionals recommend a goal of at least 30 minutes
a day of some kind of physical activity. With exercise, some is always better
than none.

NFA Newsletter

k2 — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:25:46 GMT

Check out this month's NFA Newsletter. They wrote about similar things like I've been writing about on fibroworks!

Be sure to scroll all the way down after reading the first article, to get the remainder of the articles.

Voila! http://www.fmaware.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6647

Fibroworks Forums and Blogs now available

k2 — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 16:14:07 GMT

Please check out Fibroworks Forums and Blogs

Click here: http://www.fibroworks.com/board2

USA Today article/interview with Lynn Matallana

k2 — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 20:52:33 GMT

Article on fibromyalgia with Lynne Matallana the founder of the National Fibromyalgia Association & Co-Writer of Idiots Guide to Fibromyalgia

Gain Against the Pain
Fibromyalgia knowledge and treatment have improved
By Katherine Hobson
Posted October 18, 2007
Lynne Matallana likens the pain that wracked her body to acid running through her veins. It came on after uterine surgery in 1993a traumatic event, since she woke up in the middle of the operationand it never went away. In the two years that followed, she saw 37 doctors. They diagnosed her with lupus, blamed her pain on stress, or said it was all in her head. None of the remedies they recommended helped. "I had pain everywhere," she says. "I couldn't wear jewelry because it hurt when it touched my skin. I had to put a pillow at the foot of the bed so the sheets wouldn't touch my feet."

Lynne Matallana saw 37 doctors before she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
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Fibromyalgia Center
Things are now very different for Matallana, eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia. That painful condition affects an estimated 6 million Americans, mostly women. Because it has been poorly understood and is defined by symptoms, not lab tests, many patients face skepticism from doctors and go untreated. With the help of a supportive, young doctor, Matallana has managed to keep her pain at bay enough to workshe cofounded and now directs the National Fibromyalgia Association, a nonprofitand to run up to a mile and a half on the treadmill several days a week. Thanks to a growing understanding of the condition and new drugs, patients are less likely to encounter the kind of skepticism faced by Matallana, and more likely to find relief.

Sufferers of fibromyalgia experience a suite of symptoms: chronic pain throughout the body, sleep problems, and fatigue. In some, this syndrome starts with no warning; others get it after a traumatic physical injury, a viral infection, or stressful life event. Symptoms can come and go.

Not hysteria. For years, doctors thought the problem must be at the tissues or nerve endingsthat is, at the places where it hurt. When they couldn't find hallmarks of injury such as inflammation or nerve damage, many threw up their hands and chalked up symptoms to depression, anxiety, or that all-purpose grab bag for female complaints: hysteria. Over the past decade or so, doctors have come to understand that fibromyalgia is actually a problem of the central nervous systemthe brain and the spinal cordnot the peripheral nerves that branch into organs, limbs, and skin.

More recently, researchers using functional MRI scans have found that people with fibromyalgia have increased activity in areas of the brain dealing with where and how much it hurts. In other words, far from being whiners, they are wired to be exquisitely sensitive to pain. "It's not something they're imagining," says Daniel Clauw, a rheumatologist and director of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan. An imbalance of neurotransmitters chemicals that nerve cells use to communicateis suspected of being involved in fibromyalgia, just as it is in depression. In fact, many people with fibromyalgia also have depression, and there's probably a common genetic disposition to developing both, says Don Goldenberg, chief of rheumatology and director of the Arthritis-Fibromyalgia Center at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Mass. But he and others emphasize that the pain syndrome is not merely a symptom of depression.

Until recently, there was no official treatment for fibromyalgia. While doctors have used antidepressants and pain drugs off label for years, the Food and Drug Administration in June approved the first drug specifically for the condition: Pfizer's Lyrica, which was already used to treat epilepsy and neuropathic pain. In one study, 30 percent of patients taking 600 milligrams of Lyrica a day said their pain was cut at least by half. Of those taking a placebo, only 15 percent reported such a reduction in pain. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has applied to the FDA to market its antidepressant Cymbalta to treat fibromyalgia. Another drug, milnacipran, is expected to be submitted for FDA consideration by year's end. All told, the market-forecasting firm Datamonitor says about 20 drugs are in development.

Lifestyle changesexercise, a sleep plan, and other self-management techniquescould be just as important as the new drugs, say patient advocates and scientists. The medications are likely to work only in some people and won't be a cure-all. "We need to have the mix available," says Shanda Shribbs, executive director of the National Fibromyalgia Research Association. Matallana, who uses medications, yoga, and exercise to control pain, says, "I still get calls from patients who say they've been told nothing can be done." Yet she jokes about the imprimatur of an FDA-approved drug. When Lyrica was first approved, she says, "my friend told me, 'Your pain wasn't real yesterday, but today it is.'"

This is the general fibromyalgia discussion board

k2 — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 14:45:17 GMT

I accidentally downloaded two board programs! Ok, so this one will be designated for general fibromyalgia discussions, not necessarily relating to employment, work, or being active.

The board at www.fibroworks.com/board2 has the section where you can set up a personal blog, which we will host for you at no charge.

Of course we can talk about anything on either board!

Welcome to Fibroworks Forum

k2 — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:56:50 GMT

This is a support group