Med: Readers' Digest
Cheryl Holmberg
My grandmother is reading me an article in the Nov. issue of Readers Digest.
They are talking about exercise and accupuncture and meditation and I don't
know what else. I have to read it to really know what it is talking about.
Anyway here goes another article about how all the meds we are taking are
making us sicker. My grandmother now thinks that if I would quit taking meds
and start exercise esp. swimming I would be better.
My dad already says I would be cured if I started eating a very healthy diet.
He is such a health finatic. I am not against healthy eating but it isn't
going to cure me. My relatives just don't understand this syndrome.
Let me know if any of you have seen this article. She is saving it for me.
Maybe I'll get over to get it in a day or two.
Cheryl in Tulsa
Suzanne&George
Suzanne wrote:
i loved this story. it is so like my family.
nobody really believes i'm sick; but if i were REALLY sick they all know what
would
make it better. answers to my nonexsistant illness range from hormones, tuffing
it
out, having a better attitude, to heavy anti depressants. it has gotten to the
point where it is no longer annoying; it is hilarious. good luck with grandma.
Suzanne.
Ruqaiyah H Bader
Dear Cheryl:
A healthy diet and reasonable amounts of exercise shouldn't do any harm,
but you know your body and you know what works for you. You need the
support of your family and your friends; perhaps some people can do
without medication for this [I do at times because of bad reactions to
many possible treatments] but if medication helps you to function more
like others without FMS, then take it. By all means read everything you
can about this, but it wouldn's hurt to ask your Dr. or the Arthritis
Foundation for a brochure on FMS so that your granmother and father can
read it and see that this is a serious and sometimes disabling syndrome.
Take care of yourself.
Ruq
On Mon, 11 Nov 1996 19:13:43 -0500 Cheryl Holmberg <Gre...@AOL.COM>
writes:
<snip>
My grandmother now thinks that if I would quit
>taking meds
>and start exercise esp. swimming I would be better.
<snip>
>My dad already says I would be cured if I started eating a very
>healthy diet.
My relatives just don't understand this syndrome.
<snip>
>Let me know if any of you have seen this article. She is saving it
>for me.
>Cheryl in Tulsa
>
jyel...@aol.com
This is for Cheryl and anyone else close enough to Tulsa who wants to
come. Dr. Lowe and I will speaking at the Hardesty Library in Tulsa in
early January. We'll be talking about FM in general, our non-profit
research foundation, and Dr. Lowe's successful results with metabolic
therapy. Don't have the date or time yet, but will let everyone know when
we get them. It will be a weeknight. Cheryl, you might bring someone from
your family so they will know FM is not just a matter of lack of exercise
or proper nutrition.
Jackie
jyel...@aol.com
Just found out the date and time: Wed., January 15, 1997 from 7-9 pm. Will
post the address and phone number of the Hardesty Library in Tulsa on a
separate post about the seminar. We'll also be discussing our new research
findings on the metabolic bases of FM.
Jackie
David & Michele Kaiser
In article <96111119134...@emout07.mail.aol.com>, Cheryl Holmberg
<Gre...@AOL.COM> wrote:
> My grandmother is reading me an article in the Nov. issue of Readers Digest.
> They are talking about exercise and accupuncture and meditation and I don't
> know what else. I have to read it to really know what it is talking about.
> Anyway here goes another article about how all the meds we are taking are
> making us sicker. My grandmother now thinks that if I would quit taking meds
> and start exercise esp. swimming I would be better.
Amazingly enough, I still have thing thing laying around. Here is what it
said, and I quote:
Andrea Schmitt was 19 years old when she was injured in a car accident.
Afterward she suffered from fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by
widespread chronic pain in the neck, spine, shoulders, and lower back.
The paid was so severe that Schmitt had trouble sleeping, and was forced
to give up volleyball and bowling. She took muscle relaxants,
painkillers, and inti-inflamitory drugs: they brought no relief, but
caused jitteriness and weight gain.
Finally after 25 long years and at least 8 doctors, Schmitt tried a
totally different kind of treatment. A team of specialists at the Pain
Evaluation and Treatment Institute at the University of Pittsburgh Medical
Center taught her stretching exercises for her damaged muscles, relaxation
techniques and new pain-preventing ways of doing her
work............Chronic pain...lasts longer than three months and often
for years. While potent drugs are often prescribed, they aren't always
the best way to relieve chronic pain.
[ommission of paragraph about NSAIDS]
Today, many leading chronic-pain clinics are encouraging patients to cope
with pain using drug-free-therapies. Treatments once considered offbeat,
such at biofeedbackand meditation, are being used all across the
country.......
The rest of the article describes biofeedback and meditation and
life-style changes. Of course, in a very Reader's Digest way,
autobiographical info is added for effect. Basically, I wasn't impressed
with the article, probably because it doesn't sound like anything new to
me.
My impression of the article is that it is misleading for people who don't
know the full symptoms of FM. Some illogical leaps are made, the most
notable that muscles achiness cause sleep disturbances. they seem to have
is backwards. I wonder who they were talking about. The article is found
on page 135. I would never think of using this magazine as a bona fide
source. We keep it in the bathroom, for a little light reading. Thats as
far as it goes. Hope I didn't offend anyone by baggin on the magazine.
They're just a wee bit biased.
Michele
malc/nanc
I am a nurse of some 30 yrs. There are all kinds of FM pts. out there. I
don't know how many people I have referred to a rheumatoligist over the
years. This last year I have worked the ER. Many pts. claim to have FM
but their body language gives them away, like flinging their head back
to move their hair when they are there for a migraine headache. They
still get their meds. Others who obviously are in pain, enlarged neck
muscles, limited movement, came in as last resort, yet they get a spinal
tap, neg. for meningitis and sent out with tylenol. If you are young and
energetic looking you obviously wouldn't be there, if you are middle
aged and over wt. you are just there for drugs, and are depressed. THere
are many people out there who are not treated, and many who are well
treated, and everyone in between.
jay&julie
> My grandmother is reading me an article in the Nov. issue of Readers Digest.
> They are talking about exercise and accupuncture and meditation and I don't
> know what else. I have to read it to really know what it is talking about.
> Anyway here goes another article about how all the meds we are taking are
> making us sicker. My grandmother now thinks that if I would quit taking meds
> and start exercise esp. swimming I would be better.
>
> My dad already says I would be cured if I started eating a very healthy diet.
> He is such a health finatic. I am not against healthy eating but it isn't
> going to cure me. My relatives just don't understand this syndrome.
>
> Let me know if any of you have seen this article. She is saving it for me.
> Maybe I'll get over to get it in a day or two.
>
> Cheryl in Tulsa
Cheryl,
Ironically, I saw the article in my dermatologists waiting room!
While I don't agree with everything it said, I know that most of the stuff
is what the Cedars' Sinai pain program did for me, and it worked. Getting
off most of the medication was the biggest help. Light exercise, slowly
increasing tolerance, occupational therapy, speech therapy, biofeedback,
relaxation techniques, getting off pain meds, acupuncture - together, in
the right environment, it can help tremendously. By the end of the three
weeks I spent there, I was off all pain meds, about 90% of the other meds,
and was completely pain free.
IMHO, these techniques can work, but they must be done in the right
environment, by people who understand the illness.
julie
--
******************************************************
julie and jay
mcco...@owens.ridgecrest.ca.us
"They're still alive aren't they?"
- OJ Simpson's response to the court during his custody fight, when asked how the court could be sure he loved his children......
(according to Norm McDonald, Weekend Update, SNL)