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Understand Your Fibromyalgia (By Mehraj sheikh)

Posted by on Tuesday, 27th April 2010

Understand Your Fibromyalgia (By Mehraj sheikh)

Fibromyalgia syndrome affects the muscles and soft tissue. Fibromyalgia symptoms include chronic pain in the muscles, fatigue, sleep problems and painful tender points or trigger points at certain parts of the body. Fibromyalgia pain and other symptoms can be relieved through medications, lifestyle changes, stress management, and other fibromyalgia treatment.

Symptoms of Fibromyalgia
Symptoms of fibromyalgia include:
• Chronic muscle pain, muscle spasms or tightness, weakness in the limbs, and leg cramps
• Moderate or severe fatigue and decreased energy
• Insomnia or waking up feeling just as tired as when you went to sleep
• Stiffness upon waking or after staying in one position for too long
• Difficulty remembering, concentrating, and performing simple mental tasks
• Abdominal pain, bloating, nausea, and constipation alternating with diarrhea (irritable bowel syndrome)
• Tension or migraine headaches
• Jaw and facial tenderness
• Sensitivity to one or more of the following: odors, noise, bright lights, medications, certain foods, and cold
• Feeling anxious or depressed
• Numbness or tingling in the face, arms, hands, legs, or feet
• Increase in urinary urgency or frequency (irritable bladder)
• Reduced tolerance for exercise and muscle pain after exercise
• A feeling of swelling (without actual swelling) in the hands and feet
• Painful menstrual periods
• Dizziness
Diagnosis & Tests
Because there is no lab test or X-ray to diagnose fibromyalgia, oftentimes patients are misdiagnosed, which can delay good treatment. Find out how doctors make a fibromyalgia diagnosis and which doctors are experts in treating this common pain syndrome.
Diagnosis
Diagnosis and Misdiagnosis
Diagnosing fibromyalgia is oftentimes difficult -- and can be misdiagnosed. Learn the important steps you should go through to make sure you get an accurate diagnosis.
Finding the Right Doctor
Learn what to look for and steps to take to help you find the best fibromyalgia doctor for you.
Treatment & Care
Learn which fibromyalgia treatments work best, including treatments that target muscle pain and trigger points, treatments that help with sleep problems and depression, and treatments that help manage stress and anxiety.
Treatment
Fibromyalgia Treatments
Get up-to-date information on the latest fibromyalgia treatments -- from medications to ease pain, fatigue, and sleep problems to physical therapy, relaxation modalities, and regular exercises.
Medications
Fibromyalgia medications treat symptoms, such as the deep muscle pain, sleep problems, anxiety, and depression. Learn more to find out which medication might be right for you.
Cymbalta
Cymbalta helps people manage the unique symptoms of fibromyalgia. Is this medicine right for you?
Lyrica
Doctors think Lyrica may help fibromyalgia by calming overly excited nerves that cause pain. Learn more to see if this treatment may help you.
Savella
Doctors aren't exactly sure how Savella helps fibromyalgia but it's been shown to relieve pain and improve physical function. Learn more.
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy is often recommended to help ease fibromyalgia pain and teach self-management skills. Learn more about the different types of physical therapy for fibromyalgia.
Home Remedies
Many people turn to home remedies, including herbs, supplements, and alternative treatments, for relief of fibromyalgia symptoms. Discover which home remedies may help and which may not work at all.
Complementary Treatment
Herbs and Supplements
Can natural herbs and supplements help fibromyalgia symptoms? Review the different fibromyalgia herbs and supplements and learn how they might help manage symptoms.
Complementary Treatments
Complementary treatments for fibromyalgia include massage, acupuncture, meditation, and more. But are they safe and effective in ending fibromyalgia pain and fatigue? Discover the latest findings.
Diet
The Diet Connection
Can certain foods or nutrients ease symptoms of pain, stiffness, and fatigue? Can other foods actually trigger fibromyalgia symptoms? Learn more about the diet connection to fibromyalgia.

Exercise
Fibromyalgia & Exercise
Discover the importance of exercise for fibromyalgia. Find out which exercises are best for easing muscle pain and stiffness.
Coping
Tips for Coping
There's no doubt that fibromyalgia can be exhausting -- both physically and emotionally. Discover strategies to manage your symptoms so you can do the things you enjoy in life.
Fibromyalgia and Sex
Have problems with fibromyalgia and sex? Discover some practical tips to help reignite your libido and sex life without fear of added pain and stiffness with fibromyalgia.
Fibromyalgia and Pregnancy
Learn all about the effects of fibromyalgia on your pregnancy. Discover ways to manage fibromyalgia symptoms so you and baby stay healthy.
Work and Disability
Does fibromyalgia affect your ability to work? Find out how to cope with work-related obstacles and fibromyalgia symptoms at work.
Finding Help
Shoot an email through my IHB message box.
Thank you,

Category (Muscles, Bones & Joints) |

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Surgery May Not Be The Answer To An Aching Back

Posted by on Sunday, 18th April 2010

Surgery May Not Be The Answer To An Aching Back
By:Mehraj Sheikh
April 18, 2010

Back Pain Explained

Ruptured disc, spinal stenosis or degenerating spinal joints? See three common and chronic spine problems.
Too many complex back surgeries are being done and people are suffering as a result, according to a study in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The general tendency noted in the study — that many patients and doctors think more medical care is always better — has implications for the new health overhaul law.
Back pain associated with aging can be treated in one of numerous ways: rest and physical therapy, surgery to remove the bony growths that can push on nerves, fusing two vertebrae together, or fusing many vertebrae together.
In the past few years, several studies have failed to show a big advantage for surgery — especially for complex surgery. Researchers from Oregon Health and Science University and several other places looked at Medicare billing records to see whether the rates or type of back surgeries went down as a result.
They found the number of surgeries has gone down very slightly. But when they looked specifically at complex surgeries, they found a big difference.
"The most complex type of back surgery has increased dramatically between 2002 and 2007, with a 15-fold increase," says co-author Richard Deyo. In 2002, the rate of complex surgery was 1.4 per 100,000 people in Medicare. It jumped to 19.9 per 100,000 just five years later.
Deyo and his colleagues also checked the rate of complications. "This more complex form of surgery is associated with a higher risk of life threatening complications," he says. Among people who just had the bony growths removed (a surgery called decompression), 2.3 percent had problems associated with their treatment, such as a heart attack, stroke or pneumonia. The complication rate was 5.6 percent among people who had multiple vertebrae fused together.
Deyo says there's no reason to think people suddenly started developing the spinal deformities that justify the complex surgeries. He offers several possibilities for the upswing. "Many surgeons genuinely believe that the more invasive procedures offer some benefits," he says. "But certainly there are important financial incentives at play as well." Surgical fees for simple decompressions are about $600 to $1,000. The complex surgeries earn surgeons as much as 10 times more. He says another possible factor is the tendency for both doctors and patients to go for a new, more expensive approach just because it sounds better.
Orthopedist Eugene Carragee, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, wrote an editorial accompanying the research, saying that financial incentives are part of the problem. There's also a problem with how new technologies are introduced, he says. In surgery, someone can just introduce a new procedure.
"The burden of proof in the system as it is now is that researchers have to go out to try and prove that what this guy wants to do doesn't work, and that's a backwards kind of thinking," he says.
It's far better to have to prove that something works before it becomes common practice, he says.
JAMA study researcher Deyo would like his study to alter the practice of medicine. "The effect I would hope it would have is to have surgeons and patients choose the least invasive procedure that would accomplish the surgical aim," he says. But he's pessimistic about it, unless there's a change in the financial incentives.
James Weinstein is also calling for a rejiggering of financial incentives. Weinstein is an orthopedic surgeon and the director of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. He did some of the original studies showing that most back surgeries make a minimal difference, if any. He says Deyo's study shows one thing clearly. "The practice of medicine doesn't always follow the best evidence," he says.
The new health overhaul law sets up a new institute that would do studies like Deyo's, comparing the risks and benefits of various treatments for various conditions. The law explicitly says the information can't be used by insurers or government to set reimbursement policies, but Weinstein says the institute could make a big difference.
"I think if patients were well informed, they would choose the right thing," Weinstein says. "We've done lots of studies with shared decision-making. Where patients are given good information they generally choose the least invasive, less risky procedure."
He says health overhaul plans need to go beyond what's in the new law. "Right now we have health insurance reform," he says. "We need health care delivery reform, we need to change how we're delivering practice and how we're reimbursing for it." What he'd like to see is a system that pays doctors and hospitals based on overall patient care, not separately for individual procedures.
Thank you.

Category (Back & Neck) |

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