Should we celebrate National
Fibromyalgia Day? Well yes and no. I don’t believe it is appropriate to
celebrate a disease or even a day that recognizes a disease. Wouldn’t it be great if there wasn’t an
awareness day because fibromyalgia doesn’t exist anymore?
Wishful thinking I know, but
celebrating fibromyalgia doesn’t feel right.
True, those in the
fibromyalgia community don’t have anything to celebrate but we can appreciate
just how far we have come.
When I first started treating
fibromyalgia, some seventeen years ago, the public didn’t know what the illness
was or even how to pronounce it. Heck, most doctors didn’t know much of about
fibromyalgia.
Fortunately healthcare
professionals and the public at large have over the years continued to learn
more and more about fibromyalgia-at least at this point most everyone has heard
of fibromyalgia.
So while we aren’t celebrating
anything on May 12th we can be appreciative that the skepticism from
family, doctors, and the public is thankfully being put to rest.
Unfortunately we still have
some STUPID doctors who think that fibromyalgia doesn’t exist-“it’s all in your
head.” Clearly ignorance and arrogance is still alive and well as some stupid
doctors choose to write fibromyalgia off as another hypochondriac disease.
Wish they could be in your
shoes for a few days. I bet they’d change their minds. Let them go 4-5 nights
without sleep and battle diffuse achy all over pain day in and day out and I
bet they’d be demanding federal dollars for a cure for fibro.
Clearly there is much work to be done so that those with
fibromyalgia aren’t made to feel like they are lazy, crazy, or simply
depressed.
National Fibromyalgia
Awareness Day is a great way to educate others about a very real disease. We
need more research and we need more understanding-the more the better.
We also need to proactive and not wait on “the cure.”
Please realize that traditional medicine alone isn’t going to cure
fibromyalgia. There will not be a magic pill or combination of magic drugs that
will prevent or cure fibro-sorry but it just isn’t possible.
You can read my blog about this topic here-
I’m not anti-drug-they can be helpful. But drugs don’t
make you healthy-they cover up your symptoms and do not correct the problem.
Now this can be life saving but covering up symptoms while ignoring the cause
can also be dangerous.
You can read more about this topic
Unlike type II diabetes in which the symptoms, elevated
blood sugar, can be treated and managed with one drug like Metformin,
fibromyalgia has several problems, sometimes dozens of symptoms that must be
treated in order for the patient to feel dramatically better.
Of course covering up the symptom, elevated blood sugar
instead of correcting the cause, being overweight (95% of time) really doesn’t
make sense either….
But in fibro patients using one drug after another to
treat the various symptoms, insomnia, chronic pain, fatigue, depression, headaches,
etc., is a recipe for disaster-one drugs side effects lead to another drug.
The drugs being used for fibromyalgia don’t work, at
least long term, and potentially have numerous life draining side effects.
You can read more about these drugs at the links below
Savella-Cymbalta
Lyrica
Neurontin
The only way to beat fibromyalgia, and you can beat
fibromyalgia, is to get healthy.
Drugs don’t make you healthy.
Using the essential, natural vitamins,
minerals, amino acids, and supplements the body needs to repair itself,
replenish serotonin, norepinephrine, cortisol, melatonin, thyroid, etc. is the
best long term approach for treating and reversing fibromyalgia.
Using the right supplements
along with losing inflammation storing fat, slowly building up to exercising on
a daily basis, reducing or eliminating potentially dangerous drugs, and
managing stress, allows your body to repair itself.
If you are tired of being sick and tired, tired of
seeing doctor after doctor who continue offer more and more mind numbing drugs,
going year after year stuck in a medical paradigm that treats symptoms, not
causes, then I challenge you to be proactive and take a different course of
action-get healthy.
Are you willing to be
proactive and get healthy? Change your diet? Start the RIGHT (go easy) exercise
program for you? Are you ready to start eliminate those bad health habits you
know aren’t good for you-smoking, excessive sugar, etc?
New Patient Phone and In Clinic Appointments Are
Available
Normally $399 still only $129
I’m committed to helping any many folks as I can beat
fibromyalgia. I’ve helped thousands get their life back. Are you next?
Call 205-879-2383
The History of Fibromyalgia Awareness Day
In 1993, Tom Hennessy, the founder of RESCIND,
INC. (Repeal Existing Stereotypes about Chronic Immunological and
Neurological Diseases) designated May 12 as International Awareness Day
for Chronic Immunological and Neurological Diseases (CIND).
The date was chosen to
memorialize the birth date of Florence Nightingale, the English army nurse who
inspired the founding of the International Red Cross. Nightingale
contracted a paralyzing, CIND-like illness in her mid-thirties and spent the
last 50 years of her life virtually bedridden. Despite her illness, she
managed to found the first ever School of Nursing.
Today, National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day activities
take place worldwide in an effort to increase awareness of this chronic
pain illness. Awareness Day seeks to help patients and organizations educate
the general public, healthcare professionals, government officials, and
legislative bodies.
National fibromyalgia and chronic pain organizations, as
well as local support groups around the country, host events in or around May
12 to create awareness and generate media interest in their cause.
