Why do so many have to put up with IBS … and is there easy relief for sufferers?

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is one of Britain’s most common and debilitating stomach conditions. Here, one expert answers some of the questions she is most frequently asked in surgery.

Mail Online

New products make gluten-free diet easier to maintain

Barbara Ziska has eaten a gluten-free diet for seven years, ever since she was diagnosed with celiac disease, an inherited autoimmune disorder that affects the digestive process of the small intestine.

Press Connects

The Wonder Medicine Belladonna

Belladonna is given in small amounts for over the counter flu and cough medicines. It is also used in prescription drugs for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, acute enterocolitis and as an adjunctive therapy in the treatment of duodenal ulcers. Eye doctors also use this drug in small amounts to dilate pupils.

Buzzle.com

New Consumer Website Exposes Cautionary Ingredients In Brand-Name Foods

LABELWATCH.com (www.labelwatch.com) is the first and only informational website that allows consumers to go beyond the fancy package, and actually understand what’s really inside. With a growing database of over 25,000 brand-name products, LABELWATCH.com allows users to compare their favorite foods by providing information and determinations about the additives, ingredients, and nutritional facts contained in each product.

SANE PR 

Tags: IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Is Chronic Pain a “National Crisis”?

I recently saw an opinion article on chronic pain as a national crisis in healthcare, and this is a concept that seems to be coming up again and again. Eyes seemed to be opening to this about a year ago, when I first read about how research into pain processing and treatment was being spurred by war casualties - medical advances mean a lot more of our wounded military personnel are surviving, but their injuries are leaving them in constant pain.

About.com

Maria’s Badge of Courage

The 28-year-old Border Harriers sprinter had just run the race of her life at the North of England Championships in Manchester even though she was forced settle for third place in the 100m. Only 18 months earlier, just getting out of bed was a struggle, dressing herself and walking to the end of her street left her physically exhausted and mentally drained.

The Cumberland News

Health leaders accused of ‘burying’ report on ME care

A SUPPORT group for people with chronic and debilitating fatigue has accused NHS Lothian of “burying” a report that criticises the way sufferers are cared for within the health service. The report, compiled by Edinburgh South Community Health Partnership patient involvement worker Anne-Marie Comber and Liz Simpson, senior health promotion specialist at South Central Edinburgh Local Health Partnership, is yet to be published despite ADVERTISEMENT being submitted in full to NHS Lothian over three months ago.

NEWS.scotsman.com

Is It All In My Head?

In the mid 1980s, Carole Howard was a highly driven academic, simultaneously pursuing a master’s degree from Loyola University in Chicago and serving as a college administrator—until the fateful morning when she got out of bed feeling not quite herself. “I woke up one day in a lot of pain,” Howard recalls. “I thought I had the flu.”

Psychology Today

Diet and Exercise: What the Research Says

Studies almost always lead to great discussion here on Diet Blog. We analyze, ask questions, interpret and share our own experiences. Inevitably, we find flaws in the methodology, show other studies that counter it and (let’s be honest) editorialize it to suit our own belief systems.

Diet Blog

Doctors make some gains against fibromyalgia pain

Lynne Matallana likens the pain that racked her body to acid running through her veins. It came on after uterine surgery in 1993 — a traumatic event, because she woke up in the middle of the operation — and 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.

Orlando Sentinel

Swimming in Warm Water Eases Fibromyalgia Pain

A regular, guided exercise regimen in warm water can relieve the symptoms of fibromyalgia, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Extremadura, Spain and the University of Evora, Portugal, and published in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Natural News

Introduction to Acupuncture

According to legend, an arrow wounded an ancient Chinese soldier who was ill. The wound healed, and oddly, so did his illness. Intrigued, Chinese physicians began recording the places where stabbing wounds produced improbable healing. Their observations became acupuncture, Chinese needle therapy. After more than 2,000 years, this “alternative” therapy is more popular than ever worldwide.

Mother Earth News

Tags: Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS

Amitriptyline (Elavil) has been used as a sleep aid and pain reliever treatment for Fibromyalgia patients over the years.  For FM patients who do not suffer from depression, Elavil is also used to help with fatigue.  My doctor actually just added Elavil to my other sleep medication to help me get a full night’s sleep.  Unfortunately it doesn’t help with the pain.  Urologists also often prescribe Elavil to Interstitial Cystitis patients. 

A recent study was done on Amitriptyline to determine how effective and safe a treatment it is for Fibromyalgia patients.  FM patients who participated in the study were either given Amitriptyline or a placebo.  Here are the study results (thanks to ImmuneSupport for this great information!):

• Amitriptyline 25 mg/day (six RCTs) demonstrated a therapeutic response compared with placebo in the domains of pain, sleep, fatigue and overall patient and investigator impression. 
• This benefit was generally seen at 6-8 weeks of treatment but no effect was noted at 12 weeks. 
• Amitriptyline 50 mg/day (four RCTs) did not demonstrate a therapeutic effect compared with placebo. 
• Neither dose of amitriptyline had an effect on tender points count. 
• No clear statements on adverse events with amitriptyline can be made due to inconsistencies in data among the studies.

A definitive clinical recommendation regarding the efficacy of amitriptyline for FM symptoms cannot be made.

• There is some evidence to support the short-term efficacy of amitriptyline 25 mg/day in FM. 
• There is no evidence to support the efficacy of amitriptyline at higher doses or for periods [more than] >8 weeks.

More stringent RCTs with longer follow-up periods are required to determine the long-term efficacy and safety of the amitriptyline and define its role in the multidisciplinary management of FM.

Tags: Amitriptyline, Drugs/Supplements, Fibromyalgia, Interstitial Cystitis, Pain, Research

The National Fibromyalgia Association is seeking nominations for their Faces of FAME (Fibromyalgia Awareness Means Everything). They want you to submit a nomination for an FM patient, researcher, healthcare providers and supporters who go above and beyond for the Fibromyalgia community.  Nominations can include family, friends, healthcare professionals, legislators—anyone who has helped the Fibromyalgia community.

This is your chance to recognize those people who really get it—the people who support those with FM, who help increase awareness of FM in the media and the general community, and who are driven to learn more about FM.

Send your nomination of a person you believe represents one of the “faces of FAME” to edeffner@fmaware.org, or mail it to:

 Faces of FAME
ATTN: Elisabeth Deffner
National Fibromyalgia Association
2121 S. Towne Centre Place, Suite 300
Anaheim, CA  92806

Please include the following information with your nomination:

• Your name, address and telephone #
• Name, address and telephone # of the person you are nominating
• In 150 words or less, explain why you are nominating this person

 Nominations must be received by September 29, 2008.

An NFA panel will review the nominations and identify the winners, who will be profiled in an upcoming issue of Fibromyalgia AWARE.

Source

FM In the Classroom

As juvenile fibromyalgia becomes a more accepted diagnosis, and as mature students re-evaluate their careers and return to college to study new subjects, fibromyalgia is becoming a more common challenge facing students today. Studying for exams, navigating a big campus, and explaining FM symptoms to instructors and fellow students can be a big challenge. Here we present some tips from students with FM that, we hope, will prove helpful to others as well.

Getting Through the School Day When You Have FM

Coping at school can be tough when you have fibromyalgia. Sitting on uncomfortable chairs, getting to different classes around campus, and carrying all your textbooks can be a challenge. You may also have to cope with teachers who don’t understand why your concentration fades away in the middle of a lesson, or that it was just impossible to get your homework done last night because you were so fatigued. You need a good strategy to tackle the various challenges school can present.

Review: “Sit and Be Fit: Fibromyalgia Workout”

Fun and effective, this specially-designed workout from the popular Sit and Be Fit™ series on PBS offers a sound physical fitness option for FM patients requiring a low-impact approach to exercise.

Tags: Fibromyalgia

National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is quickly approaching as it is the week of September 8th this year.  This year’s theme is “Hope Can Grow From The Soil of Illness.”

National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is a worldwide effort held annually that brings people together who live with invisible chronic illnesses and their families and loved ones.

There will be four telephone seminars held this year during the week of September 8th where people can call in, listen and talk with the presenter.

You can read more about National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week by viewing the Invisible Illness Awareness Week blog.

Cort Johnson over at Phoenix Rising sent me two great links to information from a conference that was devoted specifically to viruses in chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): the Symposium on Viruses in CFS. The Symposium took place directly after the International HHV-6 Conference in Baltimore, Md. in May of this year. It featured a who-who’s lineup of speakers in CFS research including Dr. Montoya, Dr. Kerr, Dr. Klimas, Dr. Vernon, Dr. Lloyd, Dr. Peterson, Dr. Chia, Dr. De Meirleir and others.

The Symposium was also complete with ME/CFS patients who Cort says turned out in “full force”.

The infectious side of the research community may be the most innovative and creative of all. During the conference we got introduced to intriguing questions such as:

• Is a difficult to detect central nervous infection responsible for the mood disorders in ME/CFS?
• Could an endogenous retrovirus residing in ME/CFS patients DNA somehow have sprung to life?
• Could a smoldering infection in the heart be causing the fatigue in ME/CFS?
• Is there a distinct neuro-immune fatigue subset in this disease?
• Are we close to finding an immune biomarker for this disease?
• Has the Dubbo team figured out what happens as people come down with ME/CFS during an infection?
• How well do antiviral drugs work and what kinds of drugs are in the pipeline?
• Are entire networks of cells acting strangely in ME/CFS?

Speakers and topics covered at the Symposium included:

• J. G. Montoya. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial on the use of Valganciclovir in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and elevated human herpesvirus and Epstein-Barr virus antibodies.
• K. Kondo. Identification of novel HHV-6 latent protein associated with mood disorders in CFS, depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and HHV-6 encephalopathy.
• B.T. Huber. EBV and IFN-a activation of the human endogenous retrovirus HERV-K18 and CFS.
• D. Lassner. Erthroviral myocarditis and fatigue like symptoms.
• J. Kerr. Stress and parvovirus B-19 associated arthritis and chronic fatigue.
• J. Chia. The role of enteroviruses in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
• D. Peterson. Antiviral treatment of patients with HHV-6, EBV and enterovirus: case reports.
• Prichard. New Developments in therapies for HHV-6 Infection.
• K. De Meirleir. Antiviral Treatment Strategies in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
• Andrew Lloyd. Investigation of the pathogenesis of post-infective fatigue in the Dubbo infection outcomes study (DIOS).
• Uté Vollmer-Conna. Cytokines in post-infective fatigue.
• Nancy Klimas. Immune Markers in Viral Reactivation.
• Suzanne Vernon. Genetic variation and altered immune activity in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
• An Overview of Post-Viral Fatigue: CFS or What? By Peter White.

The overview of the conference comes in two parts that you can access by clicking the links below. There is a lot of great information within these links so grab a cup of coffee and take some time to read it all!

The Symposium on Viruses in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)  (May, 2008): Part I

The Symposium on Viruses in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)  (June 2008): Part II

Tags: ME/CFS