News From the National Fibromyalgia Association

Approximately 200 people from around the world attended OMERACT 9 May 27-31 in Kananaskis, Canada. Developed in 1992, OMERACT stands for Outcome Measures in Rheumatology. Originally limited to outcome measures in rheumatoid arthritis clinical trials, the initiative has since evolved to include outcome measurement across the spectrum of rheumatology intervention studies. While fibromyalgia is not a rheumatic disease, the disorder currently falls under this diagnostic umbrella.

Congressman Tim Walz has introduced HR6122, the Veterans Pain Care Act of 2008, in the House of Representatives. The proposed bill will direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to develop and implement a comprehensive policy for pain management for veterans receiving health care services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The author of the critically acclaimed book, JUST FINE: Unmasking Concealed Chronic Illness and Pain, is now recruiting participants for a new resource that will focus specifically on the challenges of living with depression, anxiety and other mood disorders.

This is your chance to recognize those people who really get itthe 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.

Do the perfumed cards stashed in magazine pages make your eyes water? Do diesel fumes make you nauseous? Does air freshener give you a headache?

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) is a medical condition characterized by debilitating chemical sensitivities. People who are chemically sensitive are made sick by exposures to chemicals found in many common products such as pesticides, perfumes, tobacco smoke, new carpets, air “fresheners,” new paint and building materials, and many cleaning and laundry products.

In an article titled “Multiple Chemical Sensitivity: A 1999 Consensus” that was published in Archives of Environmental Health, one group of 34 researchers and clinicians proposed the following criteria for the clinical diagnosis of multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS).

If I know I am going to be where there will be flowers, perfumes, etc., I take an allergy pill 30 minutes beforehand. I also have told all my friends so when we get together they do not wear perfume, scented hair spray, or shower gels.

I have such a problem with them and allergies that I’ve become practically housebound for the past eight years. Here are some of the things that help me deal with the sensitivities.

Research by Dr. Iris Bell, a Professor of Family and Community Medicine, and her colleagues at the University of Arizona College of Medicine indicates that severe chemical intolerance is found in 20-47 percent of people with fibromyalgia and/or chronic fatigue syndrome compared to only 4-6 percent of the general population. The levels of the chemicals that can trigger a reaction are normally considered to be non-toxic or subtoxic and would probably pass unnoticed by the majority of people.

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