Click on image to enlarge.

You Pay:	$11.99
Cost After Rebate:	$10.79
You Save:	10.01%

Category: Health/Fitness
Description: From the author of Living Well With Hypothyroidism, a comprehensive guide to the diagnosis and treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia--vital help for the millions of people suffering from pain, fatigue, and sleep problems. Recent studies indicate that 3 to 6 million Americans suffer from fibromyalgia--a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and multiple tender points. This terrible condition is often accompanied by chronic fatigue syndrome, a persistent and debilitating sense of exhaustion that is estimated to affect 800,000 Americans--twice the number of people with multiple sclerosis. Yet there are no official blood tests of diagnostic procedures that can confirm that yes, you definitely have these conditions, and in fact, a whole segment of the medical world doesn't even believe these two diseases actually exist. In addition, the few books that are on the market tend to focus on single solutions or eschew conventional and pharmaceutical approaches, which could alienate readers who use conventional medicine in whole or part. In her trademark accessible, easy-to-follow style, patient advocate Mary J. Shomon integrates the latest findings regarding these misunderstood conditions. Highlighting the pros and cons of the antibiotic, metabolic/endocrine, hormonal, musculoskeletal, and many other approaches to treatment, Shomon explores the fads and viable alternatives--both conventional and alternative--and provides helpful, clear solutions to help sufferers of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. At various points since 1995, Mary J. Shomon has been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. Since then, she has transformed her health challenges into a mission as a nationally-known patient advocate. She has worked for more than 20 years in writing, advertising, public relations, and communications and is the founder and editor-in-chief of several thyroid, autoimmune, and nutrition newsletters, as well as the internet's most popular thyroid disease website, www.thyroid-info.com.
eBook Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc./HarperCollins e-books,
Medrounds eBookstore Release Date: June 2007

3 Reader Ratings:

Great	Good	OK	Poor

Available eBook Formats [Secure Mobipocket/Microsoft Reader/eReader (recommended)/Adobe - What's this?]: SECURE MOBIPOCKET FORMAT [465 KB], SECURE MICROSOFT READER FORMAT [844 KB] - Requires Microsoft Reader 2.1.1 for PCs, SECURE EREADER (RECOMMENDED) FORMAT [379 KB], SECURE ADOBE FORMAT [2.0 MB]
Secure Adobe: Printing enabled, Read-aloud DISABLED
Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Better than a thousand useless words is one single word that gives peace.

--The Dharnmapada

As I started the process of writing this book, I was confused and overwhelmed. For several years, I had been studying everything I could find about chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia. I read more than fifty health and medical books, a thousand medical journals and magazine articles, and two thousand personal e-mails from people with CFS and fibromyalgia. I heard from dozens of experts from around the country. And as I sat down to write, I struggled with a fundamental challenge: All the books, articles, experts, and patients rarely agree on the answers to even the most basic questions.

What are the symptoms of CFS or fibromyalgia? Are CFS and fibromyalgia actually the same disease? How do you get diagnosed? Why would some doctors suggest that CFS and fibromyalgia are just "fad" illnesses, and all in your head? Do you need blood tests or not? What are some of the triggers? Is it stress? Nutritional deficiency? Toxic exposure? Infection? Can you ever get better? What treatments are best? Should you follow a holistic, natural, or alternative medicine approach?

Or forget holistic, should you go totally conventional and take prescription antidepressants, prescription sleeping pills, and prescription pain relievers? Is it all really about an underlying endocrine or thyroid imbalance, and are hormones the answer? I Is the solution the guaifenisin protocol, or is it detoxification? Is exercise helpful or harmful? What about your diet and vitamins? Could psychotherapy be the solution? Could you be dealing with a virus, a bacterial infection, a stealth pathogen? Should you have surgery or is the real answer yoga, cranial manipulation, or trigger point therapy?

One patient, BJ, struggled to get a doctor to take her Seriously.

I find doctors simply are not interested in this illness. There are no dramatic treatments so there can be no heroes.

While there may not be any heroes, there are some experts who are standing out, taking risks and offering more than just the standard fare, when it comes to CFS/fibromyalgia treatment. But whom should you believe? Should you listen to Dr. Teitelbaum, or Dr. Cheney, or Dr, St. Amand, or Dr. Lowe, or Dr. Bell, or any one of the other US and fibromyalgia experts? Should you listen to your own G.P., or your rheumatologist, or your internist, or your infectious disease specialist, or your chiropractor, or your holistic M.D." Will you be able to find a doctor, who cares about you?

Just trying to sort through this all gave me a huge headache. (Headache, by the way, can be a symptom of CFS and fibromyalgia, depending on which expert you consult!) But in my case, headache was a symptom of information overload and confusion.

I know that you can relate to what I'm saying. For those of you who are in the throes of CFS or fibromyalgia right now--whether you're struggling to get a diagnosis, you've just been diagnosed, or you're a long-term traveler on the road to better health--a headache is the least of your problems. Not only are you suffering a variety of symptoms, which may include total and utter fatigue and exhaustion, difficulty or impossibility concentrating, and debilitating pain, among others, but on top of it all, if you're going to feel better, you have to take charge of your own health and learn all about CFS or fibromyalgia yourself! And all this while you struggle with conditions that, despite their very real and demonstrable existence, carry an outdated...