Book Reviews

Fibromyalgia is Real

Fibromyalgia, also called fibrositis or FM, is a common condition associated with chronic wide-spread pain (many hurt everywhere), severe fatigue, poor sleep, mental fogginess (often called the ‘fibro fog’) and several other symptoms. In some parts of the world, it has been called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). Its onset can come at any age, even during childhood. It affects up to 1 in 10 women and 1 in 60 men over the course of their lifetime. An estimated 5-8 million Americans and 600,000 Canadians suffer from this disease, and perhaps 100 million worldwide. And yet, in a recent survey of Canadian physicians, roughly one in four family doctors and one in eight specialists believed that FM patients are faking their symptoms.

If FM was a condition that was easy to treat, if it merely went away on its own over a few days or weeks, or if its symptoms were mild and not disabling, this disbelief on the part of health care providers would not a big problem. But FM typically NEVER goes away, and the pain, fatigue and other symptoms associated with it are disabling enough that one third of previously-working patients become unable to work, and another third are forced to reduce their work hours. In this setting, the lack of physician support becomes a huge problem for many, many of whom are denied disability payments by insurers who increasingly ask for ‘objective evidence’ of disabling disease before approving claims. One judge in Alberta claimed that FM was “big business for plaintiff lawyers.” Others have said that it only exists because of our rich, highly-insured industrialized western society.

One of the many problematic issues with FM is that patients usually look normal. There is no rash, or swelling or deformity that accompanies it. And routine laboratories and X-rays are either normal or show ‘non-specific’ changes. Hence, the disbelief and the consequences that stem from it. Besides losing their incomes and financial security, many FM patients have lost friends, the support of family members, marriages, and even their doctors over it. Over the years, FM advocacy and support groups have sprung up worldwide, in an attempt to provide some sort of education, guidance and support for those who suffer from this invisible disease. One of their many struggles has been fighting to increase public and professional acceptance of the disorder. Overall, there has been little success... at least, until now.

Breaking Thru the Fibro Fog: Scientific Proof Fibromyalgia Is Real! is the first and only book of its kind. Over its 256 pages of text and associated scientific references, it examines all the various arguments against fibromyalgia, and reviews the published scientific evidence to refute each and every one of them.

If, for example, FM only exists because of our rich, highly-insured industrialized western society, WHY is it twice as common in Poland, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the slums of Rio de Janeiro than in the U.S.A. or anywhere in Western Europe? And HOW could it possibly have existed in the 8th and 9th century at the time of Charlemagne, or affected Florence Nightingale and Alfred Nobel (for whom the various Nobel Prizes are named) in the 19th century?

The fact is that, although those with FM look normal to most physicians, there are objective signs of disease both on physical examination, and in a barrage of laboratory and imaging studies that fall outside the scope of the routine tests that most physicians order. Breaking Thru the Fibro Fog presents twelve, scientifically-supported arguments that refute every one of the anti-FM critiques.

With this book, Dr. Kevin White, who has both a medical degree and PhD in scientific research, hopes to change history... demonstrating to everyone how the scientific evidence renders all doubts as to fibromyalgia’s legitimacy moot, and thereby winning FM patients everywhere the rights, respect and compassion that every ill person deserves.

For more details visit thefibrofog.com 

15-Mar-2011

More by :  Dr. Kevin P. White, MD, Phd

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