Making Sense of Fibromyalgia

by Wallace, Daniel J.; Wallace, Janice

• ISBN13: 9780195116113
• ISBN10: 0195116119
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This year, six million Americans--most of them women--will go to their doctors, complaining of an illness they have no name for. The majority will be turned away or treated for depression; the few who persist will go to an average of four doctors before they receive the correct diagnosis: fibromyalgia. In Making Sense of Fibromyalgia , noted medical writer Janice Wallace and Dr. Daniel Wallace, a leading expert on this disorder, provide a comprehensive guide--for both patients and professionals--to this little known and poorly understood syndrome. The authors offer detailed information in a clear and accessible style, taking readers through the steps of diagnosis, all the established forms of treatment, and alternative therapies that have yet to be proven effective. Fibromyalgia, they explain, is a pain amplification, brought on by abnormal interactions between hormones, the immune system, neurotransmitters, and the autonomic nervous system. Sometimes the syndrome occurs spontaneously; in most cases, the authors write, it is associated with trauma, stress, such conditions as lupus and hypothyroidism, and over forty microbes, from hepatitis to Epstein Barr to Lyme disease. They draw on actual cases to illustrate their points and to break through the isolation that patients often feel when doctors misdiagnose or simply ignore their symptoms. When Dr. Wallace wrote The Lupus Book , he brought hope and relief into the lives of countless Americans, in a book that sold through many printings. In Making Sense of Fibromyalgia , the authors address a desperate need for information and reassurance, in a groundbreaking book.

Author Biography

Daniel Wallace, M.D., is an attending physician who has served as Clinical Chief of Rheumatology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, and has treated hundreds of victims of fibromyalgia (including popular talk show host Rosie O'Donnell). He is the author of The Lupus Book (OUP). Janice Wallace is a freelance medical writer. They live in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii	(2)
Preface	ix	(4)
Fibromyalgia Made Simple: A Parable	xiii
Part I The Whys and Wherefores of Fibromyalgia	1	(18)
1. How Our Understanding of Fibromyalgia Has Evolved	3	(4)
2. What Is Fibromyalgia?	7	(5)
3. Who Gets Fibromyalgia and Why?	12	(7)
Part II Basic Science and Fibromyalgia	19	(26)
4. Why and How Do We Hurt?	21	(8)
5. What's Wrong with My Muscles?	29	(4)
6. How Do Stress, Sleep, Hormones, and the Immune System Interact and Relate to Fibromyalgia?	33	(7)
7. What Is the Autonomic Nervous System?	40	(5)
Part III How and Where the Body Can Be Affected by Fibromyalgia	45	(20)
8. Generalized Complaints	47	(3)
9. "I'm Stiff and Achy"-Musculoskeletal Complaints	50	(3)
10. Tingles, Shocks, Wires, and Neurologic Complaints	53	(6)
11. Insights into Insides--Chest, Cardiovascular, and Other Concerns	59	(6)
Part IV The Clinical Spectrum of Fibromyalgia	65	(30)
12. What Are the Regional and Localized Forms of Fibromyalgia?	67	(6)
13. What Disorders Are Associated with Fibromyalgia?	73	(15)
14. Controversial Syndromes and Their Relationship to Fibromyalgia	88	(7)
Part V The Evaluation of Fibromyalgia Patients	95	(24)
15. What Happens at a Fibromyalgia Consultation?	97	(7)
16. Are You Sure It's Really Fibromyalgia?	104	(9)
17. I'm Not Crazy!	113	(6)
Part VI Improving Your Quality of Life	119	(36)
18. Influences of Lifestyle and Environment on Fibromyalgia	121	(8)
19. The Influence of Exercise and Rehabilitation on the Mind and Body	129	(12)
20. How to Overcome Fibromyalgia	141	(14)
Part VII Medicines and Other Therapies Used for Fibromyalgia	155	(48)
21. Medicines That Work for Fibromyalgia	157	(11)
22. Drugs That Are Useful in Selected Fibromyalgia Patients	168	(16)
23. Behind the Hype: Unproven, Experimental, Herbal, and Innovative Remedies	184	(13)
24. Work and Disability	197	(6)
Part VIII Where Are We Headed?	203	(10)
25. What's the Prognosis?	205	(3)
26. The Future Holds A Lot of Hope	208	(5)
Glossary	213	(20)
Appendix 1 Fibromyalgia Resource Materials	225	(4)
Appendix 2 Fibromyalgia: A Complementary Medicine Doctor's Perspective--Soram Singh Khalsa, M.D.	229	(4)
Index	233