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Dave
USA
1864 Posts |
 Posted - 11/04/2006 : 08:56:22
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They just don't GET it .. and the epidemic continues.
More than a million suffer chronic fatigue
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chronic fatigue syndrome, once thought by some doctors to be a psychological problem or even a excuse for malingerers, is a real disease that affects more than a million Americans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
Early diagnosis and treatment of the disease are important for recovery -- even though it is not clear what the best treatments are, CDC officials told a news conference.
"CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) is a terrible illness that prevents many people from taking part in everyday activities and participating in the things they enjoy," CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said.
"Fortunately, there are therapies for CFS that can reduce much of the pain and suffering," she said.
The CDC launched an awareness campaign about chronic fatigue on Friday and published a dedicated Internet site at http://www.cdc.gov/cfs/.
Up to 80 percent of people with chronic fatigue do not know they have it, the CDC said. Its causes are unknown but it can cause profound exhaustion, sleep difficulties, and problems concentrating and remembering.
Flu-like symptoms, including pain in the joints and muscles, tender lymph nodes, sore throat and headaches are also common. "A distinctive characteristic of the illness is a worsening of symptoms following physical or mental exertion," the CDC said in a statement.
"Diagnosis is primarily made by taking a patient's medical history, completing a physical exam and lab tests to rule out other conditions," it added.
"The CDC considers chronic fatigue syndrome to be a significant public health concern, and we are committed to research that will lead to earlier diagnosis and better treatment of the illness," Gerberding said.
Several other illnesses have symptoms that mimic chronic fatigue, including fibromyalgia syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis, neurasthenia, multiple chemical sensitivities, and chronic mononucleosis, the CDC noted.
"There are tens of millions of people with similar fatiguing illnesses who do not fully meet the strict research definition of CFS," the CDC added.
No one therapy works but reducing stress, dietary restrictions, gentle stretching and nutritional supplementation have all been shown to help. Drugs are sometimes prescribed.
"For instance, tricyclic antidepressants may not only improve mood, but may help with sleep and pain," the CDC said.
"Patients should be advised to avoid herbal remedies like comfrey, ephedra, kava, germander, chaparral, bitter orange, licorice root, yohimbe and any other supplements that are potentially dangerous," it added.
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Littlebird
USA
391 Posts |
Posted - 11/04/2006 : 14:54:32
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| A few months ago I would have considered this some kind of progress in the effort to find a treatment. Now it just makes me sad for the people who haven't heard of TMS or haven't accepted that it can really have such a widespread effect the body. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 11/04/2006 : 17:40:31
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"Its causes are unknown but it can cause profound exhaustion, sleep difficulties, and problems concentrating and remembering."
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I had all these symptoms during a significant depression, which is an affective/emotional TMS equivalent. CFS is TMS.
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Nor
152 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2006 : 05:23:59
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I read the government website. Phew, I'm so glad to have discovered Sarno. I had symptoms of CFS/FMS and if I didn't know better, I'd be combing the literature trying to learn about those syndromes. Well, if anyone on this forum still has those symptoms and has doubts, I'll tell you this: In the last year, my symptoms have slowly gotten more and more sparse.
Nor |
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miehnesor
USA
430 Posts |
Posted - 11/05/2006 : 23:18:13
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I think somebody needs to do something shocking to jolt the issue into the consciousness of the public like place a huge billboard in the center of some large city or metropolitan area with something like
"CFS, Fibro, RSI, etc is due to repressed rage in your unconscious"
What do you think the good doctor would say? |
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n/a
374 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2006 : 01:26:39
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Great idea, Miehnesor. What about 'Myspace' blogs instead of on a billboard; it's free and that site gets masses of attention worldwide?
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Edited by - n/a on 11/06/2006 01:27:21 |
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MikeJ
United Kingdom
75 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2006 : 05:59:52
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AnneG: That's a great idea!
shortcake does have a point. I remember scorning when I first heard RSI could be psychological, and I know a few people who've been completely turned off and ignored the help people offered, no matter how good the intention. So this approach could lead to a countereaction.
Still, articles like this isn't too encouraging. Isn't there anyone famous out there with clout and credibility who can influence the media and give some spotlight to TMS? |
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miehnesor
USA
430 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2006 : 15:59:34
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Shortcake- I think you have a valid point there. Perhaps AnneG had a better idea and a more gentler approach may come off better.
There has got to be a way of countering all the bogus info out there wrt these conditions. Perhaps if many people posted their stories in a public internet space that would have some effect. If we could just convince people enough to check out Dr Sarno's books- that would be a good start. |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2006 : 16:52:41
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Prosylitizing TMS is a noble idea as well as a TMS "goodist" trait. Dr. Sarno says that TMS is not self-punishment, as Freud thought but instead self-protection. TMS is a psychological protective device that prevents what are perceived as even more damaging repressed thoughts from erupting.
Can you imagine what might occur if everyone stopped repressing their real thoughts? Our social fabric might disintegrate, marriage would be out the window, people would be throwing phones at each other in the workplace.
Little chance people will give up their physical maladies in trade for psychological honesty. Homo sapiens are social animals and need to huddle together and co-operate to survive as a species. When they grow too numerous they go to war to thin out the numbers.
I have given up on passing out copies of Sarno. Rarely are they read or returned. Where I live in NORCAL, the vortex of the MINDBODY, it's all a bunch of HIP-ocricy. They talk a lot of new-age, airy-fairy, peacock feathers, but the bottom line is they don't live it.
All they talk about is the physical: "mercury in the Goretex", constant searching for breast cancer until they find some, pray for money from trees, drive lead-filled Priuses.
With all the dime store psych-therapists here, not a single TMS therapist, not a single TMS MD here, it would result in too big of a paycut, real estate ain't cheap here.
Most wouldn't dream of getting rid of their illnesses and injuries. It may be their main income stream from disability payments, "what me work". I know many young adults who are on SSI and some seniors who have been on SSI all their lives and are totally able bodied to work. Our system rewards TMS with money and social sympathy! As long as our culture has more money than brains, it's here to stay.
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Edited by - tennis tom on 11/06/2006 17:00:10 |
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miche
Canada
283 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2006 : 23:21:31
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I agree with shortcake , and may I add that even though I am not on any assistance and have never been , I understand that some people have no choice, a lot of these people have never heard of Sarno, do not have a computor, do not have the money nor the resources nor the energy to do research , I believe that a lot of these poor people would rather work if they could, after all social security payments are pretty meager, are they not?
They may look able body, but how can we state with certainty that they are not sick, fibro for instance is called the invisible disease, I actually look younger than my age yet I hurt like hell, all the time and allover, it is not my back hurts, my head hurts nor my knee hurts, it is all of the above and then some. Ther are times when I can hardly walk, I do not go out then,so to my neighbours, I look able body .As a point of interest, my cousin was diagnosed with CFS two years ago, being a nurse has not helped her as far as being treated with any respect from the medical establishment. She has been patronised over and over again and given a diagnosis of depression. Last week after seing yet another specialist in Toronto she was told that she has Lyme disease. I had sent her all kinds of tms info, no help to her of course , yet for two years she had the CFS
stigma, and was judjed accordingly . |
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 05:04:54
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quote:
Originally posted by miche
They may look able body, but how can we state with certainty that they are not sick, fibro for instance is called the invisible disease, I actually look younger than my age yet I hurt like hell, all the time and allover, it is not my back hurts, my head hurts nor my knee hurts, it is all of the above and then some. Ther are times when I can hardly walk, I do not go out then,so to my neighbours, I look able body .
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Miche, for the purposes of this board Fibromyalgia, CFS and Lyme
are TMS. From your post it doesn't sound like you are clear on that. Are you treating your TMS as TMS or as Fibro? From your post it is not clear.
Your cousin is probably a lost cause. You tried to clue her in to TMS but she doesn't want to hear it. That's normal for the masses. She being a part of the medical/industrial complex will not be able to see the TMS forest for the trees. The derision she gets from her fellow medicos is part of the picture. Medicos don't like patients who don't respond to treatment. It's like a lemon car. You fix one thing and another thing goes wrong. It keeps coming back, but never gets better.
I saw this with my father, when he "took to bed". At that point he was shunned and offered no more solutions. I was the one who fixed him. The medical/industrial complex silently recognizes that many conditions are psychosomatic (TMS). They have a term for it which escapes me at the moment but basicly they quietly call it "mental" and wish it would go away. They may relegate it to the hospital social worker or a psychiatrist. They wash their hands of it. The best they are going to do is throw "mood" altering drugs at it.
As for those on the dole or SSI, you ask how does one know? I know because I have been there myself and seen how I can create TMS psychosomatic symptoms to suit my needs. I have also observed others doing the same over a period of many years. People getting checks while being perfectly able-bodied to work under the table for cash or conduct active social lives when they wanted to. |
Edited by - tennis tom on 11/07/2006 08:46:57 |
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MikeJ
United Kingdom
75 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 08:56:03
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| Tom: How did you help your father? I'm wondering what is the best approach to introduce TMS to someone completely conditioned by the doctors. I know for myself, I completely rejected anyone who suggested it was psychosomatic. I was more likely to believe in an idea, if I discovered it myself, than if someone forced it upon me. |
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Stryder
686 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 11:28:16
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...for the purposes of this board Fibromyalgia, CFS and Lyme are TMS
Just a word of caution, while many of the symptoms of TMS / depression are similar to the symptoms of Lyme disease, true Lyme disease is a bacterial infection caused by a tick bite. I went through this last summer. I got bit, 3 weeks later a rash re-developed at the bite site, and I got sick. Blood work confirmed the infection. I was cured by 8 weeks of antibiotics.
I can see where an uninformed doctor, in maldiagnosing a TMS patient, could easily confuse the symptoms of TMS as Lyme. Just keep in mind that reading all the Sarno in the world is not going to clear up a Lyme infection.
Lastly, a Lyme infection if not detected and treated promptly is a serious medical condition. See you doctor to rule out any serious condition.
Take care, -Stryder |
Edited by - Stryder on 11/07/2006 14:11:03 |
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sonora sky
USA
181 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 13:42:58
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quote:
Originally posted by tennis tom
Can you imagine what might occur if everyone stopped repressing their real thoughts? Our social fabric might disintegrate, marriage would be out the window, people would be throwing phones at each other in the workplace.
My TMS doctor mentioned this same point: that if everyone learned about and accepted TMS tomorrow, our country (and consequently much of the world) would fall into complete and utter chaos. TMS theory is opposed to everything our "health"-care system (and our society) promotes. Not only would there be pandemonium on a social/cultural level, but there would also be economic and political ramifications. Though we wish everyone could realize that most of their chronic physical ailments are psychological and that the power of a cure is within themselves, everybody is on a different timeline, so to speak. Some may be ready now, some later, others after countless failed surgeries and physical therapy, and still others may never be able to accept TMS. It sucks, and it's frustrating, but I think that's just the way it is. If/when people are ready, make sure resources are available. Otherwise, step back and take care of yourself first. I think that's all we can (and perhaps should) do.
Warmly,
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h2oskier25
USA
395 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 14:51:43
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quote:
Originally posted by Shortcake
as someone who has been dx'd w/ severe fm i would like to say that there are sig studies done on brain chem with pet scans that prove that ppl who suffer from severe chronic pain conditions have often suffered from traumas that wired their brains for these later conditions. while sarno's theory is relevant it isnt always just rage that triggers these conditions.
Shortcake, I know this will probably enrage you, but Sarno rule #1, repudiate the physical.
You're not the first one to be offended at somebody suggesting that FM might be TMS, but I wish to point out that your extreme sensitivity to someone suggesting FM is treatable by something other than the clueless medical/industrial complex is in itself a TMS trait. I've seen it on this board a lot.
I know this post will probably not be seen as the tough love its meant to be, but have you read Sarno? I think it would help you greatly.
Regards,
Beth |
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miche
Canada
283 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 16:07:26
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Thank you Stryder for sharing the information about Lyme. you are also right when you state that the longer one goes without detection and treatment the more damage has been done and the more difficult it is to treat, my cousin was told that she will never fully recuperate and she is being sent to the states for treatment. Tom with all due respect I doubt very much that Sarno has put lyme in the tms category.
Regards, Micheline |
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miehnesor
USA
430 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 16:16:49
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quote:
Originally posted by AnneG
Great idea, Miehnesor. What about 'Myspace' blogs instead of on a billboard; it's free and that site gets masses of attention worldwide?
Anne- I checked myspace.com and it seems like the best place to talk about TMS is in the "Forum>>health and Fitness>>general" section. Just for kicks I tried to start a new topic here and it came back with site not available at this time. What do you think about starting a TMS topic here? If members of this forum put out there stories to a public space like this maybe we can get something going. |
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Littlebird
USA
391 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 16:38:34
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There is an interesting article about a couple of studies that have shown a large percentage of people with CFS have experienced emotional trauma in their past. http://www.realage.com/news_features/article.aspx?id=535931
It seems to me that this shows that for many people who are dx with CFS, the cause could be repressed emotions and if more doctors were familiar with and accepted TMS the patient may have been dx with that instead. Not all people who develop the symptoms of CFS have trauma in their backgrounds and not all people who have trauma go on to develop the symptoms of CFS, but for those who seem to have that connection, it would be nice if they could learn about TMS. Not that the ones who didn't experience trauma couldn't be TMS too.
I understand how painful it can be to think that everyone is assuming you are just exaggerating your pain and fatigue and how sensitive we can become to any suggestion that it's a mind thing, because many people who say it's a mind thing mean that we're imagining it or are just malingerers. We tend to become very defensive, because many of us who develop symptoms of CFS and/or Fibro (I've been given both dx--which dx you get seems to depend a lot on which kind of doctor you see, even though there are some differences in the sx.) were very active and hard workers prior to developing major pain and crushing fatigue. I thought nothing of working 14 hour days and doing all the housework, laundry, shopping, etc. on my days off. So it's frustrating when people assume I'm being lazy now, like I had a 180 degree personality change.
I have followed the news about the physical findings in people with CFS/FM and for me that doesn't rule out the possibility of TMS, because as Dr. Sarno points out, physiological changes can be the result, not necessarily the cause, of the problem. For example one article I read a while back about chronic pain said that chronic pain can deplete the brain of seretonin.
But, I think we need to realize that we tend to view the world through the filter of our own experience and we need to realize that just because something is true for us doesn't mean it is the same for everyone else. For example, I do know people who have manipulated the Social Security system, but I also know people, including my husband, who truly are incapable of doing any kind of work, despite a strong desire to work. Both my husband and I would much rather be working than trying to get by on disability payments. I also have a relative who does exaggerate her medical problems to get out of responsibilities, but I know that I'm pushing my body harder now than I ever did when I was healthy, even though I "produce" far less results for my efforts than I could in the past.
I do agree that for me it's important to focus on TMS as the cause of my symptoms, because when I start to feel any doubt about that the symptoms that I've gained some improvement in flare back up again. But I exhausted all other possibilities before coming to the point where I could accept the idea of TMS, and I don't think I'd have been ready to accept it if I'd learned of it before having thousands of dollars' worth of testing done and before researching a lot of health information. |
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Jeff
USA
68 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 17:36:33
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| Regarding Lyme, I think Sarno has indeed said it could be a TMS equivalent. I don't think he disputes that some people do get real Lyme disease from a tick bite, but many people have Lyme antibodies in their systems, and the Lyme tests will show that. Sarno believes that doctors grab at those test results to explain what in reality are TMS symptoms. But having Lyme antibodies in your system is not the same thing as having Lyme disease. |
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kilton
38 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 18:30:34
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Indeed, in chapter 6 of TMP:
"... In this case we have a bona fide disease process to which a variety of physical symptoms are mistakenly attributed. ... If someone has pain that cannot by explained by any of the usual diagnoses and has immunologic evidence (from a blood test) of having been infected, the symtpoms will be attributed to Lyme disease. ... "
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tennis tom
USA
4749 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2006 : 19:46:07
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quote from shortcake:
"i have seen u go after ppl on this site b4. u seem to suffer from selective reading & like to drop little bombs on ppl, calling them 'tough love'. well no thanks. like i pointed out b4, advice is nice but rudeness is unecessary. i know that i am not the 1st one to tell u this + i would have to really care what u think 2b enraged!? thanx to everyone else who had something kind & constructive to add!"
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shortcake:
I reread Beth's post to you and fail to see anything rude in it towards you. And I don't recall anyone accusing her of being rude in the past.
It is your post that I find to be rude. She was being constructive and following TMS protcols. Dr. Sarno in his treatment section advises dynamic analytical psychotherapy. This is form of therapy that challenges defenses. She was very mildly challenging your attitude.
I find your reaction uncalled for and think you should apologize to her.
You seem to have some ulterior motive in your unwarranted attack on her as someone trying to help you.
Let the flames begin. |
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CFS in the News
