Let’s start with two thyroid facts: The diagnosis of hypothyroidism (low levels of thyroid hormone) is missed by most physicians. Patients arrive with obvious symptoms of hypothyroidism every doctor learned in medical school, among them sensitivity to cold, weight gain, dry skin, fatigue, and constipation. The doctor listens, sometimes attentively, and then orders a TSH […]
Category: Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue
Tired All The Time? Useful Info and Two Supplements
As you might expect, fatigue is a fairly common reason people visit doctors. Feeling tired is vague symptom and can be linked to dozens of possible diagnoses, plus there’s a need to differentiate between physical fatigue and mental fatigue (brain fog) or consider both. When your doctor or nurse practitioner starts to ask questions, she’s […]
Project Microbiome: Bacterial Happiness and Health
A short article tucked in the New York Times health blog “Well” reported on a Cornell University study published in Microbiome, an obscure medical journal whose circulation is likely in the upper two digits. To my mind, it’s an important piece of research and I’d guess that years from now as we understand more and […]
It’s All In Your Head—Go See A Psychiatrist
Before today’s Health Tip, an update. We’ve moved into our new center at 2265 N Clybourn Ave and want to thank our outstanding team for their services and support: Architect Josh Hutchinson, 34/TEN Architecture General Contractor Jerry Sorvino, AST Construction Services Design and Project Manager Marla Rubin, Ensemble Graphics Information Technology specialist Marty Rocha, Nitram […]
“Every Afternoon At About Four I’m So Tired I Could Sleep At My Desk”
“Exhaustion is my reality. At four o’clock, I’m wiped, totally wiped.” Patricia is 33, happily married as far as marriages go, one kid, steadily employed in the usual American less-than-satisfying corporate job, good eating habits, and, until recently, a health club goer a couple/three times a week. Now she’s too tired for that. Just looking […]
Fresh Approaches To Fatigue and Fibromyalgia, Hormone Update, and A New Book on Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
For the millions who suffer with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, I’m pleased to report some worthy breakthroughs in the past few weeks. First, from the American College of Rheumatologists meeting in San Diego: Speaker and Tel Aviv physician Jacob Ablin, MD, described what I believe is a long-overdue paradigm shift in the diagnosis and treatment […]
Catherine’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Catherine, a pale thin woman in her thirties, was into her third year with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). She’d been “everywhere,” including the Mayo Clinic, but no one had been able to answer her question: why am I ill? All treatments, conventional and alternative, had given her only temporary relief before they stopped working or […]
A Final Commonly Missed Diagnosis: Functional Symptoms
This missed diagnosis is a bit more complicated. It’s not one specific condition, like a slightly underactive thyroid or gluten intolerance. It’s about you and your doctor’s tunnel vision, the “if your only tool is a hammer, then everything around you is a nail” sort of thinking. Functional symptoms constitute a huge spectrum of missed […]
Medical Sexism and Fibromyalgia
My new book, Healing Fibromyalgia, was published last week and I’ll venture that sales are soaring into the high single digits. The e-book is available here and a pre-publication discount is available on the paperback. The total number of fibromyalgia patients worldwide is jaw-dropping and the situation is much worsened by the medical profession’s failure […]
Physician’s Guide to Fibromyalgia
This short guide accompanies my patient-directed book Healing Fibromyalgia, which is based on my experience treating more than 1,600 fibro patients. Because of the nature of this condition, and the frequent necessity of prescription drugs, I wasn’t quite sure how to get the reader’s primary care physician involved. Virtually all fibro patients need professional expertise […]
Fibromyalgia Quiz
From Healing Fibromyalgia, by David Edelberg, MD How Do I Know If I Have Fibro? Take the Quiz Even if you’ve already been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, take the quiz to gain a better understanding of fibro’s underpinnings. Because fibro is not a disease per se and offers your doctor no positive test results on which […]
Nicole’s Story and the Epic Tale of Fibro Explained
The following is an excerpt from Dr. Edelberg’s book, Healing Fibromyalgia. In the “How Can We Help?” section of our WholeHealth Chicago Patient Questionnaire, Nicole had written “I’m in constant pain as long as I can remember and I’m so tired I can’t even think straight.” Even as I welcomed her to our center, I […]
Fibromyalgia is Real
Fibromyalgia is real. The pain you awaken with is not “in your head.” You’re not even remotely a hypochondriac. If anyone–doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist, well- meaning loved one–ever tries to convince you otherwise, tune them out. They are wrong. Likewise, if anyone ever tells you fibro is incurable and you’ll just have to learn to […]
The Weather and Your Symptoms
I can always tell when there’s a major drop in barometric pressure by the number of e-mails I get from patients that begin, “I can’t believe I’m having such a terrible flare-up of my…”
Fibromyalgia: An Almost Natural Approach
One of the best ways to envision fibro is as a generalized anxiety disorder of the muscles, initially triggered by a stressful event and then perpetuated by the pain of the muscles themselves.
Fibromyalgia: Conventional Treatment
Patients and physicians unfamiliar with fibromyalgia are rightfully a bit shocked when they learn the average fibro patient uses five prescription drugs to make it through her day. Not one of these is “for fibro,” in the sense of a cure, the way penicillin cures a strep throat. The medications don’t even actually treat fibro, the way insulin treats diabetes. At their best, the drugs (sometimes) reduce symptoms.
Fibromyalgia: Gender Discrimination and Fibro Pain
Let me start with a fact that many doctors acknowledge but prefer not to discuss: Numerous well-conducted studies have shown that all chronic pain patients, but especially women, are seriously undertreated by physicians.
Fibromyalgia: The Fatigue Part
Right up there with pain, the second most common symptom of fibromyalgia is a constant sense of profound exhaustion. Disability insurance companies, people who don’t have fibro, and (sadly) most doctors can’t appreciate the extraordinary degree of this fatigue.
Fibromyalgia Explained: Why the Pain?
To understand fibromyalgia and why so many doctors tell their fibro patients, “All your tests are normal,” you need to think about serotonin, the brain chemical that acts as a buffer against stress.
Fibromyalgia Explained: Part 1
Hey, listen. Since May has been declared Fibromyalgia Awareness Month, even if you don’t have it I’d appreciate your plowing through the next couple of health tips and learning something about this miserable condition, which affects more than 15 million people, 95% of them women.