I once heard the host on a medical talk show ask the MD he was interviewing, “What is pain?” The MD answered, “Whatever the patient says it is.”

Pain is whatever the patient says it is. That ought to be a guiding principle in practicing medicine.

An estimated eight million people in the US, almost all women, suffer from fibromyalgia. The illness is reason for a large number of disability claims. To the pharmaceutical industry all this looks like an opportunity, and a new drug to treat fibro was announced earlier this month.

The announcement of the drug brought out the MDs who still question whether fibromyalgia is, in fact, a “disease.” A disease, a disorder, a syndrome, the problem lies in trying to label the problem. Since a primary symptom is overal skeletal pain, the allopathic first response is the arthritis specialist. But the problem isn’t with joints. Even a gentle hug is painful. Personally, I didn’t have enough energy to get out of bed when this “disorder” hit in March 1998.

Having a European health plan that covered all medical costs, I didn’t have the added stress of financial costs in seeking an answer to what had gone wrong. All the usual–and some extraordinary–tests were done. The tests indicated nothing.

Fibromyalgia–or fibro–is a “basket” illness. When the MDs can’t put a known label on it–the illness doesn’t exist. They were like blind men trying to describe an elephant, only able to understand their speciality, their body territory.

In 2000, MDs in both professional and social settings told me “fibro is not a disease.” Whatever you call it, the illness/disorder/disease/syndrome destroys lives. One cannot work, causing economic hardship, and relationships fall apart.

One Individual Recovery Route
One health practitioner (not an MD) has successfully treated fibro patients by balancing hormones. That helped but didn’t cure my affliction. My first step in recovery was a systemic de-toxification program (Ultra Clear by Metagenics Labs) and purifying my diet by eliminating all processed foods and sugars–permanently. I experimented with supplements under the guidance of a nutritionist, and several were of critical help in my recovery–for a while.

The body is ever-changing, and it will balance itself given the correct support. Fibro is a very individual affliction, and no drug is going to be suitable for most–if anybody. The MDs are wrong. The drug company is wrong.

After two years of searching for a solution with MDs from Washington state to Washington, DC, I took a long list of symptoms to a Naturopathic physician using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in northern Virginia. He listened to me and asked if I had other specific symptoms, which I did but had forgotten. He “read” the pulses of the major organs on each wrist to know which were weak, ungrounded or overheated. At last I had found someone who understood the whole body!!

Dr. Paul Yan (703-723-7889) selected herbs which I brewed and took for one week. I continued with three Chinese patent medicines, one of which I continue yet today. With Chinese herbs and supplements I overcame fibro, and Dr. Yan has been the family’s primary care physician ever since.

TCM is individualized according to the patient’s condition that day, and Dr. Yan hasn’t found consistent symptoms in fibro patients.

The MDs are wrong–fibro is a serious illness, whatever the cause. Because they can’t fit it into an already known category doesn’t mean it’s not real.

The pharmaceutical firm is wrong–no pill is going to correct the imbalance that fibro is. Like many chemicals, a drug will only cause further imbalance.

We have many other choices. Take them.

Salud!
Beverly A. Jensen, Ph.D.
President, www.WomensMedicineBowl.com