Category: From the news

I’m alive! How about you?

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2009-08-13

3:07 am

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From the news

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It’s been an insane­ly long time since I gave this site its due. I sup­pose the real prob­lem with blog­ging about health prob­lems is that the peo­ple who know them best, by def­i­n­i­tion, have health prob­lems. I’d love to find some­one with whom to co-write this thing, so we could cov­er for each oth­er!

Any­way, I had an insane­ly long bad peri­od but I’m feel­ing bet­ter now. One fac­tor in the improve­ment was stop­ping Effex­or XR, which I’d tak­en for years. I did­n’t actu­al­ly do that on purpose—It was due to an insane­ly irre­spon­si­ble doc­tor who refused to see me because of a screw-up in his office’s pro­ce­dures, not any­thing I’d done wrong. I had to just stop tak­ing it, cold turkey, which led to seizures and oth­er prob­lems. On the plus side, though, I’ve been far less drowsy and don’t need near­ly as many hours of sleep as I did before. (I’m actu­al­ly expe­ri­enc­ing some insom­nia, which isn’t good, but it’s a change.)

Any­way, my Social Secu­ri­ty dis­abil­i­ty claim was final­ly approved after over five years of wait­ing. They haven’t start­ed pay­ing any­thing yet, but that’s sup­posed to hap­pen Real Soon Now. I have to tell you, though—the Medicare thing is a con­fus­ing maze of choic­es, obvi­ous­ly designed by bureau­crats. You almost need to become a Medicare expert just to know what ben­e­fits are avail­able and how to get them!

For now, here’s a link to an arti­cle I found inter­est­ing:
Do Fibromyal­gia Pain Killers Make You a Like­ly Crime Vic­tim?

I don’t agree with all of the advice. Peo­ple in Geor­gia have been arrest­ed for hav­ing legit­i­mate­ly pre­scribed med­ica­tions because the med­ica­tions weren’t in pre­scrip­tion con­tain­ers. It’s a real nui­sance to car­ry the bot­tles instead of just what you need, and it prob­a­bly does put us at greater risk for crime—but is it worth being arrest­ed? That’s a Catch-22.

Why Can’t We Think Well When We’re Sick?

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2008-06-12

12:19 am

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, From the news

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This isn’t specif­i­cal­ly about CFS/ME or FMS, but I found it inter­est­ing, and I think it makes sense.

Why Men­tal Lethar­gy When Sick

Dur­ing an infec­tion, humans typ­i­cal­ly expe­ri­ence a set of phys­i­o­log­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal symp­toms, includ­ing fever, con­fu­sion, decreased moti­va­tion, depres­sion and anx­i­ety that are accom­pa­nied by a slow­ing of move­ments.

These changes, col­lec­tive­ly known as “sick­ness behav­ior,” are the body’s way of con­serv­ing ener­gy dur­ing ill­ness so that an effec­tive immune response can be launched. This new study helps researchers fur­ther under­stand how cytokines com­mu­ni­cate between the immune sys­tem and the brain to pro­mote sick­ness behav­ior.

Since many peo­ple with CFS/ME have chron­ic fevers and oth­er symp­toms sim­i­lar to those of infec­tious ill­ness­es, I have to won­der if the results of this study will be exam­ined with regards to CFS/ME.

Cortisol and FMS and CFS/ME?

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2008-03-22

1:10 am

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, From the news

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There’s been a lot of buzz over the past week about a study pub­lished in the Jour­nal of Chron­ic Fatigue Syn­drome that sug­gests treat­ing fibromyal­gia and ME/CFS with cor­ti­sol (a steroid), based on the fact that most patients have low cor­ti­sol lev­els. I do not have access to that pub­li­ca­tion, but would like to point out some con­cerns.

First, most of the reports are not clear about the fact that this was a lit­er­a­ture study, rather than a con­trolled clin­i­cal study.

Sec­ond, while at least one sto­ry did claim that the lit­er­a­ture study was fol­lowed up with an “obser­va­tion­al study” in which all of the FMS/CFS/ME patients in a par­tic­u­lar clin­ic were giv­en cor­ti­sol. That does not meet the stan­dards of a con­trolled, clin­i­cal study, which would require an untreat­ed con­trol group and a group receiv­ing place­bos instead of cor­ti­sol.

There have been mul­ti­ple clin­i­cal stud­ies of the effects of steroids on FMS/CFS/ME. I found records of stud­ies of pred­nisone and hydro­cor­ti­sone, in par­tic­u­lar. Those stud­ies did not find any pos­i­tive effects from treat­ment com­pared to place­bos, and in some cas­es there were sig­nif­i­cant prob­lems result­ing from the treat­ments. I did not find a study specif­i­cal­ly involv­ing cor­ti­sol, but I don’t know if that’s because there has­n’t been one or because I don’t have access to the appro­pri­ate data­bas­es. (I’m sure there are more stud­ies out there, but I don’t have access to Med­line.)

I’d strong­ly sug­gest wait­ing for the results of repeat­able, con­trolled clin­i­cal tests of cor­ti­sol before try­ing steroid treat­ment. Steroids have seri­ous side effects, and should not be tak­en light­ly.

Pain cures for women; Migraines from low-energy light bulbs

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2008-01-09

3:20 pm

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, From the news, Pain

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I’ve had these two sto­ries book­marked to post here for a bit, so it seems past time for me to actu­al­ly do it.

The best new pain cures, with a focus on women

Many women have a tough time find­ing the right kind of relief for their pain –and for good rea­son: Until recent­ly, experts had­n’t actu­al­ly stud­ied wom­en’s pain specif­i­cal­ly, and most research was­n’t con­duct­ed with a wom­an’s hor­mones and physique in mind. All that’s chang­ing, though.

Docs now know that to ban­ish our aches, they must devel­op treat­ments for­mu­lat­ed for wom­en’s bod­ies. What’s more, researchers are also look­ing for — and find­ing — ways to head pain off at the pass, so those of us with chron­ic trou­bles such as migraine, fibromyal­gia, or back­ache don’t have to be hob­bled by pain on a dai­ly basis. Here, how the new research will help you live an (almost) pain-free life. Health.com: Smart ways to ban­ish pain

It’s def­i­nite­ly good news that they’re doing the research, at least! There’s good infor­ma­tion here on how estro­gen and oth­er hor­mones affect the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem. The arti­cle specif­i­cal­ly men­tions treat­ment for migraines and oth­er headaches, fibromyal­gia, and chron­ic fatigue syn­drome.

There’s a def­i­nite anti-painkiller bias in the arti­cle, unfor­tu­nate­ly. The author does­n’t seem to grasp the fact that ibupro­fen isn’t enough “pre­ven­tive med­i­cine” for some of us, but if you can look past that it’s a decent arti­cle.

Low-ener­gy bulbs ’cause migraine’

I’ve had con­cerns about this issue myself. Flu­o­res­cent bulbs have always been a prob­lem for me, and the “low-ener­gy” bulbs that are so pop­u­lar now are flu­o­res­cent. The flick­er­ing of flu­o­res­cent bulbs can also trig­ger seizures in epilep­tics. While man­u­fac­tur­ers claim that the new bulbs don’t flick­er, they still cause prob­lems for some peo­ple. Eye strain from the low-inten­si­ty light is cit­ed, but some of us do per­ceive flick­er­ing.

The U.K. plans to ban the sale of con­ven­tion­al (incan­des­cent) bulbs with­in the next four years. Patients’ asso­ci­a­tions are ask­ing that the old­er bulbs remain avail­able for those who have issues with the new­er ones.

This arti­cle did­n’t hap­pen to men­tion anoth­er prob­lem with the dis­pos­al of the bulbs: they con­tain mer­cury. You can’t just toss them in the trash, and if one breaks you have an envi­ron­men­tal haz­ard. That cost is sel­dom men­tioned when peo­ple talk about how much can be saved by switch­ing to those bulbs. When I looked for legal ways to dis­pose of the bulbs here in Atlanta1, all of the results involved pay­ing $1 or more per bulb. How many peo­ple are going to do that? Not many, which means that the bulbs will go into land­fills, releas­ing the mer­cury.

In look­ing for a cita­tion regard­ing the dis­pos­al prob­lems, I came across anoth­er arti­cle that states that the flu­o­res­cent bulbs also cause skin heal­ing prob­lems for those who are pho­to­sen­si­tive due to lupus, eczema, or oth­er con­di­tions.

I think we’ll keep buy­ing the full-spec­trum incan­des­cent bulbs for now.

1 I used Earth911, an excel­lent site for any­one in the U.S.

7,000 deaths a year due to bad handwriting? Save yours!

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2007-01-19

6:18 pm

11 Comments on 7,000 deaths a year due to bad handwriting? Save yours!

From the news

Well, Time Mag­a­zine reports that the Nation­al Acad­e­mies of Sci­ence’s Insti­tute of Med­i­cine says that’s the fig­ure, any­way.

Doc­tors’ slop­py hand­writ­ing kills more than 7,000 peo­ple annu­al­ly. It’s a shock­ing sta­tis­tic, and, accord­ing to a July 2006 report from the Nation­al Acad­e­mies of Sci­ence’s Insti­tute of Med­i­cine (IOM), pre­ventable med­ica­tion mis­takes also injure more than 1.5 mil­lion Amer­i­cans annu­al­ly. Many such errors result from unclear abbre­vi­a­tions and dosage indi­ca­tions and illeg­i­ble writ­ing on some of the 3.2 bil­lion pre­scrip­tions writ­ten in the U.S. every year.

The cure, accord­ing to the sources cit­ed in the arti­cle, is auto­mat­ed pre­scrib­ing. Physi­cians would use a web-enabled phone to select med­ica­tions and dosages from menus, so names and num­bers would­n’t be mis­writ­ten or mis­heard (mis-select­ed is always pos­si­ble, but you can’t removed all pos­si­bil­i­ty of error). Most of the mon­ey for the sys­tems will come from health insur­ers, so I don’t know how all this will work for peo­ple who pay for their own pre­scrip­tions.

The whole arti­cle left me with many ques­tions, in fact, about choice, and prod­uct posi­tion­ing — will doc­tors even be able to pre­scribe med­ica­tions that aren’t in the “for­mu­la­ry” when they know that some­thing else will work bet­ter? Will they be able to select some­thing out­side the stan­dard range of dos­es? What about com­pound­ed pre­scrip­tions?

This lit­tle sta­tis­tic sur­prised me, but there’s no source cit­ed, so I’m not sure I trust it.

Sure­Scripts CEO Kevin Hutchin­son says one key to reduc­ing med­ica­tion errors is to get the most pro­lif­ic pre­scribers to tran­si­tion to elec­tron­ic pro­cess­ing. “Not a lot of peo­ple under­stand that 15% of physi­cians in the U.S. write 50% of the pre­scrip­tion vol­ume,” Hutchin­son says. “And 30% of them write 80%. So it’s not about get­ting 100% of physi­cians to e‑prescribe. It’s about get­ting those key 30% who pre­scribe the most. Then you’ve auto­mat­ed the process.”

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, Time does­n’t both­er to give any sug­ges­tions as to how to save lives until this utopi­an sys­tem to con­trol those wild and wooly scrib­blers is in place. I guess I’ll have to give it a go.

Please remem­ber that when I say “you,” I mean you or your advo­cate.

First, be sure that you always know what your doc­tor is pre­scrib­ing for you, and why. Take notes. Write down both the name and the dosage of every med­ica­tion, and what it’s for. If you’re unclear on the spelling, as the doc­tor or his staff to spell it out or write it down for you.

If your doc­tor is giv­ing you refills on your nor­mal med­ica­tions, look at the refill pre­scrip­tions. Do they seem to say what you expect them to say? If not, ask about them. Be sure. He might have mis­re­mem­bered or writ­ten down the wrong thing. Doc­tors are not infal­li­ble. It has hap­pened to me! If you’ve already left the office, con­tact his staff. It’s bet­ter to be safe than sor­ry!

Com­pare your notes to the pre­scrip­tion bot­tle before you leave the phar­ma­cy. If the pre­scrip­tion has been filled with a gener­ic and your doc­tor gave you a brand name, dou­ble check with the phar­ma­cist (not just a clerk) to be sure that they real­ly are the same med­ica­tion. If your doc­tor said you were to take the med­ica­tion twice a day and you’ve only got 30 pills to last 60 days, don’t leave the phar­ma­cy.

Read the infor­ma­tion includ­ed with your pre­scrip­tion. Make sure that it agrees with what­ev­er the doc­tor told you, or makes sense con­sid­er­ing why the doc­tor pre­scribed this med­ica­tion for you. If you don’t under­stand, again, call the doc­tor’s office, or at least the phar­ma­cy. “I have fibromyal­gia, and my doc­tor pre­scribed this med­ica­tion, but the insert just talks about depres­sion. Why?” It’s a per­fect­ly valid ques­tion. If the doc­tor already explained that to your sat­is­fac­tion, of course, you need­n’t call—but do call if any­thing does­n’t make sense.

Tak­ing these pre­cau­tions should pro­tect you, whether your doc­tor scrib­bles, has beau­ti­ful pen­man­ship, or uses an auto­mat­ed sys­tem.

Researchers say pain from fibromyalgia is real

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2006-12-01

9:55 pm

11 Comments on Researchers say pain from fibromyalgia is real

Fibromyalgia, From the news, Neurology, Pain

Not that it’s news to those of us who have it, but it’s good to be val­i­dat­ed!

Fibromyal­gia often has been mis­di­ag­nosed as arthri­tis or even a psy­cho­log­i­cal issue. Increas­ing­ly, though, the sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge about fibromyal­gia is grow­ing, and a new paper from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan Health Sys­tem says there are “over­whelm­ing data” that the con­di­tion is real, is char­ac­ter­ized by a low­er pain thresh­old and is asso­ci­at­ed with genet­ic fac­tors that can make some peo­ple more like­ly to devel­op fibromyal­gia. …

“It is time for us to move past the rhetoric about whether these con­di­tions are real, and take these patients seri­ous­ly as we endeav­or to learn more about the caus­es and most effec­tive treat­ments for these dis­or­ders,” says Richard E. Har­ris, Ph.D., research inves­ti­ga­tor in the Divi­sion of Rheuma­tol­ogy at the U‑M Med­ical School’s Depart­ment of Inter­nal Med­i­cine and a researcher at the U‑M Health Sys­tem’s Chron­ic Pain and Fatigue Research Cen­ter.

The name of one of the authors of the paper, Dr. Daniel J. Clauw, will be famil­iar to many of you from oth­er stud­ies on fibromyal­gia. He says that, “In peo­ple with­out pain, these struc­tures encode pain sen­sa­tions nor­mal­ly. In peo­ple with fibromyal­gia, the neur­al activ­i­ty increased. These stud­ies indi­cate that fibromyal­gia patients have abnor­mal­i­ties with­in their cen­tral brain struc­tures.”

Sci­enceDai­ly: Pain From Fibromyal­gia Is Real, Researchers Say

Stress during pregnancy may lead to increased risk of fibromyalgia for baby girls

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2006-06-29

1:12 pm

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Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, From the news

From a Uni­ver­si­ty of Pitts­burgh School of Med­i­cine Press Release about find­ings being pre­sent­ed at the Inter­na­tion­al Con­gress of Neu­roen­docrinol­o­gy June 19–22, 2006:

Stress­ful or trau­mat­ic events expe­ri­enced dur­ing preg­nan­cy can have long-last­ing effects on the fetus, yet these effects may not become appar­ent until many years lat­er, accord­ing to a study sug­gest­ing that girls born of such preg­nan­cies may be at greater risk for devel­op­ing a painful mus­cle con­di­tion called fibromyal­gia as adults.

The details sound very much like recent find­ings regard­ing abnor­mal­i­ties in reac­tions to stres­sors in chron­ic fatique suf­fer­ers. That could lend cre­dence to those who believe fibromyal­gia and chron­ic fatigue syn­drome are relat­ed con­di­tions.

Music ‘can reduce chronic pain’

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2006-06-06

9:09 am

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From the news

From BBC News via the Net-Gold list:

Research has con­firmed lis­ten­ing to music can have a sig­nif­i­cant pos­i­tive impact on per­cep­tion of chron­ic pain.

US researchers test­ed the effect of music on 60 patients who had endured years of chron­ic pain.

Those who lis­tened to music report­ed a cut in pain lev­els of up to 21%, and in asso­ci­at­ed depres­sion of up to 25%, com­pared to those who did not lis­ten.

While I doubt the IRS is going to let us claim iPods as med­ical equip­ment for tax deduc­tions any time soon, it’s well worth exper­i­ment­ing to see what music soothes each of us.