Books & Other Recommendations by Alan Pocinki, MD
as reported by patients

Books

From a CFSupport Member & patient of Dr. Pocinki:

Dear CFSupport,

Read your e-mail about Alan Pocinki coming to speak at the support group meeting.  He is my CFS doc.  Just wanted to share w/the group about how he has helped me, as it may help people to formulate questions/stimulate discussion. 

Dr. Pocinki has been more creative and interactive than my past doctors in helping me to find a combo of drugs that helps for sleep, despite my resistance to and fear of drugs.  It sounds as though he plans to focus mainly on sleep during the meeting, but he is also a/the? leading specialist on the link between hyper-flexible joints and CFS. 

He explains things in a way that gets you to understand the adrenaline / OI / mobile-joint affects of your body type and makes you feel 'less crazy'. 
[OI = orthostatic intolerance, poor circulation while upright. See our OI Q&A. ]

My experience with a sprained/partially dislocated arm and working with Dr. Pocinki and physical therapists has taught me so much about the physiological characteristics of my body that contribute to my illness.  He recommended a book to help me understand my hyper-mobile joints and to help me communicate with physical therapists, Hypermobility Syndrome Diagnosis & Management for Physiotherapists, by Rosemary Keer and Rodney Grahame.  This book is written for physical therapists, but it has also helped me to get to know my body much better, explaining more details than the doctors and PTs have time to, even though I don't understand all the technical bits of the text.  Am about half-way through the book now.  Will bring the book along if I can (hopefully) make it to the meeting 4/21/07.  - "H"

• Sluggish? Confused? Vitamin B12 May Be Low - Wall Street Journal - January 18, 2011
  "B12 deficiency is much more common than the textbooks and journal articles say it is," says Alan Pocinki, an internist in Washington D.C., who routinely tests his patients who fall into those categories. He also notes that since the Metformin connection was discovered only recently, some physicians aren't aware of it. "They assume that if patients complain of numbness and tingling in the feet, it's a diabetes issue and not a B12 issue."
  B12 comes in pill form and a new nasal spray, but injections are the fastest way to correct a severe deficiency, since it does not need to be absorbed in the digestive tract. Many patients learn to inject themselves or have a spouse do it to cut down on doctor visits. "I have world travelers who take their B12 and needles with them. It's like traveling with insulin," says Dr. Pocinki.
  He says he has seen low-grade depression lift when patients were given B12 supplements.
• With Laura Hillenbrand on NPR, The Diane Rehm Show July 3, 2003 - 11 AM hour
• CFIDS Chronicle Special Issue 2005/2006  Treatment: Clinical Care for CFS
• CFS: Patient Care Basics. Fall 2003 The CFIDS Chronicle Flu vaccines: Balance risks against benefits
• CSN Recognizes Individuals and Groups for Their Efforts
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Fighting the Battle
  Family Pratice News,  May 15, 2001  by Christine Kilgore
  "In women under age 40, "it's [CFS is] more common than multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and breast cancer. It's not rare--it's out there," Dr. Alan G. Pocinki, a Washington, D.C., internist, told a meeting of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the American College of Physicians -- American Society of Internal Medicine. Dr. Pocinki, who initially had three patients who developed CFS, now sees about 70 other patients who sought him out because of his interest in treating patients with the disorder."
• Study: Veteran Doctors Not Staying Current But Clinical Experience May Trump Latest Knowledge
  By Sandra G. Boodman, Washington Post Staff Writer, Tuesday, February 22, 2005; Page HE01
  "Alan Pocinki, 45, an internist who practices in the District, said the Harvard study has limitations. Adhering to practice guidelines and measuring performance on recertification exams as some studies did, he said, does not measure a doctor's diagnostic capabilities, clinical judgment or other skills, which often accompany experience. Pocinki said he is reminded of a saying popular among his medical school classmates at Cornell that 'the top third of the class were the smartest and made the best researchers, the middle third made the best doctors and the bottom third made the most money.' Sometimes, he added, young, inexperienced doctors become overly wedded to guidelines and ignore the patient. 'They're going to follow those guidelines and if somebody doesn't fit, they're going to make them fit,' he said. 'I see that all the time.'"
  

• Dysfunction Junction: The ANS and CFS by Alan Pocinki, MD, FACP
  Research1st. March 5, 2012 (Blog entry)
• Joint Hypermobility & CFS by Alan Pocinki, MD. (PDF)
  Research1st. October 31, 2011 (Blog entry)
• Joint Hypermobility & the Link with CFIDS by Alan Pocinki, MD. (PDF)
  The CFIDS Chronicle. Sum 2004 (PDF)
• Annals of Internal Medicine | LETTER | Dialogue: A Core Clinical Skill by Alan Pocinki
  August 1998 | Volume 129 Issue 3 | Page 253
  
• Clinical, epidemiologic, and virologic studies in four clusters of the chronic fatigue syndrome.
  Arch Intern Med. 1992 Aug;152(8):1611-6.  Levine PH, Jacobson S, Pocinki AG, Cheney P, Peterson D, Connelly RR, Weil R, Robinson SM, Ablashi DV, Salahuddin SZ, et al.
• Pocinki AG. Fireworks over fibromyalgia, CFS, and IBS. [letter; comment].
  Postgraduate Medicine. 102(6):43, 1997 Dec
• Familial nasopharyngeal carcinoma in patients who are not Chinese
  Paul H. Levine, M.D., Alan G. Pocinki, M.D., Patricia Madigan, B.S., Sherri Bale, Ph.D.
  Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
  Cancer. 1992 Sep 1;70(5):1024-9.
  
  

• October 19, 2011
  Autonomic & Sleep Disorders in Chiari Malformation & Ehlers-Danlos Patients
   By Alan Pocinki, MD, at Doctors Community Hospital
   Applies to CFS Patients as well.
  
  
  
• September 2011
  Developing an Individualized Treatment Plan for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
   By Alan Pocinki, MD
   For Pain Connection in Rockville, MD
  
  
  
• March 10, 2007
  Dr Pocinki spoke on Treatment of CFS at the NJ kNOw MORE CFS Seminar
   Info: njcfsa.org
  A DVD is available for rent from NJCFSA.
  Meeting Flyer at CFIDS.org
  "Dr. Pocinki will discuss how to work with a clinician to develop individualized treatment programs to accommodate the considerable variability in CFS symptom expression, in symptom severity and in the efficacy of specific treatment protocols."
   
   
• April 21, 2007 - 2 to 4:30 p.m.
  The Cycle of Pain, Fatigue, Poor Sleep, and Depression, with extra detail about sleep.
  NoVA CFS/FMS Support Group
  Mason Governmental Center, Annandale, VA
  Paraphrasing Dr. P: My discussion will address the importance of treating all aspects of the cycle--sleep, pain, and depression--in order to improve fatigue. Helping one or two alone isn't enough--it's the holistic thing. You can't just fix one piece and expect the other pieces to fix themselves.  For sleep, and of course this applies equally to pain and other symptoms (and depending on time we can talk about them, too) I'll stress that different people have non-restorative sleep for different reasons, so sleep needs to be evaluated, eg with sleep study, to have the best chance of concocting an effective cocktail to improve it. See above.