Selected News - 2005

• Stopping the Hurt Washington Post, DC - Jan 4, 2005
  For Some, Recent Safety Concerns About Pain Relievers Are Heightening Interest in Drug-Free Treatments, Many of Them Promising But Still Largely Unproven.
  Gwenn Herman knows chronic pain -- the regular backaches, the stiffness and freezing of her neck after her 1995 car accident, the pain that didn't respond, or responded inconsistently, to prescription and nonprescription painkillers. That's why she learned, long before last month's rash of safety alerts about three commonly used pain medications, to explore alternative treatments like meditation, guided imagery and breathing exercises. Today, she teaches the techniques, all of which she uses daily, to members of support groups sponsored by the Pain Connection, a Potomac-based nonprofit organization she runs. "What works for one person doesn't work for another," said Herman. "The more alternatives, the better." ...
• Smart Ways of Banishing Fatigue Natural Health Magazine - Feb 2005
• Sensitivity Workshop: A Retreat in Rural Virginia Thrives on Owners' 'Healthy House' Standards Washington Post, DC - Jan 20, 2004
• Exercising Discretion: Weekly Check on Health Care Costs and Coverage
  Washington Post - Mar 7, 2005
• A Patient's Journey with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis British Medical Journal - 
  Mar 19, 2005   > For pdf version of complete article, click here
• Chronic fatigue patients show lower placebo response 
  Medscape Medical News - Apr 1 2005
• Is a Trial For You? Washington Post, DC - Apr 19, 2004
• The Rewards of Devotion: Three CFS Patients and Their Caregivers
  Dallas Morning News -  Apr 20, 2005
• The Art of Surrender: Yoga and Fibromyalgia Yoga International Magazine - May 2005
• Is it All in My Head? Psychology Today - May/Jun 2005
  
• CFS: From Skepticism to Science San Francisco Chronicle - Jun 5, 2005
  After 20 years, chronic fatigue syndrome may finally be getting some respect and cutting-edge science by Dorothy Wall
  
• MetroAccess Service for Disabled Is Troubled Washington Post, DC - Jun 6, 2005
• Mind and Body Washington Times - Jun 7, 2005
• Son's Illness Launches Mom's Crusade Free-Lance Star, VA - Jul 5, 2005
• Support Group for Rare Disorder Meets in Sterling Loudoun Times-Mirror, VA -
  July 12, 2005
• Sick and Tired: Dysautonomia is Not Mere Teenage Drama Washington Examiner, DC- July 12, 2005
• Chronic Fatigue is Not All in the Mind New Scientist, UK - Jul 21, 2005
      > Gene Pattern Revealed in Pilot Study CFIDSLink - Aug 2005
      > For pdf of complete report in Journal of Clinical Pathology, click here
• Medical Mystery: Kids and Chronic Fatigue Fox5 News, DC - Aug 2, 2005
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome NBC4.TV, Los Angeles, CA - Aug 4, 2005
• Bone Tired: Sufferers of the Mysterious Ailment Must Cope with a Host of Challenges NY Daily News, New York - Aug 10, 2005
• On Pain's Trail, Exploring fibromyalgia's mysteries, researchers look to the central nervous system, gaining deeper insight into why we suffer.
  Los Angeles Times, CA - Aug 22, 2005
  Summary:
  "The pain of fibromyalgia is not occurring because of some injury or inflammation of the muscles or joints," said Dr. Daniel Clauw, a fibromyalgia researcher and director of the Center for the Advancement of Clinical Research at the University of Michigan. "There is something wrong with the way the central nervous system is processing pain from the peripheral tissues. It's over-amplifying the pain." Although antidepressants that increase just serotonin have been a disappointment in treating fibromyalgia, a new class of drugs may provide better pain relief by boosting both serotonin and norepinephrine. The pain and depression of fibromyalgia are caused by abnormal levels of these neurotransmitters, doctors now believe, not simply by the inability to live life normally. "These enigmatic chronic conditions are all probably central pain syndromes," he said. "People were taught that there is one kind of pain, a pain that occurs in the area of the body where people are experiencing pain. But this notion of central pain, that's where we really need to move."
  Quote:
    For years doctors had been looking for a cause of fibromyalgia at the site of the pain: the head, back, hands, neck, gut or elsewhere. And their treatments focused on soothing pain in these locations. As their understanding has grown, however, these treatments have begun to change and new ones are in development.
    Fibromyalgia is now thought to arise from miscommunication among nerve impulses in the central nervous system, in other words the brain and spinal cord. This "central sensitization" theory is described in detail this month in a supplement of the Journal of Rheumatology. The neurons, which send messages to the brain, become excitable, exaggerating the pain sensation, researchers have found.
    As a result, fibromyalgia patients feel intense pain when they should feel only mild fatigue or discomfort — such as after hauling bags of groceries. They sometimes feel pain even when there is no cause. See also this blog.
• University of Maryland Medical Director Resigns to Co-Found Fibromyalgia Clinic Based on New, Unique Treatment Model PRWeb, Washington, DC - Sept 3, 2005
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Little-Understood Disease Baltimore Sun, MD -
  Sept 9, 2005
  Review: A slew of research - more than 2,000 scientific papers by some counts - is suggesting that chronic fatigue is not a psychiatric illness, but a nasty mix of immunological, neurological and hormonal abnormalities.pers by some counts - is suggesting that chronic fatigue is not a psychiatric illness, but a nasty mix of immunological, neurological and hormonal abnormalities.
  Summary
  Like [Jean Harrison], many people with chronic fatigue are first told they have depression. But the afflictions are quite different - for example, depression triggers an increase in the stress hormone cortisol, while chronic fatigue produces a decline, said Harvard's [Anthony Komaroff]. While depression gets better with drugs such as Prozac, the fatigue of CFS does not. Harrison's perplexing response to exercise is also typical of many chronic fatigue patients - exercise triggers the release of fatigue- inducing immune chemicals called cytokines. People with the disease sometimes can exercise as hard as healthy people, but they feel awful for a day or two afterward, [William Reeves] said. In research published last spring, Christopher Snell at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., showed that some people with chronic fatigue syndrome experience a flare-up of symptoms after exercise. Paradoxically, though, a 2004 analysis of data pooled from five separate studies showed that very gradual increases in aerobic exercise can reduce fatigue in some patients.
• Amy Peterson -- Never too old for Olympic gold Minneapolis Star Tribune - Sep 19, '05
  She attended a training camp at altitude in Colorado Springs. There, the chronic fatigue syndrome that hampered her Salt Lake races returned. ...
  
• Speedskater Peterson leaves World Cup team Minneapolis Star Tribune - Sep 19, 2005
  She is concerned that the arduous World Cup season could trigger a recurrence of her chronic fatigue syndrome, which affected her races at the 2002 Salt Lake ...
• Fibromyalgia - Unique Traditional Chinese & Western Medical Treatment Clinic Opens Open Press - Sept 21, 2005
• Tackling mystery of fibromyalgia Miami Herald, FL - Sept 27, 2005

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