Below is a video of one I found on YouTube. These aren’t bad. They raise awareness and help many people. Just be careful that a well produced TV commerical doesn’t help you part with your money. Consult your doctor or someone whose opinion you trust.

This one is sponsored by Pfizer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

6,000 women is a pretty large number to study and survey. Much better than some of those lame studies where only 38 women were researched, and that 38 women are supposed to represent the U.S. women population. So, this was a more thorough study.

Here is what they found out:

In the survey, women reported chronic pain in the form of fibromyalgia, sciatica, chronic neck pain, chronic back pain, joint pain, chronic head pain, nerve problems, and pain all over the body. Huh? Maybe there is a coorelation?

Here’s more interesting stuff from the survey. The more you smoke, the worse it gets.  Former smokers showed a 20 percent increase, occasional smokers showed a 68 percent increase, and in daily smokers the odds more than doubled (104 percent).

Here is one more HUGE factor when you consider women smokers (HUGE!!).  Daily smoking was associated more strongly with chronic pain than older age, lower educational attainment, or obesity.

Can you believe that? Smoking is worse for you than getting old, your education level (kinda wierd), or being over weight.  Imagine if you are over weight, 50+, and a smoker! That’s a combination that spells more pain right there.

This survey and study was done by the University of Kentucky. Those who did the study came to the conclusion: “The study shows a strong relationship between heavy smoking and chronic pain in women.”

What is missing from this study is the scientific evidence that says “Why???”

I’m not a rocket scientist, and I’m not a smoker, but common sense seems to tell me that smoking causes some kind of break down in the immune system and neuroligical system of the body. Smokers are in complete denial to say that it doesn’t effect their health.

Needless to say, if you have fibromyalgia symptoms and you are a smoker, you might want to give up smoking or learn to love the extra pain.

But, here it is.  New research shows a Web-enabled mobile phone supports self-management of chronic widespread pain in fibromyalgia patients. I believe it is for the iPhone right now… not for the Android.

The intervention included daily online entries and individualized written feedback, grounded in a mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral approach, noted an abstract from BioMed Central, which published the research. The participants registered activities, emotions and pain cognitions three times daily using the mobile device.

I can see this being used by a research firm or some pharmaceutical company wanting to do some studies on the affects of their medications, but not your regular family doctor.

“The therapist had immediate access to this information through a secure Web site,” the abstract noted. “The situational information was used to formulate and send a personalized text message to the participant with the aim of stimulating effective self-management of the current situation.”

Among the results:

• The intervention was rated as supportive, meaningful and user-friendly by the majority of the patients.
• The response rate to the daily registration entries was high.
• Technical problems were few.

“The results indicate a feasible intervention,” the researchers noted. “Web applications are fast becoming standard features of mobile phones and interventions of this kind can therefore be more available than before.”

Among it’s features:

• Track progress in treatment through graphs of FIQR scores
• Email plotted FIQR scores to your doctor
• Browse the National Fibromyalgia Association’s Fibromyalgia Aware Magazine

1. You may be diagnosed by your doctor in part because of your personality type
2. You may be more prone to some disorders because of your personality type

Here is what the article had to say… especially if you are Type A:

People who have disorders, such as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) have been labeled by many medical communities as associated with a certain personality type. One popular nick-name given to people with CFS is “yuppie flu” - which pretty much say it all.

I would be very interested in pursuing this further, because the About.com article even states that it is a fact that you have a lot of type-A personalities in the patient community. But, and here’s the primary question, does that mean it is an accurate indicator?

I know my mother and sister, who both have Fibromyalgia, and my mother also having CFS, are type A. As an example, they would be the type of patients who would push their doctor for answers to their symptoms and turn around and share them publicly.

That could be part of the coorelation to where the stereotype comes from. Which then leads to the question – do physicians diagnose type A patients more often because they tend to be more aggressive?

In case you’re not familiar with the type A and B personalities, here are the basics:

• Type A: ambitious, aggressive, competitive, high strung, intense.
• Type B: laid back, relaxed, patient, and generally not Type A.

What do you think? Leave us a comment here on the blog.  If you have Fibro or CFS, are you type A or B?

Source: http://chronicfatigue.about.com/b/2011/08/25/poll-personality-types-in-fibromyalgia-chronic-fatigue-syndrome.htm