Will You Write the Letter of the Week?

Starting with the next issue we'll be featuring a "Letter of the Week." If your letter to the FM Newsletter is chosen as a winner, you will receive a $25 gift certificate for ProHealth Supplements. Why? As always, we want to ensure that our newsletters and online community are shaped by your input.

To encourage this flow, here are some ideas to get you thinking.

n We're working on a website redesign to make our very big, very busy ImmuneSupport.com community portal as empowering and user-friendly as possible. We need your suggestions on that, so please take a thoughtful look.

n On the newsletter outreach side, what are your preferences and needs? What information and news will be most useful to you?

n And on a personal note, what has given you a lift or a laugh? What are your feelings about your disease, your triumphs, your fears - and most important, tips about things you have done for your illness that might work for others?

In other words, we're wide open. So get busy... write that winning letter .

Yours for better health,

Rich Carson
CFS Patient and ProHealth Founder

Rich's Mercury Detox Story

Researchers believe toxins such as mercury may play a role in many cases of FMS and CFS. As Rich Carson explains, his own progress toward recovery from CFS began with a diagnosis of mercury poisoning and a multi-pronged detox regimen.   more

An Elimination Diet to Test for Food Sensitivities

Specialists agree food sensitivities affect many Fibro patients, and an elimination diet is the best method of assessing these sensitivities, says Clinical Nutritionist Blake Graham. "Everyone with FM/CFS, migraines, IBS/IBD, eczema, hives, ADHD, and other chronic conditions should try this diet at some stage!"*   more

Fibromyalgia Patients' Guide to Exercise

An exercise physiologist's basic guidelines for moving your body to reverse the muscle-weakening cycle of exercise = pain = fear of exercise that is so common among FM sufferers.   more

Fast Forward to 2007: Update from a CFS/FM Patient on Marshall Protocol

In July 2005, a CFS/FM patient described her encouraging progress on the experimental Marshall Protocol. The protocol, which must be managed by a physician, addresses what Professor Trevor Marshall has termed "Th1" illnesses, which he theorizes may be implicated in some patients diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, CFS, and Lyme disease. Here's her update.*   more

Coping Skills Training for Adolescents with Fibromyalgia

A 34-week study for patients ages 11 to 18 is recruiting in four cities.   more

Growth Hormone Stimulating Drug for FM Symptoms

Studies indicate many Fibromyalgia patients are growth hormone deficient. This Phase II study is testing the effect on FM symptoms of an orally-administered growth hormone stimulating drug.   more

Trial of Eszopiclone (Lunesta®) for Insomnia & Other FM Symptoms

A Phase IV study at New Jersey's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is testing the sleep drug...   more

Oregon FM Research Team Patient Database

FM patients who would consider participating in a clinical study conducted by Oregon Health & Science University's Fibromyalgia Research Team are invited to register.   more

• Green tea supports healthy 'good' & 'bad' cholesterol levels
  
  
• Czech study links dental metals, systemic inflammation
  
  
• Potential benefit of supplemental growth hormone for FM
  
  
• Computerized pressure cuff used to screen for FM
  
  
• Mayo FM pain rehab delivers benefits with reduced medication
  
  
• Reasons to suspect joint origin of migraine, RLS, FM
  
  
• Muscle contraction-induced pain greater in FM patients
  
  
• Basis for design of better FM/CFS pain evaluation methods
  
  
• Overcoming lack of evidence-based care in pediatric rheumatology
  
  
• Overview of fMRI studies of central brain mechanisms in FM pain
  
  
• Understanding, diagnosis, & treatment of FM in Malaysia/Singapore
  
  
• Physicians share their view of FM patient drug-seeking behavior
  
  
• Model for advocacy groups to initiate, conduct, speed research
  
  
• Weather impact on FM pain greater in more recently diagnosed?
  
  

Lisa, vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins, and Eskimos.
- Homer Simpson

Finding Fellowship

By now most of us have discovered that we do not have to go through recovery and try to manage our pain alone. We know there are many others just like us who need us as much as we need them. Our greatest and most dominant link is that we have chronic pain and that we are willing to go to any lengths to cope with it.

Finding fellowship with others who have chronic pain is only a phone call away. But this may as well be a thousand mile journey by foot if we are afraid and unwilling to reach out to others. In many cases, it will be up to us to search out this fellowship we want - and in most cases, need. Will we be the ones to take the first step today?

From Living With Chronic Pain One Day At A Time, by Mark Allan Zabawa

Published by ProHealth, Inc., ImmuneSupport.com is the Web's largest resource for Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Since 1988, ProHealth has raised and donated over 2.5 million dollars to CFS and FM research and advocacy groups seeking a cure. We believe in "commerce with compassion."

Every purchase made at ImmuneSupport.com funds research - as does every purchase made from ProHealth's Health Resource catalog.

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If you have any comments, suggestions or ideas, please let us know. Include your full name if you agree that we might share your letter with other readers.

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