How To Manage Your Stress

By Lillian F Tighe

Stress and tension are part of most people lives and
threaten your health in many ways. Stress can come in the
form of accidents, financial difficulties, problems at work,
family issues, and poor health. The way to manage stress has
a lot to do with your mental, emotional, and physical
health. The following are some ways that you can manage the
stress in your life:

1. Try to find out what is causing your stress.

2. Examine your life and see if it is possible to make changes
in the areas that are causing you stress.

3. Relaxation techniques such as massage, deep breathing,
meditation, or yoga may help to relieve your stress.

4. Exercise or other physical activity will help you deal with
stress.

5. When you feel overwhelmed by everything you have to do,
create a checklist and arrange your priorities. You will
get satisfaction when you complete the tasks you have set
yourself.

6. Avoid sugar, fats, tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol to help
your body and mind to cope with stress.

7. Getting enough sleep is really important.

8. Find someone to talk to if things are bothering you. You
can talk to family, friends or find a support group.

9. Volunteering can give you a sense of purpose and increase
your self esteem and reduce your stress.

10. Relax by reading a book or watching a movie, listening to
music or working at a hobby you enjoy.

11. Practice anger management. If you feel that you have
problems dealing with you anger find a support group that
you can join.

12. A vacation from your regular life, even if only for a
weekend, will help you deal with stress.

13. Don't take on too much at one time. Learn to take it easy.

14. Don't try to be perfect in everything that you do.

15. Remember that being judgmental is likely to do you more
harm than the people you are judging.

16. Always try to see the amusing side of any situation.
Laughter is the best medicine.

17. Move your head from side to side and rotate you neck in a
circle to reduce the tension in your neck and jaw.

18. Set small and smart goals for yourself and then work
carefully and realistically towards achieving them. Keep in
mind that unrealistic goals never seem to be reached and
this can add to your stress level. Try to set a goal for
yourself this week by using the SMART approach:

SPECIFIC: Choose one little goal and write it down.

MEASURABLE: How will you know when it is done?

ACHIEVABLE: Make sure it is not too big.

REWARDED: When you have finished, how will you reward
yourself?

TIME-LIMITED: Can you set an achievable deadline?


Lillian F Tighe is an authority on healthy living and has
written a book (http://www.besthealthylives.com)
10stepstohealthyliving which you can obtain for free on her
(http://www.besthealthylives.com) healthyliving website

How Mainstream Media Distorts Health Information

I will readily say that mainstream media outlets have a one-sided medical only slant on news when it comes to reporting on current health issues.

An informative health journalism review organization I subscribe to sent out an evaluation that can serve as a very specific example of what I mean.

From the TODAY show here is a 6-minute segment almost completely devoid of evidence and data, riding the single personal anecdote of the network's medical editor. Disease-mongering. Incomplete story on heart CT scans....

I also have to offer that the reference in the video to using statins is not very good information based on the science, even if it is coming from a doctor.

Health Links

UPDATE: 9 April
More on the issue of computerized health records -
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UPDATE: 15 February - We are pleased to see that Bloomberg News seems to think that information we posted previously has merit.
However, based on an NPR interview this morning with David Leonhart, I for one have to wonder how he seems to have been so co-opted to believe that electronic health records are really a cost savings option. He seems more interested in using the collected data to find out how to re-do the health care system and to find out what works.
I guess Mr. Leonhart forgot to look up that study done at Harvard School of Public Health that showed that approximately 80% of health care is ineffective. And this is NOT a new study, its just no one has been very willing to step up and admit it after all these years.

OUTRAGEOUS Fed Health Control Hidden In Stimulus2-14-9

(Bloomberg) -- Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama's stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill's health rules will affect "every individual in the United States" (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and "guide" your doctor's decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and "learn to operate less like solo practitioners."

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

New Penalties

Hospitals and doctors that are not "meaningful users" of the new system will face penalties. "Meaningful user" isn't defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose "more stringent measures of meaningful use over time" (511, 518, 540-541)

UPDATE: Received today: HIPAA Does Not Protect Privacy -

HIPAA Privacy Rule May Inadequately Protect Patient Privacy and Hinder Health Research
Laurie Barclay, MD, Medscape Medical News
February 10, 2009 — The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule inadequately protects the privacy of personal health information and hinders important medical research studies, according to a report issued February 4 by a committee from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).

"We believe there is synergy between the goals of safeguarding privacy and enhancing health research and that it is critically important to our nation's health to strengthen privacy protections and still facilitate research," committee chair and coauthor Lawrence O. Gostin, professor of law and director, O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, DC, said in a news release. "Our recommendations aim to boost regulations and practices that effectively protect personally identifiable health information, while changing provisions of the HIPAA Privacy Rule or its interpretations that have proved to be ineffective."

The report calls for Congress to authorize the development of a totally different approach to safeguarding personal health data in research, distinct from the HIPAA Privacy Rule. Regardless of who supports or performs the research, privacy, data security, and accountability standards should be uniformly applied to data used in all health-related research.

In the interim, the report suggests a series of changes to improve the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the guidance regarding compliance with the rule given by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Furthermore, because security breaches are a growing problem for health information databases, all institutions participating in medical research should heighten their standards for data protection. For example, encryption should be required for all laptops, flash drives, and other portable media storing sensitive data, as these devices can easily be lost or stolen.

Specific recommendations offered by the IOM committee include the following.

Congress should authorize Health and Human Services (HHS) and other appropriate federal agencies to develop a novel strategy for protecting privacy to be applied uniformly to all health research. HHS should exempt medical research from the HIPAA Privacy Rule once this new approach is implemented.

All health records used in research should be subject to privacy, security, transparency, and accountability obligations.

However, if national policy makers opt not to implement the above recommendation and instead opt for continued reliance on the HIPAA Privacy Rule, the committee recommends the following.
HHS should revise the HIPAA Privacy Rule and associated guidance.
Using revised and expanded guidance and recommendations for uniformity, HHS should reduce variability in interpreting the HIPAA Privacy Rule in health research by covered entities, institutional review boards (IRBs), and Privacy Boards.
HHS should develop a dynamic, ongoing strategy to improve empirical knowledge regarding current "best practices" in responsible research designed to protect privacy when protected health information (PHI) is used, and it should promote use of identified best practices.
To enhance privacy in research, HHS should promote increased use of "limited datasets," or partially deidentified data, and develop clear guidance on how to implement and comply with the associated data use agreements more efficiently and effectively. This should facilitate increased use and usability of data with direct identifiers removed.
To ensure appropriate IRB and Privacy Board oversight of PHI disclosures, HHS should clarify the distinctions between research and practice.
To enhance appropriate IRB and Privacy Board oversight of identification and recruitment of potential research subjects, HHS guidance documents should simplify the HIPAA Privacy Rule's provisions concerning the use of PHI in activities preparatory to research and harmonize those provisions with the Common Rule.
HHS should develop guidance materials regarding more effective use of existing data and materials for health research and public health purposes.
To facilitate use of repositories for health research, HHS should develop guidance clearly stating that individuals can authorize use of PHI stored in databases or associated with biospecimen banks for specified future research. As is allowed under the Common Rule, this would be done under the HIPAA Privacy Rule with IRB/Privacy Board oversight.
To simplify authorization for interrelated research activities, HHS should develop clear guidance for use of a single, multipurpose disclosure form. This form would allow individuals to authorize use and disclosure of health information in a clinical trial and to authorize the storage of their biospecimens collected during that trial.
Explaining the circumstances in which DNA samples or sequences are considered PHI would facilitate appropriate use of DNA in medical research.
To improve availability of data sets for research in a way that safeguards privacy, confidentiality, and security, HHS should develop a mechanism to link data from multiple sources.
Sections of the HIPAA Privacy Rule that involve heavy burdens for covered entities and hinder research without providing substantive improvements in patient privacy should be revised.
The requirements for accounting of disclosures of PHI for research should be revised by HHS.
To facilitate appropriate authorization requirements for responsible research, HHS should simplify the criteria used by IRBs and Privacy Boards in determining when they can waive the requirements to obtain authorization from each patient whose PHI will be used for a research study.
The committee suggests that the following recommendations, which are independent of the Privacy Rule, should be adopted regardless of whether recommendations I or II are implemented.
Changes required whether or not both policy options above should be implemented.
All health research institutions, including both covered and noncovered entities, should take strong measures to protect the security of health data. HHS should also support development and implementation of new security technologies and self-evaluation standards.
For members of IRBs and Privacy Boards who serve in good faith, HHS and/or Congress should offer reasonable protection against civil suits to encourage service on IRBs. However, there should be no protection for willful or wanton misconduct.
To better educate the public about health research, HHS and researchers should disseminate research results to study participants and the public and inform the public about how research is conducted and the value it provides.
"The new framework developed by HHS and other relevant federal agencies should provide strong and effective protection for often-sensitive personally identifiable health information and facilitate scientific discovery and medical innovation necessary to save lives and enhance the quality of the public's health," the report concludes. "And it should do so in a way that does not burden individuals with a flurry of health privacy notices and consent forms, or burden our health care system with a new level of bureaucracy and expense."

HHS, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association/American Stroke Association, American Society for Clinical Oncology, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and C-Change supported this study.

Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule: Enhancing Privacy, Improving Health Through Research. Published February 4, 2009.

UPDATE: I have been listening to the Obama PR push for the stimulus plan. Based on his total lack of understanding of the issue of electronic health care records I would encourage you to contact your members of Congress and express your concerns after reading some of the articles here that do address the facts.

Obama may think this approach will develop jobs - and it may - but who will pay for it? The consumer will pay in the end through higher health care costs and higher insurance premiums.

The projected savings in health care costs, based on the Obama plan, is ONE PER CENT (1%).

And it does nothing to improve health care delivery. It is a clerical record keeping system. And who will get access to your records.....
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Earlier today I was a guest on the Katherine Albrecht program. For those of you who heard that interview here are some resources for more information -

Who Gets What: Billions for Health Care Insurance

Computerizing Health Care

Medical Billing Codes

Daschle

HIPAA Facts
*** HIPAA Patient Rights Information

CODEX

Alliance for Natural Health

Diet and Lifestyle

American Health Freedom
Doctor-Patient Confidentiality Relationship in Jeopardy.

The economic stimulus bill, as currently written, mandates electronic health records for every citizen WITHOUT providing for an opt-out or patient consent provision starting in 2014.

The House has already passed this egregious bill and the Senate will consider the bill starting Monday.

"Without those protections, Americans’ electronic health records could be shared—without their consent—with over 600,000 covered entities through the forthcoming nationally linked electronic health-records network," says Sue Blevins, Institute for Health Freedom president.

“President Obama has pledged to advance freedom. Therefore the freedom to choose not to participate in a national electronic health-records system must be upheld,” Blevins says. “Unless people have the right to decide if and when their health information is shared or whether to participate in research studies, they don’t have a true right to privacy.”

The bill provides that a nationwide health information database be developed that allows for the electronic use and exchange of information and that facilitates health and clinical research. HIPAA already permits the disclosure of personal health information without patient consent for treatment, payment, and oversight of the healthcare system. The mandate contained in the stimulus bill is yet another attack on the longstanding doctrine of a patient’s right to consent and right to privacy.

Finally, is the stimulus bill even an appropriate vehicle to pass this unrelated matter of developing a nationwide electronic health records database? A patient’s right to privacy should not be taken lightly. Any restriction on a patient’s right to privacy should be open for discussion.

Please write your Senator and President Obama today to express your concern over the ongoing dilution of patient privacy rights. A sample letter is included for your convenience.

How To Gain Muscle Mass – 3 Common Myths Exposed

The overwhelming majority of misconceptions about gaining muscle mass originate from many places including casual conversations at the gym and self proclaimed experts who don't really know what they are talking about.

Unfortunately, the these misconceptions more often than not lead to wasted time and extraordinary frustration. Indeed, many muscle gain myths can actually substantially set back your progress. You shouldn't listen to and believe every thing you hear at the gym when it comes to building muscle mass.
Very basic principles apply to all muscle gain such as overloading, adjusted frequency of repetition, and heavy weight workouts.

Let's take a look at some of the frequent misconceptions commonly found circulating around gyms:

1. A High Amount Of Repetitions Burn Fat While High Intensity, Low Repetition Workouts Build Muscle – Muscles actually get bigger by a process known as “progressive overload.” This means that you must be able to do more reps than you did the last time you did that particular exercise. If the weight doesn't change and the amount of reps remains constant then nothing really changes on you other than to maintain your present level of strength. If your goal is to burn fat and not build muscle, then your time is better spent on the elliptical machine or in the swimming pool.

2. You MUST Eat Meat To Build Muscle – Before the advent of dietary supplements it was true that you needed lots of meat to build muscle because there were few alternative that could offer as much protein as beef, poultry and fish. Scientific studies have confirmed that athletes who strictly consume protein supplements as opposed to meat generally experience identical muscle gains to those athletes who do eat meat. In other words, you can be a vegetarian and still pack on plenty of muscle mass.

3. Weight Lifting Speeds Up The Metabolism So Efficiently That You Can Eat Whatever You Want- This is actually true provided that you don't give a damn how you look or whether or not you actually gain muscle mass. While intense weight lifting certainly does burn many calories it is by no means an open license to eat anything you like. In reality you should avoid manufactured sugars (those found in soda and snacks) like the plague and always balance your caloric intake with your energy expenditure. A few departures here and there won't hurt you too bad but for the most part you will have to closely monitor your eating habits if building muscle is your goal.

How To Gain Muscle Mass,gain muscle mass fast,gaining mass,gain workout

Today with Katherine Albrecht

At 5 PM EST today I will be a guest on the Katherine Albrecht Show, discussing electronic health records, HIPAA, single payer insurance, universal claim forms, privacy concerns and related issues.

Join us for this lively discussion; tune in, call in or just listen to learn more about privacy and your health.

Natural Ways To Reduce Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against blood
vessel walls as it circulates through the body. When the
heart pumps more blood and if the arteries are narrow, the
higher the pressure. Narrow arteries also make the heart
work harder. Daily life events, such as exercise, stress or
emotions can cause the pressure to rise temporarily. This is
normal. But chronic high blood pressure must be treated.

Some of the symptoms of high blood pressure or hypertension
are headaches, nose bleeding and sweating. Hypertension is
sometimes also said to be the "silent-killer". In some
cases, it's symptom free until you have a heart attack or
stroke.

Blood Pressure numbers:

Systolic and Diastolic are the two measurements used in
blood pressure. For example, 120/80. Systolic, 120 from the
example, is the measurement of the blood pressure during the
heart beat. Diastolic, 80 from the example, is the blood
pressure level when the heart is at rest in between heart
beats. It is said to be in normal range when the measurement
is 120/80.

Diet and life style changes:

Consuming a diet rich in plant foods is one of the best ways
to reduce blood pressure. Plant foods are generally richer
in blood pressure-lowering potassium than animal products.
Also, they are not loaded with sodium, as many packaged
foods are. Salt (sodium chloride) plays a major role in
hypertension. People who consume less salt have little
problem with hypertension.

One teaspoon of salt contains 2,325 mg of sodium. In order
to lower the blood pressure its suggested to take 1,500 to
2,000 mg daily. But remember to consult with your own doctor
for individual intake levels. Some of the main source of
excess sodium in your system comes from packaged and
processed foods.

Some of the foods that are low in fats and high in
potassium, calcium and magnesium, which help lower the blood
pressure, are as follows: Whole grains, fish, nuts and
poultry. Celery, onions and garlic also can help reducing
blood pressure.

Drugmaker's Dollar Daze

For several years I served as a resource person for a hospital based support group for people with CFIDS and FMS (Fibromyalgia).

During that time I worked jointly with an area massage therapist and a physician to develop and review the outcomes of a therapy program I designed.

My remedies are called the Heart Leaf Remedies. This package especially for FMS includes an herbal tincture with flower essences, 6-4 Remedy; our exclusive biosupplemente formula; our special magnesium based formula; a special massage oil, a salve for trigger points, and a special clay for healing baths. The basket of supplements was accompanied by a Tai Chi exercise video. Another of my remedies is called ADVENTURX and while it was developed for sports it has been helpful for people with FMS.

Several people chose to let the physician follow their progress and some were eventually relieved of the diagnosis.

Then about two or three years ago I came face to face with Lyrica, learning about its severe and very risky side effects first hand. And there is Cymbalta that has an atrocious set of statistics from the premarket studies.

Of course there is a great deal you can do to improve your health naturally if you are living with CFIDS and FMS.

And it is not drug related.

More of the story -

Drugmakers' push boosts 'murky' ailment
By MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON – Two drugmakers spent hundreds of millions of dollars last year to raise awareness of a murky illness, helping boost sales of pills recently approved as treatments and drowning out unresolved questions — including whether it's a real disease at all.

Key components of the industry-funded buzz over the pain-and-fatigue ailment fibromyalgia are grants — more than $6 million donated by drugmakers Eli Lilly and Pfizer in the first three quarters of 2008 — to nonprofit groups for medical conferences and educational campaigns, an Associated Press analysis found.

That's more than they gave for more accepted ailments such as diabetes and Alzheimer's. Among grants tied to specific diseases, fibromyalgia ranked third for each company, behind only cancer and AIDS for Pfizer and cancer and depression for Lilly.

Fibromyalgia draws skepticism for several reasons. The cause is unknown. There are no tests to confirm a diagnosis. Many patients also fit the criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome and other pain ailments.

Experts don't doubt the patients are in pain. They differ on what to call it and how to treat it.

Many doctors and patients say the drugmakers are educating the medical establishment about a misunderstood illness, much as they did with depression in the 1980s. Those with fibromyalgia have often had to fight perceptions that they are hypochondriacs, or even faking their pain.

But critics say the companies are hyping fibromyalgia along with their treatments, and that the grantmaking is a textbook example of how drugmakers unduly influence doctors and patients.

"I think the purpose of most pharmaceutical company efforts is to do a little disease-mongering and to have people use their drugs," said Dr. Frederick Wolfe, who was lead author of the guidelines defining fibromyalgia in 1990 but has since become one of its leading skeptics.

Whatever the motive, the push has paid off. Between the first quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2008, sales rose from $395 million to $702 million for Pfizer's Lyrica, and $442 million to $721 million for Lilly's Cymbalta.

Cymbalta, an antidepressant, won Food and Drug Administration approval as a treatment for fibromyalgia in June. Lyrica, originally approved for epileptic seizures, was approved for fibromyalgia a year earlier.

Drugmakers respond to skepticism by pointing out that fibromyalgia is recognized by medical societies, including the American College of Rheumatology.

"I think what we're seeing here is just the evolution of greater awareness about a condition that has generally been neglected or poorly managed," said Steve Romano, a Pfizer vice president who oversees its neuroscience division. "And it's mainly being facilitated by the fact the FDA has now approved effective compounds."

The FDA approved the drugs because they've been shown to reduce pain in fibromyalgia patients, though it's not clear how. Some patients say the drugs can help, but the side effects include nausea, weight gain and drowsiness.

Helen Arellanes of Los Angeles was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in September 2007 and later left her job to go on disability. She takes five medications for pain, including Lyrica and Cymbalta.

"I call it my fibromyalgia fog, because I'm so medicated I go through the day feeling like I'm not really there," Arellanes said. "But if for some reason I miss a dose of medication, I'm in so much pain."

A single mother of three, Arellanes sometimes struggles to afford all her medications. She said she is grateful that a local Pfizer sales representative occasionally gives her free samples of Lyrica "to carry me through the month."

The drugmakers' grant-making is dwarfed by advertisement spending. Eli Lilly spent roughly $128.4 million in the first three quarters of 2008 on ads to promote Cymbalta, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Pfizer Inc. spent more than $125 million advertising Lyrica.

But some say the grants' influence goes much further than dollar figures suggest. Such efforts steer attention to diseases, influencing patients and doctors and making diagnosis more frequent, they say.

"The underlying purpose here is really marketing, and they do that by sponsoring symposia and hiring physicians to give lectures and prepare materials," said Wolfe, who directs the National Data Bank for Rheumatic Diseases in Wichita, Kan.

Similar criticisms have dogged drugmakers' marketing of medicines for overactive bladder and restless legs syndrome.

Many of the grants go to educational programs for doctors that feature seminars on the latest treatments and discoveries.

Pfizer says it has no control over which experts are invited to the conferences it sponsors. Skeptics such as Wolfe are occasionally asked to attend.

The drug industry's grants also help fill out the budgets of nonprofit disease advocacy groups, which pay for educational programs and patient outreach and also fund some research.

"If we have a situation where we don't have that funding, medical education is going to come to a screeching halt, and it will impact the kind of care that patients will get," said Lynne Matallana, president of the National Fibromyalgia Association.

Matallana founded the group in 1997 after she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. A former advertising executive, Matallana said she visited 37 doctors before learning there was a name for the crushing pain she felt all over her body.

A decade later, her patient advocacy group is a $1.5 million-a-year operation that has successfully lobbied Congress for more research funding for fibromyalgia. Forty percent of the group's budget comes from corporate donations, such as the funds distributed by Pfizer and Eli Lilly.

Pfizer gave $2.2 million and Lilly gave $3.9 million in grants and donations related to fibromyalgia in the first three quarters of last year, the AP found. Those funds represented 4 percent of Pfizer's giving and about 9 percent of Eli Lilly's.

Eli Lilly, Pfizer and a handful of other companies began disclosing their grants only in the past two years, after coming under scrutiny from federal lawmakers.

The message in company TV commercials is clear. "Fibromyalgia is real," proclaimed one Lyrica ad. Researchers who've studied the condition for decades say it's not that simple.

Since the 1970s, Wolfe and a small group of specialists have debated the condition in the pages of medical journals. Depending on whom you ask, it is a disease, a syndrome, a set of symptoms or a behavior disorder.

The American College of Rheumatology estimates that between 6 million and 12 million people in the U.S. have fibromyalgia, more than 80 percent of them women. It's not clear how many cases are actually diagnosed, but Dr. Daniel Clauw of the University of Michigan said pharmaceutical industry market research shows roughly half are undiagnosed. People with fibromyalgia experience widespread muscle pain and other symptoms including fatigue, headache and depression.

After 30 years of studying the ailment, rheumatologist Dr. Don Goldenberg says fibromyalgia is still a "murky area."

"Doctors need labels and patients need labels," said Goldenberg, a professor of medicine at Tufts University. "In general, it's just more satisfying to tell people, 'You have X,' rather than, 'You have pain.'"

While Goldenberg continues to diagnose patients with fibromyalgia, some of his colleagues have stopped, saying the condition is a catchall covering a range of symptoms.

Dr. Nortin Hadler says telling people they have fibromyalgia can actually doom them to a life of suffering by reinforcing the idea that they have an incurable disease.

"It's been shown that if you are diagnosed with fibromyalgia, your chances for returning to a level of well-being that satisfies you are pretty dismal," said Hadler, a professor at the University of North Carolina, who has occasionally advised health insurers on how to deal with fibromyalgia.

Hadler said people labeled with fibromyalgia are indeed suffering, not from a medical disease but from a psychological condition. Instead of drugs, patients should receive therapy to help them "unlearn" their predicament, he said.

Research by the University of Michigan's Clauw suggests people with fibromyalgia experience pain differently because of abnormalities in their nervous system. Brain scans show unusual activity when the patients experience even minor pain, though there is no abnormality common to all.

Clauw's work, however, illustrates the knotty issues of drug company funding. He has done paid consulting work for the drugmakers, and he's received research funding from the National Fibromyalgia Research Association, which receives money from the drugmakers.

While Clauw acknowledges that Lyrica and Cymbalta do not work for everyone, he has little patience for experts who spend more time parsing definitions than helping patients.

"At the end of the day I don't care how you categorize this — it's a legitimate condition and these people are suffering," Clauw said.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved