Jezebel: fibromyalgia

A new study from the University of Iowa...

Jessica — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:45:00 EDT

A new study from the University of Iowa might help female sufferers of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. Iowa researchers have "found a protein involved in muscle pain [that] works in conjunction with the male hormone testosterone to protect against muscle fatigue" — which might be why women suffer from the pain of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue in much greater numbers than men do. Scientists will continue to study the relationship between testosterone and the ASIC3 protein which might lead to new breakthroughs in the treatment of such painful maladies. [UPI]

What Vague Pharmaceutical Industry-Invented Malady Do You Have?

Moe — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:20:26 EST

Fibromyalgia. It sounds so daunting — like angina! which also sounds like vagina, or chlamydia. And if the pharmaceutical industry's multibillion-dollar marketing machine has any sort of pathway into your consuming psyche, you're probably aware of this hot new disease. Hasn't the industry gotten so much better at naming new maladies since the whole dubious "restless leg syndrome" thing? Anyway, here's fibromyalgia in brief: it affects primarily women around their middle ages — potentially 10 million of them in this country according to advocacy group, which means something like one in five. You'll know you have it if you start to feel "chronic, widespread pain of unknown origin." The pain won't respond to anti-inflammatories, and no one knows where it comes from really, so instead of trying to sell you on something to soothe the pain, the pharmaceutical companies — namely Pfizer — is trying to soothe your brain's perception of pain. Clever! Okay, so here's the shocker: some people think fibromyalgia is a bit, you know, fictionyalgia. And "some people" includes the doctor who named it in the first place.

Why invent a disease? Well, if you've got a drug with a limited market — like Pfizer's Lyrica, originally developed for seizures, it's pretty genius business to make up a mysterious new ailment that a lot of people could potentially have or be scared they have. Where do you think ADD came from? What about "bipolar disorder"? "Irritable bowel syndrome"? Oh sure, those diseases affect one in 1.5 Americans, and we have them too, but:

...Those figures are sharply disputed by those doctors who do not consider fibromyalgia a medically recognizable illness and who say that diagnosing the condition actually worsens suffering by causing patients to obsess over aches that other people simply tolerate.

But why tolerate when you can obsess? And speaking of obsessing, did you know ADD makes people obsessive? I should be done with this post already but I didn't have enough amphetamines today. What about you?

Drug Approved. Is Disease Real? [NY Times]

NYC Billionaire Mayor Totally Hates Babymakers

Jessica — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:00:00 EST

Another woman has accused Bloomberg L.P. of discriminating against the pregnant. Monica Prestia has joined the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's lawsuit against the financial giant. Apparently a barren supervisor was "openly hostile" to the fertile Prestia. That sort of sounds like the fertile crescent. Now I can't stop thinking about vaginas. [NY Times]
Doctors say that exercise helps people who suffer from fibromyalgia. You know, for those few minutes a day when they're not experiencing crippling pain. [Science Daily]
Most hysterectomies are still done the invasive way, by opening up the abdomen and taking out the uterus. Another, less invasive option? The uterus can be extracted through the vagina. On the upside, it leaves no scars. The downside is they're taking your uterus out through your vagina. [Reuters]

Ugh, this guy deserves the chair: a man in Tennessee is accused of shocking his two teenage daughters with electric collars used on dogs and then raping them. [ABC News]
President Moron vetoed a bill that would have provided $310.9 million in family-planning services which would have provided services for 139,000 women. I can't wait for election 2008. [Feminist Majority Foundation]
Some obese women with BMIs over 35 are being denied in-vitro fertilization because of their weight. The British Fertility Society says that IVF should only be offered to women whose BMI is 30 or under because "Obesity reduces the chances that a woman will conceive naturally and decreases the possibility that fertility treatment will be successful." [BBC News]