We were delighted to inform Montana resident Catherine Hanson that she'd won a gift certificate for $250 of ProHealth supplements in our subscriber drawing on Monday, April 9. And Catherine was delighted as well. She responded:

The drawing was our way of thanking subscribers for adding ProHealth's newsletter address (wellness@prohealth.com) to your e-mail address books or contact lists. But for those of you who have not yet completed this task, please do so now - then click "reply" (no message needed) at the top of the newsletter to confirm. This is a simple but crucial step to help ensure that you will continue receiving the newsletters you have requested, despite your local Internet service providers' constant changes.

Please join an informative and entertaining discussion with Dorothy Wall - author of the highly acclaimed book about CFS, Encounters With the Invisible: Unseen Illness, Controversy, And Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Southern Methodist University Press).

Would you like this patient/writer's insights on how she copes with the limits imposed by her illness or with other people's misconceptions about CFS? Or how she came back from a "crash" in 1995, what treatments have helped, and how she balances CFS with career and family life? You can also get her views on the need for a new name for CFS, and the ways in which CFS, FM, and other invisible, complex illnesses are raising difficult questions for Western medical care.

Dorothy will be available to chat directly with you! Log into our chat room starting at 2:50 p.m. PDT on Thursday, April 19th and be ready for an enlightening exchange. (See www.dorothywall.com for more information about Dorothy and Encounters with the Invisible.)

Already Registered? Just log on as usual and choose the "Dorothy Wall" room, available starting at 2:50 p.m.

Not Registered to Chat? Pre-register now or log on as a guest starting at 2:50 p.m.

Holistic Specialist Dale Guyer, MD, on Treating CFS & FM

Dr. Guyer updates us on the unique blend of traditional and integrative therapies he employs with CFS/FM patients. His holistic, evidence-based approach may include selected pharmaceutical drugs - but as an additive to nutritional support and other measures "to normalize a complex internal bio-chemical milieu."*   more

Why Doesn't My Doctor Know This?

Endocrinologist Kent Holtorf, MD, explains that the medical community lags in adopting new 'best practices' as new information becomes available - by as much as 17 years, according to a 2003 report from the National Institute of Medicine.*   more

Dr. Clauw's "Grand Rounds" Update on FM Science & Theory

FM specialist and researcher Dr. Daniel J. Clauw, MD, has written an update for physicians on the evolving study of Fibromyalgia and its treatment - in language that patients as well as their healthcare professionals can understand.   more

Women with Fibromyalgia Invited to Participate in Survey

A DePaul University study is asking women with Fibromyalgia and/or chronic low back pain to complete a confidential survey. Participation will help build a patient profile to improve physician understanding and care.   more

• Evidence pure fruit & vegetable juices cut cardiovascular disease risk
  
  
• Physician education on evidence CoQ10 supports neuroprotection
  
  
• Dietary management of fructose malabsorption symptoms in IBS
  
  
• Dietary soy isoflavones (in soy protein) support 'bad' cholesterol reduction*
  
  
• Low-dose DHA (Omega-3) supports lower blood pressure in middle-aged*
  
  
• Low blood ferritin (iron-storage) linked to depression as well as RLS*
  
  

• Premature gray matter loss found in FM; may be linked to pain/mood
  
  
• Guide to assessing/treating chronic FM & other pain in older adults
  
  
• Primer on creating clinical trial unit for FM and other rheumatic diseases
  
  
• Peer relationship problems in adolescent FM patients
  
  
• Drug normalizes growth hormone in exercising FM patients; but not IGF-1
  
  
• Fibromyalgia, facial expression and emotional experience
  
  
• Usefulness of Spanish version of Chronic Pain Coping Inventory-42
  
  
• Anxiety-associated immune activation in diarrhea-predominant IBS*
  
  
• IBS, IC, CFS, depression more frequent in endometriosis patients*
  
  
• Hyaluronic acid promising alternative Interstitial Cystitis treatment
  
  

The creed of the IRS is simple: "If we can bring one little smile to one little face today, then somebody's slipped up somewhere." - David Frost

A Family Affair

Chronic pain not only affects us, it affects our family and friends as well. They have felt our pain and witnessed our descending journey to the depths of our despair. They have felt our frustration and our fear and they have come to know a pain all their own.

Today we must realize that our family and friends may need help just as we do. For one of us to get help and not the other can prove to be unsuccessful. In a relationship we look to each other for support and guidance, not for turmoil and frustration. To increase the chances of recovery within the family today, we must treat chronic pain as a family affair.

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 2.61 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.

Visit ImmuneSupport.com

Our Mission: Empower patients to take control of their health by providing research & treatment information, advocacy & targeted health products. more

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