Do You Have Fibromyalgia? Respond to the NY Times Article!

Do You Have Fibromyalgia?  Respond to the NY Times Article!

by Marilyn Mackenzie

 

Do you have fibro or know someone who does?  I don't know about you, but I thought that having the Food and Drug Administration approve a drug specifically for fibromyalgia was a breakthrough in having this disorder recognized.

Today, I received a shocking email from The FMS Community.

Here's what the email said:

Controversial Article in the New York times 

In the interest of fairness we included an article written by Alex Berenson that was published on the front page of the New York Times.

This controversial article has sparked discussion around the globe. The author insinuates that Fibromyalgia is not a valid condition. How many people have read his work and formed an opinion based on this one man's opinion?

Make your voice heard by sending us your thoughts on this controversial article. (posted below)

We will compile your comments into one document and send them to the New York Times in protest.

Please make sure all posts are free of profanity or other unsuitable content. These type of posts will be omitted from the mass mailing.

Send all comments to turn_ip@cox.net

Sign the posts with the name you want displayed in the final copy. 

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I have not included the entire front page article that appeared in the New York Times, as the FMS Community did in the email.  Instead, I included a link to that page where you can read it for yourself.

Here are a few lines from the article, written by ALEX BERENSON that appeared on the front page of the NY Times:

But doctors who are skeptical of fibromyalgia say vague complaints of chronic pain do not add up to a disease. No biological tests exist to diagnose fibromyalgia, and the condition cannot be linked to any environmental or biological causes.

The diagnosis of fibromyalgia itself worsens the condition by encouraging people to think of themselves as sick and catalog their pain, said Dr. Nortin Hadler, a rheumatologist and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina who has written extensively about fibromyalgia.

"These people live under a cloud," he said. "And the more they seem to be around the medical establishment, the sicker they get."

Dr. Frederick Wolfe, the director of the National Databank for Rheumatic Diseases and the lead author of the 1990 paper that first defined the diagnostic guidelines for fibromyalgia, says he has become cynical and discouraged about the diagnosis. He now considers the condition a physical response to stress, depression, and economic and social anxiety.

"Some of us in those days thought that we had actually identified a disease, which this clearly is not," Dr. Wolfe said. "To make people ill, to give them an illness, was the wrong thing."

Here's the rest of the article:  Drug Approved: Is Disease Real?

 

If this makes you angry, please either write directly to the New York Times or direct your letter to Alex Berenson or send your response to the email address above so the FMS Community can respond in one document.

The FDA finally approved a drug specifically for fibro.  We don't need to go backwards and have doctors, our families and the community at large wondering if what we suffer is real.