Author Description

Still Hurting? FIND HEALTH presents a new model of disease, which empowers readers suffering with pain, symptoms (e.g., fatigue), and symptom syndromes (e.g., irritable bowel, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue) that doctors can't explain. Whatever their philosophical, spiritual, religious, or secular world views, readers will discover how and why they hurt and what they can do to help themselves and work effectively with their caring professionals. EVERYONE HURTS. Everyone is symptomatic from time to time, and many hurt chronically. Symptoms include pain anywhere (such as head, jaw, neck, back, chest, abdomen, pelvis, or bladder), or pain everywhere (widespread pain), stomachaches associated with bowel trouble, and/or fatigue. One in every two primary care patients suffers from symptoms that cannot be explained by medical tests. Nevertheless, they are real symptoms, which are not imagined or all in the mind. In fact, we are all part of a worldwide epidemic of these medically unexplained symptoms, which leaves sufferers and their caregivers-physicians, psychologists, spiritual counselors, and alternative healers-frustrated, fragmented, and confused. Increasing the complexity of the diagnostic problem are specialists who label collections of these medically unexplained symptoms as symptom syndromes called, functional somatic syndromes or central sensitivity syndromes ( functional refers to how the body works and central refers to the mind/brain). Examples of these syndromes include, tension headaches, irritable bowel, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and multiple chemical sensitivity. Scientific studies confirm that medically unexplained symptoms and symptom syndromes frequently occur together and overlap, and that they are commonly associated with stress, depression, and/or anxiety. These interrelationships of symptoms and symptom syndromes are very confusing and difficult for both patients and caregivers to understand. All too often, patients do leave doctors offices feel