This is a really interesting point. In my opinion, fibromyalgia is really a form of CRPS. Fibromyalgia and RSD/CRPS have many similarities: Both involve serious pain and mostly afflict women. However, CRPS is far more involved with more intense pain levels and internal organ manifestations.

Most family doctors and specialists do not have specialized knowledge in the evaluation and treatment of RSD/CRPS. The RSD Association can provide you with an individual in your area who has been shown to demonstrate expertise. Often, however, it becomes necessary to travel to find a physician who treats the disorder on a full-time basis and is up to date with the most current information.

There are many groups and associations that can provide more information. The national organization is the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Association of America.There are many groups and associations that can provide more information. The national organization is the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Association of America.

It is currently estimated that anywhere from 1 to 5 million Americans have been diagnosed with this disorder. It is my opinion that the estimates are low and that the condition is far more widespread.

As with most medical conditions, your doctor will take a comprehensive history and perform a physical exam. Some of the aforementioned symptoms may be evident.

Conventional testing such as x-ray, CAT scan and MRI will serve only to eliminate other possible disorders but will not confirm the diagnosis of CRPS. Nuclear bone scans, once though to be a diagnostic aid have proven otherwise.

I have found that the only test that has proven to be accurate is thermography or Infrared imaging which will show the sympathetic dysfunction and identify the disorder. This test is contact-free and painless making it ideal for a pain-afflicted individual.

As with any disorder, the earlier the treatment is initiated the better the outcome. However, we have been fortunate to have good results in individuals afflicted for months and even years.

RSD/CRPS has no national spokesperson and research funding is limited. Furthermore, because the disease is poorly understood, the chronic pain from RSD/CRPS may be mistaken for pain from other physical or psychological conditions. This leads to a decrease in accurate diagnoses.

No, but this is not unusual in medicine. Many diseases are not "curable" but are treatable and controllable. This is the goal of treatment in RSD/CRPS — to control the dysfunction and facilitate a relatively normal lifestyle.

There are multiple available treatment options. However, treatment always begins with mobilization. Physical and occupational therapy are helpful in the early stages. However, the patient should be cautioned to be extremely careful in their choice of therapy because excessive or incorrect therapy can be quite harmful.

Many also use medications to treat the symptoms. Medications include anti-seizure drugs, muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatory agents and pain medicines.

Interventional treatments include injections, infusions and implanted devices.

Treatment of concurrent problems, such as fractures, disc disorders or other injuries is essential to achieve the best possible outcome in RSD/CRPS treatment.

Recent studies have shown that infusions of Ketamine have been of great help. Ongoing research is testing new forms of treatment.

We have also found that dietary changes have made a substantial difference in reducing the pain and other symptoms. Adjusting the diet to exclude gluten and other highly inflammatory foods has been greatly successful.

Additionally, a positive attitude and support from family and friends leads to better outcomes.

Most of the patients that I have examined have developed problems following an injury. Sometimes this is a motor-vehicle accident, a fall or other significant trauma. However, I have seen the devastating effects of the disorder following relatively innocuous events such as an inadvertent needle stick by a seamstress.

RSD or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (now known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome or CRPS) is a problem caused by malfunctioning of the autonomic nervous system. It usually occurs after a traumatic injury. It is characterized by intense pain, usually burning in nature, which seems to be out of proportion to the event which caused the problem.

Other symptoms include muscle spasms or tremors, increased sensitivity to even light touch, atrophy, increased sweating, color and/or temperature changes, altered hair and nail growth. Patients may also experience many internal manifestations such as hoarseness, sensitivity to light and sound, digestive issues, bladder problems, irregular heart rhythms, gynecologic issues, memory loss and compromised immune system functioning.

Women get the disorder about four times more often than men. There is no age limitation — I have treated patients from 6 to 88 years of age.

Some theories suggest a genetic predisposition for the disorder. In fact, I have treated more than a dozen families with more than one member who suffers from RSD/CRPS.

By: Julie Marron & Thomas Nearney

Each year, nearly 40 million women in the United States obtain screening mammograms for the early detection of breast cancer. For 40% of them - over 15 million women - a mammogram alone is an ineffective screening tool. This information is systematically withheld from these patients, who often rely on false and misleading mammogram results. Our analysis demonstrates that between 40,000 and 45,000 women each year receive false negative mammogram reports, meaning that their cancer is allowed to spread undetected and untreated.

False negative mammograms are not reported or tracked in the United States. However, their impact on the lives of these women and their families is tragic, as an estimated 10,000 will die as a result of the undetected cancer...

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This is an excerpt of an article in 4Wholeness.com

Another way to produce images of the breast for study is by using thermography — a form of infrared imaging that produces a picture of the breast that maps temperature variations. On his website, Dr. Philip Getson describes this technology: "Medical thermography uses infrared technology to provide an image of the body's physiological responses. By detecting thermal asymmetry or by noting alterations of the vascular patterns, the physician now has more information with which to make an assessment of breast, neurological and other conditions." Certified Clinical Thermographer Catherine Johnson further explained that such imaging shows temperature differences that can correlate with various types of abnormalities, of which malignancy could be one...

Dr. Getson explained that while a mammogram study shows us how the breast looks, the thermogram creates a picture of the way it works. He describes thermography as a "breast health risk assessment tool."...

As with mammography, ask about the credentials of both who performs the test and who reads it. Dr. Getson emphasized that the test should be performed by a board certified or board eligible technician and it should be interpreted by a licensed health care provider...

By Samuel S. Epstein, Rosalie Bertell, and Barbara Seaman

Mammography screening is a profit-driven technology posing risks compounded by unreliability. In striking contrast, annual clinical breast examination (CBE) by a trained health professional, together with monthly breast self-examination (BSE), is safe, at least as effective, and low in cost. International programs for training nurses how to perform CBE and teach BSE are critical and overdue.

Contrary to popular belief and assurances by the U. S. media and the cancer establishment- the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and American Cancer Society (ACS)- mammography is not a technique for early diagnosis. In fact, a breast cancer has usually been present for about eight years before it can finally be detected. Furthermore, screening should be recognized as damage control, rather than misleadingly as "secondary prevention."...

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Published by The Nordic Cochrane Centre 2012

What are the benefits and harms of attending a screening programme for breast cancer?

How many will benefit from being screened, and how many will be harmed?

What is the scientific evidence for this?

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By Dr. Mercola

A new study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that increased awareness and improved treatments rather than mammograms are the main force in reducing the breast cancer death rate.

The study, medical experts say, is the first to assess the benefit of mammography in the context of the modern era of breast cancer treatment.

While it is unlikely to settle the debate over mammograms — and experts continue to disagree about the value of the test — it indicates that improved treatments with hormonal therapy and other targeted drugs may have, in a way, washed out most of mammography's benefits by making it less important to find cancers when they are too small to feel...

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By: Susan McLeod-Harrison

I'm a 40-something woman and you know what that means. I should be having mammograms yearly. At least that's what the American Cancer Institute says. "

Although the US Preventive Services Task Force now says the exam should usually start at 50, who doesn't start worrying at 40? The Breast Cancer Research Foundation's home page says: "The biggest risks for breast cancer are being a woman and aging." This statement seems like a scare tactic in light of the fact that most women will never get breast cancer...

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The American Cancer Society's (ACS) statistics on breast cancer are shocking. Every three minutes in the United States alone, another woman is diagnosed with the dreaded disease, which annually claims the lives of more than 40,000 women.

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FINDINGS (reported from correlational study): "Women who wear a bra 24 hours a day are 125 times as likely to develop [breast] cancer as women who don't wear one ... Women who wore bras for more than 12 hours (per day) but did not sleep in them had 21 times the risk as women who wore bras for less than 12 hours" ...

"Singer [found that] 'three out four women who wore their daytime bras to sleep contracted breast cancer.' So did one out of seven women strapped into a bra more than 12 hours a day." ...

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By Samuel S. Epstein, Rosalie Bertell, and Barbara Seaman

International Journal of Health Services, 31(3):605-615, 2001.

Mammography screening is a profit-driven technology posing risks compounded by unreliability. In striking contrast, annual clinical breast examination (CBE) by a trained health professional, together with monthly breast self-examination (BSE), is safe, at least as effective, and low in cost. International programs for training nurses how to perform CBE and teach BSE are critical and overdue.

Contrary to popular belief and assurances by the U. S. media and the cancer establishment- the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and American Cancer Society (ACS)- mammography is not a technique for early diagnosis. In fact, a breast cancer has usually been present for about eight years before it can finally be detected. Furthermore, screening should be recognized as damage control, rather than misleadingly as "secondary prevention."

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by Dr. David Williams

Breast Massage Technique Will Enhance Lymphatic Drainage Research indicates that wearing a bra for prolonged periods of time during the day can impede the drainage of harmful fluids from breast glands. The following massage technique, done once a night, will enhance lymphatic drainage from the breast.

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By Dr. Mercola

The use of mammograms has dropped following recommendations by a medical task force that women in their 40s may not need to get breast cancer screenings every year. Studies suggest that fewer physicians are recommending annual mammograms for women in their 40s, and that fewer patients in that age group are getting screened.

In November of 2009, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a federal advisory board, said that yearly mammograms should not necessarily be automatic at age 40. They did recommend routine mammography screenings every two years for women ages 50 to 74.

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By: Dr. Mercola

Some days I wonder if this is all a bad dream. How on earth have we come to this craziness? The latest and greatest "preventative" strategy for women genetically predisposed to breast cancer is amputation, which puts the wheels in motion for this type of "preventive surgery" to be covered by health insurance.

I'm referring, of course, to Angelina Jolie's recent and very public decision to undergo a double mastectomy as a prophylactic measure.  While she admits this is a very personal decision, the impacts to the public could be quite significant based on her celebrity influence.

Why Does US Recommendations Place Women with Gene Defects at Even Greater Risk? ...

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by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

Insulin resistance — also called syndrome X — is so pervasive today that we evaluate nearly every woman who visits our clinic to determine her level of risk. Most are taken aback when they learn they either already have insulin resistance syndrome (some are even pre-diabetic) or are well on their way to developing it. Experts estimate that 25% of all Americans suffer from insulin resistance. We believe the percentage is much higher among perimenopausal women.

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by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

Most conventional doctors still tell women that menopause — and all menopause and pre-menopausal symptoms — result from a drop in estrogen production. [n their view the solution is estrogen supplementation, or HRT, usually with synthetic hormones. In contrast, many alternative practitioners believe that women have too much estrogen, leading to a condition known as "estrogen dominance."…

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Among the many sources of ionizing radiation are traditional X-rays, computed tomography (CT) scans, fluoroscopy, and other medical radiological procedures. A newer source of X-rays is the use of backscatter scanners in airport security (Brenner, 2011). Sources of gamma rays include emissions from nuclear power plants, scientific research involving radionuclides, military weapons testing, and nuclear medicine procedures such as bone, thyroid and lung scans (EPA, 2005).

In 2005, the National Toxicology Program classified X-radiation and gamma radiation as known human carcinogens. Although some scientists challenge this prenme (e.g., Habron, 2012), most agree that there is no such thing as a safe dose of radiation (Brenner, 2003; NRPB, 1995). A 2005 National Research Council report confirms this finding stating that "the risk of cancer proceeds in a linear  fashion at lower doses [of ionizing radiation] without a threshold and ... the smallest dose has the potential to cause a small increase in risk to humans" (NRC, 2005).

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What is Serrapeptase?

Serrapeptase is an enzyme naturally produced by friendly serratia bacteria living in the intestines of silkworms. Living organisms produce enzymes to help speed up specific chemical processes. Jn the case of serrapeptase, it helps speed up the breakdown of proteins, making it a proteolytic enzyme (1).

Serrapeptase Benefits

Although the role of serrapeptase in nature is to literally eat through silkworm cocoons, researchers have found that it performs other hugely beneficial tasks in the human body. When taken orally on an empty stomach , serrapeptase is absorbed by the small intestine and enters the bloodstream (2). There it works throughout the body to break down protein debris that over-stimulates the immune system and triggers inflammation . It also digests proteins that make up scar tissue, blood clots, cysts, mucus and arterial plaques, among others (3]. Since living tissue is not broken down by serrapeptase, taking serrapeptase enzyme supplements poses no threat to healthy tissue or cells.

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This information will help you read a food label. It is based on the research we have done by interviewing food processors and experts in the field of food science.

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by: David A. Steenblock D.O.

Most people have heard of "monosodium glutamate" (MSG), but ask them what it is, and most will say "a preservative?" Therein lies the tragedy. Because "MSG" is not a preservative, but an "excitotoxin", and excitotoxicity is just as the name implies: toxic.

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Suggestions to help you find a healthy middle ground between no sugar and sugar binges.

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Three essential oil sprays, crafted to assist you in creating your desired intentions. Choose Abundance, or Clean the Air..., to dissipate disruptive energy and germs, or Love Potion #7 , to increase unconditional love of self and others.

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Learn about the top 10 foods to avoid, the top 10 personal care ingredients to avoid, and the top 10 cleaning ingredients to avoid.

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The following toxins are among the most prevalent in our air, water and/or food supply. This list is by no means all-inclusive, as thousands of other toxins are also circulating in our environment. Keep reading to find out tips to avoid these toxins and others as much as possible.

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Learn about the Living and Raw Food Groups.

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Learn about the top 10 reasons to buy organic including: protect future generations, prevent soil erosion, protect water quality, save endrgy, and more.

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Everyone knows it is healthy t9 eat fresh, uncooked fruits and green vegetables every day. That isn't a new concept. A living and raw foods lifestyle simply says that these foods should be the majority of what we eat. Anyone can enjoy improved health and vitality by incorporating and abundance of these foods into their daily diet.

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