All About Fibromyalgia: A Guide for Patients and Their Families

by Daniel J. Wallace, Janice Brock Wallace

This year, six million Americans--most of them women--will go to their doctors, complaining of an illness they have no name for. The majority will be turned away or treated for depression; the few who persist will go to an average of four doctors before they receive the correct fibromyalgia.
In their earlier Making Sense of Fibromyalgia , noted medical writer Janice Wallace and Dr. Daniel Wallace, a leading expert on this disorder, provided a comprehensive guide--for both patients and professionals--to this little known and poorly understood syndrome. Now, in All About Fibromyalgia , the Wallaces provide a thoroughly revised and updated version of that highly successful volume, incorporating a wealth of new information. This edition provides the current understanding of the disease as well as the latest drug treatments--all laid out in clear and accessible language.
As in the previous volume, the authors provide a detailed, yet clear explanation of the disease. Fibromyalgia, they explain, is a form of chronic neuromuscular pain, a pain-amplification syndrome brought on by abnormal interactions between hormones, the immune system, neurotransmitters, and the autonomic nervous system. Sometimes the syndrome occurs spontaneously; in most cases, the authors write, it is associated with trauma, stress, such conditions as lupus and hypothyroidism, and over forty microbes, from hepatitis to Epstein-Barr to Lyme disease.
Drawing on actual cases to illustrate their points, the authors help break through the isolation that patients often feel when doctors misdiagnose or simply ignore their symptoms. All About Fibromyalgia addresses a desperate need for information on this disease and offers reassurance to patients and their families.

Genres: Health

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Daniel Jeffrey Wallace is an American rheumatologist, clinical professor, author, and fellow. Wallace has published 400 peer reviewed publications, 8 textbooks, and 25 book chapters on topics such as lupus, Sjögren syndrome, osteoarthritis, and fibromyalgia. He has the largest cohort of lupus patients in the United States (2000).

A full professor of medicine (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA), he is associate director of the Rheumatology Fellowship Program at Cedars-Sinai. His seminal contributions to research include being an author of the first paper to demonstrate vitamin D dysfunction and the importance of interleukin 6 in lupus, conducting the first large studies of apheresis in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and insights into the mechanisms of action of antimalarials.

Wallace's research accomplishments also include conducting many clinical rheumatic disease trials, examining the role of microvascular angina and accelerated atherogenesis in lupus, and work on anti-telomere antibodies which have garnered him 5 papers in The New England Journal of Medicine. Wallace's monograph, The Lupus Book, has sold over 100,000 copies since 1995.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful resource although some of it is a little technical for the average Fibro-warrior.