“I have fibromyalgia,” my friend casually mentioned, over lunch some time back. I knew that she had been suffering from daytime sleepiness and more recently, overt fatigue, dizziness and snoring.
I was actually relieved to know that her doctor had diagnosed her, given the medical community’s difficulty accepting fibromyalgia (a disease characterized by excessive fatigue, overall chronic pain, pain when pressure is applied to the body, joint stiffness or pain, sleep disorders and sometimes difficulty swallowing) as a real medical condition.
What I soon came to realize is that my friend never made it to see the doctor. Rather, she “Googled” her symptoms and decided upon fibromyalgia. While her sleepiness, fatigue and snoring could be considered symptoms, I stated that this was NOT a sound diagnosis.
“But you’re the one who doesn’t like doctors.” This led to a discussion which I feel it necessary to share. I have a great respect for those who study hard and dedicate their lives to both saving and enriching the lives of other people, namely, doctors.
What I don’t agree with is hearing only a few symptoms, providing little to no testing and then prescribing medication to alleviate a condition the patient may or may not actually be suffering from.
I do, however, want to state that doctors are necessary and that rather than decide to forgo them altogether and self-diagnose, one should demand to have one’s symptoms taken seriously and to follow up with the doctor if medication doesn’t work or the side effects of that medication are as bad or worse than the actual condition for which it’s being treated.
This leads me back to my friend. Upon hearing my advice to actually visit her doctor (especially since she was suffering from none of the usual symptoms of pain that fibromyalgia sufferers tend to report), she was sent for further sleep studies and eventually diagnosed with Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome, or UARS.
Like sleep apnea, with UARS, sufferers have their airways restricted when sleeping. This is generally because the airway is already smaller than usual and when sleeping, it relaxes to a point that air is restricted, usually causing (but not always) snoring.
Unlike obstructive sleep apnea, the airway doesn’t completely close so the sufferer doesn’t stop breathing completely. Also unlike sleep apnea, the main cause for concern in UARS is actually low blood pressure, not high blood pressure. This condition tends to affect premenopausal and menopausal women more than others.
This is still of concern to one’s overall health because if one’s blood pressure is too low, it does not provide enough pressure to force the blood through the veins and arteries and onto the organs and permanent organ damage can result.
If you are suffering from UARS, I highly recommend both my High Blood Pressure program and my Stop Snoring program. My High Blood Pressure program is designed to help sufferers of low blood pressure because it’s designed to regulate blood pressure. My friend was able to go from using a CPAP machine every night to only using my all natural programs. I believe this can help you as well!
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