Their COMMENT:
I have an good background in medicine myself. I know some treatments can work to relieve pain and symptoms. I was curious about your wording suggesting you "cured" fibromyalgia in a patient. I would like to see your research in this area or the studies you have seen as I have not come across any such study.


My RESPONSE:
FMS (fibromyalgia) is a complicated condition and each patient presents differently. Their causes may be different yet their symptoms are the same. I do not treat symptoms - I treat patients.

It is not about reducing pain or reducing fatigue, it is about restoring proper function to the body and eliminating the cause of the problem. I simply find the cause of the problem, remove it, provide support and then patients are better.

You treat symptoms of a FMS patient and you will be run around in circles and so will they. Dont treat the symptoms. Treat them.

Different FMS patients get different treatments.

One patient: I stopped her from taking all of her cleansing supplements and everything else as well. Had her take a hot peat bath. Next visit she literally ran up and gave me a hug. It used to take her 20 minutes to simply get out of bed in the morning. That was only after 1 visit.

Second patient: Removed medications which were causing issues, improved her digestion and thyroid.

Another: Healed the gut.

Another: Removed food intolerances and healed the gut.

This is not all about science here - it is methodology - which is what medicine has absolutely forgotten about. Medicine has broken everything down into tiny little pieces which is crap.

People's muscles, thyroid, ears, colon and lungs are all connected. Why see a different doctor for each one? What if the problem started from taking one medication causing dysfunction in all systems? That would be likely missed as the patient would end up being on 6 different drugs for 6 different problems from 6 different doctors who don't communicate with each other. Then the patient would become even more ill and require more drugs and then dead. That is medicine today.

I had a patient tell me they went to their family doc. Couldnt get in but finally forced her way in as she needed help. She asked about her menstrual pain - doc said I dont do that- go see the gynecologist. She then asked about her ankle, she said I dont do that - go see the rheumatologist. She then asked about her headaches - doc said I dont do that - go see the endocrinologist.

Crap.

So while there is a plethora of research and FMS, that is only a guide to help me but it does not dictate how I approach my patients.

I keep current - very very current on research. But I simply use it as a guide. Nothing dictates my treatment plan more than what comes out of the patient's mouth.

Best
Dr Ben

NOTE: This is an excerpt from my Natural Health Forum. If you'd like to follow the discussion, look here. Who knows how heated it may get - I'm trying to remain calm ;)

Care to comment? Please do. This is exactly why I decided to become a naturopathic physician and I am honored to be among such passionate colleagues. ND's treat the person - not symptoms.