What’s Wrong With You?

Sudbury, ON – The kind, gentle old family practitioner keeping an eye out for the patient’s overall health is a thing of the past. These days, doctors are as swamped with HMO paperwork as they are with patients. The New England Journal Of Medicine reports the average doctor’s appointment lasts less than 22 minutes. An American Medical Association report sites patients changing health insurance providers as a reason few have the same ‘family doctor’ watching over them year after year. It’s becoming the patient’s responsibility to keep an eye on their own changing health, guide their doctors, and do their own bodies ‘preventive maintenance.’In his new book, “Medical Crisis: Secrets your doctor won’t share with you,” Dr Anthony Martin asserts that breast cancer and prostate cancer are nearly 100-percent preventable. It takes more than 5 years for most cancers to grow to the size of the tip of a ball point pen. By the time cancer is found by routine blood tests or feeling a lump, the patient may have missed precious time.“Your car has dashboard warning lights to alert you that the oil is low, or you’re out of gas,” says Dr. Martin, “The body has those same warning signals. You just have to know how to read them.”Here are Dr. Martin’s 4 warning signs to find out if you are on the path to cancer, stroke or other illnesses:1) Energy. “If you’ve been tired for three weeks straight, your body is trying to tell you something is wrong.” Long-term fatigue is tied to red blood cells. Red blood cell problems can lead to liver, kidney or brain trouble. Check yourself: Ask your doctor for a simple blood test.2) PH Balance. 70-percent of the human body is water. Water, like in your swimming pool, is either acidic or alkaline. An unbalanced PH (Potential Hydrogen) is a breeding ground for cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and pre-mature aging. Check yourself: Ask your doctor for a saliva test.3) Free Radicals. The body produces free radicals as a process of detoxifying itself. When balanced, they are used by the immune system to destroy bacteria and viruses. Unbalanced free radicals can lead to cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, arthritis or Alzheimer’s. Check yourself: Ask your doctor for a urine test.4) Inflammation. You need cells to ‘puff up’ to stop bleeding – but too much can strangle the arteries and cause coronary heart disease. Fat cells are a side affect of obesity. Too many fat cells or cells that are too ‘puffy’ can lead to asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Check yourself: Ask your doctor for a blood test.Most doctors know these warning signs, but few sit back to contemplate how these symptoms work together to affect your health. “More than half of people who make appointments with their doctor complain of fatigue,” says Dr. Martin, “But doctors rarely bother to ask why you’re tired, or how that affects long-term health. They (doctors) wind up prescribing sleeping pills, or dealing with the short-term affects of exhaustion. They don’t stop to think that lack of energy is a big, red, flashing warning sign that something is seriously about to go wrong with the body.”Dr. Martin suggests once you’ve got a realistic idea of where you stand – you can start giving yourself the antidote. “Change your attitude, change your diet, change your exercise habits and change your supplements.”“So much of what Americans are dying from these days is 100-percent preventable,” says Dr. Martin. “These four tips really can save your life.”

At the moment of writing this article, there is not an entry in the Social Security Disability Listing for Impairment for the condition Fibromyalgia. Nor is there for its other names commonly used such as fibromyositis or Myofacial Pain Syndrome. Getting denied of claims is quite common ground for Fibromyalgia patients, but this doesn’t have to be the case.

There is hope for the fibromyalgia patient who needs to claim disability. Many fellow sufferers have gone on to win their cases, you likewise can. The trick is to pursue the claim of disability through the appeal process.

After a person files at the Social Security Office, the case is transferred to DDS, an agency responsible for making the decisions on Disability. Once it is in this agency, the claim is assigned to a specialist who then makes the determination to approve or decline the disability claim.

So why is it so hard to get approved for disability when fibromyalgia is so disabling? Well, the reasons are many. SSD will generally give very little weight to this condition because the condition is not well understood. Your chances get even less when there is not another condition that is accompanying it such as arthritis or some degenerative disease.

Part of the problem is also that the causes are not fully understood and symptoms can range from mild to severe, from one patient to the next. This is why it helps if Fibromyalgia is diagnosed in conjunction with another diagnosis. This is because Fibromyalgia will be seen more legitimately and logical if it is an extension of another “more real” diagnosis.

Another factor is who makes the diagnosis. A diagnosis coming from a Rheumatologist will hold much more weight than if made by a family practitioner or an internist. The label of a specialist holds more umph when it comes to decision time.

This, of course, is no fault of the fibromyalgia sufferer, but there are some tips you can follow to increase your chances of winning your case. The chances of winning are improving as more information about fibromyalgia comes out. So let’s get to the tips for a winning case.

If you want to claim Fibromyalgia for your disability make sure that it has been diagnosed and is in your medical records. If a doctor merely mentions fibromyalgia as a possibility without diagnosing it and charting it, you could be out of luck. So, make sure it is in your medical records.

Make sure that you have been diagnosed by a specialist. If your family doctor makes the diagnosis, have a specialist such as a rheumatologist give you the same diagnosis. Like previously mentioned, diagnosis from a specialist will hold more weight.

This sounds brutal but try not to be diagnosed with Fibromyalgia by a mental health worker. Psychiatrists and those in the mental health arena sometimes overdiagnose patients with Fibromyalgia and so it does not look valid to the SSD agents. If you are diagnosed by a mental health provider, make sure that you are also seen by a specialist such as a rheumatologist to validate the diagnosis.

Be informed and know what’s in your records. Make copies of everything. It is well known that social security disability cases are decided on records. This holds true for all levels of administration that your case will flow through. By obtaining copies of your medical records before you apply, you will have an idea of how your case looks to the decision makers and help you know if you need to see another doctor before applying.

These simple tips will help you in your fight to win your disability case. Fibromyalgia disability cases can be won and the more that do the easier it will get for our fight.

Copyright (c) 2007 Hailey Harris