(THIRD PART FROM POST #34)
Please note that I am translating AS IS. This morning, I have a major brain fog and I'm not sure I will do a good job but I will come back later (when I feel less drowsy) to fix whatever is wrong. For the time being, you must enjoy as is... =-)
Dr Denis Phaneuf - Radio interview (May 17, 2011)
At 12 minutes:
Hypovolemia makes CFSers very tired. They can fall easily. If they are standing for seven minutes, they can fall. What do we do? We give them a diet with more salt. You have noticed that doctors never tell their patients to eat more salt, but here it is important to do so. We will ask them to drink more Gatorade. We ask them to wear elastic stockings. We give them some products that will retain the salt in their bodies.
QUESTION: Do we give them drugs? Are they medicated?
We look at each symptom. If they have pain, we give them pain killers. Sometimes, this causes a bit of confusion.
QUESTION: So, as I understand it, there are few solutions?
Let's not be pessimistic. 70% of the solutions will be found by the patients themselves. The other 30% come from the doctors who will give them medicines and different products. Yes, there are solutions. Some are partial, though.
The American Army has done some very good research on women who have CFS. They picked a control group and a group of women who had CFS and they made them work with a few personal coaches (for either emotional distress and/or physical problems).
After one year, 14% of them were able to go back to work. For the group who had an extra psychological help, there were 17% of them who returned to work. So, we can't ignore this small difference (even though it is 3%) when trying to help these patients. It's important.
QUESTION: Is it possible to heal completely from this illness?
I am following a group of patients right now and there are about 15% of them who have healed completely (he used the word "gurison absolue"). 70% of improvement, so life becomes interesting. Unfortunately, there are 15% who stay with their symptoms after 12 years. (***Again, he is talking about the 12 year mark. Can anyone explains where this come from?***)
A QUESTION from a woman who wrote an e-mail:
Are fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue related? Some days, I see a bit of improvement in my symptoms but there are changing daily.
When you suffer from chronic fatigue, you have a risk of 65 - 70% of developping fibromyalgia as well.
If you only suffer from fibromyalgia, you will probably not have the attention deficit. You can read. You can remember things. It's a bit easier. However, the drugs you get will give you a bit of confusion. So, this is why it's changing daily.
And most patients will be able "to do something" for about two hours.
An other question from Louise Charbonneau:
Are "cell phone" towers, wireless wi-fi systems, and objects emetting high magnetic fields can influence this type of illness?
Usually, we don't go into this debate. But here, it is interesting because patients don't have many answers. The brain is a broth. These patients end up with an intolerance to noise, to light, to sound and some are very sensitive to magnetic fields. I have patients who had to remove or move their electric outlets. These patients are very intolerant to many products. When we administer some drugs, we have to start them at very low dose because they can't tolerate anything.
QUESTION:
Is there enough research going on? It's a very complex illness but it's not fatal. Sometimes, there is no cash going into these types of illnesses. Patients can still function.
There are 800 researchers who are working on this at the present but they all work separately. Here in Montreal, Dr Jolicoeur works on the XMRV virus. He will soon publish his work. It is interesting to see all the separate results but the research is not "conglomerated". (He is saying that everybody is working solo and this is why it takes more time to get all the results). The Government of Quebec takes this very seriously and has met many people. So, this will give a bit of hope to all CFS sufferers.
Thank you doctor... bla bla bla
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DONE! Yeah! =-) I can't believe I made it.