What Do You Call a Man with Fibromyalgia?

Do men get Fibromyalgia? man with fibromyalgia What Do You Call a Man with Fibromyalgia? man with chronic fatigueAs the disease of fibromyalgia gets to become more and more common, the people who are diagnosed with it become broader.  It used to be only middle-aged women were diagnosed with FMS.  Men were diagnosed with fibro only a little more often than they were diagnosed with breast cancer.

Why?  My theory about how fibromyalgia begins, which is due to toxicity, is that people manifest disease in different ways.  If you take five people who smoke a pack of cigarettes every day, even though they have been given the same toxin, they will generally have different results:  one will have lung cancer, one will get emphysema, one will get heart disease, one will have seemingly unrelated diabetes, and one will have no problems and die in a helicopter crash at the age of 98.  Obviously these outcomes are for an example only, but the fact remains that we are all unique individuals and we react differently to toxins.

I learned from the biologist Rik Deitsch that people generally fall into one of two groups, when exposed to toxins their bodies either excrete them or hold onto them.  For some reason, people with fibromyalgia seem to hold onto to toxins.  So maybe a lot of men excrete the toxins and never develop a disease like fibromyalgia to begin with.

Also, a man with fibromyalgia may have been diagnosed with something else such as Chronic Fatigue (with pain) or Gulf War Syndrome if they served in the first Persian War.  (Because I am a veteran, and I also served during the first Persian Gulf War, I know a lot about this topic first-hand.)  Also, fibromyalgia is still by some medical professionals to be a “made up disease” even though the symptoms and pain are very real.  And lastly, the disease of fibromyalgia mimics other diseases and men may have other issues such as a back injury that camouflages it.

However, more and more men are being diagnosed with fibro and it is no longer seen as just a disease for middle aged women.  Unfortunately, fibromyalgia falls into the categories of the fastest growing forms of disability in the USA, (http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/).  And, not only are more and more men being diagnosed, but people that are younger and younger, even children.

The good news is people all over the world are recovering from fibromyalgia.  My friend in Australia, Dan Neuffer, (CFSUnravelled.com) documents on video peoples’ accounts on how they have recovered from fibromyalgia and other diseases such as Chronic Fatigue.  He wrote a book about his own healing experience called CFS Unravelled: One man’s search for the Cause of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the Discovery Essential for You To Recover and it is available on Kindle.  (My interview with him will be out on his website soon and I will keep you posted when that happens.)

My greatest wish if for all people, regardless of gender or age, to reclaim their health and enjoy life.