Frequently Asked Questions About Finding a Good Doctor for Fibromyalgia
and Connective Tissue Problems
Question: I have many
of the symptoms listed on your site (scoliosis, fibromyalgia, a high shoulder,
sciatica, etc.). How can I find a doctor to help diagnose and treat all
of my problems?
Answer: In my own experience,
I never really found any single doctor that diagnosed all of my symptoms
correctly. The person who helped the most was a rheumatologist who came
up with the diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. He worked with a physical
therapist who was interested in trigger points, posture correction, body
alignment and holistic medicine. That physical therapist was the health
professional who solved 50% of my health issues. (Most of the rest of
my solutions came from reading alternative health books and searching
the Internet). The rest I would say I solved on my own through my books
and Internet research.
Before finding my last physical
therapist, I had probably been to over twenty different dentists, doctors,
chiropractors, yoga teachers, massage therapists, other physical therapists,
etc. Many of my web site
visitors are people like me who have gone to 10, 20 or more specialists
with obvious symptoms only to be told there is nothing wrong with them.
Or if they are fortunate enough to get a diagnosis, often still they are
left without any hope of a treatment.
The problem for me, and probably
many others, was that my problems stemmed from digestive problems, a yeast
overgrowth, nutritional deficiencies, poor posture, trigger points and
unbalanced muscles. Most U.S. medical doctors and other main stream health
care professionals just don't receive a lot of training in these subjects.
I initially put my web site
up to highlight the role of nutrition in birth defects and genetic disorders.
But what I found out was that most of my email was from people with similar,
and in some cases almost identical symptoms as me, yet they never even
reached the point of getting a diagnosis, let
alone any treatment options. They were still on the never ending specialist
visit treadmill, with no hope of a diagnosis or helpful treatment in sight.
A lot of people write to me
hoping they can find one doctor that will diagnose everything and provide
them with a comprehensive treatment plan. I hope the people that write
to me do find someone like that, but based on my own experience and the
thousands of emails I've gotten over the years, that would be highly unlikely
to happen. While it is always important to get evaluated by a licensed,
main steam medical doctor in your search for solutions as a first step,
if the regular doctors can't give
you a diagnosis or treatment, then it is probably time to move on and
consult other types of practitioners and do a lot of research on your
own.
Instead of expecting to find
one doctor to solve all of your problems, it may be more realistic to
take your problems one at a time, and search for holistic solutions. Maybe
a yoga therapist will provide 10% of your answers, a rheumatologist another
20%, a nutritionist 15%, nutrition books another 7%, and so on. The people
who write to me with the most success with their health issues usually
consult a variety of different doctors and alternative health practitioners,
plus do a lot of research on their own. They don't just try one person
or one technique and then give up. They get second opinions, third opinions,
research the Internet, read books, ask questions, visit alternative therapists,
etc.
Knowing what I know now, if
I were starting my search for a doctor over again, I would recommend as
a first step trying to find a medical doctor with an interest in nutrition
and holistic therapies that does cellular nutritional analysis testing.
My resource pages for that are:
How
to find a holistic doctor
Nutrition
testing
How
to find a good physical therapist
Alternative
Health Treatments: What Really Works?
I've personally never been
to an Ayurvedic doctor or yoga therapist, but much of my "break through"
treatment ideas have come from books written by these types of practitioners.
So if you are running out of other options, it may be worthwhile to read
a few Ayurveda books or visit a few practitioners with these types of
backgrounds.
The main yoga therapists' web
site seems to be International Association of Yoga Therapists. Their site
has a place where you can search
for a yoga therapist by location.
People who write to me with
similar symptoms to me own have found help from many different specialties
including massage therapists, chiropractors, yoga teachers, etc. So it
may just pay to shop around and keep trying different types of therapies
until you find some that work for you.
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