Sand Hill Philosopher

Victory Garden: a follow-up

Well, I made it back to the Victory Garden today. Thanks for the phone calls, email and website visits. Since the post earlier this weekend, "Victory Garden: Overcoming Physical Disability," there were some questions I should answer before next weekends post on Victory Garden.

Fibromyalgia: The Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Fourteen

The Final Installment

Consult your Physician before making any diagnosis, changing medications, diet or other therapies. The information on The Sand Hill Philosopher is not intended to Diagnose or Treat any Medical Condition. Please see previous Blog Warnings in this Fibromyalgia Series.

Over the course of the previous thirteen installments, I have shown you how Shafer's Fibromyalgia Pentad is comprised of five co-morbid diseases. This was also shown to be connected to sugar-intake, particularly High Fructose Corn Syrup, and its stimulation of Insulin Release. This causes a physiologic cascade of complications that connect the five co-morbid diseases in the Pentad.

Fibromyalgia: The Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Thirteen

Consult your Physician before making any diagnosis, changing medications, diet or other therapies. The information on The Sand Hill Philosopher is not intended to Diagnose or Treat any Medical Condition. Please see previous Blog Warnings in this Fibromyalgia Series.

Let's take a moment and recap seven major points that are critical in linking Shafer's Fibromyalgia Pentad together physiologically.

Knowing what you have been taught, and based upon several known facts, as demonstrated in this series on Fibromyalgia, we should consider the following:

Fibromyalgia: the Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Twelve

Consult your Physician before making any diagnosis, changing medications, diet or other therapies. The information on The Sand Hill Philosopher is not intended to Diagnose or Treat any Medical Condition. Please see previous Blog Warnings in this Fibromyalgia Series.

Our last post ended with a schematic of cell wall receptors for insulin, and much of the mechanism for glucose entry into a cell; the chemicals involved in

Fibromyalgia: The Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Eleven

Consult your Physician before making any diagnosis, changing medications, diet or other therapies. The information on The Sand Hill Philosopher is not intended to Diagnose or Treat any Medical Condition. Please see previous Blog Warnings in this Fibromyalgia Series.

Fibromyalgia: The Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Ten

Consult your Physician before making any diagnosis, changing medications, diet or other therapies. The information on The Sand Hill Philosopher is not intended to Diagnose or Treat any Medical Condition. Please see previous Blog Warnings in this Fibromyalgia Series.

We will now resume our look at Shafer's Fibromyalgia Pentad. While we started toward the explanation of FLD previously, and its relationship within the FM Pentad, it is necessary to see the large scope with which we must view lipids (fat), such as its origins, storage and mobilization within the body. Much, if not most of the lipids in an FM patient is processed into that form by the liver. While it enters the body as a sugar (usually High Fructose Corn Syrup, as discussed previously) it is changed to glucose, converted to triglycerides and then stored. Next, we look at the way in which increased sugar "attacks" not only inhibit the liver, but are tied to EVERY other co-morbid disease within Shafer's Fibromyalgia Pentad.

Fibromyalgia: The Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Nine

Consult your Physician before making any diagnosis, changing medications, diet or other therapies. The information on The Sand Hill Philosopher is not intended to Diagnose or Treat any Medical Condition. Please see previous Blog Warnings in this Fibromyalgia Series.

After showing the role of glucose (typically converted from High Fructose Corn Syrup) and describing the normal function of Insulin on Cell Wall Receptor Sites in our previous lessons, I also showed the reader the types of dysfunction that can lead to Insulin Resistance.

The next step is to take a look at Fatty Liver Disease (FLD).

Fibromyalgia: The Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Eight

Consult your Physician before making any diagnosis, changing medications, diet or other therapies. The information on The Sand Hill Philosopher is not intended to Diagnose or Treat any Medical Condition. Please see previous Blog Warnings in this Fibromyalgia Series.

During the first ten years of high glucose levels, the Obesity develops, and after the Obesity reaches a point, typically after ten more years, signs of Insulin Resistance (or, DM-II) begin to develop. I have previously stated that common blood tests do not provide the criteria to diagnose or confirm FM. After learning about Shafer's Fibromyalgia Pentad, I will now show that there actually are some abnormalities in blood testing, but they have not previously been seen as interrelated, and are often subtle.

Fibromyalgia: The Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Seven

Consult your Physician before making any diagnosis, changing medications, diet or other therapies. The information on The Sand Hill Philosopher is not intended to Diagnose or Treat any Medical Condition. Please see previous Blog Warnings in this Fibromyalgia Series.

In previous posts, I have described the conundrum a physician faces in deciding upon the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia (FM), or not. I have also stated that five co-morbid diseases typically accompany one another, and these five diseases comprise the Shafer's Fibromyalgia Pentad. Many patients are wrongly classified as having FM because

Fibromyalgia: Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Six

Consult your Physician before making any diagnosis, changing medications, diet or other therapies. The information on The Sand Hill Philosopher is not intended to Diagnose or Treat any Medical Condition. Please see previous Blog Warnings in this Fibromyalgia Series.

In the last post I drew a relation between five diseases, nominated "The
Fibromyalgia Pentad." These are five diagnoses that are closely related. I also pointed out the timing of the onset of Fibromyalgia (FM) Symptoms, co-morbid diseases, and correlated these with the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup. The Pentad include Fibromyalgia, Diabetes (or, Glucose Intolerance), Fatty Liver Disease, Obesity and Depression.

Fibromyalgia: Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Five

The management of these diseases are often complicated, and mismanagement (including self-management) could lead to complications or death. Changes in your current medical management plan should only be made and monitored by a qualified and licensed physician. Your diagnoses should be confirmed, managed and monitored by a physician.

Fibromyalgia: Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Four

This information is not meant to diagnose or treat any person or disease. At this point, I face a legal responsibility to inform you that while a licensed physician, I am only licensed within the State of Texas. The earlier posts did not recommend any change in therapy in any particular patient, nor should be implied to, nor do the following posts.

Fibromyalgia: Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Three

I closed the last section of this series on Fibromyalgia with the question, “Why thirty years of new disease prevalence?”

Fibromyalgia: Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part Two

Fibromyalgia is so closely related to diet and co-morbid diseases that the disease is almost undeniably connected to them.

Fibromyalgia: Thirty Year Phenomenon, Part One

I believe that Fibromyalgia is a consequence of a nutritional disorder, and can be corrected.