It's Fibromyalgia & ME/CFS Awareness Day!

Looking Ahead

Fibromyalgia awareness and understanding continues to grow.  As new educational programs to train doctors how to diagnose and treat FM take root and additional treatment options are approved, I think the future for FM patients looks bright and hopeful. 

ME/CFS awareness is a two-sided coin.  On the one hand, thanks to the CFIDS Association's year-long national media campaign to raise awareness, most people are familiar with the name chronic fatigue syndrome; but on the flip side, because of the name, too many people still think ME/CFS patients are just tired.  Despite that gap in understanding, I think ME/CFS researchers are right on the edge of some major breakthroughs, including the identification of subgroups and the development of a reliable diagnostic tool.  Also, the drug Ampligen is scheduled to be reviewed by the FDA this month for the treatment of ME/CFS.  If approved, it will be the first official ME/CFS medication.  Hopefully that approval will do for ME/CFS what Lyrica did for fibromyalgia.  We still have some ME/CFS battles to fight, but I'm confident in the end, we'll win the war. 

Happy Awareness Day!