fibromyalgia

Leave a comment Posted on Fibromyalgia, Multiple Sclerosis

Fibro Cruise – Find out more about this innovative vacation and networking opportunity for people with fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis


Fibro Cruise

Fibro Cruise

A couple of days ago I received a fascinating email on MultipleSclerosisTalk which is one of the online Facebook groups we run.

Julie-Anne Braun, an award-winning author and professional speaker, has written a short introduction to Fibro Cruise which we are sharing with you as a guest post.

She writes “It began with a much smaller event we call “East Meets West.” (Started by my Fibro Cruise partner, Sandy Larson.) EMW is an annual gathering where a number of us, who met in Facebook fibro groups, get together in a cabin for 4-5 days.

In 2011, I was “sponsored” to attend. (Someone paid my way, but I can’t say who – I have my suspicions, but am not positive.) I was very nervous, as I had never met any of these people in person. Once I met everyone, and settled in, the weekend was truly life changing for me! I realized just how often, and how much, I tried to hide my pain, or make excuses for it. Suddenly, I didn’t have to do that. If I needed to go lay down, nobody questioned it. They understood. When I was in a terrible flare on the third day, my roommates brought my breakfast upstairs for me. We laughed, we cried, we shared the things we hated about fibro and the things we were grateful for. I made friends that weekend that I now call my sisters.


After attending my second East Meets West in 2012, I was determined to find a way for more people to share this experience. Since it’s not easy to find a cabin for more than 20 people at one time, I considered cruising. I have always loved cruising, and worked in the travel industry before fibro. I reached out to Sandy and a couple of other women, and asked if they would join me in developing Fibro Cruise.

We had our first Fibro Cruise in March of this year. While it was small, it was also spectacular. Everyone in the group had a fabulous time, and plans to attend again. We had to cancel plans for Fibro Cruise 2016 due to some admin conflicts, not enough bookings, and it being too close to the last one for some. As we started planning for 2017, a friend of mine with M.S. asked if she could join us. I have a number of friends with M.S., and thought it would be a good fit to invite the M.S. community to join us.

That’s where we are to this point. We leave for the fifth annual EMW this Wednesday. I am looking forward to it, and will be recording my experience from there.

P.S. It’s worth noting that we DO hope to offer sponsorships for Fibro Cruise in the future. We have our articles of incorporation, and are trying to raise the money to file for 501c3 status so that we may seek donations. ”

To find out more please check out their web site here.

Leave a comment Posted on Pain Management

How the brain responds to pain – check out this fascinating infographic

Over the years we have covered a lot of different aspects of pain and pain management. In particular for our readers with arthritis, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia.

So to supplement this we have shared this rather interesting infographic which looks at how our brains to pain. So we hope you find it enlightening. If you do please consider sharing this page with friends and family.

Click to Launch the infographic How the Brain Responds to Pain from totalinjury.com

Leave a comment Posted on Diet

A cup of coffee each may reduce number of falls in older people says “Rotterdam Report”. But is this true for people with a medical condition?


Coffee and gait

Coffee and gait

gaitAs many of you know I have been studying healthcare , as a researcher, for nearly ten years.

Mainly I look at the ignored of hidden problems which impact people with various different conditions such a multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia.

So I was very interested in a report which dropped into my in-box a couple of days ago.

According to the “European Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that consuming more than one cup of coffee per day is associated with better gait – an important health indicator that relates to the risk of falling, morbidity and mortality, and is influenced by the nervous and cardiovascular systems, as well as musculoskeletal structure.

This research which was conducted at the Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, investigated associations of alcohol, coffee and tobacco consumption with gait, using 2546 participants from The Rotterdam Study with a median age of 68 years.”


Co-author Dr. Arfan Ikram said “Until now, research into the impact of coffee consumption on gait has looked at specific groups and has therefore not provided information on the associations of overall coffee consumption with gait. With this study, we wanted to explore the associations of coffee consumption on gait to assess the beneficial, or detrimental, effects of coffee on general health.”

It seems that 1 in 3 people over 65 have a serious fall, mostly in their home. The impact of falls can result in injuries such as hip fractures and head trauma and often begin the end of independent living for many.

The study used a large population-based sample of non-demented participants with a average age of 68 years and includes all patients who underwent gait assessments between March 2009 and March 2012.

Coffee consumption was assessed as part of a food frequency questionnaire. The results showed that consuming more than one cup of coffee daily was associated with better gait when compared to drinking one or less cups of coffee. Consuming one to three cups of coffee daily was associated with higher Pace (or length of stride) and consuming more than three cups daily with better variability in stride length, pace and turning time compared with consuming one or less than one cup of coffee. Such effects may have important implications on the risk of falling in older populations.

To read the study abstract, click here.

Well so far so good. My interest is how does this apply to you especially if you have a condition such as multiple sclerosis does drinking coffee have any effect.

It would be great if you could share in the comments section below.