Reviving The Broken Marionette: Treatments For Cfs/Me And Fibromyalgia [Paperback]

Maija Haavisto (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2011

Over 250 medications that can be used to treat CFS/ME, fibromyalgia and related conditions.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

No matter what your doctors tell you, there is hope.

Millions of people struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and fibromyalgia. Most doctors do not really understand these illnesses and the enormous impact they have on the patient's life. Many of them would not think twice about telling the patient there's nothing they can do.

Luckily, this time the doctors are wrong. There are no miracle cures, but both CFS/ME and fibromyalgia can be effectively treated with numerous therapies, which do not have focus on just isolated symptoms like pain, insomnia or depression.

Reviviving the Broken Marionette features

* Over 250 pharmaceuticals that can be used to treat CFS/ME and fibromyalgia
* Possible side effects, contraindications and drug interactions
* International availability and price range of each medication
* Considerations for surgery and vaccinations
* Over 1,000 references
* A glossary and index

Reviving the Broken Marionette is the most comprehensive and up to date reference ever published about the treatment of CFS/ME and fibromyalgia. It provides the latest medical information in a manner that _you_ can understand. Maija Haavisto is a Finnish journalist, medical writer and patient activist. She maintains the only Finnish website on CFS/ME. Firm belief in medicine together with being "sick and tired" of the lack of knowledge of doctors inspired her to write this book. "Doctors should be there to help patients, not make their life even more difficult." She is convinced there is plenty we can do to help our doctors help us better.

About the Author

Maija Haavisto is a 24-year old journalist, medical writer and patient activist from Helsinki, Finland. She has been sick with CFS/ME since 2000. From an originally mild illness she deteroriated into miserable shape over the years, losing most of her mobility and cognitive function. In-depth medical knowledge has enabled her to choose medications with which she has regained most of her lost functionality. Haavisto is confident this book will help other patients understand that their illness is treatable, no matter how severe it is or what symptoms they have.

Product Details

• Paperback: 346 pages
• Publisher: lulu.com (August 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1409203352
• ISBN-13: 978-1409203353
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,288,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a journalist, medical writer and disability/patient activist from Finland, though currently living in the Netherlands. I write both fiction and non-fiction. I have had several textbooks published in Finnish and I am currently working on a new medical textbook in Finnish, to be published in late 2011. My first novel will also be out in 2011.

My personal website is at http://www.fiikus.net

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great overview of the potential treatments for CFS/ME and fibromyalgia, September 14, 2009

By 

jennifer "ghost" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reviving The Broken Marionette: Treatments For Cfs/Me And Fibromyalgia (Paperback)

I developed CFS and fibromyalgia while living in the midwestern US, and the doctors I spoke with were less than helpful. They had few treatment options (which did not work for me), and threw up their hands saying there was nothing they could do, sending me on my way.

Not only was this a great overview of the many potential treatments out there, but it's empowering to see how much thought and research the author has put into the book. This is a great resource to recommend to doctors (if I could afford it, I'd send a copy of this to every doctor who was less than helpful), and a great springboard for more detailed research yourself about specific treatments you think will work for you.

There's a serious lack of literature about CFS treatments, and a serious focus on antidepressant-only treatments for fibromyalgia (at least where I've lived), and this book fills a void.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Easy Five-Star, February 13, 2011

By 

Cort R. Johnson "Cort" (Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Reviving The Broken Marionette: Treatments For Cfs/Me And Fibromyalgia (Paperback)

Another treatment book I thought.......Dr. Teitlebaum's books had pretty comprehensively covered the waterfront for me on that end. What more could a patient authored book offer? It turns out - a lot.

Maija Haavisto is a Finnish writer with CFS who's health was declining rapidly when she found a drug, low-dose Naltrexone. (LDN), that stopped the progression of her illness and improved many of her symptoms. (She used a draft of the book to convince her physician to try it.).

"Reviving the Broken Marionette: Treatments for CFS/ME and Fibromyalgia" focuses on the pharmaceutical drugs used to treat CFS. First she explains how each class of drug works and why it might be applicable. Then she covers how each drug works, study or physician information on each, it's possible side effects, cost and availability in different countries.

She clearly has a lot of contacts as she uncovers treatment after treatment option I had never heard of. A particularly important and now pretty much neglected source is the work of Dr. Jay Goldstein. Her chapter on Nootropics - "smart drugs" that skirt the boundary between stimulants and mood altering drugs (and are usually quite well tolerated) was eye-opening. Did you know Dr. Goldstein used ergoloid , a strong anti-oxidant that improves oxygenation to the brain and is used to treat migraine and senile dementia to good effect in some of this patients. Or that vinpocetine, which has anticonvulsant properties and improves brain microcirculation might be able to increase physical endurance in CFS.

Besides covering all the antimicrobrials, antimicrobrials, antivirals, beta blockers, corticosteroids, cholinesterase inhibitors, etc., etc. used in CFS she has an impressive section on experimental therapies. Did you know that tadalafil (Cialis), which is related to Viagra, improved shortness of breath and improved exercise tolerance in one study? Or that some people with ME/CFS have noted improvement from oversensitivity after using the motion sickness drug scopolamine? Or that theophylline might be able to help neutrally mediated hypotension (low blood pressure upon standing) in ME/CFS?

Sometimes Maija reaches beyond study and online material and covers treatments that possibly could be helpful. There's ibudilast (ketas), an anti-inflammmatory, anti-allergic vasodilator used in asthma and multiple sclerosis . Could it have neuroprotective effects in ME/CFS as well? How about monteleukast (singuliar) - an anti-inflammatory helpful in interstitial cytisus - might it have a role to play for some?

Did I mention she also covers studies on ME/CFS's cousins such as irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cytisus? The book has a good index that can be helpful in tracking down treatments for symptoms and everything is fully referenced with over 1,000 citations. This 350 page, handsomely designed book is clearly a work of love and Maija's commitment to uncovering the last pertinent fact on every possible pharmaceutical treatment is impressive indeed. (Her web site contains regular updates on the drug findings for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia)

Except for intramuscularly injected supplements (B-12, magnesium, Myer's Cocktail) there's no information on supplements but this book is a gold mine for information on the over 250 pharmaceutical treatments used in ME/CFS. At the very least it should be on the bookshelf of every CFS physician and many people with ME/CFS. Not every patient wants to dig through or needs information on all the anti-convulsant drugs, for instance, used in ME/CFS but if you want to learn about the wide variety of pharmaceutical treatments available for CFS -and the options your physician might have missed - this is the book. Five stars.

Check out a discussion here [...]

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you are involved with these conditions, you should have this book., April 14, 2010

By 

Ron Phillips "much smattered" (NE Ohio, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reviving The Broken Marionette: Treatments For Cfs/Me And Fibromyalgia (Paperback)

It's mostly an exhaustive review of the treatments for CFIDS/ME and Fibro. It's going with me to my CFIDS doctor next time, along with all the PostIts stuck on the treatments I want to ask him about.