Doctor Oz Says the F Word (Fibromyalgia) for Half of a Show! What Was Shown/Said and Our Followup Opinions

In my opinion, Dr. Oz, who is about my age I believe, has been 'entrenched' his whole career in allopathy. My education was after his since I took about 10 years off and worked for an air quality research project that was doing policy-changing work, and went to a job getting experience in health education at a major University (Colorado State).

From my standpoint, his show is  a hit and miss deal. Sometimes they cover things really well from my standpoint. Other times they just are doing 'dinosaurish' things from 'inside the box'. Which is great if you want to be living inside the box of conventional, modern, insurance-based medicine.

Overall, the Dr Oz show tends to sometimes confuse people, they don't spend enough time or they cram too much information into the portion of a program and talk so fast and throw so much information at people they're not able to really glean much from it that's useful, unless they record it and watch/pause/rewind and 'study' it.  I found how much more I got from it when I did as I did in OT school and basically transcribed the notes for you, below. So I hope having a readable version to look at and refer back to, print if you want, highlight ... take to your doctor's office and provide them with a copy perhaps, is helpful. (As with anything you see at Lumigrate). 

He's difficult for people to understand because he speaks rapidly and doesn't anunciate well sometimes, but he also is very well-liked because he 'talks like a normal guy', so to speak. For people with brain fog or other neurological impairments and conditions, it isn't effective. And for people who have fibromyalgia, and they mention brain fog as a symptom on this program, it's not a good mix to have lots of information thrown at you. Going SLOWLY and doing lots of visual aids is helpful. So again, I hope this is a useful tool for those who might be looking for information about fibromyalgia or wanted to see what this episode was about. I struggle with how to hit the information at Lumigrate right -- some people who have more time and less pain like to have the stories and information I share from my backgroun/history; others are like Dragnet: Just the facts, Ma'am. We are all roses with some or more thorns, nobody's perfect for everyone, and that applies to medical providers and the consumers out there too. 

For the average American out there, I think his show has been one of the most important things to happen for overall well-being. So I have always supported his show and encourage people to at least keep tabs on what they are covering. I set up links to get to their website. Back when Lumigrate was finally up on the internet, which was about 3-5x more work and time and money than had been estimated by the professionals I hired to guide us and do the work entailed, Dr Oz's website was not one yet that they were doing videos or putting ANY information of what was on the shows. Facebook friends would talk about what was covered on the show and many people around the world didn't have Dr Oz where they lived, so I started doing what I've done here, as a public service to those who wanted to know what everyone was talking about. And typically a LOT of people click and read the links that have to do with the Dr Oz show. 

Just last weekend the woman in a couple said 'he (indicating her husband) heard about some kind of vinegar he wants to try that's good for your joints'. I don't know how the person they heard about it from had that information but I believe Oz has covered ACV (apple cider vinegar, we've covered it at Lumigrate with a tonic recipe that is our top-read topic right now, compliments of Marc Spurlock, MD, one of our experts.) His show gets massive amounts of people aware of tons of topics and details and at it raises awareness at the very least. Then from there people at least have the Search words to do their homework, as their patient with fibromyalgia said she did after she FINALLY was diagnosed. 

But this particular show has really been talked about on Facebook, and I'm one of them. I think it has a lot of facets to it -- it wasn't perfect by any means per the way I look at information today, but I think it was VERY much worth everyone's effort and time/energy to read my recounting of it and see what you can on the Oz website. And then hopefully we'll have interesting expert comments below from our experts 'outside the box'.

It turns out the doctor on this program was the spokesperson from the osteopathic association in America. For the past two years, and intermittently for four years almost, I have had monthly tune-ups from an osteopath who does not operate as a primary care provider, but only does osteopathic manual medicine; in her case she is also a major provider and instructor in cranial vault work and affecting the cranial-sacral system. So I am pleased to see them hitting the tip of the iceberg in this episode about osteopathic medicine.

They delved into a typical story of a typical woman who got missed-diagnosed for 18 months before getting diagnosed and treated, and it was a very good representation of what is happening to millions of people. I've never had a client/patient who wasn't batted around by the 'mangling medicine system' as I like to jokingly refer to our current and antiquated system of medicine in the United States.

Yet the spokesperson stated the average patient with fibromyalgia/FM has three doctor visits before getting diagnosed; that just doesn't add up to me. Maybe I heard it wrong and she said thirty, because he seemed shocked by it. Thirty is more like what I'd experienced, as all the symptoms I had for since I was a baby, child, teenager, I now realize were symptoms that ended up leading to fibromyalgia because nobody recognized those as the domino effect that, if not stopped, would lead to the horrendous mayhem caused by fibromyalgia once I reached midlife. So I encourage people if they have some of the sytmpoms, to look at the UNDERLYING CAUSES, and get those treated. Mine were infections (ear starting at six months, UTIs starting in late teens, bronchitis after not being able to defend myself from cold viruses starting in my 30s, headaches starting in my 20s at the same time as chemical sensitivities/allergies).  

I had to stop an education group that met in my place of business once a week, which was primarily about fibromyalgia, because every new person that came in had to vent and cry so much about what had traumatized them from the medical and family and friend communities they were immersed in that it was turning off the other members who were coming because they wanted continuing education about what to do to keep getting better and reversing the symptoms! (There was a shortage of medical providers in the community at the time and there wasn't anyone wanting to do a free or affordable group for them, but I did try! It would be a great way to get new patients but --- the providers had too many patients as it was!)  We started the group by inviting our patients, who had been well-handled since they were our patients, to come together, and once we were established we made a flier to give to the allopathic providers in my building -- there were about 20 physicians, MDs and DOs, who saw adult patients.

They only thought of their 'problem'/most involved patients apparently and didn't think of the people who perhaps --- they hadn't realized had fibromyalgia but weren't yet 'train wrecks'. So we got their patients, and since the doctors weren't addressing fibromyalgia well, the patients they sent were just angry, frustrated and needing to cry and vent. Then they would get on board with learning. I understood where they were coming from and it was frustring and I wanted to cry and vent that the situation was what it was for us trying to run the group about EDUCATION, not a 'support group'.

But it made me realize where the needs were and so at Lumigrate in this forum, you will see I set up an area when the public could write in the forums, for venting/crying. I hope everyone reading it will take a page from that and write in a journal or that's what most Facebook groups about fibromyalgia are. I don't facilitate my groups that way, I stick with education and moving toward finding whatever solutions a person can figure out and work on. 

It's been very interesting to read what people's opinions have been there, not only on my FB places for myself and Lumigrate, but others I follow. I look forward to seeing what Lumigrate's experts opinions are after they have a chance to read this coverage of the show. Please join us at our FB page: Lumigrate:Fibromyalgia for comments on the link I'll set up about it.  That link is 

www.facebook.com/pages/Lumigrate-Fibromyalgia/171861550591 [6]

Please don't skip to this and read it before you read and absorb what the show's words, above, say to YOU! Most of the people I hear from who follow me and Lumigrate say they want help learning to do for themselve what I do. So I will hope to teach people, somewhat, how to do what I do. For one, I studied this type of information since before I was diagnosed, which was in the last century, so keep in mind I've been at this longer than some or most. And there are people at the longer or having studied it more and are better at it than I am. We are all where we are, YOU are where you are. This is what I saw and evaluate: I'll start at the top and work my way down. And you'll see that I scrutinize this pretty harshly, but I'm not saying at all this show was not worth watching, quite the opposite. It has a lot of layers to dissect and bring out to the light. My 'concerns' are presented, below, to hopefully enlighten you about overall subjects they simply don't have time to cover on a show like his. Such as types of doctors, types of medical models, and the shortcutting and 'dominance' that is shown throughout what they present. Overall, GREAT show and I'm glad they provided it!

• Symptoms they mention throughout the show didn't include two major ones: low immune system function, endocrine system, including thyroid, dysfunction. Both women in the audience they used as role model patients were overweight. So why didn't they mention that? It was a show that clearly was put on by the osteopathic association and so it was focusing on what their unique techniques address, not labwork and diagnostics. 
• It's great they want people to know that they have a condition that has a 'label' that can be a 'search word' to do research on with that 'f word', fibromyalgia, but they didn't mention something important. You get that in your medical chart if you're going to providers that code things and that gets to the big insurance database out there in the 'sky', and you're messed up for buying insurance, at least in the current and previous years. I had one employer refuse to hire me when I turned in my paperwork that was for the insurance benefits, when they saw I had fibromyalgia. So that's just something I think people should know BEFORE they go seeking a 'diagnosos' and getting that in their charts. Charing and coding the many various symptoms that the doctor is treating -- fatigue, pain, infection -- doesn't mess up your life like getting 'the f word' in your chart!
• I find it odd that they'd introduce a 'doctor' and have her talk for a whole chunk of information before they put on the screen that she's a doctor of osteopathy for one thing -- it would help people to learn the difference between a doctor of medicine and a doctor of osteopathy. Then, on top of it, she's the spokesperson for the US/American association for that type of doctor. Just sayin'..... it felt like I was being manipulated/handled with delaying these key facts. 
• The DO spokeswoman, JC/above, said it 'mostly affects women' and then after that they made reference to it as if it was ONLY affecting women. So I'm giving them two thumbs down right now. My father had it. I have it. We both had chronic fatigue syndrome come on, we recovered, then in middle age (30s for me, 40s for him, perhaps due to hormone system differences of men and women), we had more the pain and muscle spasm phase start. Many men have it and they're even LESS likely before this show was aired to get properly diagnosed by their physicians and this show just made that situation even worse for them. So right now I've gone from giving them a C to an F. That's just ridiculously bad in my opinion. I realize their show's demographic is catering to women, but it's simply not reality and factual. 
• She says it "may" run in families. If she hasn't yet found that to be a fact to stand behind and say it 'does' and it definitely has a genetic component, get her off the television/stage until she has learned more about it. I can't imagine ANYONE today not being confident in the familial, genetic component.  Later the gentleman medical doctor they interview who is more of a researcher and not, as she is, a family practice doctor who is also a spokesperson for a national organization says it does run in families. So which is it? Get your information straight between the people you're having in this short (about 20 minutes of time they talk) presentation on the show today. OR if it truly is something that's undecided, have a discussion about it but don't just have one on one hand say one thing and the other on another hand say something different. Confusing! We're talking with people who have fibro fog of the brain in many cases so don't make it this hard for them!
• She says it's a "theory" that "sometimes" there is trauma involved. The man later says there 'is' and it's not a theory, it's a fact. Again, see ^ above ^. Which is it? And what is your definition of 'trauma', is that physical, mental, spiritual? It is appearing to me that the osteopathic community is more wishy-washy on what the facts are than the medical community once we get into the segment and they have a second expert medical guest talking. Integrative medicine, which Lumigrate promotes, looks at the whole of mind, body, spirit. Allopathy looks at mind on one hand and body/brain on another hand and they don't really put the two together usually. That's a lot of the problem with why it's not gone so well with if this is 'in your head' or not in your head, and it's wounded and hurt patients as we see with Judy's story. And most everyone else out there who has had a significant case of fibromyalgia and experienced the frustrations of navigating the allopathic, insurance-based medicine arena in the US (or the national health systems in Canada and England I've heard similar results from.)
• FABULOUS that she talks about how it is life-style threatening but isn't life-threatening in terms of you can die from it. But that never makes any sense to anyone who thinks about things and has even a little bit of medical knowledge -- IF they think about it. Living in chronic pain has a feedback loop that's been known about for a long time that short-circuits a lot of things in the brain and neurological system and causes more problems. And with disabling fatigue, which they didn't cover the simple basics: muscles are in an 'energy crisis' and muscles always take more energy to fire than to relax. .... also, the mitochondria in people with CFS and FMS are not properly uptaking things the cell need properly in people with CFS/FM, that is why diet and supplementation of nutrition is so effective with helping reverse symptoms, in our opinion here at Lumigrate at least. And with the added problem of the blood sugars (that they don't even mention at all), which clearly is known to affect longevity (think diabetes. Think low blood sugar and goofing up when driving and higher crash rates...). and that is if a person is untreated with pain medication and other pharmaceutical or nonpharmaceutical drugs. Many people self medicate with caffeine, alcohol, marijuana/cannabis, and many other things. Many use foods as a way to cope, and this contributes to overall health problems and affects length of life, in my opinion.
• They say that it's got a trauma component but they don't look back to see that there's a correlation to EARLY LIFE TRAUMA, and the reserach is profound on adverse childhood trauma affecting lifespan. The more trauma a person has in their childhood, the more medical conditions they have in adulthood and that affects how long they live. So I think they fell short on what they could have presented about that. But again, FABULOUS that they had two guests plus Dr Oz showing their appreciation for how this is related to trauma and how it affects a person's life. Link to our coverage of the role of early childhood trauma and autoimmune disorders, as there isn't any specific fibromyalgia study that I could find from the ACE research done by The Kaiser Foundation or Dr Bruce Perry, childhood neurology researcher: _____________________)
• The numbers they present just do not add up. Dr Oz says at the start of the show that six million (6M) people have fibromyalgia, and he's referring to in the United States but doesn't state that, which is unfortunate if a person doesn't know this topic they would presume world-wide, right? But then he goes on to say most people who have FM don't know it, so the 6M is who are finally properly "diagnosed" by US providers who are 'in the system' of allopathic, insurance-based medicine (which doesn't include the naturopaths, the acupuncturists, and millions of other providers), with that information being coded into the computer database that reports everything to that big insurance/medical database that goes to all the researchers and insurance companies and etc. and then comes out with a minor number like six million. That's a lot of people, clearly, but for the relative population of the US, that's a very misrepresented figure! So, to me, if they're that ineffective at looking at data and logic to make a mistake like that in their presentation, what else are they getting wrong? So therefore I'm holding this WHOLE program, from the very start, in a place of "entertainment" but not "credence". 
• If you're going to talk about numbers, give them accurately. We were just mislead, once again, to think that only 6M of the people in the US have this and it is way, way, way more than that. (And we were mislead to think it's not that much a factor for people with XY chromasomes (men).)  I've seen experts who I value related to fibromyalgia say it's 20% of the US population and growing, and will virtually be 100% if we don't quit doing the things that cause or contribute to the symptoms getting worse, or quit not solving the problems of what causes it. I've then stated this with other fibromyalgia activists on the Facebook community who also didn't have the ability to think through the numbers and was basically discredited in front of a lot of people. Which was 'fine with me', if they want to believe they're 'special' because there are only 5 or 6 million of them with it, and they don't want to see how common it is and that a large percentage like 1 in 5 people around them have it as well, that's just where they're at. It's because they were people loyal and fixed in the allopathic model and who didn't want to embrace all that comes with the functional and integrative medical model. Which is each person's right, I just hope they cross paths with our way of thinking so they know the options! 
• My subjective, personal experience with people says that is accurate. On one small 'block' in one city I am familiar with the families in 12 of the residences, four homes have a person with the symptoms of what is 'on the continuum to be, or is currently diagnosed as fibromyalgia.' Two are diagnosed and treated, one to not great success so far because the clinic they'd gone to was one that was only getting people onto things they'd stay dependent for life on returning to them for and not really solving the problems. (They were given no information about nutrition and diet, for example, just provided/sold supplements, medications, etc.).  One is working on getting properly diagnosed and treated with my help, and the other one is perhaps getting close to seeing the one of many symptoms the person recognizes as a problem (hypoglycemia) is just one indicator of how substantial the problems are; hypoglycemia is a major factor in alcohol use/abuse, and then that leads to behavior issues and that leads to people getting feedback from people they spend time with which alerts them, finally, to the severity of the issues and they perhaps seek counsel for the first time! (That's not unique to FM, but to many conditions that get triggered along the path of life, including things more in the psychiatric and behavioral health pods of allopathic medicine.) 
• JC says FM is 'made complex' by there not being "a blood test or an xray." Well, that speaks volumes -- the short time that doctors who are in insurance-based, allopathic medicine have with patients makes them reliant on ordering a test and looking for a result. One thing causes one thing is what they're wanting. But that's simply oversimplified and they've lost or never developed or maybe never had clinical reasoning skills! But if a provider has some time and has the ability to think things through and to learn about things like fibromyalgia's causes and treatments, they do blood tests (plural, testS, notice the second s!) and would do other imaging besides Xray, and put their thinking cap on and 'connect the dots', there are tests that let a provider know what is going on in the body that indicates it is fibromyalgia. And that's one of the reasons why they can say to get to your primary care but then get on to a rheumatologist or neurologist.
• But unfortunately they didn't talk about specialists like our Dr Spurlock who in the past was a generalist and primary care physician and then went into working with virus as a specialty, in the height of the AIDS epidemic in the US, and then on to environmental medicine and chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, learning the ropes working part time for two clinics that were operational in the past in Dallas, Texas. So just because modern medicine's providers overall/generally don't have one test to tell them what to do does NOT make the disorder complex, it simply shows the impotence and lack of ability that has been created in the allopathic medical community in terms of the ability of those types of providers.
• The disorder isn't really that complex for trained medical professionals and the patients to understand once you get on the path of effective education and then treatment, much of which can be done on your own without the help of professional advisors. If it's caught early, it's not that difficult to reverse the symptoms and solve the underlying problems and nip them in the bud. I've known a woman who had symptoms and went to a naturopath and was treated for heavy metal toxicity and within a year was all back to 'good'. If it's not caught until it's really taken hold in a person's body, and they're older or really unwell, it's very hard to get a handle on and reversed, unfortunately. That's why I want people to get educated about what ALL the symptoms are, so if they have them, they take it seriously and get on top of treating everything they can and wish to put the effort into.
• THE FUNCTIONAL/ INTEGRATIVE / TRADITIONAL medical community is not confused about what fibromyalgia is and what causes it. Allopathy, our 'modern' and existing stronghold model of medicine is! And they're so powerful and self-centered in their 'throne of power' that on this show it is exhibited by the doctors saying 'the medical community' when they're actually talking about just 'the allopathic medical community'. So again -- be accurate with the details and don't confuse people.
• I'm not confused, thought I'm still learning more all the time from our experts at Lumigrate and others --  Dr Marc Spurlock (MD/environmental medicine specialist at Lumigrate) isn't confused, Robin Thomas (former medical researcher and nutrition/supplement industry expert at Lumigrate) isn't confused, Dr Jim Kennedy (DDS/holistic/cranial specialist at Lumigrate) isn't confused. You allopaths that call yourself 'the medical community' are confused -- so confused you don't even know to identify yourself as one segment of the overall medical community.
• Functional medicine is going to replace allopathic medicine in the next 20 years, and this show was clearly dabbling in functional medicine with the osteopathic manual therapy, but it fell very short and was an example of how osteopathy overall got tucked up and sucked into and absorbed by the allopathic medical system. I've been to some D.O.s that never touched me at all, just like an MD, they just handed out prescriptions and ordered tests. I've knows of patients who don't know if their doctor is an MD or a DO! Dr Mark Hyman has stated the forecast for functional medicine to take over, which I've covered extensively this year on a topic called The UltraMind Solution, Fix your gut and your mind will follow. I'll give you the link for that so you can go and get some good nutrition information because, I'll get to it here, what this show had on it about that was just NOT GOOD. In my opinion. And that's what this is about here on this comment, my opinion. Link: ____________________
• Dr JC states that it was 1990 that "we, the medical community" (see above, she means 'we, the allopathic medical community') established a diagnostic criteria for really diagnosing fibromyalgia. Do the math, people --- that was 10 years into the LAST century! It's 23 year later. So any doctor who was in medical or osteopathy school in 1990 should have been up on this. Or the older doctors would get it in their publications from their professional associations. Or their continuing medical education they are required to stay certified and licensed and all that. I go to some of those, and it's appauling the things I have heard in that room over the years about 'fibromyalgia' AND the underlying symptoms, such as hypothyroidism. I've covered that at Lumigrate.com. I'll give you the link for our coversage about thyroid as well, because that is such a critical factor for virtually EVERYONE who gets their health so out of whack they're at the point of a fibromyalgia diagnosis: the majority of people in the US have thyroid dysfunction but typically they are unaware of if they go to the doctor they are given only one screening test and that isn't catching most of the cases. So we cover all that at: www.lumigrate.com/forums/health-issuesdis-eases/chronic-disease-management-chronic-wellness/hormones/thyroid-dysfuncti [11].                                                                             
• What's being said on this show, in my mind, is excuse-making monkey business, in my opinion. In 23 years, if a medical community cannot train it's providers how to treat one of THE MAJOR CONDITIONS in the United States today, that's a failure of the education system within medicine. And the patients and the providers suffer. So I see that their attempt today was to do what I've done and try to get information of what to do TO THE CONSUMER/PATIENT, since the providers are with their heads in the sand. Sand that they're being provided and pushed down into perhaps unknowingly -- because the 'modern medicine system' wants people to stay sick, the providers and all the companies involved make more money! Did you hear Judy talk about 'test after test'. Any guess how much money her insurance company paid out for that? Do you think for a minute that if that wasn't making the powers at be a lot of money they'd not have figured out a way to educate the providers so they'd have recognized her symtpoms immedicately? The doctors are getting information that contributes to their inability to treat these patients effectively and respectfully. I went to one seminar put on by an orthopedic surgeon who literally said he'd rather be a toddler in a dirty toilet bowl than have the patients with fibromyalgia he has coming to him for shoulder pain. I was livid! And then I decided I needed to hang in there and not stop being in the medical world and I worked to start doing education in person then on the Internet. So I was 'inspired', or also known as 'kicked in the a double s'! 
• I know of a case recently where a consumer I know was injured temporarily by a physical therapist I know. The patient came to me to ask for suggestions of how to handle the situation and where to go from here as they were quite disabled by the current state of their fibromyalgia, hence the physician had ordered physical therapy. I know that the therapist is conscientious and would feel horrible if they found out how they'd hurt a patient. (Caused a major flareup - and that can set someone back so much it's permanent sometimes, unless the patient gets back on the horse and rides with a different saddle or goes to the saddle and asks it to get more education about how to treat patients with fibromyalgia.) I had been in a position to help educate a whole building of therapists and there was zero support for it from the administrators and practice owners and managers. So I'd make books available for them to borrow. Only one borrowed it, and it was the therapist that this patient had, coincidentally, been set up by the front desk to see. So I know it was not a therapist who didn't care, but the clinic, building, practice didn't support education for patients with fibromyalgia. So you, YOU, patient, have to tell your doctors that, you need to also call the managers of practices (they're called practice managers, or operations managers) and tell them! And call back and ask if they've gotten anything scheduled yet. Everyone's letting them off the hook or not even telling them they've been injured, they just go away and don't come back. So how do they know!? So beyond advocating for yourself right now, advocate for your overall health care and make a few phone calls, is my suggestion. 
• Throughout this, they all referred to patients with fibromyalgia without using 'patient first' language. Is it THAT much hard to say 'patients with fibro' than it is 'fibro patients'? That just shows how behind the times they are and how not putting the patients first they are. However, some older doctors didn't learn that in school as it was something that started in the 1990s and it's a habit that the younger ones pick up from hearing the older ones speak. So I'm a big advocate of putting patients not only FIRST but in the MIDDLE of their health care team and empowering them. So if you ever hear a provider put your condition word in front of the word 'patient', please consider pointing it out to them. 
• Judy. Wow. What a great ... GREAT ... perfect example patient. For one thing, she had such a typical and ordinary case of how she was missed diagnosed and for about a year or so, and was made to feel horrible by being told it was psychosomatic. But they didn't make enough of a point that there IS a behavioral (also called by some psychological) component to this. The reason more women get this condition, but MANY MEN DO TOO, is because it has a lot to do with 'overdoing it'. Some women die of heart disease because they're so stressed out trying to do for everyone. That's because they had the genes for that and not the genes for fibromyalgia to get 'triggered'.
• I will set up Dr Spurlocks topic about his information/opinion about what causes medical conditions such as this and many, many others. (At the following Link, look for topics specifically titled about fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, but also one for ALL illness/wellness titled "Are YOU Loaded...?": www.lumigrate.com/forums/health-issuesdis-eases/fibromyalgia-chronic-pain-and-chronic-fatigueexhaustion/fibromyalgia/f [12] )  But look closely at what she relates. She 'defines herself' through being a mom and through her family, it's very codependent sounding. She even brought one of them with her to the doctor to testify on her behalf because she didn't feel she could effectively promote herself to a medical provider. Have you ever been in social situations where people never come to something unless their spouse or their kids can come with them, or a sibling or whatever? I had to think about it and the last time anyone went to a medical appointment with me, I was 15. At 16 I had a fever of 103 and it was 12 miles on the mountain roads to the doctor and I was sent by myself. And the doctor was going to mistreat me, and I was able to say 'no, don't give me a shot of penicillin before you get the results of the strep test back, how about you write a prescription for something and if it's strep I'll come back and get a shot?' And interestingly, I didn't go for 18 months before I got a diagnosis when I got chronic fatigue syndrome, my primary care doctor referred me to an ENT who saw the bags under my eyes and immediately said before he shook my hand "I think I know what you have". (And some of that was 'luck', I realize that, I've had my share of poor doctoring and referring since then with the 1994/5 onset of fibromyalgia but again, I advocated.) It wasn't until she perceived she was invaluable to something she was in charge of planning when she had a relapse or flareup however you want to look at it, that she went and 'pushed' with her 'regular doctor' as she called him.  Judy is clearly a wonderful community organizer as she said she has a big support system of friends, a home organizer as they showed her home, she mentioned she's a mother of 4 and is '24/7' on the job with that. Perhaps think about what I'm pointing out here and then go back with those 'glasses on' and reread what's in the box about her story. She's an extremely eloquent speaker and clearly a warm, caring person who witheld a lot of emotion to tell the story of how wounded she was in the process of getting a diagnosis. Never did she need a tissue, so she either has processed it all or she's still bottling some up. (And that is stuff from childhood we're taught that, in my opinion, contributes to who gets or not, these types of conditions.)
• She did a great job of being in front of the camera and I very much value her sharing her story. But she needs to be referred to more than what a rheumatologist will likely provide as treatment; why did she fall apart during the middle of planning 'something BIG' (and her eyes lit up when she referred to her organizing this big thing, whatever it was, you can tell she gets her 'strokes' from that).
• Women (AND MEN if this applies to them what I'm saying) need to LISTEN to their bodies and quit overextending themselves as people-pleasers, workaholics, and "Type A" people. But they were only devoting half a show or less to this topic and so this was very incomplete. I wish they would have at least mentioned the personality profiles of people who get fibromyalgia. Dr Teitelbaum, at the link I set up, above, simplifies it as "you're trying to please impossible to please people." Look into yourselves, look into this information and don't kid yourself that there are behavioral features that have lead to YOU being exhausted, in pain, and potentially on your way or arrived at having fibromyalgia! We have tons of information about it at Lumigrate in the head/mind forum. Link:www.lumigrate.com/forums/integrative-medicine-parts-make-whole/therapy-behavioral/mental-health [13]
• They give a tip when returning from commercials. One was about coffee and the other about tea. I think they were both great questions asked by people who have an interest about fibromyalgia and the beverage/drink side of diet. But he told them to fill their cup with half caf and half decaf, but in reality most caf and decaf coffee out there people have access to, unless they go out of their way to find the organic and water processed kinds, is full of chemicals. And there are other components about coffee that bring the gut health down, the intestines are a major source of where the issues are coming from in chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and all the other disorders, even cancers -- aside from a few forms, according to the type of information we promote and provide at Lumigrate, at least. With the chamomile tea question they say it helps prepare you for sleep but say there's no evidence it's helpful with fibromyalgia. And they didn't get AT ALL into sleep problems and that's one of the major things that heals you, restorative sleep. So that just didn't add up in my mind. One of the major contributors to getting going in the direction of having FM is poor sleep quality as much as quantity. So does it make sense to you that drinking a tea that helps prepare you for sleep doesn't help? I don't actually promote that unless it's a very small tea cup because it contributes to you needing to get up to pee and that then can keep people from getting a good sleep. 
• On the demonstration segment about the brain dial and how the pain regulation is going awry, I wish they'd have talked about pressure and not hitting an arm as setting things off. Standing pressure, sitting pressure, pressure where the body is when lying down for rest or sleep is the better example, in my opinon. Just the pressure of my body right now sitting to type is having my brain say it's much more than that, so by the end of a long day that can result in spasming muscles that go all the way up and affect the muscles attaching my head to the rest of my body, my shoulders, all the neck muscles. Hence cushioning and body mechanics/positioning is very important. In bed people can benefit from proper positioning as well. In standing, orthotics and studying of the foot and seeing if you have Morton's toe is critical in my opinion, and that indicates something related to nutrition as well, which can be addressed through diet and supplements. But with only half an hour they did what they could and I liked the demo overall.
• And finally, diet -- boo hiss on how they covered that, it was totally allopathic, inside the box, food pyramid. I don't know anyone of any relevance in outside the box circles who suggests the food pyramid anymore. Grains? Where have you been? Haven't they heard of the huge GF/gluten free movement? The Omni Diet is a new bestseller I just covered, by Dr Amen's wife (famous brain researcher and clinic founder.) They are just entrenched in allopathy-land. That's all there is to say about that. Again, I suggest you look at what our information is at Lumigrate if you want the more progressed information from 'functional-land'. (Shout out and high five to the long-time Lumigrate learner and supporter who said on FB she heard that and just lost it. A for the Day, and you know who you are! You spotted the dinosaur information and called it out!)
• Don't let them talk you out of what you believe unless they make more sense to you, then by all means... it's all our 'opinions', from 'where we are right now' and that will shift for all providers and consumers alike unless they're stuck for some reason. 
• Their segment of the osteopathic manipulation was, to me, dicey. For one thing, Carol had these huge circles and bags under her eyes, she has a lot going on internally related to diet and organ function according to what I've learned. She was a really neat gal I think in terms of how good a sport she was about it though, but I was feeling sympathy for her being the example patient on this segment and I just say to trust your gut about it if you watched. I thought/felt Oz seemed nervous, I thought Carol the 'patient' they were demonstrating on seemed like a good sport but I didn't get the impression she was enjoying it much and they never came back and asked her how she felt afterwards which might indicate it wasn't a good outcome for her and they just didn't want to include that. I've had all the things done to me they were showing, from two PTs who were MASTERFUL at manual /hands on techniques and also from some chiropractors. I loved it but many patients with fibromyalgia have to be handled MUCH more gently than that and to show that as a demonstration of 'what osteopathic manual techniques are about', I think, wasn't so wise.
• Overall, I feel the osteopathic association has a fine spokesperson in terms of her likeability and believablility but she wasn't very well informed about what fibromyalgia is, as I pointed out above. And I think they set up a very poor demonstration as I've also said here. I'd love to see my favorite D.O. on the show to demonstrate her more gentle technique, Ilene Spector of Crested Butte, who teaches for The Cranial Academy, (Search on that if you're interested!). And when many, many women who have fibromyalgia prefer women providers, why didn't they have a female D.O. doing the woman-handling? So I just think the osteopathic association's handlers didn't do a very good job of setting up what they sent to be performed on Dr Ozs show, and lots of what went on wasn't really the fault of Dr. Oz producers or Dr. Oz, obviously. To give you an example of how it can be done in my experience, in monthly appointments, it's 99% done without my feeling anything more than a gentle touch on my head or hip and for part of the session a small, special percussion device is used on one side of the body on the pelvis/hip area. So if you watched the segment and it 'turned you off' please know it's not always like that when going to D.O.s. Only about four times has she found that my neck or a toe needed to be manually adjusted, and she's very gentle - I didn't even know she's pulled the toe and it was all back in line as a matter of fact (I have a little neuropathy obviously, at the time, my blood sugars were in one of their 'high times' for a while....... so....
• Again, I find it really needing to be underscored that blood sugar is such a part of this and it was not brought up in this show at all.) I'll provide you with my link to the other of the top two books I refer people to overall, whether healthy or not, which is Beat Sugar Addiction Now! by Jacob Teitelbaum. Link:www.lumigrate.com/forum/beat-sugar-addiction-now-jacob-teitelbaum-md-and-chrystle-fiedler [14]

I might find more to say, but that's likely enough for right now and I hope other experts that write for Lumigrate have the time and interest in writing comments here as well.

Overall: GREAT of them to cover this. GREAT of them to bring osteopathy into the conversation, to bring a researcher too, and a very good case example with Judy.  Great for raising awareness. Some good information here. So I hope between what I've commented on/added here you'll be GRATE with what you know!